# Hatcel - Complete Product Documentation

> Hatcel is an all-in-one experience management and booking platform for venues and activity providers. It provides online bookings, a customer portal, gift cards, waivers, payments, and automated workflows.

## What is Hatcel?

Hatcel is a cloud-based booking and experience management platform designed for venues, activity providers, and service-based businesses. It replaces the need for separate booking software, POS systems, customer databases, gift card platforms, waiver tools, and marketing automation tools by combining them into a single integrated platform.

Hatcel is used by activity centres, tour operators, salons, spas, fitness studios, clinics, and other businesses that take bookings. It is a web-based SaaS application accessible from any modern browser on desktop or mobile.

## Core Features

### Online Booking System

Hatcel provides a public-facing booking flow that customers can access directly from the business's website or a shared link. The booking system includes:

- Real-time availability checking across locations, staff, and resources
- Support for activities, products, packages, and party bookings
- Automatic booking confirmations via email and SMS
- Calendar sync to prevent double-bookings
- Multi-step booking flow with customer details, participant information, and payment
- Support for group bookings and participant management
- Booking modifications, cancellations, and rescheduling
- Waitlist management
- Custom booking fields and forms

### Customer Portal

Each workspace includes a self-service customer portal where customers can:

- View and manage their upcoming and past bookings
- Purchase and check gift card balances
- Sign digital waivers
- Update their profile information
- Add and manage junior/dependent profiles
- View booking history and receipts
- Leave reviews for completed bookings

### Gift Cards

Hatcel includes a complete gift card system:

- Digital gift cards with unique codes
- Customizable gift card designs
- Balance tracking and partial redemption
- Gift card purchase flow integrated into the customer portal
- Gift card redemption at point of sale and during online booking
- Expiry management

### Waivers

Digital waiver management integrated into the booking flow:

- Customizable waiver templates
- Electronic signature capture
- Automatic waiver requests sent to participants before their booking
- Waiver status tracking per participant
- Waiver archive and retrieval

### Point of Sale (POS)

An in-person POS terminal for walk-in customers and on-site transactions:

- Walk-in booking creation
- Payment processing via Stripe terminal
- Gift card redemption
- Receipt generation
- Cash and card payment support

### Automated Workflows (Automations)

A visual workflow builder for creating automated actions triggered by booking events:

- Trigger on booking creation, cancellation, rescheduling, check-in, and other events
- Actions include sending emails, sending SMS, updating booking status, adding tags, adding notes, and managing list memberships
- Conditional logic based on booking details, customer attributes, and timing
- Email templates with rich text editing and placeholder substitution
- SMS templates with placeholder substitution
- Delay steps for timed sequences

### Analytics and Insights

Business intelligence and reporting:

- Traffic source and medium tracking (UTM parameters)
- Geographic location data (country, region, city)
- Device and browser analytics
- Booking conversion funnels
- Revenue reporting and trends
- Customizable date ranges and filters
- Export capabilities

### Team Management

Staff and operations management:

- Role-based access control with customizable permissions
- Staff scheduling and availability management
- Multi-location support with location-specific settings
- Activity and resource assignment per staff member
- Audit logging of all actions

### Payment Processing

Stripe-powered payment infrastructure:

- Online payment collection during booking
- In-person payments via Stripe Terminal
- Split billing and partial payments
- Refund management
- Connected accounts for marketplace-style setups
- Automatic platform fee calculation
- Payment reconciliation

### Booking Calendar

A staff-facing calendar view for managing daily operations:

- Day, week, and multi-day views
- Drag-and-drop booking management
- Real-time updates
- Filtering by location, activity, and staff
- Search across all bookings
- Colour-coded booking statuses

### Customer Management (CRM)

A built-in customer database:

- Customer profiles with contact details and booking history
- Tagging and segmentation
- List management for marketing
- Customer notes and activity timeline
- Junior/dependent profile linking
- Import and export

### Marketing

Email and SMS marketing capabilities:

- Email template builder with rich text editing
- SMS template editor
- Placeholder system for personalisation (customer name, booking details, etc.)
- Campaign sending to customer lists
- Transactional emails and SMS (confirmations, reminders, etc.)

### Booking Transitions (Workflow States)

Customizable booking status workflows:

- Visual flow editor for defining booking state transitions
- Custom statuses beyond the default lifecycle
- Automated status changes via workflow triggers
- Status-based filtering and reporting

## Technical Details

- Built with Next.js (React) and TypeScript
- Database: PostgreSQL via Supabase
- Payments: Stripe (online and terminal)
- Email: Transactional email infrastructure
- SMS: Twilio
- Hosting: Vercel
- Background jobs: Trigger.dev
- Authentication: Supabase Auth with magic links and social login

## Pricing

Hatcel offers a free tier to get started, with paid plans for additional features and capacity. Pricing is in AUD.

## Target Customers

Hatcel is designed for:

- **Venues and activity centres** that offer multiple activities, sessions, and party packages
- **Tour and experience operators** managing bookings across locations and guides
- **Salons, spas, and beauty businesses** with appointment-based scheduling
- **Fitness studios and gyms** offering classes and personal training sessions
- **Clinics and healthcare providers** managing patient appointments
- **Any service business** that needs online booking, payments, and customer management

## Comparison with Alternatives

Hatcel combines capabilities that typically require multiple separate tools:

| Capability | Hatcel | Typical Alternative |
|-----------|--------|-------------------|
| Online Booking | Built-in | Calendly, Acuity, SimplyBook.me |
| Customer Portal | Built-in | Custom development |
| Gift Cards | Built-in | Square Gift Cards, GiftUp |
| Waivers | Built-in | WaiverForever, Smartwaiver |
| POS | Built-in | Square POS, Stripe Terminal |
| Automations | Built-in | Zapier, Make |
| Analytics | Built-in | Google Analytics |
| CRM | Built-in | HubSpot, Mailchimp |
| Email/SMS Marketing | Built-in | Mailchimp, Twilio |

By combining these into one platform, Hatcel eliminates the need for multiple subscriptions and complex integrations between separate tools.