Timely Virtual Assistant: a VA who works your book while you're mid-foil
For salon owners, barbers, brow and lash artists and skin clinics that run the whole week on Timely, with nobody at the desk to run Timely.
What your VA actually does inside Timely
Calendar
Every morning the diary gets worked: unconfirmed appointments nudged, gaps spotted before they become dead hours, regulars' six-weekly rebookings checked, and overnight two-way SMS replies answered before they turn into empty slots.
Waitlist
Worked the moment a cancellation lands: who's waiting for that service and day, calls made, slot backfilled. Groomed weekly too, because Timely archives waitlist requests after eight weeks by default.
TimelyPay deposits and cancellation fees
Deposit settings matched to your policy on online bookings, forfeits processed when an appointment is marked as did not show, and cancellation fees charged from the saved card when someone cancels outside your window.
Consult forms
Built from Timely's industry templates and sent ahead of each visit, manually on Elevate or by automated rules on Innovate, with tomorrow's list checked for anyone who hasn't completed theirs, so treatments start with the history already synced to the client record.
Rebooking reminders and follow-up messages
Rebooking reminders timed per service so lapsed clients get a nudge a set number of weeks after their visit (Innovate has these built in), aftercare follow-ups per treatment, and review request links set to send once so regulars aren't nagged.
Gift vouchers
Issued, redeemed and voided correctly at checkout and online, the voucher purchase link kept working, and expiry dates tracked so December's vouchers don't become March's arguments.
Dashboard and Executive summary report
The weekly numbers pass: rebooking percentage by staff member, new clients, online bookings and average booking value, tracked week on week, and against your staff targets if you're on Innovate.
Stock
Retail stock levels watched, the product list kept tidy, and reorder flags raised before the shampoo you recommend in the chair runs out at the till.
First, the name collision: this page is about Timely the salon and clinic software at gettimely.com, not the time-tracking app that shares the name. If your week lives in an appointment calendar full of foils, fills, brows and peels, you’re in the right place.
Timely is quietly everywhere in Australian and New Zealand hair and beauty, and it keeps coming up with the salon and clinic owners we talk to. The pattern is always the same: the software is doing its job, and the owner is doing everyone else’s. Confirming, answering texts, chasing the no-show fee, sending the consultation form, working out why a gift voucher won’t redeem, all between clients, with colour processing and a walk-in at the desk.
Timely built the admin tooling. The missing piece in most salons is a person whose actual job is to work it.
The rhythm a VA keeps in your Timely
The day starts with a sweep of the calendar. Unconfirmed appointments get their nudge, gaps get flagged early, the regulars’ six-weekly rebookings get checked. Overnight two-way SMS replies are answered first, so “can I push to 2pm” doesn’t sit unread until your 10:30 cancels.
When a cancellation does land, the waitlist earns its keep. Your VA checks who’s waiting for that day and service, makes the calls, and backfills the slot. One detail nobody learns until it bites: Timely archives waitlist requests after eight weeks by default (the window is adjustable in settings), so the list needs grooming, not just trust.
Then the money side of no-shows. If you take deposits on online bookings through TimelyPay, your VA keeps the deposit settings matched to your policy, and when someone simply doesn’t turn up, marks the appointment as did not show and processes the forfeit. If you run card capture with cancellation fees instead, they charge the fee when a cancellation falls outside your window, politely, in your words, without you having the conversation mid-blow-wave.
Consultation forms run through Consult, Timely’s forms app. On Elevate your VA sends them ahead of each visit; on Innovate the sending runs on automated rules and your VA polices the exceptions. Either way, tomorrow’s list gets checked for anyone who hasn’t completed theirs, so your skin therapist isn’t collecting contraindications verbally at the bed.
Weekly: the numbers. The Executive summary report and the Dashboard’s staff overview show rebooking percentage by staff member, new clients, online bookings and average booking value. Your VA pulls them every week and flags the stylist whose rebooking rate slid before it costs you a quarter; on Innovate, the same pass checks everyone against the staff targets you’ve set.
Then the background hum. Follow-up messages tuned per service: aftercare for the IPL clients, a review link for the happy regulars, set to send once so nobody gets nagged after every visit. Gift vouchers issued, redeemed and voided with expiries actually tracked. Retail stock eyeballed before the shampoo you recommend in the chair runs out at the till.
The honest caveats
Timely puts most of its follow-up machinery behind its bigger plans. Consultation forms, the waitlist and automated follow-up messages need Elevate or above, and automated rebooking reminders, the message that goes out a set number of weeks after a visit if there’s no future booking, ship only on Innovate, along with staff targets. A VA can’t change your plan. What they can do on a lower plan is build the lapsed-client list by hand from your appointment reports and work it weekly, which is slower but works. Also, TimelyPay makes you pick a lane: deposits up front or cancellation fees from a saved card, one or the other, not both at once. We’ll help you pick the one that fits your no-show pattern, but the either/or is Timely’s rule, not ours.
What stays yours
Your prices, your cancellation policy and its wording, and who gets grace when a loyal client no-shows for the first time in six years. In a skin or cosmetic clinic, anything clinical in the treatment record stays with the practitioner. The permission wall does the rest: staff access in Timely is set section by section, so financial reports and the Account billing tab stay off until you decide otherwise.
Cost, and how to start
A Timely placement is admin-tier work, $12-17 AUD an hour excl GST, usually 10-15 hours a week, more if the VA also picks up front-of-house enquiries or your socials. Expect 7-10 business days to place, a supervised 5-7 days inside your Timely account before anything runs solo, a 30-day recalibrate-or-replace guarantee, and 14 days notice if you ever want out. An administrator login is free on Timely, so the extra seat never shows up on your software bill.
The beauty and wellness page has the industry context, and the VA cost guide breaks the pricing down in full. (Running a studio on Mindbody instead? That page is here.) When you’re ready, book a discovery call with Jenn. She’s placed 87+ VAs into Australian businesses since 2024, and if your salon isn’t ready for one yet, she’ll say so on the call. Have your no-show count and your rebooking rate handy. The hours are in there.
Industries that run on Timely
The tasks this usually covers
Timely VA questions
Will the VA actually know Timely, or am I training someone from scratch?
Straight answer: the pool of VAs with direct Timely hours is smaller than for the giants like Shopify or Cliniko, and we won't pretend otherwise. Timely keeps showing up among the Australian salon and clinic owners we work with, so we look for direct experience first, and the next-best match is usually someone with real front-desk hours on a similar salon platform like Fresha or Phorest, where deposits, waitlists, rebooking and retail at checkout transfer almost one to one. If that's the trade-off on your shortlist, we'll tell you on the discovery call instead of papering over it. The ramp doesn't change either way: the first 5-7 days are supervised inside your account, calendar and waitlist first, TimelyPay and vouchers once those are clean, and nothing runs solo until you've signed it off.
Can the VA actually charge our no-show and late-cancellation fees?
The admin side, yes. TimelyPay gives you two tools: deposits taken on online bookings, which can be forfeited when an appointment is marked as did not show, or card capture with cancellation fees, charged from the saved card when a client cancels outside your policy window. Timely only lets you run one of the two at a time, deposits or fees, not both at once. Your VA applies whichever you've set, processes the forfeit or fee, and sends the message in your words. Who gets grace, and how the policy reads, stays your call, always.
Can the VA see our takings and the business numbers?
Only what you switch on. Timely's staff access is granular per section: reports are restricted by category (business performance, financial, customer and staff), so a VA can run the operational reports with the financial ones switched off; Dashboard access can be all, some or none, set per tab; and the Account tab with your billing and subscription is its own permission that simply never gets granted. Customer access has levels too, down to contact details and notes only. Most placements start narrow and widen as trust builds, and because access is a checkbox in the settings rather than a promise, you can audit exactly what they see under Account > Staff access any time.
We're on the Build plan. Does any of this still apply?
A fair chunk. Build covers the calendar, client records, SMS and email reminders with two-way replies, gift vouchers, stock, the reporting (Executive summary included) and the full TimelyPay kit: deposits, card capture and cancellation fees. What it doesn't cover is most of the follow-up machinery: consultation forms, the waitlist and automated follow-up messages all need Elevate, while automated rebooking reminders and staff targets are Innovate-only. On Build, your VA works around the gaps by hand, keeping a cancellation contact list in place of the waitlist and building a lapsed-client list from your appointment reports each week; forms are the one thing with no manual stand-in inside Timely. If the hand-run versions start paying for themselves, that's usually the sign the plan upgrade will too, and we'll say which way the maths points.
What does a Timely virtual assistant cost?
Admin-tier work: $12-17 AUD an hour excl GST. Most salons land at 10-15 hours a week, which works out to roughly $500-1,100 a month and covers the calendar, waitlist, no-show admin, forms, vouchers and the weekly numbers. Social content and campaign support sit on the specialist tier at $18-25. You pay a refundable $500 deposit that comes off your first month, leaving needs only 14 days notice, and since Timely doesn't charge for administrator logins, the seat itself is free.
Book a free discovery call
30 minutes with Jenn, the founder. Tell her you run Timely and what's eating your week; she'll tell you honestly what a VA can own inside it, what it costs, and whether it makes sense.
Thanks – now pick your time
We've got your details. Lock in your call right now using the calendar link below, or if you'd rather wait, Jenn will email you within one business day.
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