Capacity, colors, and work stations

• Capacity

  Two numbers live here:

  • Max simultaneous practitioners — how many residents can work at the same time. You don't type this in; it follows your number of work stations. If more bookings overlap than this allows, the calendar flags a capacity conflict.
  • Max guest capacity — how many visiting guest artists you can host at once. This is a number you set, separate from your work-station count. It's part of the Guest Management subscription. Hosting guests is a tattoo-studio feature, so this only appears for tattoo studios; piercing, laser, body-mod, and PMU studios won't see it. For a temporary lower cap or a full close-out on specific dates (renovation, holidays, etc.), use Limit guest capacity for a period on Guest Management → Requests — see Welcoming guest artists. That never raises this number; it only shrinks or closes hosting for the dates you pick.

• Member colors

  Tap any team member to pick the color they appear in on the calendar and day timeline. The color you pick is used for that resident's bookings and for the days they're away on a guest spot. Each team member must use a different color — already-assigned colors are greyed out in the picker. The color saves a moment after you choose it.

  The colors you pick here are for your residents only. A handful of colors are fixed by InkMap for studio-wide items and can't be changed, so they always read the same across every studio:

  • Orange — visiting guest artists
  • Teal — job interviews (shown as ITW on the calendar)
  • Pink — studio events (EVT)
  • Purple — team meetings (MTG)

• Work Stations

  A work station is a physical spot — a bed, a chair, a room. Every studio type can set these up. Add one with a Name (required, the label that shows on the calendar), an optional Room, a Color, and Suitable for — the disciplines allowed to use it, which controls who sees it when assigning. Each station must use a different color — taken colors are greyed out when you pick. Tattoo studios can also mark a station Guest priority to reserve it for visiting guests (part of Guest Management); since hosting guests is a tattoo-only feature, that toggle doesn't appear for other studio types.

• Manage work stations on or off

  At the top of the Work Stations sub-tab is a Manage work stations switch — the master on/off for the day-to-day station machinery.

  • On: you assign beds/chairs to bookings, the Auto-assign button appears, and the calendar shows station labels, "without a work station" reminders, and work-station conflict warnings. Use this if it matters who sits where.
  • Off: all of that is hidden. Practitioners just use whatever spot is free — no station labels, no Auto-assign, no work-station warnings anywhere. Good for big studios with plenty of room, or anyone who'd rather not micromanage beds.

  New studios start off so you can set things up calmly first. Your setup is never lost: turning it off only hides the day-to-day surfaces — your stations, colors, and default assignments stay exactly as you left them, and turning it back on restores everything. Because of this, the page suggests you finish adding your stations and assigning defaults before you switch it on, so you don't get a wave of "missing station" warnings; if you flip it on while things are clearly unset, it double-checks with you first.

  Turning it off does not hide your capacity warning — "more bookings overlap than your studio can handle at once" still shows, since being physically able to host that many people still matters even when you're not assigning specific beds.

  One thing to know: after a station is created, you can change its name, room, color, its guest-priority setting, or delete it — but Suitable for disciplines are fixed. To change who can use a station by discipline, delete it and add it again.

• Default station assignments

  Lower on the Work Stations sub-tab, Assign practitioners lets you give each resident a default station and choose which weekdays they use it — so they land on the same spot without you setting it each time. The weekday buttons here are about that artist's station schedule, not which days your studio is open.

  This list also nudges you about artists whose clients pick the slot (time-based artists, like piercers or laser/PMU). These usually keep one spot, so if one has no default station yet you'll see a prompt with a one-tap assign to set one — that way they're not left without a station when a client books them.

  There's also an Auto-assign on confirmation toggle that puts a station on every new booking automatically. Auto-assign is time-aware: it reuses beds across the day, leaves already-seated artists alone, and prefers a truly free spot before borrowing someone's default. This section is part of the Team Bookings subscription. To assign stations for a specific day instead, see Assigning and changing work stations.

Frequently asked questions

How do I raise "Max simultaneous practitioners"?

Add more work stations. That number follows your station count — it isn't typed in directly.

I need to rename a work station. How?

Tap the pencil on the station card in Settings → Work Stations. Edit the name and optional room, then tap the checkmark. You don't need to delete and recreate the station.

I set a guest capacity but guests still need a station assigned by hand. Why?

Guest capacity and guest-priority stations are separate. If you have guest capacity but no stations marked Guest priority, guests won't be auto-placed. Mark some stations as guest-priority to fix that — the tab warns you when the two don't match.

I don't want to deal with assigning beds at all. Can I switch it off?

Yes — turn off Manage work stations at the top of the Work Stations sub-tab. The station labels, Auto-assign, and all work-station warnings disappear across your calendar, day view, guest management, and stats; practitioners just use any free spot. Your stations and defaults are kept, so you can turn it back on anytime. Your over-capacity warning still works either way.

I turned it on and got a lot of "missing station" warnings. What happened?

That usually means it was switched on before your stations and default assignments were set up. Finish the setup on this tab first, then turn it on — the page nudges you about this for exactly that reason.