Setup Guide Overview

Why setup matters

Nabu is only as accurate as the information you put into it. Raw appointment and sales data from your booking software tells Nabu what happened — a service was performed, a client paid $300. But it doesn't tell Nabu what it cost you to deliver that service.

Setup is where you provide the context. You tell Nabu:

• How much you pay your providers
• What your rent and other fixed costs are
• What supplies go into each service
• What your services are priced at

With that context, Nabu can calculate your true profit margin — not just revenue minus some rough estimate, but actual service-level cost broken down by labor, supplies, equipment, overhead, and benefits.

The setup sections at a glance

Why the sections are in this order

The setup sequence is deliberate — each layer builds on the one before it.

You start with Business Costs because everything else depends on knowing what your clinic spends. Then Business Targets can use that cost baseline to tell you what margin is achievable. People & Payroll comes next because provider labor is the largest direct cost of most services — you need those rates before services make sense.

Products & Supplies and Equipment follow because service cost is labor + supplies + equipment + overhead — you need all three inputs before you can build out services. Allocation Rules sets the method for distributing your fixed overhead, which shapes how costs flow into every service calculation.

Payment & Financing Fees and Marketing Costs round out your cost picture — fees reduce net revenue, and marketing spend affects your cost of acquisition. Payment and financing fees are manual assumptions because source systems do not know your processor contracts or financing merchant terms. With all costs defined, you're ready to build out Services with accurate cost breakdowns.

Membership Plans and Packages come after Services because they reference specific services — a membership benefit of "1 HydraFacial/month" can only be set up once the HydraFacial service exists. Clients sets up your client records so transactions have someone to attach to. Gift cards, prepaid cards, store credit, memberships, and package balances are reviewed under the Client profile when real activity exists. Finally, Sales & Visit History is last because it needs everything else — services, clients, memberships, packages, credits, and manual payment fee rules — to be defined before it can categorize and attribute each transaction correctly.

How to navigate the Setup area

Go to Setup in the left sidebar. You'll see a list of all sections with status badges:

• Complete (green) — you've reviewed and confirmed this section
• In progress — some data exists but it hasn't been confirmed
• Not started — this section is empty

Each section has two ways to add data:

1. Manual entry — click "Add [item]" to fill in a form directly in the browser
2. CSV import — download the template, fill it in as a spreadsheet, and upload it

Both methods get your data into the same place. CSV import is faster if you have a lot of items (say, 50+ services). Manual entry is easier for small amounts or when making edits.

A note about templates

Every setup section has a View all templates button in the top right. This lets you see example data so you understand what format Nabu expects. You can also download blank templates to fill in with your own data.

The templates include example rows that show you exactly what each column means and what kinds of values to put in.

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Continue to the first section:

Business Costs →