How FacialSense works

Sign up with your clinic name and email. You verify with a code we email you, and your 30-day free trial starts immediately. No card required. During the trial you get every Professional feature with a 50-scan monthly allowance.

Before your first client, spend five minutes in Account settings → Profile & Branding:

Logo and brand colour

Your own look throughout your dashboard, PDF reports, and the client portal. FacialSense appears only as a small footer line.

Business email

Every email your clients receive carries your clinic's name and logo, with replies routed to your inbox.

Phone and address

Shown in your email footers.

Online booking link

Paste your existing booking page (Fresha, Treatwell, Calendly, or your website) and clients get routed there to book, or switch on native booking instead. See Bookings.

Under Account settings → Storefront, add an "About us" description, tick which amenities apply (parking, wheelchair access, wifi, and more), add your team with photos and short bios, and build a gallery and portfolio of photos. All of this shows on your public booking page.

FacialSense runs in the browser on any phone, tablet, or desktop. For one-tap access on an iPad or phone, open it in Safari or Chrome and choose "Add to Home Screen" / "Install app".

There are two ways to scan:

In clinic

Start a scan from your dashboard, capture client details and consent digitally, then hand them the camera.

Remotely

Generate a private scan link from your dashboard and text or email it. The client scans at home on their own phone and the results land in your dashboard. Links expire after 7 days and only work for your practice.

If you've added consent or intake forms (Account settings → Client Forms), a new client completes them here too, right before the camera opens. Link to your own form, ask them to download, sign, and upload a copy back, or build one directly in FacialSense with real questions - multiple choice, yes/no, short or long answer, a rating scale, a date, or a signature. FacialSense can even suggest a question list from a document you upload, which you review and edit before saving.

A Medical form (always required) and a Skin Profile form (optional) come as ready-made starting points. Medical answers are used only to avoid recommending something unsafe - an allergy, a medication, a condition. Skin Profile answers - skin type, goals, routine, sun exposure - actively shape which of your treatments and products the AI recommends and how it frames them. A question can also allow "Not applicable" as an answer, so a client isn't forced to answer something that doesn't relate to them.

Once someone has completed a form, they're not asked again on their next visit - unless you explicitly ask them to redo it (their earlier answer stays on record, nothing is lost) or you add a new form.

Forms don't have to wait for the scan, either. Add a client from your dashboard (Add client) before their first visit, then email them their forms to complete in advance from their record's Actions menu - useful for intake paperwork you'd rather they finish at home than in your waiting room.

The camera is deliberately strict, because consistency is what makes scan-to-scan comparison honest. When the client taps Begin scan, the guide checks, continuously, that their face is the right size and centred, their head is level and facing straight on, their eyes are on the camera, and the lighting is neither too dark, too bright, nor uneven. Only when everything holds steady for a couple of seconds does the photo take itself. On-screen prompts coach the client through each correction.

Every capture is also automatically colour- and exposure-matched to that client's first scan before analysis, so a sunny bathroom in June and a dim hallway in December photograph like the same room.

The AI refuses images it can't assess honestly: heavy shadow or severe underexposure, and obvious makeup (foundation or concealer hides exactly what's being measured). The client simply rescans; nothing is saved from a rejected attempt.

Each scan produces a structured report in seconds: five vitality scores (hydration, luminosity, elasticity, pore refinement, dermal integrity), zone-by-zone findings with severity, treatment recommendations, and AI-suggested aftercare visible only to you. What clients see under "Caring for your skin at home" is written by you, per client, from their page in your dashboard. This is entirely optional, and always in your own words, not the AI's (Professional).

Scores are AI estimates from a photograph, not clinical measurements: there is no corneometer behind them. That's why they display as honest bands (Excellent / Good / Fair / Needs attention) rather than false-precision percentages, in your dashboard, in the PDF, and in the client's portal.

For returning clients, the AI also compares today's photo directly against their previous one and judges each dimension improved, stable, or declined, which is far more reliable than comparing two separate scores. These appear as trend chips on the report and in the client's portal.

Each finding also carries a confidence level: High, Moderate, or Low. This reflects how clearly the photograph itself supports the finding, not how serious the finding is. A mild finding caught in good light can be High confidence, while a more visible one in awkward lighting might be Low. Use it to judge when to trust a finding and when your own clinical eye should lead instead. It appears only in your dashboard and on the PDF; clients never see it.

Every finding is written twice: a version for you, and a simple jargon-free version your client sees in their portal. In Account settings → Client Experience you can choose how your own copy reads: balanced (default), clinical, or simple. Clients always get the simple version regardless. You can also export any report as a branded PDF, in your own logo and colour.

Every client gets one private, permanent link to their own results page, emailed automatically after each scan, in your clinic's own logo and colour throughout. The same link shows their latest report, full scan history, progress across visits, approved recommendations, aftercare, purchases, and a button to book their next visit. There's nothing to install and no account for them to create; the link is the key.

• You can copy and resend a client's portal link any time from their record in your dashboard.
• Nothing reaches the portal unvetted; recommendations wait for your approval unless you've switched on auto-approve.
• The portal shows simple ratings and trends, never raw percentages, with a clear note that scores are AI estimates.
• By default, a remote scan (one a client does at home) waits for your approval before they see anything or get an email. Switch on Auto-approve recommendations on your dashboard and remote scans go straight to the client instead, with their recommendations approved automatically too - the same toggle governs both. Scans you take in clinic are never held either way.

Under Catalog, list what your clinic actually sells: retail products and in-clinic services, each with an optional photo, description, price, and (for services) a duration. Items without a price still appear in reports as recommendations; they're just not buyable online.

When the AI writes a report, it references your actual items where they genuinely fit; it never invents products and never recommends brands you don't stock. Each matched recommendation then waits in a review card on the scan:

Approve

It goes live in the client's portal.

Replace

Swap it for a different catalogue item.

Drop

Remove it.

Add

Bring in another item of your own, if the AI did not suggest one you wanted to include.

If a report is also being held for review, approving it releases every recommendation waiting on that same scan at the same time, so there is only ever one sign-off, not two.

Once you trust the matching, flip Auto-approve recommendations on your dashboard and skip the review step for future scans (it never touches scans already waiting).

Approved product recommendations with a price show a Buy now button in the client's portal - services are always booked instead, never paid for in the app (see Bookings). Product checkout runs through Stripe on your clinic's own Stripe account: the money goes directly to you and FacialSense never holds your funds, the charge appears on the client's statement under your clinic's name, and refunds and payouts are managed in your own Stripe dashboard, under your control.

Set this up once via Account settings → Billing & Payments: Stripe verifies your business details directly with you.

Your catalogue also powers a Products tab right on your public booking page, alongside Treatments - clients can add products to a basket and check out without leaving the page. It also has its own standalone shop page: every campaign email links its featured items to their own page with secure checkout, alongside a browse-everything view. Find yours via "View your shop page" in Catalog. When a client buys a product, they get a branded confirmation email, you get an order notification, and the order appears under Orders in your menu with a "Mark collected" button for when it's handed over. Insights shows your revenue by month, top sellers, and how many clients come back.

Switch on native booking under Account settings → Booking and clients book straight into your own calendar - no external system needed. Set your weekly hours, how far ahead clients can book, your cancellation notice period, and (optional) a deposit taken securely by card through your own Stripe account when they book. If their preferred day is fully booked, they're offered the next open date automatically.

Your public booking page shows your treatments and any products you sell in one place, with a basket and checkout (see Selling and getting paid). It carries your logo, tagline, real client reviews as star ratings on your clinic and on each treatment or product, opening times, and anything you've added under Storefront. Once your Stripe payment setup is complete, clients also see a verified badge next to your clinic name.

From your dashboard, see every booking on a calendar, add one manually for a client who calls or walks in, mark a booking complete or a no-show, cancel one (any deposit is automatically refunded), or pause bookings for the rest of the day or a date range.

Prefer to keep using your existing booking system (Fresha, Treatwell, Calendly, or your own website)? Leave native booking off and paste your booking page link into Account settings → Profile & Branding instead - clients get routed there at the same moments (a service in their report or portal, the "Ready for your next visit?" card, and reminder emails), and your calendar, deposits, and cancellation rules stay in that system. No booking system yet? A free Google Calendar appointment schedule works well; create one at calendar.google.com and paste its booking-page link.

Two independent reminder systems, both part of the Professional plan and both branded as your clinic:

Scan reminders

Off by default. Switch them on in Account settings → Client Experience and pick an interval (4, 6, 8, or 12 weeks). Clients whose last scan is older than that get one gentle email with a button into your booking system (or their results page if you haven't linked one).

Rebooking reminders

On by default if you use native booking. Set your own interval under Account settings → Booking. Clients whose last completed booking is older than that get a reminder to book their next visit.

Either way: at most one reminder per visit, so nobody gets nagged, and a returning visit resets the clock automatically.

Under Marketing(Professional plan), design and send campaigns to your clients, start from a template (offer, announcement, newsletter), edit the message, pick an audience (everyone, clients not seen in 8+ weeks, past buyers, or clients with no upcoming booking), preview the exact email, send yourself a test, then send. Every campaign carries your clinic's branding and reply address. Every marketing email includes an automatic unsubscribe link, as the law requires - unsubscribing never affects results, receipts, or appointment emails. Large audiences are delivered in daily batches by design; it keeps your emails landing in inboxes rather than spam folders, which matters more than speed.

Under Marketing → Links, create a trackable link (and matching QR code) for each place you promote your clinic - a flyer, a poster, a social bio, a business card - and see visits, bookings, and conversion rate per link, plus which treatment it drives the most.

Standard covers the consultation loop: guided and remote scanning, AI reports, PDF export, the client portal, clinic-branded emails, and linking your own booking tool, with 50 scans per month. Professional adds the revenue and relationship layer: online booking with its own calendar and deposits, catalogue, matched recommendations, the approval workflow, in-portal checkout, automated follow-up reminders, email marketing campaigns, business insights, before/after progress comparisons, report styles, client-facing aftercare tips, and a 10,000-scan allowance.

Every 30-day trial includes the full Professional feature set (with the 50-scan allowance), so you can evaluate the selling loop before choosing. Nothing you set up during the trial is lost if you start on Standard; it's hidden, not deleted.

A few things come with every plan, trial included, and are never behind an upgrade: your own logo and brand colour throughout your dashboard, reports, and the portal, an AI confidence level on every finding, and the ability to attach your own consent or intake forms to the scan flow.

Consent is captured digitally before every scan. Facial images are stored encrypted in access-controlled storage, never on public URLs. If you link to your own form or ask clients to upload a signed copy, we keep only a record that they completed it (and their signature, if it has one) - we never see or store their answers. If you build a form directly in FacialSense instead, their structured answers are stored on their record, and Medical or Skin Profile answers are read by the AI when generating recommendations (Medical only to avoid recommending something unsafe; Skin Profile to personalise what's suggested). Deleting a client's record removes everything: data, images, forms, and reports, in one action. Deleting your account does the same for your whole practice, while financial records are anonymised rather than destroyed, as bookkeeping requires.

Client data is kept safe and secure: encrypted, private storage and one-tap deletion. Full detail: privacy policy, data safety, terms of service.

FacialSense is an aesthetic consultation and documentation tool; it does not diagnose and is not for medical use.

"This scan needs more light"

The image was too dark to assess honestly. Face a window (not direct sun) and rescan.

Makeup detected

Foundation and concealer hide what's being measured. Scan on cleansed, bare skin.

The camera won't auto-capture

Follow the on-screen prompt; it names exactly what's blocking (framing, head angle, gaze, or light). A manual shutter appears as a fallback if the guide can't lock at all.

A client lost their portal link

Open their record in your dashboard and resend it. The link never changes.

A remote scan link stopped working

Links expire after 7 days. Generate a fresh one.

A client's form won't open

Forms that don't need a signature open in a new browser tab; ones that do trigger a download instead. Either way, ask them to check their browser hasn't blocked pop-ups.

A client's form upload fails

Ask them to try again - most failures are a slow connection or too large a file (keep uploads under 8MB).

Anything else

Email support@facialsense.app and include your clinic name.