Choosing tanning salon software: the compliance and operations checklist

How to use this checklist

A tanning salon has duties a general booking app was not built for: exposure limits, signed warning statements, age checks, visit records and a federal excise tax. The checklist below splits features into compliance, where a state rule or federal regulation is behind the item, and operations, where the reason is running the desk.

Ask every vendor to show each item live, with your own rooms and price list. The refusals matter most: ask them to type a time over a bed's maximum, check in a client with no signed form, and sell a package, then show where that sale lands in the reports.

Software helps the operator; it does not replace them. Texas makes the operator on duty responsible for completing and keeping the records (Health and Safety Code 145.008(a)). Asked whether its once-in-24-hours rule is enforced by computer software or by employees, Florida's Department of Health answered that facility personnel should enforce it.

The "TanVision today" column is our own product, checked against what it does as of October 2026. Yes means it works today, Partly means a limit is noted, and No means it does not do it.

Compliance checklist

Compliance gaps in TanVision, and what to do meanwhile

We would rather you hear these from us than find them in an inspection.

• No incident log and no timer-test log. Keep both in a binder; the recordkeeping guide lists what goes in them.
• No re-sign schedule. Pick a routine for your state, for example checking the signing date on the client's record at each package renewal. See the consent form guide.
• Guardian consent opens UV rooms by default. The age check lets a client under the minimum age, 18 by default, tan once guardian consent is on file, and a guardian co-signing the online consent form puts it on file. In a state such as Texas or Rhode Island, set Minors and UV rooms to No in Settings > Tanning rules: UV rooms then refuse anyone under the minimum age even with consent on file, while non-UV rooms still accept it.
• No manufacturer schedule import. The unit's label is the authority; enter each room's maximum from it. See the exposure schedule guide.
• One session gap for every client. Where your state steps the gap down after the first sessions, check new clients by hand.

Operations checklist

Bed timers: what software can and cannot do

The timer is part of the tanning unit. The federal standard requires every unit to have one, with its longest setting no more than the labeled maximum exposure time and no setting off by more than 10% of the maximum timer interval (1040.20(c)(2)). Texas adds that the timer must be placed so a customer cannot set or reset their own time (145.008(d)), and Florida's FAQ says timer controls may sit outside the room as long as the customer cannot operate them.

Some systems connect the desk to the beds' timer controllers so the time typed at check-in starts the bed. If a vendor offers that, ask which controllers it supports, whether it runs on a salon floor today, and what the desk does when the link drops. TanVision does this with T-Max timer controllers: staff type the minutes, TanVision checks them against the room's maximum and your rules, and the desk sends the time to the bed's own timer through a small box TanVision supplies that sits on the salon's network next to the T-Max controller. Each room's T-Max address is entered in TanVision, and Stop clears the time. Other timer brands are not supported yet, so on those the operator sets the bed. The timer rules guide covers testing.

EFT memberships and the rules that come with them

EFT means electronic funds transfer: a membership charged automatically each month. If you draft a client's bank account on a schedule, federal Regulation E says those preauthorized transfers may be authorized only by a writing the client signs or similarly authenticates, and you must give the client a copy (12 CFR 1005.10(b)). State automatic-renewal laws may apply too; see membership auto-renewal laws.

The tanning tax still applies. Joining fees and fees to freeze a tanning membership are amounts paid for tanning (26 CFR 49.5000B-1(d)(1)(iv)); see the excise tax guide.

TanVision bills auto-pay memberships by card through its built-in card processing: the client saves a card on the card processor's secure page, and TanVision charges it each period with the tax, on the package's terms. It does not draft bank accounts, and the sign-up disclosures and the member's consent are still yours to give and keep.

Questions to ask any vendor

1. Show me a session refused for a time over the bed's maximum, and for a missing signature.
2. Change the consent wording, then show me a form signed before the change. Does it still show the old words?
3. Run the tanning tax total for last quarter, separate from sales tax.
4. Print one client's visits for a past year, as an inspector would ask.
5. If I leave, how do I get my client records and visit history out, and in what format?
6. What does card processing cost on top of the subscription, and can my stored cards move to another processor?
7. What happens at the desk when the internet drops?
8. How is my data kept apart from other salons' data, and how was that tested?

For the difference between tanning software and general booking apps, see tanning software vs booking apps.

Where TanVision fits

TanVision is strongest at the check-in rules: room maximums, the session gap, signed statements, the date of birth and packages, all checked before a bed starts, with the tanning tax on its own receipt line and in its own section of the Tax audit report. It sends session times to the beds on T-Max timer controllers only, and it keeps no incident or timer-test log. See exposure safety, or book a demo and run the questions above against it.