--- title: La Marie Beauty Project Sync — 2025-11-11 type: article created: '2025-11-11' updated: '2025-11-11' source_docs: - raw/2025-11-11-la-marie-beauty-project-call-100818942.md tags: - la-marie-beauty - woocommerce - bookly - square - payment-tokenization - api-integration - scope-conflict - architecture layer: 2 client_source: LaMarie Beauty industry_context: ecommerce transferable: false --- # La Marie Beauty Project Sync — 2025-11-11 ## Overview Sync call between Asymmetric (Chris, Melissa) and La Marie Beauty (Kimberly, Roxana, Lisa) covering the finalized WooCommerce/Bookly/Square architecture, an unresolved scope dispute over redesigning 81 service pages for variants, open questions on payment tokenization, and Bookly-to-Square API sync speed. Ishak (Asymmetric developer) was not on the call but his work was discussed throughout. **Attendees:** - Kimberly Gehrmann — La Marie Beauty (project lead / client-side PM) - Roxana Lopez — La Marie Beauty (services expert / creative) - Lisa Frommelt — La Marie Beauty - Katie Schueller — La Marie Beauty (on maternity leave as of ~2025-10-30) - Melissa Cusumano — Asymmetric (PM) - Chris Østergaard — Asymmetric (technical lead) - Ishak — Asymmetric (developer, not present) --- ## Key Decisions - **Zapier is fully removed** from the architecture. The stack is confirmed as WooCommerce + Bookly + Square only. - **Square remains the source of truth** for staff availability and calendar management. No migration to Bookly for scheduling. - **Bookly remains required** for scheduling/UX. WooCommerce has no native scheduling capability. - **"Pay in person / cash on arrival" option removed** from checkout. A credit card is required at booking. - **Service tile backgrounds set to solid black** in Bookly UI, replacing the previous behavior of pulling random staff photos. --- ## Open Issues ### 1. Payment Tokenization **Status: Under investigation (Ishak)** The unified WooCommerce checkout can display a service price while setting the subtotal to zero (allowing product payment while reserving the appointment slot), but it currently **cannot save a credit card for future charges**. This is needed so La Marie Beauty can charge the card later if a client no-shows or adds services at the appointment. - Chris noted the distinction: WooCommerce can process a payment, but tokenizing the card for a future charge requires either a custom hook or a native plugin feature. - Square handles this natively in its own flow, but the new architecture routes through WooCommerce. - **Ishak is investigating** whether a custom hook or a WooCommerce plugin feature can enable tokenization. > *"The actual saving of the credit card through WooCommerce, where we use some sort of tokenization, where we then are able to recharge that card — I'm not sure that we've found that solution yet."* — Chris --- ### 2. Bookly-to-Square API Sync Speed **Status: Under investigation (Ishak)** When a booking is made through the WooCommerce/Bookly flow, that appointment data must sync to Square. There is a potential **default 15-minute delay** in the Bookly-to-Square sync, which creates a double-booking risk (a client could book the same slot via the Square app during that window). - Kimberly flagged this as an edge case she wants to eliminate, not just accept. - The ask is to investigate whether the sync can be configured closer to **~1 minute** via webhook events or API configuration. - **Ishak to investigate** and report findings at the next meeting. > *"I would be curious if it is on a default timer of 15 minutes or if we do have the ability to customize the webhook events... even something like a minute is perhaps better."* — Kimberly --- ### 3. Scope Conflict: Service Page Variant Redesign **Status: Unresolved — escalated to leadership on both sides** A significant scope dispute exists over whether redesigning 81 service pages to support product variants is in scope. **Asymmetric's position:** - The original estimate was based on a CSV file provided by La Marie Beauty, which listed services as flat rows with no variant structure. - Adding variants now requires a full page redesign (new content, galleries, before/after images) — estimated at **40+ hours**. - Melissa is treating this as a scope increase and has escalated to Mark (Asymmetric leadership). **La Marie Beauty's position:** - Variants are not a new concept. Square's existing booking flow already uses a variant structure (e.g., "Vampire Facial" → "Face," "Face + Neck," "Face + Neck + Décolleté"). - The JSON objects Chris shared during Zapier debugging showed base services with variant arrays — this structure pre-existed the project. - Kimberly's view: the programmatic concept was always present in the source of truth (Square); it was not introduced by this project. **Where there is agreement:** - Kimberly acknowledged that the full page redesigns (galleries, new content sections, slider bars) go beyond simply adding variant selectors, and that portion may legitimately be scope creep. - Melissa acknowledged that adding variant selector buttons to the existing simple page layout was what she originally expected to absorb. **Next steps on this issue:** - Melissa → discuss with Mark (Asymmetric) to determine a cost/scope middle ground - Kimberly → sync with Roxana to identify which of the 81 services truly have variants vs. simple enhancements, and to determine the actual scope of content changes needed - Kimberly → discuss with Lisa (La Marie Beauty) before bringing a position back to Asymmetric --- ## Action Items | Owner | Action | |---|---| | **Ishak** | Investigate payment tokenization — custom hook vs. native WooCommerce plugin | | **Ishak** | Research reducing Bookly-to-Square API sync delay (target: ~1 min) | | **Chris** | Remove staff last names from Bookly UI settings | | **Melissa** | Discuss service page scope conflict with Mark; determine Asymmetric's position | | **Melissa** | Invite Ishak to next meeting so he can present technical findings directly | | **Kimberly** | Sync 1:1 with Roxana to classify services: true variants vs. enhancements, and flag which pages need new content/photos | | **Kimberly** | Discuss scope conflict with Lisa before next Asymmetric meeting | --- ## Technical Architecture (Confirmed) ``` User Flow: Service booking → Bookly (scheduling/UX) ↓ Unified cart → WooCommerce (checkout + payment) ↓ Appointment + purchase data → Square (source of truth / staff calendar) Removed: Zapier (previously used for WooCommerce→Square sync) Staff availability source of truth: Square (not migrated to Bookly) ``` **Key constraint:** Bookly's cart add-on is disabled when WooCommerce is active to avoid conflicts. Bookly handles scheduling only; WooCommerce handles all payment processing. --- ## Bookly UI Progress - Service tile backgrounds: fixed to solid black (previously pulled staff/service photos inconsistently, including Katie's headshot) - Staff last names: Chris to remove from Bookly settings - Font treatment: being reviewed for consistency with site-wide sans-serif - Mobile layout: design team confirmed they used a mobile Bookly model when creating designs — should be applicable --- ## Context Notes - Katie Schueller (La Marie Beauty) went on maternity leave ~2025-10-30 (baby born ~2025-10-30). Kimberly noted this means she needs to be more on top of communications. - Kimberly was in the middle of a personal move during this period, which caused some communication delays she acknowledged. - Ishak (Asymmetric developer, India-based) was not present but had been working on the unified checkout and Square API integration. Melissa committed to inviting him to the next meeting. --- ## Related - [[wiki/clients/current/lamarie/_index]] - [[wiki/knowledge/scope-management/scope-conflict-resolution]] - [[wiki/knowledge/integrations/woocommerce-bookly-square-architecture]]