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)
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.
"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
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).
"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
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
| 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 |
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.