Frequently Asked Questions

Visit the pencild signup page and choose your account type:

• Artist account for individual tattoo artists managing their own business
• Studio account for studio owners who need to manage multiple artists

Fill in your details, and you'll receive a 14-day free trial automatically. Add a payment method during signup (you won't be charged) to extend your trial to 30 days.

• Standard trial: 14 days from account creation
• Extended trial: 30 days if you add a payment method during signup (you won't be charged until the trial ends)

During the trial you get full access to all features. You can cancel anytime before the trial ends without being charged.

Go to Settings and scroll to the Display section. You can configure:

• Theme: Light, Dark, or Auto to match your device
• Timezone: 13 options from UTC to Pacific/Auckland
• Time Format: 12-hour or 24-hour
• Date Format: YYYY-MM-DD, DD/MM/YYYY, MM/DD/YYYY, or Month DD, YYYY

Changes save automatically.

Click Clients in the sidebar, then Add Client. Only email is required (must be unique).

You can also add: full name, nickname, phone numbers (multiple with labels), addresses, company info, Instagram username, website URLs, and notes.

Phone numbers, addresses, and notes are encrypted for security.

Yes! If you've connected your email account, go to Clients and look for the Sync Contacts option. Click to import contacts from your connected email account. Duplicates are detected automatically based on name and Instagram username.

A project represents a complete tattoo commission from start to finish. It helps you:

• Organize related appointments (consultation, stencil session, tattoo sessions, touch-up)
• Track progress through stages
• Group related tasks
• Link communications

Projects have three statuses: In Progress, Completed, and Cancelled.

The system automatically detects potential duplicates based on same name or Instagram username.

Open one of the duplicate profiles, scroll to the Potential Duplicates section, and click Merge.

The primary client keeps their data, empty fields are filled from the secondary client, and all relationships (emails, events, projects, tasks) are transferred.

Go to Settings, find Connected Accounts, and click Connect Email. Sign in with your email provider (Gmail, Outlook/Office 365, or IMAP) and grant permissions to read emails, send on your behalf, and access contacts. Your inbox will start populating within minutes.

• Automatic syncing: Every 5 minutes, up to 100 new messages per user
• Manual sync: Click the Sync button in your inbox to fetch new emails immediately

Synced items include new incoming emails, sent emails, email status changes, and thread grouping.

Priority emails are from clients who need your attention most: those with an upcoming appointment within 30 days OR an active project (In Progress status).

The dashboard shows priority unread count prominently, and your inbox has a Priority filter to focus on these clients.

From your Studio dashboard, go to Members or Team, click Invite Artist, enter their email, and send the invitation.

They'll receive an email to accept or decline. If they don't have a pencild account, they'll be prompted to create one. You can see and manage pending invitations.

The artist takes everything with them. Their clients, projects, messages, and data go with their account. There's no data to transfer, no arguments about ownership.

The studio can see historical records of what work was assigned to the departed artist, but the artist's personal data moves with them. You can reassign any remaining studio-level items to other artists.

Yes. When creating or editing a client, use the Assign to Artist dropdown.

The client appears in that artist's client list, projects and appointments show in their views, and the artist receives relevant notifications. Studio owners can still see all clients across all artists.

Yes. Each user has their own unique encryption key. Encrypted fields include:

• Email content (subject, body, snippets)
• Phone numbers and addresses
• Notes and financial information (costs, deposits)
• Instagram message content
• OAuth tokens

Your encryption key is itself encrypted with a master key. Even if our database were compromised, your data remains unreadable. Our staff cannot read your personal client information.

Only you can see and access your personal account data.

If you're in a studio:

• Studio owners can see studio-level data and data assigned to the studio
• Artists can see data specifically assigned to them
• Your personal data (personal email, personal clients not assigned to studio) remains private

Every database query is scoped to your user account. Cross-user data access is technically impossible.

Soft delete (recoverable): When you delete records, data is marked as deleted but retained for 30 days. During this period, you can contact support to recover it.

Permanent deletion: Happens automatically 30 days after soft delete, or 30 days after account cancellation.

You can also export your data anytime. Your clients, your records, your files.

Yes. OAuth tokens are encrypted with your personal encryption key and stored in the database, never in plain text or logs.

Instagram tokens expire after 60 days and pencild automatically refreshes them 10 days before expiration.

If you disconnect an account, tokens are immediately invalidated and encrypted data is removed.