Group classes

The Classes section is for activities where several people come at the same time: yoga, dance, a master class, a workshop, small-group training. You set up a session and the number of seats, guests book themselves or an administrator adds them, and when the seats run out, booking closes on its own.

This is not the same as the appointment book: there one client takes a specialist's time, while here a session has a seat limit.

Before you start#

• The section is on in the menu. Open App Store → group Orders & floor → the Classes card and turn it on. The section is included in your plan. Businesses of the “Education” type use School → Schedule instead.
• Classes are on at the location. While they are off, a banner Classes are off at this location with the Turn on classes button sits above the section tabs. Only the account owner can press it. The same switch is in the Settings tab: Classes are on.
• The location's time zone. Without it a session cannot be created: class times follow the location's clock.
• At least one service with the “Group class” block — this is the class template (see below).
• Rooms are optional. A room is a booking resource of the location: Appointments → gear icon Settings → Rooms and equipment → ＋ Hall (see the appointment book).
• Staff rights. A staff member with the edit right for the section can create and change sessions. An instructor sees only their own sessions and cannot create new ones.

Make a class template#

A template is an ordinary catalog service with the Group class block switched on. A session takes its name, photo, description, price and default sign-up rules from it.

1. Open the service in the menu (catalog) and switch on the Group class block.
2. Set Seats per session — how many people fit into a class.
3. Optionally set Seats per booking, max, Close sign-up, min before and Free cancellation, h before.
4. Under More rules, set Minimum participants and what to do if it is not reached (Warn me, I decide or Cancel automatically), Waitlist and Seat confirmation (Link in e-mail or At once) if you need them.
5. Save the service and the menu.

Create a session with a seat limit#

1. Open Classes → Schedule. If you have several locations, pick one in the Location field.
2. Press New session. The window opens on the One session tab.
3. Choose the Class. Optionally change Duration, min (5 to 720; empty means the template duration), and choose the Instructor and Room.
4. Set the Date and Start time.
5. To give this session a different number of seats or price, expand Sign-up rules and fill in Seats (1 to 1000) or Price per seat (empty — catalog price, 0 — free). Empty fields stay as in the template.
6. Check the Check before creating block: each date shows “Free”, “Instructor busy”, “Room busy” or “In the past”.
7. Press Create session.

The instructor is checked across all locations of the account: one person cannot run two sessions at the same time.

Create a schedule for several weeks#

1. In Classes → Schedule, press Schedule (or New session → the Schedule tab).
2. Choose the Class, instructor and room, as for a single session.
3. Set the period From and To (up to a year), the Start time and Days of the week.
4. Under Skip dates, add holidays and days off with the Add button.
5. Review the list in Check before creating. Skip dates with a conflict is ticked by default: busy dates are left out of the schedule.
6. Press Create N sessions.

To repeat a week you have already built, press Copy week: every session repeats 7 days later with the same class, instructor, room and rules.

Add a participant by hand#

Use this for people who called or came in person.

1. Open the session in the grid and go to the Participants tab.
2. Press Add participant.
3. Fill in Name (required), Seats, Phone, E-mail and, if needed, Comment.
4. If the client has a membership: after you enter the phone, a Membership field appears — choose it, and the visit is deducted on attendance. See Memberships and service packages.
5. If there are no seats left but the person must be added anyway, tick Over the limit — such a seat does not count toward the limit.
6. Press Add.

In the same participant list you mark attendance (Arrived, Attended, No-show), move a person to another session of the same class (Move) and remove them from the session (Remove — the seat is released).

How a guest books a place#

The guest books on the Classes page of your storefront; no account is needed.

1. The guest opens the Schedule tab and sees each session's state: Places available, N places left, Fully booked, Full — waiting list open or Booking closed.
2. The session card shows the price per place, “Payment at the venue”, the cancellation terms and the minimum number of participants, if set.
3. The guest presses Book a place (or Join the waiting list when it is full), chooses the number of places and enters a name, phone and e-mail. E-mail is required when the place is confirmed by an e-mail link or when the guest joins the waiting list.
4. After sending, the guest sees You're booked!, Your place is held (confirm via the link in the e-mail, otherwise the place is released) or You're on the waiting list: #N.

If the places ran out while the guest was choosing, they see “No places left for this session” or “Only N places left. Please choose fewer” — the server checks what is left on every booking, so no extra place is sold. The guest sees their bookings in the My bookings tab — only bookings made from the same device — and Manage booking opens a page where they can move the place to another session of the same class or cancel under the cancellation rules.

You can also put the same booking on your own website: the site widgets section has a “Schedule” widget for this. It shows upcoming sessions; when there are none, there is no button on the site either.

Change or cancel a session#

1. Open the session in the grid. The window has the tabs Session, Participants, Change and Cancel session.
2. In Change, edit the date, time, duration, instructor, room or sign-up rules and press Save changes (“Session updated”). You can do this until the session ends.
3. The number of seats cannot go below the seats already taken: the window says “N seats are already taken — the limit cannot be lower” and will not save. Remove extra participants first.
4. In Cancel session, optionally enter a Reason (up to 200 characters, visible to staff), press Cancel session and confirm. All sign-ups for the session are cancelled; the session cannot be restored.

Changing the class template does not change sessions already created — only new ones.

Limitations#

• No online payment for a place. The guest sees “Payment at the venue”; there is no prepayment and no automatic refund when a session is cancelled yet.
• A membership cannot be chosen when booking online. A visit can be deducted from a membership only when staff add the participant.
• At most 60 sessions per schedule; the period is up to a year.
• An instructor cannot create sessions and sees only their own.
• A waitlist place cannot be moved to another session.
• Rooms are appointment-book resources; the section has no separate room list.

Troubleshooting#

FAQ#

How is “Seats per session” different from the capacity of an ordinary service?#

The capacity of a service in the appointment book is how many clients a specialist takes at once. A class is a separate session with its own participant list, waitlist and attendance marks.

What happens to sign-ups if I cancel a session?#

All sign-ups are cancelled and the seats are released. There is no online payment for a place, so the system refunds nothing by itself; if a client already paid at the venue, agree on a refund or a move with them separately.

Can I book more people than there are seats?#

Staff can — with the “Over the limit” box. A guest on the storefront cannot: when places run out, they join the waiting list if it is on.

Related articles#

• Appointment book — individual appointments with a specialist, rooms and devices.
• Memberships and service packages — visit packages and deducting a visit.
• Website widgets — how to put booking widgets on your website.