The way you set up your group classes depends on the type of classes your business offers. There are four main categories classes fall into:
Customers can register for/purchase one class at a time.
i.e. Classes, workshops, or events where clients only sign up for a single booking rather than a set of linked bookings. | |
Customers purchase a pre-set number of classes at once then register for bookings at their own pace.
i.e. Clients purchase 6 class credits in a package. The type of class they have chosen is scheduled Mondays at 8pm, Wednesdays at 7pm, and Saturdays at 11am. They can use their credits to sign up for any of those bookings in the next 8 weeks, rather than needing to take 6 classes in a row at the same time/day each week. | |
Customers sign up for pre-set sessions with the whole class starting and ending at the same time.
i.e. One 4-class session is scheduled for 8pm 15 Sept, 22 Sept, 29 Sept, 6 Oct, another is scheduled for 5pm 23 Sept, 30 Sept, 7 Oct, 14 Oct. Clients can choose to take the specific set of dates that works for them, and will be registered for all 4 weeks in their chosen session. | |
Sometimes called rolling enrollment. Customers sign up for a pre-set number of classes in a row, but can start at any time.
i.e. Clients purchase sessions of 6 classes. There is a repeating class booking set up Tuesdays at 8pm. Clients signing up can choose any start date that works for them, and will be signed up for 6 weeks in a row. |
The steps required to configure your classes depends on the class setup that suits your needs best.
Drop-In
Drop-in style classes are one-off sessions that have clients sign up for one booking at a time. As such, they are the simplest type of class to configure. To set up a drop-in style class/workshop, all that is required is to:
Create a group training service.
Schedule the service on your calendar.
Choose the payment settings that work for you (Optional, Required, etc.) to ensure clients are automatically invoiced for the class when they register.
Provide clients with the direct link and/or set the service to publicly listed to allow booking through your public portal.
If the class is something offered on a regular basis, you can schedule it as a repeating booking. This will allow you to reduce your admin work while still allowing your clients to sign up for one class at a time.
Package-Based
If you would like to provide your clients with a more flexible class format while still selling more than one class at a time, package-based classes allow you to sell sets of classes without requiring clients to sign up for consecutive bookings. These classes are configured much like drop-in classes, with the added step of package management.
Create a group training service.
Schedule the service on your calendar.
Create a package with the desired number of classes included.
Set the service's payment settings to "Require package/credit". This will prevent customers from being able to purchase just a single class.
Provide clients with the direct link and/or set the service to publicly listed to allow booking through your public portal.
Make sure to include the link to your Private Client Portal on your website and/or in your booking confirmation message. This will ensure customers that have purchased a package will be able to use their available credits to self-book their remaining classes.
If the the class is offered at the same time/on the same days weekly, you can schedule it as a repeating booking. This will allow you to reduce your admin work while still allowing your clients to sign up for the specific dates/times that work for them.
Note that you may use this option to set up class packages made up of different services.
i.e. Puppy Basics package includes one credit each for Puppy Socialization, Puppy Foundations, Puppy Manners At Home, and Puppy Manners Outside. All 4 services are scheduled at various times throughout the week so clients can choose the desired dates/times and the order in which they take classes.
Set Enrollment
The most common format for classes, this setup involves the use of series rather than just group services.
Create a group training service.
Use that group service to create a series.
Choose the desired payment settings for the series (Optional, Required, etc.) to ensure clients are automatically invoiced when they register.
Schedule the series on your calendar (when scheduling, will be listed with [Series] before its name).
Provide clients with the series direct link and/or set the series to publicly listed to allow booking through your public portal (keep the service's public listing toggle turned off).
Note that your series is simply the template for your class. This means that for any given class (i.e. Puppy Manners, Agility Foundations, Loose Leash Walking, etc.) you only need to create the series once, then you can use that one series to schedule dates as often as you hold classes of that type.
Open Enrollment
This class format works best for classes where you want students to sign up for a certain number of consecutive classes, but still have the flexibility to choose a start date based on what works for them.
Create a group training service.
Open the service's settings page (by clicking its name on the main Services page) and turn its Open Enrollment toggle on.
Use the "Bookings" field beneath the toggle to set the number of consecutive classes clients should be signed up for when they self-register.
Schedule the service on your calendar as a repeating booking.
Choose the payment settings that work for you (Optional, Required, etc.) to ensure clients are automatically invoiced for the full set of classes when they register.
Provide clients with the direct link and/or set the service to publicly listed to allow booking through your public portal.
Note that clients self-registering for an open enrollment class will be signed up for the chosen number of classes consecutively within the repeating set.
i.e. If you offer the open enrollment class Mondays at 8pm and Saturdays at 11am, you will likely want to set up one repeating set for 8pm Monday and another for 11am Saturday. This will ensure that clients signing up will be signed up weekly on Monday or weekly on Saturday, rather than being signed up Monday and Saturday.
Important Note
When scheduling classes as repeating bookings (whether for drop-in, package-based, or open enrollment) you can schedule the repeating set to end well into the future, however you will want to go through and cancel/delete any specific bookings within the set that should not be there (i.e. due to holidays, staff vacations, facility maintenance, etc.). You will need to do this regardless of whether or not you have set up blocked times on those dates.
As a general rule, it's a good idea to configure automatic invoicing for your classes, regardless of the type you choose to configure. This can significantly reduce your workload and make the registration process much easier to manage. Automatic invoicing is set up by configuring your Stripe account then choosing a Payment Settings option for each of your bookable services and series.
For more information on setting up self-registration for your clients, check out our Help Guide on Configuring Self-Serve Bookings. To see examples of what self-booking can look like for your customers, see our guide on The Client Self-Booking Process.