Sessions

Related docs: Services | Bookings | Online booking

What is a session?

A session is a dated group event that customers book a place in. It comes from a service whose booking type is One-off session or Repeating sessions. See Services.

Each session has a start time, a length, a number of places, and optionally a staff member who runs it and a space it is held in. Each booking in a session is one party: a customer and anyone they bring.

Building a timetable

Repeating sessions

On a service set to Repeating sessions, build its Timetable. Each line is a day pattern and a time: Monday at 18:00 and Wednesday at 07:30 are two lines on one service. A line can name the location it runs at and who runs it.

Choose how often each line repeats: every day, every week, every 2 weeks, every month, or a custom schedule. Sessions are created automatically from the timetable, in your location's timezone, up to 90 days ahead, while your plan includes Bookings.

Set Places per session for how many customers can book each one.

A one-off session

On a service set to One-off session, set the date and time it starts.

Adding a session by hand

Go to Sessions and choose Create session. Choose the service, the date and time, who runs it, the space and the capacity. The capacity starts at the service's, or at the space's size when that is smaller. You can charge a one-off price for this session instead of the service price.

Session status

A session is always one of Scheduled, Cancelled, Completed.

Running a session

Open a session to see its bookings, its waitlist and its details. The bookings list shows each party with their status, and you mark attendance from each booking. See Bookings.

Changing a session

Choose Edit session details:

• Time: moves everyone booked to the new time and emails them. If the new time is before the waitlist cut-off again, free places are filled from the waitlist, and the form says so before you save. The time can't be changed while the session's service is deactivated
• Run by: everyone booked is emailed about the change. If the new person already has a booking or session then, it is named so you can move it first
• Capacity: raising it books people in from the waitlist. It cannot go below the places already booked, or above the size of its space
• Price for this session: applies to new bookings only. People already booked keep the price they were charged

Once a session has run, its time, capacity and who runs it are fixed. Attendance can still be corrected.

When a timetable or staff member changes

If you change a service's timetable, length or places, or a staff member is no longer available, sessions that no longer match are listed with the reason, such as "Still run by Alex, the previous resource" or "Runs 45 minutes; the service now runs 60 minutes". Reassign them in one go with Reassign sessions, or open each one. Nothing is changed on them automatically. A session keeps places that are already booked, even when the service now has fewer.

Cancelling a session

Choose Cancel session. Everyone booked is refunded, their package credits are returned, and they are emailed. Bookings already marked completed stay completed and are not refunded. Anyone on the waitlist is told.

The waitlist

When a session is full, customers can join its waitlist from your storefront.

When a place frees up, the first person or group that fits is booked in automatically, paid with a package credit if they have one, or invoiced at the price shown. This carries on until the Waitlist cut-off you set on the service, or until the session starts if there is none. After that, book people in by hand.

On the session, Waitlist shows everyone Waiting in order, and the Finished places that were booked in, left or filled by someone else.

• Book in books someone in by hand
• Seat over capacity books a party in past the session's capacity, as long as the space can still hold them. The session then shows how many it is over
• Remove from waitlist takes someone off it

A bigger party can wait longer, because the first group that fits is booked in first.

While the session's service is deactivated, or the location is closed by the day of the session, nobody is booked in from its waitlist, and Book in and Seat over capacity are not offered. Neither is offered once the session is no longer scheduled. A session whose service requires the customer's address has no waitlist.

Booking a session for a customer

Create a booking and choose the session. Each customer can hold one booking per session. A session that is full offers its waitlist instead. See Bookings.