Class registration before September: a checklist for the new year

The end of August comes at the same time every year, and it still catches everyone off guard. Parents are back from holiday, the class WhatsApp group starts asking "is there still room?", and you haven't decided whether the Tuesday group stays at four o'clock or moves to five.

This checklist is for owners of a class or a small activity business: a kids' art class, a surf school with youth groups, a weekly pottery workshop. You can start it in July or in mid-August. Just go through it in order, because each step builds on the one before.

1. Groups and ages

First, decide how many groups you'll run this year and who each one is for. Give each group a clear age range or school grade, not "young kids". A parent who reads "grades 1 to 2" knows at once whether it fits, and doesn't need to message you.

• The most children per group. That's the number of seats you'll set.
• Which instructor teaches each group.
• Where: the same place all year, or somewhere else in winter.
• Whether a group should be split now, based on last year's demand.

In Classo Club each group is its own activity, with an audience and age limits. Age limits are checked against the session date, so a child born late in the year doesn't end up in the wrong group by mistake.

2. Days, times and term dates

A weekly class is usually sold by term: a year, a half or a quarter. Set the start and end of the term now, and check the holidays. September and October in Israel are full of them, and it helps to know in advance which sessions won't happen.

A class can meet more than once a week, each time at its own hour and length. For example Tuesday at 17:00 for an hour and a half, and Friday at 11:00 for an hour. On the activity page and in the confirmation email, parents see all the times together, with the end date.

A weekly class with no term end date doesn't open for registration. That's on purpose: registration always covers the whole term, and the price depends on it. See Create an activity and its sessions.

3. Price, installments and sibling discount

A weekly class is priced for the whole term. A child who joins in November shouldn't pay for September, so there's a pro-rated price for late joiners: the price follows the sessions left out of all the term's sessions. You don't calculate anything, and you don't answer "how much is it if we join now?".

Two more decisions to make before you publish:

• Sibling discount: a percentage off for every child after the first on the same registration. A family with three kids registers them all at once, from the phone, and the price updates by itself.
• Installments: the most installments allowed. This matters for card payments, which are coming soon.

Prices, discounts and coupons are explained step by step in Coupons and the sibling discount.

4. An early-bird coupon

Want parents to register in August instead of the second week of September? Give them a reason. An early-bird coupon with an end date does exactly that.

1. Create a new coupon, say EARLY, with a percentage or a fixed amount off.
2. Set "valid from" and "valid until (inclusive)", for example until 31 August.
3. If you like, cap the number of uses, so only the first families get the price.
4. Send the code to last year's parents and post it on social media too.

The coupon applies after the sibling discount. After the date you set it simply stops working, so you don't have to remember to turn it off.

5. Cancellation policy

Plenty of arguments with parents start because nobody wrote down what happens when a child leaves mid-year. Write it now, in plain words: until when they can cancel, what they get back, and what happens when a session is cancelled for weather or because the instructor is sick.

The policy shows on the activity page and during registration, and parents accept it before paying. If an activity has no policy of its own, the business policy applies. We wrote about cancelled sessions and credits in How to manage a waiting list and weather cancellations.

6. Health declaration

Pick a declaration template for each activity that needs one. The parent fills in a declaration for each child and signs on the phone. A family that signed the same version within the last year can confirm the existing declaration and sign again, without starting over.

The wording you need depends on the kind of activity and the regulations that apply to it. We don't give legal advice, so check the wording with a lawyer or your professional body. Ideas for what to ask are in Health declaration form for classes: what to include and how to collect it without paper.

7. How parents pay

Decide before opening how parents will pay, so you're not chasing them in November. Today Classo Club takes Bit payments: the registration is confirmed at once, the parent sees the amount and the Bit number, and you mark it paid when the money arrives. The registrations list shows who hasn't paid and how much is open. Card payments are coming soon.

More on ways to collect in How to collect payment for a class without chasing parents.

8. Your page and photos

A parent arriving from the class group should understand within seconds what the class is, who it's for, when and how much. A good photo of kids in the middle of the activity (with the parents' permission) is worth more than a long paragraph.

• Up to 6 photos per activity, or a video link.
• A short description: what happens in class and what the child takes home.
• What to bring: comfortable clothes, a water bottle, a wetsuit.
• An address and a Waze link, so nobody calls to ask where it is.

Need something extra from every child, like a T-shirt or wetsuit size? Add an extra registration field, and the answer shows on the roster.

9. Instructors

Invite your instructors to the team before the year starts, and ask them to install the app on their phone. They'll see their sessions and rosters and can take attendance from the very first session. Instructors only see a flag that medical info exists, never the answers. See Install the instructor app.

10. Reminders, calendar and attendance

Three things that run on their own once registration closes:

• Calendar invite: every parent gets all the sessions in the confirmation email and can save them to their phone calendar. When a time or place changes, the calendar event updates.
• Email reminders: a day and two hours before each session. WhatsApp reminders are coming soon.
• Attendance: the instructor marks present, late or absent, and each registration shows how many sessions each child attended.

11. Publish and a last check

Before you send the link to everyone, register yourself from your phone as if you were a parent. Check the price is right, the discount shows, the coupon works and the email arrives with all the dates. Ten minutes of checking saves a lot of messages on the first evening.

Then publish. Take a deep breath. The year is starting.