Group sessions

Some services have several people in one session: group exercises, a workshop, a course. One staff member leads the session, and each customer books their own place while there are any. For this, the service is booked as a Group, and you schedule its sessions yourself, one by one or with a schedule ("Tuesdays and Thursdays at 18:00").

If every customer has an appointment of their own, you don't need this: ordinary services are enough.

A group service

In the service's form, under How it is booked, choose Group (the default is One at a time). Then you enter:

• Places per session: how many people fit in one session, at most 100. It applies to new group sessions, and each session can have its own number.
• Most people per booking: 1 means everyone books only for themselves. With a higher number a customer can also book for others, e.g. for themselves and a friend, at most 10 people.
• Price per person: a booking for two people pays twice. An empty field means price on request.
• Duration and buffer after, as for every service. They apply to the whole session.

With the service, tick who leads its sessions. The duration and price are always the service's, not a staff member's. A group service has no pause in the middle and isn't chosen together with other services in one appointment. If it needs a room or equipment, e.g. a hall, the group session takes it, once for all its participants.

How it is booked can't change while the service has upcoming appointments, group sessions or schedules. Once the first service is a group service, Groups shows in the menu.

Group sessions

A group has no free times worked out from working hours: customers book only the sessions you scheduled. On the Groups page, click New group session and choose the service, who leads it, the date and time, the number of places (the service's by default) and, when the service needs a room, the room (Automatic or a particular one).

• A group session needs no working hours: an evening group at 19:00 is fine even when its leader usually works until 17:00.
• During its leader's time off or when the business is closed it saves only with Save anyway.
• It takes its leader's time, with the buffer after, like an ordinary appointment: they have no other appointments then. Other appointments are offered before and after the group.
• A session takes its duration, buffer and price from the service when it is made, and keeps them when you move it.

The Groups page shows the sessions of the next 8 weeks by day, with their leader, room, places taken (e.g. "7/12 places") and how many people are waiting. Everyone with access to the admin sees every group session, as with the calendar.

Schedules

A group that meets every week at the same time doesn't need entering session by session. On the Groups page, click Schedules, then New schedule, and choose the service, who leads it, the days of the week, the time, the number of places and the date it starts. With Has a last date the schedule ends that day; without it, it goes on by itself.

A schedule makes its sessions as many days ahead as Furthest ahead says (Settings → Opening appointments), and adds the next one every day. When you open appointments manually, only the sessions up to the date they are open until can be booked online.

• On a date when its leader has time off, the business is closed, or the time or the room is taken, no session is made. The schedule says so, with the dates ("2 sessions not made"). If you want a session that day anyway, add it as a New group session.
• A session it made is a session of its own from then on, marked From a schedule: you can move it, change its number of places or cancel it. The schedule doesn't make a cancelled session again.

A change to a schedule (days, time, leader, number of places, last date) applies to its upcoming sessions:

• sessions without participants follow the change: the ones that no longer fit are deleted, and new ones are made;
• sessions with participants stay as they were, and the schedule lists them with links, so you move or cancel them one by one, with a notice to the participants;
• a lower number of places applies to the sessions it fits, as a session never has fewer places than are taken.

When you delete a schedule, its upcoming sessions without participants are deleted, and those with participants stay as sessions of their own. Past sessions stay. Only the owner edits schedules.

On the booking page

• A group service is marked, e.g. "Group · up to 12 people", and is chosen on its own.
• The step choosing a staff member is skipped: the leader is shown with each session.
• The calendar shows the days with group sessions. A day lists its sessions, e.g. "18:00–19:00 · Ana · 3 places left", and a full session says Full. A day whose sessions are all full is full.
• When Most people per booking is more than 1, the customer chooses the Number of people, up to the places free. The price is the price per person times the number of people.
• The same rules apply as for other appointments: Book online at the latest, the leader's Appointments open until and booking protection.
• If someone takes the last places meanwhile, the customer goes back to choosing a session, and what they entered stays.

A participant has a booking like any other: a confirmation, a reminder, a calendar event and a link to My appointment. When they booked for several people, the number of people is shown everywhere too. On My appointment they can cancel up to the cancellation deadline, and Change appointment offers other sessions of the same service with enough places, by the rules for changing an appointment (with another leader only with Another person may be chosen when changing). The number of people and the price stay the same.

The waiting list of a group

While the waiting list is on, a full group session offers Waiting list on the booking page. The customer chooses the number of people, enters their name, email and phone, and gives consent. The phone is required, because a booking comes of the entry by itself. Joining passes the same protection as a booking: a blocked contact can't join, and the code from the email is asked for as when booking. After joining, the customer sees their number on the list and until when a place comes to them by itself.

A place becomes free when a participant cancels, moves to another session, or you raise the number of places. Then:

• Up to the cancellation deadline the place goes by itself to the first person on the list it suits, in the order they joined. An entry for two people waits for two free places, and an entry after it for one person may go first meanwhile. That person is booked into the session at once and gets the email "You got a place", with a link to My appointment and a calendar event. The deadline is there so nobody gets a session they can no longer get out of themselves.
• After the deadline the place is free for everyone. The first 5 on the list it suits get a notice, and whoever books first gets the place. Nobody hears twice about the same time of a session.

If an entry no longer passes the protection, e.g. because you blocked the contact meanwhile, it closes without an email.

An entry also closes when the person books the same session themselves, when the session starts, when you cancel the group session (everyone on its list gets a short email), when they leave through the link in an email, or when you remove it. One email address can have at most 3 active entries, as on the list for days.

In the admin, the list is on the group session's page, in order, with the number of people. Add to the group gives the places at once, also after the deadline when there are enough, with the email "You got a place". Remove deletes the entry. The Waiting list menu has a Group sessions tab with the sessions someone is waiting for.

A group session in the admin

A group session's page opens from the Groups list, from the calendar and from the Today page. On it you find:

• Participants, with their number of people and contact. Clicking a participant opens their appointment, with cancelling, notes and history. A participant's time and leader are always the group session's.
• Add a participant: found by phone, as for an appointment, for at most as many people as places are free. With Send a confirmation by email they get a confirmation. The admin isn't bound by deadlines, only by the number of places.
• Came and No-show for every participant, with Undo for a wrong click. Restore brings a cancelled participant back while the session isn't cancelled and has enough places.

Before the session starts, the owner and the front desk can also:

• move it in Time, leader and room: the participants move with it, and with Email the participants they get an email about the change. Changing only the room is not a move;
• change its number of Places, never below those taken. New places go to the waiting list;
• click Cancel group session and choose a reason, with an optional message: every participant gets an email about the cancellation, the waiting list closes, and the leader is free for other appointments at that time again.

In the calendar, a group session is one block in its leader's column, with a dashed edge, e.g. "Back exercises · 7/12", also when it is empty. Clicking it opens the participants with their attendance, the waiting list and a link to the session's page. On the Today page a group session is one row, with its places taken.

In Cancel a day a group session is one row: cancel it with all its participants, or hand it over to a colleague who is free then and leads that service.

The list of participants

Nobody at the business gets an email about every booking or cancellation in a group. Instead, each group session sends one list of participants when online booking for it closes (Book online at the latest), at the latest an hour before it starts. The list comes even when nobody has booked.

It goes to the same people as booking notices: the leader with My appointments, the owner and the front desk with All appointments, and the business's address when the leader has no login of their own. When you move a session, the list comes again, for the new time.

In the numbers

A participant counts as an appointment: in the number of appointments, in revenue (the price per person times the number of people), on the customer's card and in the export. Analytics also has a Group sessions block:

• Held: finished sessions with at least one participant, and how many had nobody;
• Fill rate: the places taken out of the places of all finished sessions;
• From the waiting list: places the waiting list gave out by itself.

In utilization, a group session with participants counts once, as its leader's time.

Who may do what

Action	Owner	Front desk	Staff
A group service: how it is booked, places, price	yes	no	no
Schedules	yes	no	no
New group session, moving it, its places, cancelling it	yes	yes	no
Participants: adding, attendance, cancelling	everyone's	everyone's	in their own groups
A group's waiting list: Add to the group and Remove	yes	yes	in their own groups

Staff members cancel their own group sessions through Cancel a day, when they are allowed to.

Good to know

• There are no passes for several visits, memberships or online payment: each visit is a booking of its own.
• A customer books one group session, not the whole schedule.
• The waiting list of a group service is only for a full session. It has no entries for days or for new appointments.
• A staff member or a service with group sessions or schedules is only switched off when you delete them, as with appointments in the history.