This guide is for System Admins and Course Owners who need to find out why customers cannot book a date on a course of the On set dates or Blended course type. Start in the Admin dashboard with access to the course.
A date is one scheduled session. A block groups sessions into one booking. An offer is a price option, such as General Admission or Student. Check the exact date or block the customer wants, not just the course default.
First establish whether the person wants a new booking or access to an existing booking. An existing learner needs their course access route, not another purchase. Keep intentional privacy, prices and booking limits unchanged while identifying the cause.
Work through the checks in this order. Each one names what to look at and where to change it.
The course: is it published, and what does its public page show?
The date or block: is it public, has it started, and is it sold on its own or only as part of a block?
Places: is there room for the number of places requested, in the block and in every session?
Offers: is the offer the customer needs on that date, and is it inside its sale window?
The course’s booking settings: an external booking website, a membership requirement, restricted access, or no payment method the customer can use.
These are the checks this guide covers. If none of them explains the problem, use the last section to contact Cademy Support.
Start with the course and its public page
Ask which course and date or block the customer wants, how many places they need, which page or link they used, and the exact message or button they see. Record the time and time zone if the problem depends on timing.
In the Admin dashboard, select Courses and open the course. Select Share in the course header to read its publication state.
If the course is published, close Share and select the header’s Open in new tab icon. Check whether the intended date or block is listed on the public course page. If it is missing, continue with the checks below. Keep this separate from starting a booking.
Unpublished: customers cannot open the course page or its checkout. A checkout link for one of its dates sends them to your main page instead. People who are already enrolled can still have access. Choose Public or Private in Share when the course is ready. If Cademy refuses to publish it, the reason is shown; see Publish and Share a Course. If the reason is that your email address is not confirmed, ask Cademy Support.
Public: the course is published for public viewing. The date, places and offer checks below still apply.
Private: the course is published but left out of your course listings; customers can use its direct link. Do not change an intentionally private course to Public just to troubleshoot that link.
Use the actual course link and the exact date for the checks below. Starting checkout or trying a booking is a separate action; it can create saved checkout information. To try the course as a customer would, see Test a Course Before Launch.
Open the exact date or block
Return to the course dashboard. Select View All Dates if the date list is hidden.
Find the intended date or block under Upcoming Dates or Past Dates. For a session inside a block, select Expand sessions.
On that card, open the three-dot Date actions menu and select Edit. Check the date or block shown at the top of the window. Read the settings below before making changes.
When you have only been reading, close the window with the X at the top. Select Save only when you intend to change the date.
Use the top block card for a whole-block booking. Use the session card for a session sold separately. If a block spans past and future sessions, check both date tabs.
Make any change to a saved date through Date actions > Edit, as above. The date list under Edit Course > Dates opens a different, shared editor when you tick a date or select a pencil. That editor starts Visibility at Public whatever the date had, and saving writes Public to the dates being edited. A date saved as Public loses its Linked Organisation and Key Contact. See “Change several separate dates together” in Add and Edit Course Dates and Blocks before using it.
Check visibility, timing and what is sold
Under Booking, check the date’s own Visibility. A Private date is left out of the public course page and of the date list in checkout. This is different from a Private course, which can be reached by direct link.
Under Schedule, check the start, end and time zone. A date stops being offered for new bookings when it starts.
For a block that should accept late arrivals, check Bookable after the start date under Schedule on the top block. It must be on for a started block to remain offered, and the block must not have ended. The places and the other checks in this guide still apply.
For a session inside a block, check Individually bookable under Booking. When it is off, the customer needs the whole block. Do not turn it on unless you intend to sell that session separately.
A private date is not locked: anyone who has that date’s checkout link can book it, subject to the other checks in this guide. If customers should see the date on the course page, change Visibility to Public here and select Save. Making a date Public removes its Linked Organisation and Key Contact. Changing Visibility needs the Private Course Dates feature on your plan; see Offer Private Course Dates.
The top block’s time fields are worked out from its sessions and cannot be edited there. To change a date or time, or to allow bookings after a block starts, follow Add and Edit Course Dates and Blocks. For how a date’s time zone works, see Set Time Zones for Course Dates.
Check room for the requested places
Max Spaces, under Booking, is the total number of places, including booked places. Check the actual saved date’s limit and booked count. Changing a course default does not replace limits already saved on dates.
A whole-block booking needs room in the top block and in every session, including earlier sessions. A session that has a lower saved limit and is full stops the whole block, even when the top block card shows spare places.
A session sold separately must fit within its own limit and the block’s limit. Other bookings for single sessions reduce what remains.
Places, not people: an offer whose Spaces to block is 5 needs five places each time it is selected. An order holds its places before every attendee is named, including while it is awaiting payment.
A displayed 0: the editor shows 0 both for a saved limit of zero and for a session with no limit saved. A saved zero allows no places; with no limit saved, Cademy uses the block’s limit, or the course default.
To change the limit, enter the total you want in Max Spaces in the date’s editor and select Save; for a block, do the same on every session that needs it. The full steps, with a worked example, are in “Change places for a whole block” in Set Course Prices and Places: Defaults and Date Overrides.
Do not raise the limit merely to remove a booking message. Confirm the real number of places you can provide. Admins can add an order or a registration to a full date, so an admin being able to add someone does not prove that a customer can book.
Check the date’s offers and their sale window
In the intended date or block’s Edit window, find Pricing. A session that is not individually bookable has no Pricing section; check its block’s price instead.
If you see one Price field, select Custom Offers & Add-ons to show the offer list. Select the offer the customer needs.
Select More Options if the sale fields are not already visible, then read Available from (optional) and Available until (optional). Check both date and time. These fields use your browser’s local time zone, which can differ from the schedule’s time zone.
After reading an offer, select Cancel to return to the date editor without updating the offer.
An offer outside its sale window cannot be bought. The note under each field says the offer will be hidden, but in checkout it stays listed: it shows Sales start on or Sales ended on with its date, and it cannot be added. Separately, a date with its own offer list is left off the public course page once every offer in that list has ended.
A date with its own offer list keeps that list. It does not receive an offer you add to the course later, and a changed course price does not replace the date’s own price. Check the date’s saved offers before changing the course default.
To correct an offer, change it in this window, select Update Price, then select Save in the date editor: Update Price alone does not save the date. Reopen the same date to check the saved values. For every offer setting, see Create Price Offers and Add-ons; for a date’s own prices, see “Change one saved date’s price or places” in Set Course Prices and Places: Defaults and Date Overrides.
Check the course’s booking settings
Some settings apply to every date of the course. To read them, select Edit Course on the course, then Settings. Leave without changing anything unless you intend to: moving between sections of the course editor attempts to save unsaved edits.
Booking Options > External Bookings: when this is set to an external website, booking buttons open that website in a new tab instead of Cademy checkout, and a booking problem there is checked on that website. See Send Customers to an External Booking Website for which buttons this applies to.
Booking Options > Accept bookings: with Via Application, the button says Apply and the customer sends an application instead of booking. With Manually, Cademy delays collecting the payment until you approve the booking.
Memberships: this card appears when your account has memberships. If a membership gives this course the Members only access benefit, the course page tells customers “Subscribe before you can book:” or “You need a membership to book this course.” To add or remove the course, see Create Memberships and Manage Subscribers.
Payments > Payment Methods: for a booking with a price, checkout offers only the payment methods that are switched on for your account and ticked here for this course. PayPal and Klarna are not offered for a course priced in MYR or ZAR. If nothing is left, the customer has no way to pay. A free booking needs no payment method. To set up payments, see Connect and Manage Stripe for Customer Payments.
Advanced Settings > Restrict access to this course: this switch appears only on some accounts. When it is on, only a logged-in person who has been given permission can start checkout. If it is on and you did not expect it, contact Cademy Support.
Check what the message or button means
Join Waitlist appears, when the waitlist is on, if the public page has no bookable dates or if none of its listed dates has places left. It also appears on a single date that has no places left. It does not show how many people are booked. See Manage Course Waitlists.
Sold Out appears in the same cases when the waitlist is off and at least one date is listed. No upcoming dates appears when no date is listed and the course has no waitlist or request button.
Sales start on or Sales ended on, in checkout, means the offer is outside its sale window.
Some dates no longer have enough spaces, at the payment step, means the places ran out before the order was created, in the date, its block or one of the block’s sessions.
The booking button can say Book, Apply or your own label. Read the surrounding date and price information, not just the button wording.
Check the checkout link
To obtain a checkout link for the intended date, return to its card on the course dashboard, open Date actions and select Copy Checkout Link. Use the top block’s card for a whole block; use a session’s card only when that session is intentionally sold separately.
That link asks checkout to select the date. It does not bypass the checks in this guide or hide every other date. A session that is not individually bookable, or a date with no places left, is dropped from the link, and the customer is shown the other dates to choose from. A date that has started and is no longer offered cannot be selected either. Copying a link and opening checkout are separate actions; do not treat a copied link as proof of a successful booking.
Help someone who has already booked
For an existing booking, use the learner’s access route instead of asking them to book again. Learner instructions are in Log In and Find Courses You Are Attending or Bookings You Made and Get Help Accessing Your Course or Lessons.
If you need to send a personal access email, start from that person’s registration:
In Courses, open the course and select the intended date or block. Open Registrants.
Tick the checkbox beside the intended person, then select Email. On the View toolbar, the button is Send Email. Check the selected recipient before writing.
Enter the Subject and message. In the message editor, use Mail Merge > Course access button to include their personal access route.
Select Preview to check the message and recipient. The preview uses a placeholder sign-in link; it does not test the learner’s real link or prove delivery.
Select Send only when you intend to send that email. If emailing is disabled, Cademy can prepare email records without delivering them. Check any warning before sending.
Use Send a Manual Email to Customers or Course Participants for the full email procedure and Personalise Emails with Mail Merge Tags for the personal fields. Keep personal access links private to their intended recipient. If the learner then reaches a page saying no booking or order was found, for example while their order is only part paid, the learner guide above explains what they can do.
If the settings do not explain the problem
Contact Cademy Support with the course link, intended date or block, exact message, time and time zone, and number of places requested. Say whether this is a new booking or access to an existing one, and which checks you completed. Avoid changing several settings together.
Do not delete and re-create a date to fix a booking problem. Cademy does not offer an undo after a date is deleted, and one session of a block is deleted at once even when people have booked the whole block. Read “Delete a date or block” in Add and Edit Course Dates and Blocks before deleting anything.
If a save fails or its result is unclear, reopen the record and check what was saved before trying again.
Frequently asked questions
Why is Join Waitlist showing when the course default has spare places?
The course default is not the selected date’s remaining places. The date can have its own limit, a full session inside its block, a visibility or timing restriction, or ended offers. Check the actual date or block and the public page before changing the limit.
The block shows spare places. Why does checkout say there are not enough spaces?
A whole-block booking needs a place in every session. If one session has a lower saved limit and is full, the booking is refused even though the top block card shows room. Check each session’s Max Spaces, including sessions that have already taken place.
Will turning on Bookable after the start date reopen an ended block?
No. The block must still be running, and its places and the other checks in this guide still apply. A full earlier session can also prevent another whole-block booking.
Can someone book a private date?
Yes. A private date is hidden from the public course page and from the date list in checkout, but anyone with that date’s checkout link can book it. The link is not tied to a named person.
Why does my session checkout link show other dates?
The link asks for a date; it does not create a list with only that date. Check that the session is individually bookable and that it has places. Use the block’s link when selling the whole block.
Why can I still see an offer after its sale window ends?
An ended offer cannot be bought, but checkout keeps it listed with Sales ended on. Seeing it does not mean it can be bought.
Customers reach checkout but cannot pay. What should I check?
Check the payment methods. Checkout offers only the methods switched on for your account and ticked for the course under Edit Course > Settings > Payments. A course that has a price also cannot be published until your account has a payment method.
Should I ask an existing learner to use the checkout link again?
No. Help them reach their existing booking through their account or a personal course access email. A checkout link starts a new booking.