This guide is for course providers who want to decide who can book a course. Registration Rules can check each participant’s details, organisation or earlier training before a booking is placed. For example, accept only people from a postcode area, require a previous course, or limit places from one organisation on a date.
A rule set is a reusable collection of checks. Create it once in Settings, then select it on each course that needs it. Nothing is restricted until you select a set containing an enabled rule. Every enabled rule in that set must pass.
Choose the Right Booking or Access Control
Control | Use it for |
Registration Rules | Checking who is eligible to book. A course can use one rule set, with several rules inside it. |
Stopping a person who already holds a current place from booking again. This is a separate choice on every plan. | |
Having your team review a booking or application. This does not replace automatic eligibility checks. | |
Requiring the relevant membership. Registration Rules do not grant a membership. | |
Choosing when lessons open and which lessons an enrolled learner must finish. A lesson rule does not decide who can book. |
Plans, Team Roles and Course Types for Registration Rules
Teams and Custom & Enterprise include Registration Rules. A System Admin creates, edits, duplicates and archives rule sets. A Course Owner can select an existing set on a course they can edit. A Facilitator cannot edit the course or manage rule sets. See Compare Cademy Plans and Prices.
Use rules on On set dates, Blended course and On-demand online course. They are not applied to On-request courses. On-demand courses have no dates, so the limit on people from one organisation does not apply there. A rule set is chosen for the whole course, not separately for each date.
Create a Registration Rule Set
Sign in at admin.cademy.io with a System Admin account. Open Settings, then Registration Rules.
Select New Rule Set. A separate editor opens. Under Details, enter a recognisable Name, such as Local Training Eligibility.
Under Rules, select Add Rule. Enter a Rule Name your team will recognise in warnings.
Under This Rule, choose Only Allows Matches or Blocks Matches, then add the conditions described below.
Enter Message for Bookers. Say why that participant cannot book and what they can do next. This is the refusal message, not the public course-page label.
Check that the rule is enabled. Select Save Rule Set, then reopen it to check the saved rules.
Creating the set does not put it on a course. Follow Choose a Rule Set for a Course below when it is ready.
Only Allows Matches and Blocks Matches in Registration Rules
Only Allows Matches: a participant must match the conditions to book. For example, allow only addresses whose postcode starts with EH.
Blocks Matches: a participant who matches is refused. For example, block the sixth person from the same organisation when your limit is five.
An unknown answer is not a match. This means a participant with no saved postcode fails the example Only Allows Matches rule. A Blocks Matches rule does not block someone merely because the answer is missing, unless its own conditions match that missing-answer state. Check the form warning and test both cases.
Combine Registration Rule Conditions With And, Or and Groups
Select Add Condition, open Select Field…, choose a field, then set its comparison and value. With several conditions, choose And when all must match, or Or when any can match. Add Group keeps a separate set of conditions together.
These choices combine conditions inside one rule. Separate enabled rules must all pass. For example, an address rule and a prerequisite rule in the same set both apply; putting them on separate cards does not make them alternatives.
Registration Rule Conditions: Contact, Address, Email and Organisation
The field picker offers these groups in order:
Contact: supported contact fields and Contact Tag. Use a saved State or Region dropdown, for example, when that answer decides eligibility.
Address: Address City, Address State / Region, Address Postcode and Address Country. These read the built-in address. A separate custom address field only offers empty or not-empty checks.
Email: Email Domain and Uses a Free Email Address. Enter a domain without @, for example harbourtraining.example. A free-email check identifies known free-email providers; it is not proof of employment.
Organisation: Organisation and Organisation Tag. These use the participant’s organisation, falling back to the booking organisation where applicable. A company name typed on a form and a custom dropdown called Company are different field types.
History: Has Completed Course, explained below.
This Date: People From the Same Organisation, explained below.
Use the comparisons offered for the field. For Address Postcode, the prefix comparison ignores spaces. A prefix such as EH1 also matches EH10, so use more characters when you need a narrower area.
Example: Accept Only Participants From a Postcode Area
In the rule set, add a rule called EH postcodes.
Choose Only Allows Matches.
Add the Address Postcode condition. Choose starts with and enter EH.
Set Message for Bookers to This course is for participants with an EH postcode.
Save the rule set. Make sure the participant’s form collects their address when you need a new answer, then select the set on the course.
The same approach works with a contact field, email domain, selected organisation or tag. Tags must be on the relevant contact or organisation. A tag saved only on an order or registration is not a Contact Tag. See Add Tags to Contacts and Bookings and Manage Company Records.
Require Completion of an Earlier Course
Add a rule and choose Only Allows Matches.
Add the Has Completed Course condition and select the earlier course.
Leave the month limit empty to accept a completion from any time, or enter a whole number of months for a recent completion.
Write a refusal message that names the required training, then save.
For a refresher, for example, require First Aid at Work completed within the last 36 months. Selecting several courses accepts completion of any one of them. To require two different courses, use separate conditions joined with And or separate enabled rules.
Cademy checks the participant’s completion records in your account. Earlier training is not proved by a certificate file or by the booker having completed the course. Imported completion records with no completion date count only when the rule has no time limit. See Check Whether a Learner Has Completed a Course.
Limit People From One Organisation on a Course Date
Add a rule and choose Blocks Matches.
Add People From the Same Organisation, choose is more than and enter 5 for a limit of five.
Enter a message explaining the organisation limit, then save.
The count includes the participant being checked, earlier people in the same basket, confirmed bookings and unpaid orders on that date. The sixth person is refused; the fifth is allowed if the other rules pass. Unnamed places on an order can count towards its organisation too. People with no organisation are not counted. A block and its sessions share the organisation count.
This is separate from the date’s overall capacity. It is not a limit per organisation across every course or every date. An on-demand course has no date to count, so this condition does not restrict its bookings.
Show a Rule Notice on the Course Page or at Checkout
Open the rule in its rule set.
Under Visibility, select Show on the course page, Show at checkout, or both.
Enter the public Label and optional Description. The description is shown when someone points at the label.
Select Save Rule Set. Check the public page and checkout of a course using it.
For the postcode example, use EH postcode area as the label. These boxes advertise the rule; they do not switch enforcement on or off. An enabled rule still applies when neither public notice is selected. A disabled rule does not apply.
Choose a Rule Set for a Course
In Admin, open Courses and select the course.
Select Edit Course, then Settings and Booking Options.
In Registration Rules & Prerequisites, choose the set under Registration Rules. None means this course has no selected set.
Read the rule summaries and any missing-form-field warning. The separate Duplicate Registrations choice is in this card too.
Review any other unsaved changes, select Save and check for Course saved. Reopen the page to check the selected set.
A System Admin can follow Manage Registration Rules to edit the selected set. Editing a shared set affects new bookings on every course using it. On the set’s page, Used On shows those courses. Use Duplicate to make a separate set when another course needs different rules.
Collect the Contact Answers Needed by Your Registration Rules
Rules read supported contact fields and built-in facts, rather than course-specific Registration field answers. A saved contact answer can satisfy a rule without being asked again. A new participant with no saved answer needs a suitable way to provide it.
The course card warns when participant forms do not ask for a field used in the enabled rules. Read the warning: it distinguishes people who will be refused, those who could be refused depending on the other conditions, and missing answers that a block rule will not stop.
For an editable form, follow Edit Form and add the relevant contact field.
The Cademy Default Form cannot be edited. Follow Choose Form and select a suitable form in Forms & Participants.
Check the forms for the booker and guests, save the relevant changes and test a new participant with no saved answer.
See Create a Checkout Form, Create Custom Contact Fields and Ask Course-Specific Booking Questions for the different field types.
What Bookers See When a Participant Does Not Meet a Rule
At checkout, Cademy checks each participant on Your Details before payment. A failed rule shows its message against the affected person. On a group order, one participant qualifying does not make the others eligible. The booker can correct an incorrect answer or remove that participant before continuing.
Cademy checks again when the order is created. If the situation changed, such as another booking taking the last allowed organisation place, checkout shows Someone in this order can’t book this date and Edit Basket. The booker reviews the people or places and tries again; this is a rule refusal, not proof that a payment succeeded.
After booking, the booker is also checked when adding or inviting someone, replacing a participant or taking a place themselves. An email-only invitation uses saved details; a missing answer can prevent the invitation. Adding the person with their details can supply missing information, but it does not override a failed prerequisite or organisation limit.
When the booker edits the same participant, Cademy refuses newly failed rules; it does not reject an unrelated correction just because that person already failed a rule before the edit. A participant’s own Edit Your Details and My Profile updates do not rerun booking eligibility. See Manage the People on a Course You Booked, Book a Course for Yourself or Other People and Let Learners Update Their Details After Booking.
Handle a Registration Rule Warning in Admin
Staff creating an order, adding or replacing a participant, moving a person onto a ruled course or date, or accepting a request can see Not Allowed By Registration Rules. The warning lists the people and rules that failed.
Go Back: return to review the person, answers or intended course without applying the blocked action.
Create Anyway: explicitly override the warning and continue the action. Use this only when you intend to admit that person.
This override does not change the rule set or remove other payment, role or capacity restrictions. Check the saved order or registration after the action. Bookers do not have this override.
Follow the procedure for your task: Create an Order, Add a Participant Without an Order, Change an Existing Order, Replace the Person Attending, Move or Transfer a Participant or Accept or Decline a Request.
Edit, Disable, Duplicate or Archive Registration Rules
Open Settings → Registration Rules and select the set. Use a rule’s enabled switch to pause it. Its actions let you move, duplicate or delete the rule; deleting it is applied when you save the set. Review the remaining enabled rules before selecting Save Rule Set.
Use the set’s Duplicate action to create an independent copy. Selecting that copy on a course is a separate step. Existing courses keep their current set.
To stop using an entire set, choose Archive…. The confirmation names the courses that will have no registration rules after archiving. Confirm with Archive Rule Set only when you intend to remove it from every linked course. Archived sets remain viewable but cannot be edited. To remove a set from just one course, choose None on that course and save instead.
Registration Rule Limits and Existing Bookings
Existing registrations: saving, changing or disabling a rule does not cancel or recheck people already registered.
Waitlists: joining or receiving an automatic waitlist email does not establish eligibility. The later checkout is checked. A staff conversion can show the Admin warning. See Set Up and Manage a Course Waitlist and Automatic Waitlist Emails.
Imports: Registration Rules do not validate imported orders or registrations. Check eligibility separately before importing. See Import Bookings and Import Registrations.
Learner rescheduling: moving an existing place through the learner’s rescheduling flow does not rerun Registration Rules. A staff move or a different person taking the place is a separate checked action.
External booking websites: a purchase completed elsewhere does not pass through Cademy’s checkout checks. See Send Customers to an External Booking Website.
Plan downgrade: rules already selected on a course keep applying after moving off Teams or Custom & Enterprise. Creating, editing or selecting rule sets still needs an eligible plan.
Course type changes: changing to On-request clears the selected set. Changing to on-demand means date organisation limits no longer apply. Recheck the saved settings; see Change a Course Type.
Test Registration Rules Before Opening Bookings
Use test people and course dates you control. Make a public checkout with one participant who matches and one who does not. Check the refusal message and then correct the details to confirm the allowed case. For prerequisites, use the participant’s own completed training. For organisation limits, include existing bookings and several people in the same basket.
Creating a place in Admin with Create Anyway does not prove that the same person can book at public checkout. Preview as Student previews lesson content; it does not test registration eligibility. Test bookings create real records and can send emails. Follow Test a Course Before Launch for the right test and cleanup route.
Use Booking Details for Discounts Without Changing Eligibility
Discounts can use supported contact and address fields, email and organisation conditions on every plan. They check the booker for the whole booking. Registration Rules check the participants. A discount is not permission to book, and eligibility is not a promise of a discount.
Discount criteria do not offer Has Completed Course or People From the Same Organisation. Set the price reduction in Create a Discount or Promo Code. For a course’s wider booking setup, see Create a Course on Set Dates.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does a participant with the right details still fail a registration rule?
Check every enabled rule in the selected set. Check whether its conditions use And or Or, whether the details belong to the participant rather than the booker, and whether a required value is missing. For a prerequisite, check that the participant’s own completion is recorded on the selected course and falls within any month limit.
Can I set different registration rules for dates of the same course?
No. The set is chosen for the whole course. A per-date organisation limit counts people on the date being booked, but it is still configured in the course’s set.
Can I use a course-specific Registration field to decide who can book?
No. Use a supported contact field or built-in fact in Registration Rules. The participant’s saved contact answer or eligible checkout answer supplies that fact.
Does hiding the public rule label let people book?
No. Visibility controls the notice. An enabled rule in the selected set is still checked.
Will adding a stricter rule remove people already booked?
No. Existing registrations are not cancelled or rechecked when the rule is saved. Review any individual cases separately; changing a rule is not a cancellation action.
What should I do if a customer cannot get past the booking rule message?
Check the selected set, the affected participant’s relevant details and the form warning. Ask for the course/date and exact message if you need to investigate. Correct inaccurate data; do not remove the rule or change an answer merely to bypass a genuine eligibility restriction. See Why Can’t Customers Book My Course or Date?