There are a few different ways to take bookings in Cademy. You can handle bookings instantly, individually approve/decline each booking that comes through, or have the customer place a request that will be turned into a booking only after all the details have been agreed upon.

An instant booking is the default option set on all new courses. As the name implies, the booking is confirmed and money charged as soon as the customer completes the payment. The customer will be sent the booking confirmation email, and you won't have to take any action whatsoever on the booking.

If you prefer manually approving every booking that comes through, go into your course, click on the ✏️ Edit icon at the top, click into the Settings tab at the top and then click on the Booking Options section. Under Accept bookings, select the Manually card option. Save your course.

With the course set to handle bookings manually, when the customer places the booking and pays, the money isn't actually taken from their bank account. Instead, the money is marked as "pending" so the customer cannot use it for other purchases. Instead of the standard confirmation email on the back of the booking, the customer will receive a confirmation email that tells them that their booking is being processed and that they'll be getting a confirmation email shortly.

You will be sent a notification email that will prompt you to approve/decline the booking within 72 hours. If action is not taken within 72 hours, the pending money will be released back into the customer's account. Here's what the notification email will look like:

Bookings that require approval will have an Awaiting Approval badge in the bookings list.

Once you click to view a booking that requires approval, you will see buttons to Approve or Decline the booking.

From the booking side sheet you can:

The money will be taken from the customers' accounts and transferred to you.

The payment the customer made will be released back into their account and they will be able to use that money straight away. No transaction fees will be incurred for anyone.

If the date the customer booked no longer works for you, you can easily move the booking to another date. Please note that you'd need to agree on the move with the customer and you'll still need to approve/reject the booking once you're done.

What happens if you want to capture an enquiry from a customer, but you're not necessarily ready to take payment from them? Requests have been designed to fill in this gap.

Cademy offers you multiple practical options to receive requests depending on your scenario and needs, like group requests, alternative date requests or via applications.

When are requests used?

If you want to run a more controlled admissions process for your courses, you can set your course to handle bookings as applications.

To get started, go into your course, click on the ✏️ Edit Course at the top, click into the Settings tab and then click on the Booking Options section and select "Via Application".

Applications are the best and safest way to go when you want to ensure that the customer/student is suitable for the course you provide before booking or making any payment.

When a customer looks at a course that requires an application, they will see the Apply button instead of Book.

They will complete the Form you've set on your course and get a confirmation message once they submit it. They will not be asked to make a payment at this stage.

The customer/student will get a confirmation email automatically. As with all emails Cademy sends, if the student replies, you / course owner will get a notification email and the messages will go straight to the Inbox section in the Cademy admin.

You or the course owner will get a notification email as well to alert you of the new application.

In the email, you will have an option to "View & Handle" the application, which will open the application in your Cademy inbox:

In the inbox, you will be able to see the full details entered by the student at the point when they applied. You can message them via the inbox, and see their replies come back in the same thread. What's more, every application is treated as a "Request" in Cademy. This means that you can handle it as any other request and Accept or Decline it. If you accept the application, the student will be sent an email requesting the payment for the course, thus completing their enrolment. Requests are covered in more detail later in this article.

Alternative date requests are a great way to allow customers to request a date that works for them, if none of the ones you published are suitable. Additionally, if your course has no upcoming dates, getting requests can be a great way to capture enquiries from interested students.

To activate the alternative date requests option, go into your course, click on ✏️ Edit Course at the top, click into the Settings tab and then click on the Booking Options section and select 'Allow alternative date requests' under the Date requests menu.

Regardless of what options you selected above under the Accept bookings section, whether it's Instantly/Manually or Via Application, Cademy doesn't capture any payment details if customers requests an alternative date or group booking.

When customers look at a course, they will see the Request a date button to the right under the dates options.

The request flow looks a little different from the booking one. Depending on what type of course it is and which options you've configured, they might be prompted to enter their preferred duration and location for the course. At the very minimum, customers will be prompted to select at least 1 date which suits them, but they can select up to 3. Customers can also choose to enter a message for you, after which they will be prompted to complete the booking form configured on your course.

The biggest difference comes once they proceed to the next step. Unlike a booking, requests don't capture any payment details at this stage. The user is informed of this fact before they proceed.

When the user goes next, they will see a confirmation screen and a prompt to check their email.

At this point, the customer will be emailed a short confirmation email, and you will also get an email with all the details of the request.

Some customers might want to book as a group. It can be because of a special occasion and they are looking for a more bespoke treatment or because it's easier to arrange the logistics and payment on their side if it's all booked at once. For such scenarios, Group Requests are the perfect solution.

To activate your group request option, go into your course, click on the ✏️ Edit Course at the top, click into the Settings tab and then click on the Booking Options section and select Allow group requests under the Group Request menu.

From the customer's side, they will see the option for group bookings on your course page. When they click on the button, they will be prompted to select the dates that work for them and fill out the form set on your course, along with an extra message about their needs.

Cademy doesn't request or capture any payment details at the booking/application/request stage. Payment is made later, once you accept the request and create the booking via the Admin.

Once the request is submitted, the customer will receive an automatic confirmation email.

This option is perfect for those educators who do not provide regular courses but always arrange dates individually with the customers.

To get started, go to Cademy Admin Dashboard, create a course, and select On-Request.

When customers look at a course that takes requests instead of bookings, they will see the call to action button reflect that.

In addition to the standard price offers, customers can select a preferred date, add an extra duration for the additional cost and suggest a location.

Whether this is an alternative date request, group booking, or application - handling requests work very similarly from the Admin side.

After a request is submitted, you will get an email automatically from where you have two options:

First, click on View & Handle Request, which will redirect you to the Cademy's Inbox from where you will manage the request.

Second, you can reply to this email and arrange the details with the customers. Cademy will sync the thread of this email conversation with Cademy's Inbox.

Every time a request was made for a specific course, it appears above the existing bookings. If you click on them, the request will redirect to the inbox from where you can handle it.

The inbox is where all your requests, enquiries and interactions with customers will be collected.

The inbox will give you the option to accept, arrange or cancel requests/bookings.

To accept a request, you need to go to your inbox and within the conversation relating to the request, you will see the "Accept" and "Decline" options at the top of the conversation. If you click "Accept" a dialog will appear allowing you to confirm the details of the booking prior to creating it. You can choose one of the options provided by the customer when the request was created, or if you agreed for a different date or price, you can enter the agreed upon details and confirm to create the booking & request the payment.

You can override the fee charged for any booking by entering any amount into the "Total cost" field after you click on Review & Accept.

If the date or dates proposed by the customer are unavailable, you can contact the customer to discuss a mutually suitable date.

You can communicate with the customer via the Cademy inbox directly rather than emails. If the customer is still on Cademy when you send your message, they will see a notification pop up and they will be able to jump into the conversation directly inside Cademy. You can use the Cademy instant messenger to communicate with the customer in real time. If any message is unseen by either party for more than 5 minutes, the system will automatically send the same message via email.

If you decline a request or application, the system will automatically email the customer. Example of application declined email:

When you accept a request or application, Cademy automatically sends the customer a confirmation email with a secure payment link.

The email will include a link to the invoice, which can be downloaded in a PDF format. When the customer clicks on the "Pay Now" , a page will open with a credit card input allowing the customer to complete the payment quickly and securely.

You can manually create bookings in Cademy by going into any of your courses and clicking on the + New Booking button at the right.

To create a new booking you will have the following options:

To find out more about "Manually creating bookings/orders & requesting payment", please click here.

If you have many bookings on your course, then booking filters can come in very handy:

For example, you can create a filter for bookings with awaiting payment status so you could follow up quickly with an email. You can also sort and filter by date, the amount paid, offers selected, or if they have any add-ons purchased in addition to the main ticket.

🤔 Questions?

If you have questions or feedback please message us through the Live Chat at the bottom right or via email at support@cademy.io. We are always happy to hear from you.