This guide is for course providers creating an order in the Admin Dashboard on a customer’s behalf. You can record an order that is already paid, leave it to be paid, or request payment when you create it.
The Order Contact is the person the order belongs to. Billed To identifies the individual or organisation responsible for the invoice. A participant is someone attending the course; this can be a different person.
Before you start
You need the System Admin role: the Orders page, the Orders tab and Create Order button on a course, and contact pages are shown only to System Admins. You also need the customer’s details and the course they are booking. Check the course date, price and available spaces. Invoice and manual-payment features depend on your plan. Deposits and monthly instalments require the corresponding payment-plan feature and an available card or PayPal payment method for the order.
Creating an order is not the same as collecting money. Do not mark an order as paid unless you have received its payment.
To add someone to a course without creating an order, use New Registration instead. See Add Someone to a Course Without Creating an Order.
Choose the customer and billing details
In the Admin Dashboard, open Orders and select New Order. You can also start from a course: select New Order on its Orders tab or, if the course has an Overview tab, Create Order on that tab. Or open a contact and select Add to Course.
Select the Order Contact. Search for and select an existing contact, or choose Create new contact... and enter their details. The rest of the form becomes available after a contact is selected. If you started from a contact, check the person already selected.
Under Billed To, choose Individual or Organisation. For an organisation, select the organisation that should be billed. If it does not exist yet, clear the search in the organisation picker and select Create Organisation. Enter its details in New Organisation and select Create Organisation; the new organisation is then selected for this order.
Select Edit Billing Details to check the billing name, email, address and any VAT or purchase-order details. Check the initial invoice due date and any invoice note, then select Save Billing Details to return to the order.
Check who is being billed before creating the order. The individual-versus-organisation billing identity is fixed at creation; editing billing details later is not a way to transfer that identity.
Add the courses, places and prices
Select the course and, for a scheduled course, the course date. If you start from a course, check the prefilled selection. Choose or create a course date where that option is available.
Choose the offer and quantity, then check the unit price. An offer is the booking option or ticket being sold.
Add the participant details for the places you are booking. An offer with more than 20 participants creates unnamed places; add the participant names afterwards.
Use Add Line Item for another offer, an add-on or a custom charge. Use Add Course if this order needs another course in the same currency.
Use Add Discount if required. Check every quantity and price, tax treatment and the final total. A capacity warning does not prevent creation: proceeding can put the course date over capacity. Check that you intend to accept those extra places.
Choose how the order will be paid
Choose Paid if you have already received the payment outside this order-creation flow. Choose To be paid if money is still due.
For an unpaid order, select Send payment request if you want Cademy to send the initial invoice or first-payment request. When the payment-plan controls are available, they appear in this order:
Full Amount: request the outstanding amount without a deposit or monthly schedule.
Deposit: set Deposit Rate and Balance Due. Use a whole-number percentage from 1 to 95 and a balance date of tomorrow or later. Check the deposit and remaining balance shown. See Offer and Manage Deposits.
Instalments: choose Number of Monthly Payments, from 2 to 12. Check the first amount and all later dates and amounts. See Offer and Manage Monthly Instalments.
You cannot apply Customer Credit while creating a deposit or instalment order. Do not treat applying credit later as a guaranteed way to collect the first payment or confirm course access. Read how customer credit works.
For eligible full-amount, pay-later orders, Customer Credit can apply available credit belonging to the billed customer in the order’s currency. It needs an invoice issued at creation. Check the reduction and remaining amount before continuing.
If Invoicing offers One Invoice or One Per Course Date, check the invoice schedule. This choice depends on the applicable invoice settings. Deposit and instalment orders use one invoice for the full order total.
Check Send confirmation email where it is available. With a payment request, the form explains that confirmation follows payment completion. For an order with no charge, review the confirmation option instead of requesting payment.
Create the order and check the result
Review the order contact, billed customer, courses, places, total, invoice schedule and email options.
Select the final button at the foot of the form. Its label depends on what you chose; see What each final button does below.
After creation succeeds, check the saved order and its Invoices & Payments section. Confirm that the amounts and payment status match what you intended. An unpaid order has not collected money just because it was created.
The first successful deposit or instalment payment can allow an approved order to proceed without waiting for the full balance. The order’s course-access conditions still apply; check its saved status rather than assuming that sending a request confirms a place.
If creation reports an error, check whether an order was saved before trying again. This helps avoid duplicate orders.
What each final button does
The form shows one of six final buttons. Whichever one you select, Cademy takes no payment when the order is created, and the order does not wait for approval, even when the course asks for approval at checkout.
Create Free Order is shown when the order total is zero, including after a discount. The order is saved as paid and no payment request is sent. The customer gets the confirmation email if the confirmation email option is on.
Create Paid Order is shown when you chose Paid. The order is saved as paid and no payment request is sent. The customer gets the confirmation email if Send confirmation email is on.
Create Order is shown when you chose To be paid and left Send payment request off. The order is saved unpaid and Cademy does not email a payment request. The customer gets the confirmation email when the order is created if Send confirmation email is on.
Create Order & Send Invoice is shown when Send payment request is on and you have not chosen Deposit or Instalments. The order is saved unpaid and Cademy emails the payment request to the Order Contact, with a copy to the billing email if the billing details have one. The subject of this email starts “Payment required”. It has a Get Invoice button and, when automatic payment links are enabled and an online payment method is enabled, a Pay Now button.
Create Order & Request Deposit is shown when you chose Deposit. The order gets one invoice for the full total, due on the balance date, and Cademy creates a payment request for the deposit. The payment request email also shows Deposit due now and Remaining balance due by, and its Pay Now button, shown when automatic payment links are enabled and an online payment method is enabled, opens the request for the deposit. Cademy does not send the Deposit received and Payment received emails for an order you create; those are sent for orders placed at checkout. See Offer and Manage Deposits.
Create Order & Request First Payment is shown when you chose Instalments. The order gets one invoice for the full total and Cademy creates a payment request for the first monthly payment. The payment request email also shows the number of monthly payments, the first amount due now and the date the final payment is due by, and its Pay Now button, shown when automatic payment links are enabled and an online payment method is enabled, opens the request for the first payment. See Offer and Manage Monthly Instalments.
Whether the customer can open online lessons before an unpaid order is paid depends on two settings: Allow course access before manual payment is marked paid for an order created with Create Order, and Allow Course Access Before Invoice Is Paid for an order created with Create Order & Send Invoice.
If the first-payment request was not created
If Cademy warns that the first-payment request was not created, the order has already been saved, but the first-payment link was not created. Its payment email may link to the full invoice instead. Do not create the order again.
Open the saved order and check its invoice, any payments already received and the current amount due.
In Invoices & Payments, select Request Payment on the invoice and choose a custom amount matching the intended first payment, without exceeding the current amount due.
Copy and share the correct link, and explain to the customer which link and amount to use.
See Request a Payment or Record Money Received Elsewhere for the request controls. If the invoice is missing or the amounts do not agree, investigate the saved order before asking the customer to pay.
Request payment on an existing order
Open the order, expand Invoices & Payments and select Request Payment on the invoice. This action copies a full-balance link or creates a custom-amount link; it does not send an email automatically. Share the link yourself. See Request a Payment or Record Money Received Elsewhere for the complete procedure.
Automatic links in invoice emails and customer pages depend on Include Payment Links on Invoices, Emails and Order Pages. Staff can still deliberately share a payment link when that setting is off. The customer’s order page in their account does not show its INVOICES section, or Pay Invoice, for a manual-payment order. An order created with Create Paid Order or Create Order is a manual-payment order, and using Record Payment turns any order into one, so share the payment link yourself when one of these orders still has an amount due. See Set Up and Manage Invoices and Receipts.
Frequently asked questions
Can I add a deposit or instalment plan to an existing order?
No. Choose the plan when creating the order. A custom payment request on an existing invoice is not the same as adding a deposit or monthly schedule.
Can I create a plan even if I do not offer it at checkout?
Yes, if your account has the feature and a supported online payment method is available for the order. The checkout switches control customer checkout; the Admin order form lets you choose its own plan.
Does the invoice email always contain an online payment button?
No. Automatic payment links can be hidden in your invoice settings. Check those settings and how you want the customer to pay.