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 to create orders in the Admin Dashboard. Have the customer’s details ready. If the order includes a course, check its date, price and available spaces. An order can contain courses, custom items or both. A custom item is a charge without a course or course date, such as room hire, catering or an administration fee. Custom items are available on every plan without a switch to enable them. Invoice and manual-payment features still depend on your plan. Deposits and monthly instalments require at least one course, the corresponding payment-plan feature and an available card or PayPal payment method.
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
Follow this section if the order includes a course. For an order containing only custom charges, skip these course and participant steps and continue to Add charges without a course.
Each order uses one currency. For a scheduled course, it follows the selected date’s currency; a date without its own currency follows the course. Different dates of the same course can use different currencies. An on-demand course uses its course currency.
If you see “All dates in an order must use the same currency.”, choose dates in the same currency or create separate orders. Check the currency beside the prices before creating the order. For provider settings, see Choose Currencies for Courses, Memberships and Gift Cards.
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. For an offer with more than 20 participants, the form hides its participant-detail rows. Check the saved participants afterwards and add any missing names.
Use Add Line Item within the course group for another offer or add-on. Choose Custom Offer or Add-On… to make one for that course. This makes it for this order; it does not publish a reusable checkout price. See Custom Offers made for one Admin order. Use Add Course if this order needs another course or date. Every selected date must use the same currency.
Use Add Discount if required. Discounted course spaces on an Admin-created order count towards the discount’s usage, but its usage limit does not block you from creating the order. Check the remaining uses before proceeding if you intend to stay within the limit. See Create and Apply Discounts.
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.
Add charges without a course
Use custom items for charges that do not need a course place. They appear together under Other Items, separately from the course groups. Customers cannot add these items themselves at course checkout.
Custom items do not create participants or registrations, reserve spaces or trigger course joining instructions and reminders. An order with only custom items has no course access to give.
In the new order form, after selecting the Order Contact, select Add Custom Item below the item groups.
In the row under Other Items, enter a Description, quantity and unit price. Use a clear description the customer will recognise on their invoice. The quantity must be greater than zero; the price can be zero but cannot be negative.
If your account has additional tax profiles, use the tax-profile menu on the row to choose its rate. The first choice is Default Tax Profile, followed by your saved profiles, each with its rate. Without additional profiles, there is no menu and the account default applies. Check the order’s VAT treatment and total; automatic country-based tax rules do not apply to custom items.
Select Add Custom Item again for another charge. For an order containing only custom items, check Currency above the items. It starts in your account currency and can be changed before saving. Adding a course locks the currency to its course or date. The saved order’s currency cannot be changed.
Check the quantities, prices and total before choosing payment. Discounts reduce eligible course items only. Custom items keep their full price, even when a discount makes the course free.
For example, room hire at quantity 1 and £300, plus catering at quantity 20 and £6.50, gives £430 before tax. If both use a 20% profile with tax added to the price and there are no other charges or credits, the invoice total is £516. This is a fictional example, not a tested customer order.
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.
An order containing only custom items does not offer Deposit or Instalments. Choose whether it is already paid or still to be paid, and request the invoice payment when needed. An order with a course and custom items can use an eligible payment plan; its total includes those custom charges.
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.
When creating an order with a custom item, its charges are grouped on one invoice for the whole order, even when your invoice profile normally splits by course date. On an account set to split invoices, the form shows One invoice for this order instead of the splitting choice.
Check Send confirmation email where it is available. With a payment request, the form explains that confirmation follows payment completion. For an order containing a course with no charge, review the confirmation option instead of requesting payment. A custom-only order does not send a course confirmation.
Create the order and check the result
Review the order contact, billed customer, course places where included, custom items, 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.
For a custom-only order, check Other Items and the invoice; there are no participant places to check. Custom-only customers receive invoice or payment-request emails when requested, rather than course confirmation, joining or reminder emails. On a mixed order, unpaid custom charges are part of the order balance and can affect course access under the account’s payment-access settings.
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. To decide an order that a customer placed and that is awaiting approval, see Approve or Reject an Order.
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. For an order containing a course, the customer gets the confirmation email if the confirmation email option is on. No course-confirmation email is sent for a custom-only order.
Create Paid Order is shown when you chose Paid. The order is saved as paid and no payment request is sent. For an order containing a course, the customer gets the confirmation email if Send confirmation email is on. No course-confirmation email is sent for a custom-only order.
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. For an order containing a course, the customer gets the confirmation email when the order is created if Send confirmation email is on. No course-confirmation email is sent for a custom-only order.
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.