This guide is for course providers who want people to join a waiting list (waitlist) when a course date is full, or when a course has no dates they can book. It explains how to turn the waitlist on or off, what customers see when they join, and how to find, email, remove or book the people on it.
Emails that Cademy sends by itself to people on the waitlist when a place opens are a separate setting. They are explained in Email Waitlisted Customers Automatically When Places Open.
Course Waitlist and Date Waitlist Compared
Each person on a course's waitlist has a waitlist entry. An entry is one of two kinds:
Date waitlist entry: the person is waiting for one particular course date. It is created when they select Join Waitlist on a date with no places left, or when you choose a date while adding them. The Waitlist tab shows a For: badge with that date beside their name.
Course waitlist entry: the person is waiting for the course, with no date chosen. It is created when they join from a course with no dates they can book, or when you add them without a date. It has no date badge.
A waitlist entry is not a booking and does not hold a place. A Contact records the person; a Registration records a place on a course; an Order records the purchase. Adding someone to the waitlist creates a Contact if needed, but no Registration or Order.
The waitlist is available for On set dates and Blended courses, on every plan. To set it up and manage it you need System Admin access, or Course Owner access to the course. Facilitators do not see the Waitlist tab.
Turn On a Waiting List for a Full Course or Date (Allow Waitlist)
The Allow Waitlist setting lets customers join the waitlist for a course. It is set for each course, not for each date.
Check pending edits before navigating inside the course editor.
Changing its pages can save pending course or lesson edits automatically. The final Save button is not the only save point.
Open Courses and select the course.
Select Edit Course → Settings → Booking Options.
Under Allow Waitlist, choose Allow Waitlist.
Check any other pending course or lesson edits, then select Save.
Check for Course saved, reopen Booking Options and confirm the setting. If saving fails or the choice is not kept, contact Cademy Support before relying on it.
Once the waitlist is allowed, Automatic Waitlist Emails appears below it. It is a separate choice and stays off unless you select it; see Email Waitlisted Customers Automatically When Places Open. For the other choices in Booking Options, see Choose Instant Booking, Approval or Applications.
Disable the Waiting List and Stop New People Joining (Sold-Out Course)
To stop new people joining the waitlist for a course, for example when a course is sold out and you do not want a waiting list, turn the waitlist off.
Open Courses, select the course, then Edit Course → Settings → Booking Options.
Under Allow Waitlist, choose Do Not Allow.
Select Save, then reopen Booking Options and check the setting.
When the waitlist is off:
On your course page, a date with no places left shows a disabled Sold Out button instead of Join Waitlist.
The course's Waitlist tab is hidden. The people already on the waitlist are not removed: they show again if you choose Allow Waitlist later. To see or email them, turn the waitlist back on.
Automatic waitlist emails are turned off too. Turning the waitlist back on does not turn them back on; choose that setting again if you want it.
You cannot turn the waitlist off for only one date of a course.
What Customers See: the Join Waitlist Button and Form
When the waitlist is allowed, Join Waitlist appears on your course page for a date that is sold out. Joining from that date creates a date waitlist entry. When the course has no dates that can be booked, or all the bookable dates shown are full, customers can join the waitlist for the whole course; this creates a course waitlist entry.
Join Waitlist opens a short form, Join the waitlist. After the customer sends it, they see You're on the waitlist! and receive an email confirming they joined. The team members who receive admin notifications for the course get an email saying who joined.
The confirmation message does not mean a place will become available, or that automatic waitlist emails are turned on.
Can I Add Questions to the Join Waitlist Form?
No. The Join Waitlist form always asks for the same four details: First name, Last name, Email and Telephone, and all four are required. You cannot add, remove or rename its fields. If you need more information, ask for it when you email the people on the waitlist, or ask for it when they book: see Ask Course-Specific Booking Questions (Registration Fields).
Find the Waitlist for a Course
Open the course from Courses.
Open the Waitlist tab. If it is missing, check your course role and whether Allow Waitlist is turned on.
Check whether a date is selected. A list for one date shows a notice, You are viewing the waitlist for the [date] occurrence, and View full waitlist. to return to the whole course. If that link takes you to the course overview, open the Waitlist tab again.
Check the person and any For: date beside their name. The Last Notified column shows the last automatic waitlist email Cademy recorded for them; see Email Waitlisted Customers Automatically When Places Open for what it means.
Waitlist Empty means the current list has no one waiting. Before adding someone again, check the full course list and whether they have already booked. Each course has its own waitlist; open each course to manage its list.
See the Waiting List in Priority Order Across All Dates (Sessions)
With no date selected, the Waitlist tab lists everyone waiting for the course: people waiting for any of its dates and people waiting for the course with no date. The list shows the most recent entry first, so the person who joined first is at the bottom. You cannot sort it another way.
Each row shows an Added badge with how long ago the person joined, and a For: badge with the date they are waiting for. On a narrow screen these badges and the Last Notified column are hidden; widen the browser window to see them. Automatic waitlist emails go to people in the order they joined, earliest first.
Add Someone to the Waitlist Yourself
Check the course waitlist for the person and date first, so you do not add them twice.
Select Add To Waitlist (shown as Add to Waitlist on an empty list).
Check Select a course. Under Select a date, choose the date, or leave it empty for the course waitlist. Opening this form while viewing one date does not choose that date for you.
Review Send waitlist confirmation email. It starts off; turn it on only if you want to email the person to confirm they joined. This does not turn on automatic waitlist emails.
Under Contact, select the existing person or enter their details. Entering a new person also creates a Contact.
Check the course, date, Contact and email choice, then select Create Waitlist Entry.
After Waitlist entry created, refresh the waitlist and check the saved person and date. If the result is unclear, check for an existing entry before trying again, or contact Support.
Manage People on the Waitlist
From a person's row in the Waitlist tab you can book them onto a date, remove them or email them. Open the three-dot menu at the end of the row for Convert to Booking, View Contact and Remove.
Book Someone From the Waitlist Onto a Date (Convert to Booking)
Use a System Admin for this whole procedure, so they can check the saved Order, payment details and emails afterwards. If you are a Course Owner, ask a System Admin to complete it; seeing Convert to Booking does not give you access to the saved Order.
Convert to Booking opens New Order. It does not create a booking or remove the waitlist entry by itself. Creating the Order can record payment information and send emails, so check the current availability and what you intend first. Order Contact, Billed To, the items, Payment Status, Send payment request and Send confirmation email are explained in Create an Order to Book a Customer Onto a Course.
Find the waitlist entry, open its three-dot menu and select Convert to Booking.
In New Order, check Order Contact and Billed To. Choose Individual or Organisation; for Organisation, select the organisation. If you open Edit Billing Details, select Save Billing Details to apply your changes or Cancel to leave them. This does not create the Order. Do not assume the person waiting is also the person paying.
Check the course and use the date selector at the top of the item group to choose the date or block if it is blank or wrong. A block is a group of sessions booked together. The first date shown can come from the page you started on, not from the waitlist entry. Then check the offer row; choose another offer if needed and use the plus and minus controls for the number of places. Check the named participants and the total.
For a total of zero there is no Payment Status choice: review Send booking confirmation email. For an amount to pay, review Payment Status: Paid records the payment as already made and does not take a card payment; To be paid leaves an amount due. With To be paid, review Send payment request and any payment plan offered. Then review Send confirmation email. Confirmation starts turned on; a payment request also sends confirmation after payment.
Read the final button before you select it. Depending on your choices it is Create Free Order, Create Paid Order, Create Order & Request Deposit, Create Order & Request First Payment, Create Order & Send Invoice or Create Order.
Read Order created and any warnings, then check the saved Order, participants, course date, totals and payment and email status. A capacity warning can appear after creation; do not create another Order to retry.
Refresh the waitlist and check that the entry has been removed. Cademy removes it in the background after the booking. If the Order or the waitlist looks wrong, contact Support before converting again.
Remove Someone From the Waitlist
In the course's Waitlist tab, check the person and date of the entry you want to remove.
Open its three-dot menu and select Remove.
Read Are you sure you want to remove this person? and select Yes.
Check for Waitlist entry removed. and refresh the list. If the entry is still there or an error appears, check before trying again or ask Support.
Removing an entry does not email the person, delete their Contact or cancel a booking. Their other waitlist entries stay.
Decline Someone on the Waitlist and Let Them Know
To turn someone down, for example when a course is over capacity, email them first and then remove them. Removing them first takes them off the list you email from.
In the Waitlist tab, tick the person's entry.
Select Email, write your message, check it with Preview and select Send, as described in the next section.
Open the entry's three-dot menu, select Remove, then Yes.
Email People on the Waitlist
In Waitlist, check whether the list shows one date or the whole course, then tick the people to email. Check the count beside Email. Select All and Deselect All apply to the list shown.
Select Email. Choose a template or enter a Subject and Email body; check any template content and attachments.
Use Add Attachments if needed, then Preview. Check the message and the sample recipients, then close Preview.
When the recipients and message are right, select Send.
Read the result. Your emails are being sent. means the send has started. Emails prepared but blocked means nothing was delivered; contact Support about the account restriction. Check before sending again.
Your account's email permission and recipient limits apply. If the same person has several entries ticked, they can receive the message more than once; check the list first. For more on writing and sending emails, see Send an Email to Course Participants or Contacts.
Check That an Email to the Waitlist Was Sent and Delivered
Each email sent from the Waitlist tab is recorded on the person's Contact. A System Admin can see it; Course Owners should ask a System Admin to check.
Select the person's row in the Waitlist tab, or View Contact in its three-dot menu.
Open All Activity or Emails and select the message.
In View Message, check To, Subject and Status. A blocked message was prepared but not delivered.
What each status means is explained in Find Sent Emails and Check Delivery Status.
Someone Joined the Waitlist but Is Not Showing Correctly
If a person says they joined the waitlist but the Waitlist tab or their Contact looks wrong, check these points.
Not in the list: check that you are on the right course and that no date is selected; select View full waitlist. to see the whole course. An entry leaves the list when the person books, when you remove it, or when they use the removal link in an automatic waitlist email.
Different name or phone number: the list shows the details saved on the person's Contact. If they joined with an email address that already belongs to one of your Contacts, the entry is added to that Contact and its saved name and phone number are not changed. The email your team receives when someone joins shows the details they typed.
Not on their Contact record: a Contact's record does not list waitlist entries. Open the course's Waitlist tab to see them.
No date beside their name: they joined the waitlist for the course, not a date, or the screen is too narrow to show the badge.
If none of these explain it, contact Cademy Support with the course name and the person's email address.
What Happens to the Waitlist When Someone Books
Cademy removes matching waitlist entries in the background when an active Registration is created, or an active Order is created or updated for a person attending. This is not limited to paid bookings or to a team member marking an Order Paid.
The update removes the person's entries for the booked date and for the course waitlist. An entry for another specific date can stay. A person buying places only for others is not removed just because they own the Order. If an entry you expected to go is still there, ask a System Admin to check the saved Order, refresh the waitlist, and ask Support if it stays.
Can I Add a Waitlist to an On-Demand Course Before It Launches?
No. The waitlist is available only for On set dates and Blended courses. On-demand (self-paced online) and on-request courses have no Allow Waitlist setting in Booking Options, so you cannot add a waitlist to them, for example before an on-demand course launches. An On set dates or Blended course with no dates that can be booked lets people join the waitlist for the course as a whole. To compare course types, see Choose the Right Course Type.
Automatic Waitlist Emails
Automatic waitlist emails have their own guide, Email Waitlisted Customers Automatically When Places Open. The topics below are covered there.
Turn On Automatic Waitlist Emails
How to turn on automatic waitlist emails for a course is explained in Email Waitlisted Customers Automatically When Places Open.
How the Hourly Automatic Waitlist Email Check Works
How Cademy checks for open places every hour is explained in Email Waitlisted Customers Automatically When Places Open.
Automatic Emails for a Date Waitlist
Who is emailed first when a place opens on a date is explained in Email Waitlisted Customers Automatically When Places Open.
Automatic Emails for a Course Waitlist
How people waiting for any date are told about new dates is explained in Email Waitlisted Customers Automatically When Places Open.
Automatic Emails for Someone on Both Waitlists
What happens when someone waits for a date and for the course is explained in Email Waitlisted Customers Automatically When Places Open.
Automatic Waitlist Emails Do Not Reserve Places
Why an automatic waitlist email does not hold a place is explained in Email Waitlisted Customers Automatically When Places Open.
The Removal Link in Automatic Waitlist Emails
How the link to leave the waitlist works is explained in Email Waitlisted Customers Automatically When Places Open.
Why Someone on the Waitlist Was Not Emailed Automatically
What to check when no automatic email was sent is explained in Email Waitlisted Customers Automatically When Places Open.
The Last Notified Column on the Waitlist
What the Last Notified column shows is explained in Email Waitlisted Customers Automatically When Places Open.
View or Resend an Automatic Waitlist Email
How to open an automatic waitlist email and decide whether to resend it is explained in Email Waitlisted Customers Automatically When Places Open.
Plans and Email Permission for Automatic Waitlist Emails
Which plans include automatic waitlist emails is explained in Email Waitlisted Customers Automatically When Places Open.
Related Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
Does allowing the waitlist turn on automatic emails?
No. Allow Waitlist and Automatic Waitlist Emails are separate settings. Choose the automatic email option as well if you want Cademy to email people when places open.
Does joining the waitlist hold a place for the person?
No. A waitlist entry is not a booking. Another customer can book the place first.
Can someone join the waitlist for a date that still has places?
No. Join Waitlist appears for a date that is sold out. While a date has places, customers book it in the usual way.
How do I view waitlists across several courses?
Open each course and its Waitlist tab. Each course has its own waitlist. Use View full waitlist. when a date is limiting the list.
Does the person get an email when I add them to the waitlist?
Only if you turn on Send waitlist confirmation email when you add them. It starts off.