How to set up group classes, courses and workshops with capacity

For classes choose Fixed sessions (events). In this mode you list the sessions yourself and each one has its own capacity. The other mode, Free times from opening hours, is for one customer per time slot, such as hairdressers or massages.

Switch modes in Settings → Opening hours & times under How customers book. Existing bookings stay as they are; only the way new ones are offered changes. Both modes are on every plan.

Before you start, create what you offer under Services: "Yoga for beginners", "Pottery – evening course". The service carries the name, description and default price; the event carries the date, time and number of places.

Under Events click New event, choose the service, date, start and end time, and fill in Capacity. Set the status to Published, otherwise the session is not offered to customers.

Capacity is set by the tightest limit:

• Space. Count how many mats you can lay out with room to move between them, not how many people would fit standing.
• Equipment. Eight pottery wheels mean eight places, even if twelve people fit in the workshop.
• The teacher. In a beginners' class you want time to correct everyone.

You can raise or lower capacity later, but not below the places already booked. A price on the event overrides the service's default price, so a one-off workshop can cost more than a regular class.

The number of events per month depends on the plan: Free 10, Starter 50, Professional and up unlimited. A studio with two classes a week fits in Free; with three it does not. Current plans are on the pricing page.

You do not list a regular class one session at a time. When creating the event choose Recurrence (Daily, Weekly, Every 2 weeks, Monthly) and End of recurrence, and Resovu creates the whole series.

Example: yoga every Monday and Wednesday at 18:00, capacity 14. Create two series, "Weekly" from a Monday and "Weekly" from a Wednesday, both ending in three months. A series is created for at most 3 months from the first date; add the next quarter later.

Any single session in a series can be edited or cancelled on its own, for example when the teacher is ill or there is a public holiday.

Do not mix this up with Recurring (Professional plan and up). That section is for regular clients on one-to-one appointments: a physiotherapist who sees Mr Smith every Tuesday at 7:30 creates a series of bookings in his name there. See the help article Recurring appointments for a regular client.

When a parent comes with two children or three friends book together, they should not fill in three forms. Turn on Group bookings in Settings → Booking (Starter plan and up) and customers pick the number of places with +/− buttons.

Automatic discounts build on that. In Settings → Booking → Advanced configuration → Discount rules you can set, say, 10 % from three places. Three places at €20 then cost €54 instead of €60, with no code to type.

Early bird is set on the service, in the Price by booking time card, and applies to all its sessions. Example: a weekend workshop at €60, 15 % off when booked at least 14 days ahead, so €51. People sign up earlier and you know in time whether the workshop will fill. Last minute works the other way: lower the price less than 24 hours before the start and sell the last places.

Offer a drop-in and a full course as two services with their own prices. Resovu does not keep class passes or punch cards that count down visits.

On your booking page they see the listed sessions with the number of free places, pick a session and, if allowed, the number of places, fill in their contact details and choose how to pay. Only the methods you have turned on in Settings → Payment methods are offered:

• Cash on site – the booking is confirmed straight away.
• Bank transfer (QR payment) – the customer scans a QR code with the amount and payment reference. With Require payment up front the place is held only until a deadline you set, then an unpaid booking is released for someone else.
• Card online (Stripe) – the customer pays when booking. You pay Stripe's actual fee plus the Resovu fee for your plan: Free 1 %, Starter 0.5 %, Professional 0.3 %, Business 0.2 %, Enterprise 0 %.

For workshops where you buy materials in advance, prepayment makes sense: the materials are paid for even if someone drops out, and your cancellation terms decide how much of the money you keep.

After booking the customer gets a confirmation (with a calendar file if Calendar (ICS attachment) is on) and a reminder 24 hours before the class. From the Starter plan you can add an SMS. What exactly goes out is covered in Which automatic messages customers get.

A full class is hidden from your booking page unless you have the waitlist on. With it (Professional plan and up, Settings → Booking → Waitlist) they sign up for the full session, and when a place frees up the first in line gets it held for 25 % of the time left before the start, at most 12 hours. Less than 3 hours before the class everyone waiting is emailed at once.

Participants drop out through the link in the confirmation or in the reminder they get 24 hours before, or in the customer portal. Your Cancellation deadline applies. They can move to another session of the same service at the same price if Customers can change the time themselves is on.

You see the occupancy of every session under Events. If too few people sign up, cancel the session with Cancel event: all its bookings are cancelled, participants get an email (and an SMS if you have SMS connected) and card payments are refunded in full.