Help Centre
Everything you need to run your centre on Bookingo. Start with the basics, or jump straight to the thing you're stuck on.
Getting started
Take your first booking end to end
Book a child in yourself, take the payment and cancel it cleanly, so you meet your own booking process before a parent does.
3 min readCreate and publish your first programme
Take one class from nothing to bookable, and get the one setup decision you cannot undo right the first time.
3 min readGetting started with Bookingo
Set up your centre, create your first package and take your first booking. The five things to do on day one, in the order that avoids rework.
5 min readWhat to check before families start booking
The checks that are a small edit today and mean moved children, reissued invoices and a rebuilt batch if you leave them until after.
3 min readHow Bookingo fits together: centres, programmes, batches and families
What centre, programme, batch and family each mean here, and the two rules — price on the programme, places on the batch — that decide how you build your term.
3 min readProgrammes
Activities and how they attach to programmes
Group what you run — ballet, swimming, guitar — so a parent can tell what a programme is and a report can total a subject rather than eleven programme names.
3 min readThe page families book from
What families see on your booking page, what decides how a programme appears in the list, and the five reasons one is missing.
3 min readChecking what is actually running
How to see every session your batches produce across programmes, instructors and centres, and the checks worth doing there before a term opens.
3 min readHow places are counted, and who can book
Why a batch that looks half empty can still refuse a booking, where the number of places lives, and the controls that decide which children are eligible.
3 min readSelling a pack of sessions instead of a fixed run
How to price a bundle of sessions families use when they like, the rules worth putting around it, and why a pack still does not reserve a place.
3 min readBuilding a programme you will not have to rebuild
The decisions to settle before you start, and the order to build a programme in, so nothing has to be unpicked after families have booked.
3 min readImporting your programmes from a spreadsheet
Add every programme at once from a spreadsheet instead of creating them one by one. Nothing goes live until you publish it.
6 min readPackages and batches explained
The difference between a package and a batch, when to use recurring versus fixed-date schedules, and how capacity is counted.
6 min readGetting a programme live, out of view, or off sale
How a programme moves from draft to live, how to hide one so only your team can book it, how to stop it selling without disturbing the families already in it, and what a duplicate of last term actually copies.
4 min readChoosing recurring weekdays or fixed dates
Which batch type each kind of programme needs, and why the choice has to be right before the first family books.
3 min readBookings
Booking confirmations and PDFs
What the family receives when they book, how to get hold of it again, and why it is not proof of what was agreed on the day.
3 min readBooking on a family's behalf
Take a booking at the desk or over the phone: what you need in front of you, what saving sets off straight away, and why a booking gets refused.
3 min readCancellations and refunds
What happens to the schedule, the place and the invoice when a booking is cancelled, and what a family sees.
5 min readConfirming and approving bookings
Turn on approval for a programme, work the queue of bookings waiting on you, and know why that queue is not the same as a waitlist. Why a queue left alone fills your batches without filling your bank account.
3 min readBookings from families without an account
What happens when a family books without signing up first: which record the booking lands on, and why a good phone number can quietly get overwritten.
3 min readRescheduling a booking
Moving a booking to different dates, what gets re-checked, and the constraints that catch people out.
4 min readTaking bookings
How bookings are created by staff and by parents, what happens when a session is full, and why a booking might be refused.
6 min readWaitlists
Turning on waitlists, how many places to hold, and how waitlisted families become confirmed.
4 min readMoney
Automatic recurring payments
Collect monthly and weekly fees from a card the family has already saved, and know what to check when a collection fails.
3 min readOutstanding balances and reminders
See who owes what today, send a reminder that is logged against the invoice, and recognise the balances that should never be chased at all.
3 min readDiscounts, codes and automatic offers
Flat and percentage discounts, codes versus automatic offers, new-customer and returning-customer pricing, and discounts that apply themselves based on answers families give.
7 min readRegistration fees, extra charges and tax
Add joining fees, materials charges, tax and late fees to the programmes they belong to, and know what changing a rate later does to invoices already raised.
3 min readInvoices and payments
How invoices are created, what partial payments mean, and how discounts and taxes are applied.
6 min readCreating an invoice by hand
Bill a family for something no booking produced, correct an invoice that is wrong, and know the one change an invoice will not accept.
3 min readPricing, frequency and payment plans
Set what a programme costs, choose whether families pay once or every week, month or period you define, and know what changes for existing bookings when you edit a price.
4 min readTaking payment online
Connect Stripe, Easebuzz or UPayments so families pay as they book, and know what reaches your bank, what the provider keeps and what happens when a payment fails.
3 min readReconciling payments with the transactions ledger
Every payment, refund and receipt in one place, with the fees and references you need to match Bookingo against your bank statement.
4 min readRunning your day
Sharing photos and updates with families
Post a photo and a line at the end of a class, and choose who sees it before you post rather than after.
3 min readTaking attendance
Mark a register from your phone mid-session, and know what an absence does to the place, the invoice and the parent's inbox.
3 min readWhat your dashboard numbers actually count
Why your revenue figure is not money in the bank, why bookings look quiet mid-term, and why your screen does not match a colleague's.
4 min readReminders and automatic messages
Set how long before a session families get reminded, and keep instructors' notifications down to the things that change their day.
3 min readExporting bookings, children and payments
Choose between the three reports, filter before you run one, and know why the column headings will not match the words on your screens.
4 min readFamilies and children
Adding a family without creating a duplicate
What to put on a family record when you add one yourself, and what Bookingo does when the email address or phone number already belongs to someone.
4 min readBlocking a contact so they can't book
Stop an email address or phone number being used to book with you, and know exactly what a block leaves running.
4 min readGiving two households access to the same child
Link two family records so both adults can book for the same child, without the child existing twice and taking two places.
3 min readParticipants and family accounts
How children and families are structured, what parents can do themselves, and how to avoid duplicate records.
5 min readYour team
Restricting staff to their own centre
Limit each staff member to the locations they actually work at, and avoid the blank setting that quietly gives them everything.
3 min readGiving staff the access their job needs
What the three roles you start with actually allow, how to build one that fits a real job, and what to do when somebody leaves.
4 min readSetup
Your logo, colours and booking page
Set what a family sees when they open your booking link, and what carries through to the emails Bookingo sends afterwards.
3 min readAdding centres and locations
Set up each site you run from, so every batch, register and report knows where the session happens — even if you only ever use one hall.
3 min readCurrency, timezone and tax
Fix these three before your first invoice goes out, because sessions and invoices keep the times and figures they were created with.
4 min readCustom fields on families, children and staff
Put each question on the record it belongs to — allergies on the child, emergency contacts on the family — so you get one answer per person who needs one.
4 min readRunning multiple locations
Setting up several centres, restricting staff to their own site, and reporting across all of them.
4 min readFor families
Keeping your family's details up to date
What your centre holds about you and your children, and why the phone number and allergy notes matter before the next session.
2 min readHow to book your child into a class
Choose the right schedule, check the dates you are committing to, and get your child booked in.
3 min readChanging or cancelling your booking
Move a booking to different dates or cancel it, and see what each one does to your child's place and to your invoice.
3 min readWhat you owe, and how to pay it
When your centre takes payment, where to find your invoices, and who to ask when a charge looks wrong.
2 min readIntegrations
Rewriting the emails Bookingo sends
Replace the subject line and wording of any Bookingo email, and set the footer and contact address that appear on all of them.
4 min readConnecting Illumine to Bookingo
For centres already running Illumine: connect the two once and your students, parents and their details flow across automatically.
6 min readChoosing which notifications go out
Decide which events email your families, which reach your team, and switch off the ones you would rather not send in your name.
3 min read