Family onboarding with Ida
Family onboarding is a warmer way for new families to join: instead of one long form, Ida welcomes them on your sign-up link and asks one question at a time — who's dancing, birthdays, who to call, your studio's own questions and terms, the fee, and how they'd like to pay tuition. A progress thread shows how far along they are, their answers are saved as they go, and a record called 'What your studio will see' fills in beside the questions, so a family always knows exactly what they are handing over. When they finish, everything lands in the same place as your registration form — the Responses tab, the family's record, the fee — so nothing about your review changes.
Family onboarding arrives together with Ida's newest look and is rolling out studio by studio. If your Settings page doesn't show a Family onboarding tab yet, your studio isn't on it yet — your sign-up link keeps the registration form exactly as the Registration page of this guide describes it.
What Ida asks
Ida's questions come straight from your registration setup — the same settings the registration form reads, so the two can never disagree. The Family onboarding tab on Settings lists every question in its five chapters — Dancers, Family, Studio form, Payment, and Stay in touch — and for each built-in question you choose Required, Optional, or Off (a few, like who's dancing and how to reach the family, are always asked). Your own questions, your terms, and the registration fee are the ones you built on the Registration page; the tab lists them and links you there to edit them. Studios that keep registration to just the fee get a shorter conversation: Ida asks only the terms, the payment, and how to reach the family.
A returning family isn't grilled from scratch: Ida shows what's on file — dancers, birthdays, notes — and asks them to confirm it looks right, with each dancer opting in to the new period. Use 'Preview as a family' at the top of the tab to walk the conversation yourself before sharing the link. In the iPhone app, admins find the same controls under Studio settings → Family onboarding.
Note. Staff using View as family always see the classic registration form, not the conversation — onboarding with Ida only ever answers a family's own login.
How families can pay
The Payment chapter is yours to shape, from the same Family onboarding tab (changing it is admin-only). For the registration fee, families can always pay by card on the spot; a switch — 'Families can pay the fee later or at the studio', on to start — also lets them choose At the studio (the front desk records the e-transfer, cash, or cheque) or Later (the fee waits on their Payments page with a pay link), and their registration confirms either way with the fee left owing, just as if you had recorded it yourself.
For tuition, you choose which ways are offered and the order they appear: Autopay (the family adds a card on Stripe's secure page and autopay charges it: on the billing day for monthly plans, while for quarterly, 6-month, and yearly plans Stripe sets each run), 'I'll pay each month' (a reminder and a pay link before each bill), and Pay at the studio. 'List first' puts the way you prefer at the top. Autopay can be listed first, but it can never be the only way — at least one way that needs no card always stays on, and the tab locks the last no-card switch so it can't be turned off. Autopay is only shown to families once your Stripe account can take cards.
Watching who's joining
Families part-way through the conversation appear in a 'Joining with Ida' list above your roster on Students & Families — on the web and at the top of the app's Families tab. Each family shows a progress bar, which question and chapter they're on, when they started and were last active, any reminder Ida has scheduled for them, and a link to email them. What you see is progress only: their answers, dancers, and contacts are added to your roster the moment they finish, never before.
When a family asks Ida something she can't answer from your settings, she offers to pass the question to you — it appears on that family's row under 'Asked the front desk', with the time it was asked, so you can email them back. Once a family finishes, they leave this list and arrive as a normal registration: the Responses tab, the family record recap, and the fee all work exactly as the Registration page of this guide describes.
The family's own record tells the same story. Open a family that is joining — or joined — with Ida, in Manage family on the web or their record in the iPhone app, and a 'Joining with Ida' card on their Overview shows where things stand: how many questions they have answered, or when their registration was sent or finished; the way they chose to pay tuition and the registration fee, once they have chosen; their reminder while they are still answering — set for a time, already sent, or none; and every question they asked the front desk. How a family pays is money, so the payment choices show only to staff who can see the household's billing — owners and the front desk; an instructor opening the same family sees the progress and the questions, never the payment choices. The card stays on the family after they finish, so the questions they asked on the way in are still there when you follow up.