Booking forms

Choose what the form is for

Choose 'Trying the studio' for a prospective dancer who may join later. Ida places them on the selected class roster and helps staff follow up and track whether they enrol. The form can offer calendar classes marked 'Allow public trial bookings', as well as free or paid trial packages and passes.

Choose 'Buying classes or events' for drop-ins, class passes, workshops, or camps. Create those options in Workshops first, then assign them to the form. Workshops remains the source of truth for dates, capacity, pricing, registrations, and remaining pass uses.

Opening a class for trials

Trials are offered per class occurrence, so you decide exactly which classes accept them and what (if anything) they cost.

1. 1

   Open the calendar and create or edit a class.

2. 2

   Turn on 'Allow public trial bookings'.

3. 3

   Leave the trial price blank for a free trial, or set an amount to charge for it.

4. 4

   Save, then in Booking forms assign the class under Trial classes for each 'Trying the studio' form that should offer it (including Main). Until you assign it, it stays off every embed.

Walk-in trials at the desk

When a family shows up to try a class, staff can add them from the class itself (Add trial) or from the family record (Add student to trial class). That uses the same trial booking engine as the website form: a trial-priced seat on this class, a Trial badge on the roster, and a trial family/dancer so they are not billed weekly tuition. If the trial has a price, bill the family (they pay later from their portal) or log cash, cheque, or e-transfer already collected at the desk.

Desk walk-ins do not need 'Allow public trial bookings' turned on. That switch is only for the website widget. Packages, passes, and questionnaires stay on the form.

Working the Trial classes listWeb dashboard

The Trial classes card lists every upcoming class that allows public trial bookings — your whole schedule, not just the next few weeks. To find classes quickly, search by class name, level, or date, narrow the list with the From and To date pickers, or click the Date and Class column headings to sort either way. The count above the list shows how many classes are selected and how many match your filters.

Tick classes one at a time (clicking anywhere on a row works), or hold Shift and click to select a whole range at once. Select all and Clear apply to the classes currently shown — so you can filter to one level or one stretch of dates and select just those. Filtering never loses your work: classes you've ticked stay selected while a filter hides them, and previously assigned classes whose dates have passed aren't wiped by a save. Press 'Save trial classes' to apply your changes.

Trials beyond a single class

A trial does not have to be one drop-in class. On the Booking forms page, select a form marked 'Trying the studio'. Its Trial step lets you build named trial offers, each with its own price per dancer: a class package (the family picks one of the class series you attach and books the whole series), a class pass (a set number of classes, like a 4-class trial), or a time pass (unlimited classes for a number of days, like 2 weeks unlimited). Leave the price blank for a free trial, and untick Active to hide an offer without deleting it.

A class pass can also be tied to one of your classes. When you create or edit a class pass, 'Class for date picking' attaches a class: families booking that pass then pick exactly that many upcoming dates of the class right on the form, the dancers are placed on each chosen date's roster, and the confirmation email lists the dates they picked. Leave it on 'Any trial class — no date picker' to keep the classic pass, where the family books their first class on the form and comes in for the rest whenever suits them. You can set this from the iPhone app's Trying the studio form screen too, and the offer list shows which class a pass is tied to. Class packages can be built from that screen as well — the same name, description, price per dancer, active switch, and the class series families choose between as the web.

Drop-in classes you open for trials and assign under Trial classes appear in that flow's widget alongside these offers, so the family always picks from one list.

Adding the widget to your website

Open Booking forms in the My Studio section of the sidebar, then select 'Style & embed'. A live preview appears beside the controls, and you can copy a ready-made snippet to paste into your website.

At studios on Ida's newest look, the form greets families in your studio's own branding — one step at a time, with a running summary of what's due today (tax, when your studio charges it, is added at checkout) — in every style and color the picker offers. Sharing the public link carries your studio with it, too: in a text or a social post, the link's preview card shows your logo, your colors, and a line like 'Book a trial class · Your Studio' — and your studio's sign-up and sign-in links preview the same way.

1. 1

   Go to Booking forms in the sidebar and select 'Style & embed'.

2. 2

   Pick a style: Card, Minimal, Dark, or Compact. For Card, Dark, or Compact, choose Soft or Solid header color — Solid uses your full accent so strong brand colours match your site.

3. 3

   Choose an accent color, or leave it on your studio brand color.

4. 4

   Watch the live preview update as you adjust the style and color.

5. 5

   Copy the public link to share the form without a website, or click 'Copy embed code' and paste the snippet into your website (Squarespace, Wix, WordPress, or any site that accepts HTML).

Multiple booking forms

A studio can run more than one booking form. Each form owns its booking options, questionnaire, agreements, styling, and embed URL. Your existing trial widget becomes the Main form marked 'Trying the studio' — its URL stays /embed/your-slug/trial. Additional forms use /embed/your-slug/trial/form-slug (for example /trial/adult).

Create a form from Booking forms, choose 'Trying the studio' or 'Buying classes or events', then switch to it to configure its options and questions. After you mark a calendar class 'Allow public trial bookings', assign it under Trial classes on each 'Trying the studio' form that should offer it. Unassigned classes stay off every embed.

For 'Buying classes or events', build the drop-in, class pass, workshop, or camp in Workshops first, then select it under Booking options on the form. The form charges its public booking price, or the member fee when no public price is set. A rolling class pass covers one dancer at a time: the customer picks just their first class while buying and books the rest from their member account afterward — from Workshops or the calendar, with no second checkout. Dates, capacity, approvals, payments, registrations, and pass uses continue to be managed from Workshops.

A form for each location

If your studio has more than one location, the Style & embed card gains a Location picker. Leave it on 'All locations' for a single form, or pick a location to make a form that offers only that location's trial classes (classes open at all locations are always included). The form's header carries the location's name and each class shows where it happens — so you can embed a different form on each location's page of your website. Location filtering works inside whichever form you have selected.

Design your booking form

The details a family fills in when booking are yours to shape. The Form tab mirrors the widget's steps so you edit the form where customers will meet it: choose contact fields, add free-text or multiple-choice questions, ask them once per family or once per dancer, reorder them, require them, or switch them off without deleting them.

Each booking form has its own questionnaire. Edit questions on the Dancers and Details steps while the form is selected. The mobile app's Trying the studio form screen — an admin tool under More's New students section — edits Main only.

Agreements and waivers at booking

You can also require agreements as part of a booking — medical conditions, photo and social media consent, a liability waiver, or your own custom text. Families accept them while booking, and each booking records exactly what was agreed to.

Like registration policies, each agreement can be conditional: always shown, or shown only when a certain trial package is in the booking (a waiver just for your unlimited pass, say) or only for certain answers to one of your questions. A per-dancer rule shows the agreement once for the whole booking as soon as any dancer in it matches.

Each agreement can carry the full document behind the checkbox: pick a file from your Documents library, or link a page on your website. Either way, families see a 'View full agreement' link on the form and can open the full text right there — no account or sign-in needed. This works the same on registration policies.

Every acceptance stays with the booking it was made on: open the Responses tab on Booking forms and expand a booking to see the family's answers and exactly which agreements they accepted — including the name of the linked document at the time, even if you swap the file later. Policy sign-offs made during registration are kept the same way, on the Registration page's Responses tab.

What happens after a booking

For a 'Trying the studio' form, Ida OS finds or creates the family's account, adds each dancer to the selected class roster — a class package places them on every remaining class of that series, and a class pass with an attached class on every date the family picked — and marks them as a prospective dancer so staff can follow up to see whether they enrol. If the email already belongs to a family at your studio, the booking is attached to that account instead of creating a duplicate.

For a 'Buying classes or events' form, Ida OS records an ordinary Workshops registration instead. Once a free booking is confirmed or a paid checkout succeeds, Ida OS activates the dancer's member account and emails a secure account-setup link when needed. Drop-ins and pass registrations appear with the studio's other Workshops registrations.

When your studio's booking rules have staff approve workshop bookings first, a workshop or camp booked through the form goes in as a request rather than a charge: nothing is collected when the family sends it, and payment follows your approval like any other workshop request. At studios on Ida's newest look, the form says so up front — 'Nothing charged now', with the amount that will be collected once you confirm (including the online card fee when your studio passes it on) — and its button reads 'Send request' instead of a pay button.

A parent can book for more than one dancer at once — and each dancer can pick a different class package or session (for example Tiny Tot for one child and Beginner for another). They add each dancer with their own trial choice, then pay once at checkout for the combined total.

For a free trial, the booking is confirmed instantly and the family is emailed a link to access their new portal account. For a paid trial, the family is sent to a secure Stripe checkout — with applicable GST/HST added on top when your studio collects it; the booking confirms once payment succeeds, and the funds go directly to your connected Stripe account. Seats are held while the family pays, and released again if the checkout is abandoned.

Letting a family trial again

A family that has already trialed can be invited to try again without going back through your website. In Manage family, owners and front desk can set their trial status to Trialing and a 'Book a trial' page appears in their portal — in the sidebar on the web, and under Your family in the iPhone app's More tab, where booking runs on the app's own screen: the same offers and the same steps, already signed in, with no web page in between. It is the same trial offers and form, with their dancers already on file — they pick which dancer each trial in the booking is for, and an account with no dancers on it yet is pointed to add one first. The invitation is good for one booking, and if a paid checkout is abandoned it is restored so they can try again. When the booking goes through — paid at the checkout or free — the family lands on their own calendar with the confirmation ('Payment received. Booking confirmed.' for a paid trial) and the booked class right there on their schedule. A family becomes a Full member automatically once their registration fee is paid, waived, or comped.

Staff can finish the booking for the family, too: viewing their account with View as family, the same Book a trial page books and pays exactly as the family would — handy when a parent at the desk asks you to set it up.

The setting sits at the top of Manage family's Details tab on the web. In the iPhone app, open the family on the Families tab and tap Edit — the same Trial status choice (None, Trialing, or Full member) is on the Edit family sheet, so a re-invite works the same from the desk or from your phone.

Limiting trials per email

Families can normally book through your public form as many times as they like. If you'd rather rein in repeat trialing — one free trial per family, say — set a limit on how many trials the same email can book. The limit is studio-wide: one setting shared by all your booking forms, and it stays Unlimited until an admin sets a number.

1. 1

   Open Booking forms and select a form marked 'Trying the studio' — the 'Trial limit per email' card sits below the form builder.

2. 2

   Set Maximum to a number from 1 to 10 trials, or back to Unlimited.

3. 3

   Under 'Applies to', choose which trials count toward the limit: free trials only, paid trials only, or all trials. Changes save as soon as you pick them.

• Ida counts the family's confirmed trial bookings that match your chosen scope — free means trials that cost nothing, paid means priced ones. Bookings are matched by email and by the family account they belong to, so booking again under a different name doesn't reset the count.

• Only 'Trying the studio' trials count. 'Buying classes or events' bookings — drop-ins, class passes, workshops, and camps — are never limited by this setting.

• A family at the limit sees 'This email has already used the allowed trial bookings for this studio' when they try to book again.

Setting the trial limit in the appiPhone app

Admins can set the same limit from the iPhone app: open the Trying the studio form screen under More's New students section and scroll to 'Trial limit per email'. Pick the maximum and which trials it applies to — it's the same studio-wide setting as the dashboard's, so a change in either place applies everywhere.