Creating an Instant Book and Pay Sign Up

Instant Book and Pay signup is a great option that allows parents/students to sign up for certain school events. This sign-up option is suitable for school trips, breakfast clubs, wraparound care events, after-school clubs, and ticketed events (that do not require preference-based signups).

This article will guide you through the process of creating an Instant Book and Pay signup in an example for a School Trip. 

Step 1: We create the Container

1. Select Activities & Clubs Admin tab (this may be labelled differently due to your school's preferences)
2. Select School trips in this scenario (If your school does not have this option, the Instant Book & Pay have the same functionality. If you would like the School Trips label, please contact SchoolsBuddy to set it up)
3. Click Add on the top right corner to add a new container
   

4. Complete the container details 
   

   • Sign Up Title: Add in the title, e.g. School Trips 2024/25.
   • Description: Add in information that is relevant to school trips signup.
   • Allow booking cancellation / Block clashes : Set up according to your schools protocol
   • Maximum Bookable events per group: Leave this as 0 as the groups will be organised by year and there may be multiple trips per year.
   • Activities start/end dates/times: Set the dates for when you want the activities to occur, in this case for the whole school year. You can re-use the container to add trips as the year progresses. The times are not important in this case as they can be set for each individual event later.
   • Responsibility for confirmation: Select 'Parents Only', 'Students or Parents' or 'Students Only' according to your School’s preferences.
   • Sign up opens: Date and time when sign up opens (when parents can start booking)
     Sign up closes: Date and time when sign up closes (e.g. if you are creating the container for the term/year, when is the last day that parents should be able to sign up for your trips)
   • Show select all button: This enables the parent/student to select all trips in one go.
   • Use organisation block dates?: This defaults to on and will use your block dates that have been set at an organisational level. Don't use these if your trips run in holiday for example.
   • Accept Voucher Payments: The option is for UK schools only. Only select this if childcare vouchers will be accepted for all trips. If you select this option, you will have the choice to be able to limit which group can pay by childcare vouchers (please see this article about Restricting the use of Childcare Vouchers.)
   • Send New Booking Alerts: If this box is checked, staff members who have this role will be notified when a new trip booking is made by a parent or student.
   • Terms & Conditions: You can enter any terms & conditions that apply to all trips.  Trip-specific T&Cs will be entered at a later stage.
   • T&C's additional info (URL): If you have your school Terms & Conditions in a PDF file or website, you can add a link to it here.
   • Booking Data Form: We can create a form for you to collect any other information you require of the student at the time of booking.
5.  When the correct details have been entered click the green save button on the lower right of the screen.
   

Step 2: We create the Groups

1. Once saved, the Container will be created and you will be taken to Groups where you will be able to add groups to your container. To create groups click the Add button on the top right corner.
   
2. Complete the group details. As most trips are usually available to a grade/year group we recommend creating groups based on Year Group.
   • Title: Add in the title, e.g. Year 1 Trips 
   • Description: Add in description if required
   • Available to / Pre-requisite / Un-available to: When selected, a pop-up box will appear on the screen which determines who can sign up. Use the drop-down box and search bar to locate the Year/Grade or Group that will be able to sign up. Select the Year/Grade or Group, click Add and Continue to confirm the setting.
   • Gender: Select the gender for the group
   • Lead Staff Member: Select a staff member who will be organising the group
   • Activity: This will not be visible to the booker but can be used for reporting purposes. Select an activity type. Please contact SchoolsBuddy if the preferred type is not available.
   • Default Location: Select a location. You can use this for a meeting point, e.g. Front Office.
   • Group code / Billing code: Use these if your school has specific codes to use for reconciliation.
3. Once completed click Save to create the group.
   

Step 3: We add block dates if needed.

If you want to add block dates that don't apply at organisation level, you have the option to add container-specific block dates in Block Dates. Add the dates using by clicking on Add.  

Step 4: We create the Events.

1. Once all groups are added. Navigate to Create Events.
2. Click on  +Add New on the top right corner.
   
3. Complete the details for trip events.
   • Title: Add the appropriate title for your trip
   • Vital information:  Add in vital information regarding the trip. Please note that vital information and additional information are both visible to parents when making bookings.
   • Additional information: Any further information regarding the trip
   • Booking Options: Select Individual for one day or Block for multiple day trips
   • Number of places: Set the maximum number of places if applicable
   • Create for groups: Select the group you wish to create the event for
   • Location: Select 'Use group default location' if you want to use the location when creating the group or select 'Specify location' to find a location in the dropdown box.
   • Event type: Select School Trip from the dropdown box.
   • Cost Type: Select 'Chargeable' from the dropdown box if applicable 
   • Price per session: Add in price per session.  For multiple day trips you will need to divide the total fee by the number of days
   • Percentage to pay at time of booking/Deposit (%): Add the percentage expected to be paid at the time of booking. If less than 100%, the remainder will sit on the account balance to be paid in the future. If no upfront payment is required enter 0.
   • Payment Method: Select 'Default - Create Fees (and allow online payments if applicable)' to charge to the parent wallet and allow online payments if using. 
   • Frequency: Select single day or multiple days
   • Event date: Enter the date of the trip event
   • Start Time / End Time: Select the start and end time of trip event
   • If you leave the Sign up Opens / Closes dates blank, they default to the dates set for the container and the event start time if it is before the container's close date.
     
4. Click on Create Rule
5. After creating the trip, you will be shown a overview of all trip events. If you need to make any changes then click Edit button. If you need to create multiple similar events then you can also use Copy.
   

Step 5: We publish the Events

1. To publish events. Click on Publish Events to be brought to the publishing screen.
2. You will see an overview of your event list which gives you a chance to double-check the details before publishing. Select the events checkbox, toggle the 'I confirm' checkbox and click on Publish. Please note that upon publishing the event will be visible to parents/ students as soon as the signup period opens. 
   
3. A 'Confirm Publication' pop up box will show and you will need to click Publish to proceed or Cancel button to return to the previous screen. Click Publish to generate the events. This may take a couple of minutes depending on how many events there are to be published.
   
   

Once the trip event has been published and it is within the opening sign update, parents will be able to book the trip. Staff can also manually book students onto the trip if required. Please see Manually booking students to events.

Please note that if you change the location of a Group after events have been created, this will not change the location of those events. You must update the location via Reception | Registers / Events. Please refer to the 'Editing' section of this article for more information about how this may be done: Editing, Deleting or Cancelling an event.