Collecting Waiting List Sign-Ups

Full groups are the best outcome after sign-ups close — they let you achieve maximum revenue at fixed costs. With a smooth sign-up process, you can fill every course to the last spot.

That said, participant withdrawals do happen — schedules change, a child loses interest, or other commitments arise. When that happens, speed matters — you want to find a replacement as quickly as possible.

How does the waiting list work?

A parent can sign up for a full course through the sign-up table. That sign-up goes on the Waiting list and waits for a spot to open up.

When one of the existing participants drops out, you can remove them from the course and then accept the next person from the Waiting list. This keeps your groups full and your revenue intact.

How to enable the waiting list for a course?

You decide whether to allow waiting list sign-ups for each course individually.

You can do this from the Courses tab:

• Make sure the Waiting list column is visible.

• In the Waiting list column, toggle the switch next to the course to yes to enable sign-ups.

Done! Participants will now be able to join the waiting list once the course is full.

How does a course with an active waiting list appear?

If a course is full but waiting list sign-ups are enabled, the course will still appear in the sign-up table.

A label (Waiting list) will appear next to its name.

Sign-up table showing a full course with a Waiting list label next to its name

This lets potential participants know they can still sign up to wait for an available spot, rather than giving up on the course entirely.

What does a participant see after signing up?

After submitting the form, the parent will see a message confirming they have been added to the Waiting list.

They will also receive a confirmation email.

Notification for the school

When a participant joins the Waiting list, a notification will appear in ActiveNow. Clicking it takes you directly to the relevant course.

ActiveNow notification showing a new waiting list sign-up

Accepting and rejecting waiting list sign-ups

You can find the waiting list at the bottom of the course details page.

From there you can:

• accept a participant to join the group,

• reject a sign-up if you are not planning to take on more participants.

Course details page showing the waiting list section with accept and reject buttons

When accepting or rejecting, you can choose whether to:

• send a confirmation — the participant will receive an email about your decision,

• not send a confirmation — the participant will not receive any email.

After acceptance, the participant is automatically added to the course. Depending on the option you chose, ActiveNow will send or skip the confirmation email.

How to check the number of waiting list sign-ups?

In the Courses tab, you can enable the Signups on waiting list column to see how many people are on the waiting list for each course.

Courses list with the Signups on waiting list column showing counts per course