Activity Messenger Help Center

Cancel a class, an occurrence or a session

"Cancelling a class" means one of three different things in Activity Messenger. Pick the one that matches your situation before you start:

• Remove one date for everyone. A session is cancelled, for example because of a storm. You delete that occurrence from the class schedule. Every participant stays registered for the other dates.
• Archive the whole class. The activity is not happening at all. You archive the class so it leaves your lists; registrations and invoices stay as they are.
• Cancel one participant's registration. One person withdraws. You cancel the item on their invoice, and credit or refund it. This is done on the invoice, not on the class: see Refunds, credits and cancellations.

None of these actions moves money or sends a message by itself. Crediting, refunding and notifying are separate steps, described below.

Before you start

Deleting an occurrence from the Classes calendar is available to the Account Owner and to Admins. Removing a date from the class window's Schedule tab needs the right to edit the class. Archiving is done from the class list or from the class window.

Deleting a date erases the attendance recorded on it. If you need that history, print or export the attendance list first. See Attendance tracking.

Remove one date for everyone

From the Classes calendar

1. Open Classes → Calendar and click the occurrence. The window title is the date and time range, and the class name is shown under it.
2. Click Delete event at the bottom left. The button is shown only to the Account Owner and to Admins.
3. The confirmation is titled with the class name and the date and reads Are you sure you want to delete this class date? Any attendance tracked will be deleted and no longer accessible. Click Delete.

The calendar refreshes without that date. This route never sends a message to the participants; use the Schedule tab when you want the notification prompt, or write to the class list afterwards.

From the Schedule tab

1. Open the class and go to the Schedule tab. Each date is a row; the number beside the row is the count of participants on that date.
2. Click the x at the right of the row to remove. The x is shown only while the schedule has more than one row, so the last remaining date cannot be removed this way. Hovering the x on a date with participants shows If you delete this class event, tracked attendance will be lost.
3. When the date has participants, the same confirmation as on the calendar appears. Click Delete.
4. Click Save.
5. If the removed date is in the future and at least one registered participant on it has an email address, a window titled Notify affected participants? asks You just modified a class occurrence. Do you want to notify the participants about these changes? Choose Yes to prepare the message (see Notify the participants) or No to save silently.

Changing the date or time of a row instead of removing it keeps the participants and their attendance on that occurrence, and the notification describes the move.

What removing a date changes

• The occurrence disappears from the Classes calendar, the attendance lists and the Schedule tab. Attendance recorded on it is no longer accessible.
• A location booking attached to that occurrence is deleted with it.
• The class's first and last dates are recalculated from the remaining dates.
• Nobody is unregistered and no invoice changes. Removing a date records no credit; to compensate the participants, see Credit or refund the participants.
• The removed date stays visible on the invoice. On the registration line, the row menu offers Display deleted events; the date is then listed in red with (deleted and the deletion date**)**. Hide deleted events turns it off again.
• The class's iCalendar (.ics) feed, on the Location tab of the class window, keeps the removed date and marks it (Cancelled), so a calendar application that subscribes to the feed can update its copy. Calendar applications choose when they refresh; a date imported once from the file is not updated.
• A recurring membership schedule is stored as a class, a weekday and a time. Removing one date does not change the member's schedule.

There is no button to restore a deleted date. To bring it back, add the date again in the Schedule tab.

Notify the participants

The schedule-change message

When you answer Yes to Notify affected participants?, Activity Messenger builds the recipients and opens the usual message window:

• One email per email address, in the Reminders category. When several participants share one address, that message lists each participant with their changes. Pending registrations and participants without an email address are skipped.
• The subject is the class name followed by Schedule change.
• The text comes from a template named Class schedule change, created the first time you use it and reused afterwards. Its default text greets the person by first name, says that the schedule of the class was updated, and inserts the {Changed schedule} placeholder, which lists each change for that participant: Used to be: the old date, and Now is: removed from the schedule for a removed date, or the new date when a date was moved or added.
• Only future dates count as changes. A removed date in the past does not trigger the prompt.

Review the message, then send it like any other message. See Send your first email or SMS.

Write to the class list

To send your own wording, or to reach participants after a deletion made from the calendar, open the class's attendance list, select the participants and click Message. You can address the account owner, the participant or every contact on file. See Attendance tracking.

Archive a whole class

1. Open Classes → All Classes & Events.
2. In the row menu of the class, click Archive. The confirmation is titled with the class name and reads Are you sure you want to archive this list? Click Archive. The class window also has an Archive button at the bottom left.
3. To archive several classes at once, open the vertical three-dot menu above the list and choose Archive / Restore. The window shows Archive: with the number of selected classes that are not archived, and Restore: with the number that are. See Bulk operation.

Archiving:

• removes the class from Today and upcoming, Passed and All; the Archived filter lists it with a red Archived badge;
• turns off and archives the class's automated reminders;
• leaves every registration, attendance record and invoice in place. Nobody is credited, refunded or notified.

Restore, in the row menu of an archived class or in the class window, brings the class and its reminders back.

To stop registrations without archiving, change the class's registration settings or its form instead. See Create a class or event.

Credit or refund the participants

Compensation is handled on the invoices, never on the class:

• One participant: open the invoice and use Cancel or Credit, then Create a refund when money must go back. See Refunds, credits and cancellations.
• Several participants at once: on E-Commerce → Invoices, tick the invoices and choose Actions › Apply credit. The steps and the credit types are in Credit several invoices at once.

Add a replacement date

To make up a cancelled session, add the new date to the schedule rather than creating another class:

1. Open the class, go to the Schedule tab and click + Row. The new row copies the last row and continues its sequence; adjust its date and time.
2. When the last row has participants, the checkbox Carry over participants in new events appears beside the buttons. Tick it so the participants of the last date are placed on the new date as well. It is off by default; without it, the new date starts empty and you add participants from the attendance list.
3. Click Save. The Notify affected participants? prompt covers added dates too: the message shows Used to be: not scheduled and the new date.

Allow make-up class, on the class's Information tab, is a different feature: it lets clients cancel their own presence on a date and receive a coupon for the drop-in form you select. It does not cancel a date for everyone.

Settings reference

Common questions

How do I cancel one class date for everyone? Open Classes → Calendar, click the occurrence and click Delete event, or remove the row in the class's Schedule tab and save. See Remove one date for everyone.

Does deleting a date unregister or credit anyone? No. Participants stay registered for the other dates and invoices are unchanged. Credit them on their invoices if you want to compensate them. See What removing a date changes.

Are the participants told automatically? Only when you remove or move the date in the Schedule tab, answer Yes to Notify affected participants? and send the prepared message. Deleting from the calendar sends nothing. See Notify the participants.

How do I credit several accounts at once? On E-Commerce → Invoices, tick the invoices and choose Actions › Apply credit. Each invoice receives its own credit. See Credit several invoices at once.

Can I restore a deleted date? No. Add the date again in the Schedule tab, and tick Carry over participants in new events to put the participants back on it. The attendance recorded on the deleted date is not recovered. See Add a replacement date.

Does archiving a class cancel the registrations? No. Archiving hides the class and stops its reminders; registrations, attendance and invoices stay. Cancel each registration on its invoice when needed. See Archive a whole class.

A client's calendar still shows the cancelled date. The class feed marks the date (Cancelled), but the calendar application decides when it refreshes a subscription, and a file imported once is never updated. See What removing a date changes.

What happens to a recurring membership schedule? Nothing. It is stored as a class, a weekday and a time, so removing one date leaves it as it is.

Related guides

• Refunds, credits and cancellations
• Attendance tracking
• Bulk operation
• Create a class or event
• Send your first email or SMS
• Calendar colours and views