What
Direct booking in SpeedAdmin Play! allows students or guardians to book an available lesson or activity slot directly from the course catalog without first being placed on a waiting list.
Play! supports multiple signup methods and hybrid booking, meaning:
- Direct booking and waiting lists can be combined
- Signup behaviour can be adjusted dynamically during the year
- Different activities can use different enrolment logic, even within the same school
Why
Direct booking and flexible signup methods in Play! give schools much greater control over how students enrol.
Play! allows schools to:
- Fill available places quickly without administrative handling
- Decide exactly how sign‑ups should behave per activity
- Combine direct booking and waiting lists in the same setup
- Change enrolment logic during the year without restructuring courses
- Support very different activity types (lessons, ensembles, short courses, holiday activities)
This makes Play! especially suitable for schools with varied offerings and changing capacity.
How it works in practice
Step 1: Choose the enrolment logic for the activity
When creating an activity in Play!, you first decide how students should be allowed to sign up.
This is done in the Registration configuration when creating an activity.
Signup Methods in Play! (Key difference from Legacy)
Play! offers several signup methods that define how capacity, waiting lists, and booking behave.
1. Using max number of students
What it does
- The activity has a fixed number of available places
- Students can book directly until the limit is reached
Typical use
- Activities with a clear capacity (e.g. group lessons, ensembles, workshops)
How it works with direct booking
- Available slots → students book directly
- When full → no more bookings and the activity disappears from the Course Catalogue
2. Using max number of students with waiting list overflow
What it does
- The activity has a fixed capacity
- Additional students can still sign up and are placed on a waiting list for the specific activity
Typical use
- Activities where demand is hard to predict and you want to capture interest via a waiting list before deciding whether to open additional activities or bookings.
- Situations where cancellations are common
How it works with hybrid booking
- Available slots → direct booking
- Full → students automatically join a waiting list
- When a place opens → waiting list can be used or slots can be republished
✅ This is a classic hybrid booking setup in Play!
3. Using unlimited number of students
What it does
- No capacity limit
- All students who sign up are accepted
Typical use
- Lectures
- Online activities
- Events without physical or staffing limits
Important
- This method removes the need for direct booking or waiting lists entirely
4. Using waiting list only
What it does
- Students do not choose a time slot
- All sign-ups go to a waiting list as you know from Legacy
Typical use
- Most individual lessons
- Activities where students must be assigned to a tutor later
- Situations requiring manual scheduling
How it works
- Students register interest
- Administrators or teachers assign lessons and times later
5. Drop in
What it does
- When students click on the course in the course catalogue, they do not sign up
- The teacher does not get notified about the number of students that will show up
Typical use
- Open events that do not have physical or staffing limits
How it works
- Students simply show up at the event
Step 2: Publish available slots in the registration
Once the signup method is selected, you control what appears in the registration.
- If an activity has available slots → they can be booked directly
- If it is full → students can be offered a waiting list instead
In the example below, both choirs use max number of students with waiting list overflow. Great Choir is fully booked, so students are added to a waiting list, while Baby Choir still has available slots and students are assigned directly:
Step 3: Allow students to book directly
When direct booking is active and slots are available:
- Students can select a specific time slot themselves
- The booking is completed immediately
- No teacher or administrator action is required
Step 4: Use hybrid booking when needed
One of the biggest advantages of Play! is that signup behaviour is not locked.
You can:
- Start the year with a waiting list only
- Switch to direct booking to fill remaining places
- Automatically fall back to a waiting list when capacity is reached
- Change signup methods without recreating activities
This flexibility simply does not exist in Legacy.
Key difference from Legacy
In Legacy:
- Direct booking is tightly connected to ensembles
- Capacity is fixed and technically constrained
- Changes often require restructuring
In Play!:
- Signup methods are activity‑driven
- Capacity, waiting lists, and direct booking are flexible
- Enrolment logic can change throughout the year
- No technical dependency on ensembles or future bookings
The Outcome
For students and guardians
- Clear visibility of availability
- Immediate booking when slots available
- Waiting list option when activities are full
For SuperUsers and administrators
- Faster filling of timetables
- Less manual administration
- Full control over enrolment logic
- Better support for all activity types
Things to be aware of
- Direct booking and waiting lists are not mutually exclusive in Play!
- Signup methods can be changed at any time
- Explain the chosen booking method clearly in course description