SchoolsBuddy Activity Setup: The Configuration Steps Most Schools Miss
From the SchoolsBuddy Support Desk - The setup gaps that cause the most avoidable problems, and the checks worth doing before any activity goes live to parents.
Activity setup seems straightforward - create the activity, set the dates, open it to parents. But the tickets that land on our desk most often are from schools where a step in that process was skipped or misconfigured, and parents are now having a confusing experience, or registrations are coming in with incomplete information.
Here are the configuration steps we see missed most consistently, and why each one matters.
Support desk insight: Most SchoolsBuddy activity problems reach parents before they reach the support desk. A missing capacity limit means overbooking. A missing eligibility filter means wrong-year students registering. A missing payment link means families completing the form but not paying. The best time to catch these is during a test registration before the activity goes live.
Missed Step 1: Setting Participant Capacity
The most common overbooking issue I deal with has a simple cause: the capacity field was left blank or set to an unrealistically high number. When SchoolsBuddy has no capacity limit set, it will accept every registration that comes in.
What to do: Set a realistic participant capacity for every activity before it goes live, including a small buffer if you want to manage a short waitlist. If the activity genuinely has no upper limit, set a number that reflects your operational maximum - room size, equipment available, staff ratio - rather than leaving the field blank. Review the capacity setting each time the activity is copied for a new season.
Missed Step 2: Eligibility Filters
Year level and group eligibility filters exist to ensure only appropriate students can register for a given activity. They are frequently either not set, or set too broadly - resulting in students registering for activities that are not intended for their year group, or in some cases, students in the wrong school section entirely seeing activities they should not have access to.
What to do: For every activity, explicitly set the eligible year levels or student groups rather than leaving it open. If an activity is genuinely open to all students, confirm this is intentional before leaving the filter blank. After setting eligibility, log in with a parent account for a student outside the eligible range and confirm the activity does not appear to them - this is a two-minute check that prevents a lot of confusion.
Missed Step 3: Payment Configuration
Activities with a cost attached regularly go live without the payment link correctly configured. Parents complete the registration form, receive a confirmation, and assume they are enrolled - but the school has no payment record and the spot has not actually been confirmed.
What to do: For any paid activity, test the full payment flow before opening registration. Confirm that the payment amount is correct, that the payment gateway is connected, and that the confirmation email clearly states whether enrolment is contingent on payment being received. If your school uses bank transfer rather than online payment, confirm that the payment instructions in the confirmation email are accurate and include the correct reference format for reconciliation.
Missed Step 4: Registration Window Dates
Registration open and close dates are set in SchoolsBuddy at the activity level. I regularly see activities where the close date was not updated when the activity was copied from a previous season, meaning registration closed weeks earlier than intended - or in some cases, the activity was never actually open to parents despite appearing in the portal.
What to do: When creating or copying any activity, treat the registration window dates as the first thing to check and update, not an afterthought. After setting the dates, view the activity from the parent portal and confirm it shows as open for registration. If it does not appear at all, the registration window has either not opened yet or has already closed - both are worth confirming before sending a communication to families.
Missed Step 5: Staff and Leader Assignment
Activities that go live without a named staff leader assigned create two problems: parents have no point of contact shown in the activity details, and the school has no named person responsible for the activity in SchoolsBuddy's records. This also affects attendance tracking if the activity leader is expected to take attendance through the platform.
What to do: Assign at least one named staff member to every activity before it goes live. Confirm that the assigned staff member has a SchoolsBuddy account with the appropriate access level. If the activity leader changes during the season, update the assignment rather than leaving the previous leader in place.
In Summary
- Set participant capacity, eligibility filters, payment configuration, registration window dates, and staff assignment before every activity goes live.
- Complete a test registration from a parent account before opening any activity to families - this catches the majority of configuration gaps in minutes.
- When copying activities from previous seasons, treat all five of these settings as requiring fresh review - do not assume they carried over correctly.
The SchoolsBuddy Support Desk is available to help with activity configuration reviews before major registration periods open.