For providers / Courses & calendar
Understand and use course categories
Course categories group courses at a location by topic. They help people browse and filter the calendar. Learn how to create and use categories and how they relate to reporting.
Development preview: this help article is prepared locally and has not been published.
You need access to your provider’s locations and courses. Participants can use category selection in the course calendar.
What is a course category?
Each course belongs to one course category at its location. You choose the names, such as “Beginner courses” and “Advanced courses”. Several courses can share the same category.
Categories are managed separately for each location. The business category in your provider profile describes your provider as a whole and is used in provider search.
Create and manage categories
Add categories in the “Course categories” section when setting up or editing the relevant location. Use short, clear names that participants understand. Names can contain letters, numbers and spaces, up to 45 characters.
You can also add a missing category while creating a course. It then belongs to the location and is available for further courses there. If an archived category already has exactly the same name, adding it restores that category.
- Open the relevant location and its “Course categories” section.
- Enter the name and choose “Add category”.
- Review the list and save the location changes.
Choose a category for a course
Under “Course category” during course creation, select an active category for the location. Type to search the list. If the right category is missing, choose “Add new category”, enter its name and add it. Then save the course step.
Archived categories must be restored before they can be used for new courses. If a resumed draft no longer has a valid active category selected, choose one before continuing.
Check the assignment before finishing: the category is read-only in the normal settings of an existing course or series.
Filter the calendar by category
Open the calendar’s view menu and change the category selection. On small screens, open the three-dot menu. Leave only the categories you want selected to see their courses at the selected location and within the selected date range. The selection applies to day, week, month and upcoming views.
Hiding a category only changes your calendar view. It does not delete courses, cancel bookings or change capacity or public visibility. Other people keep their own view.
When there is only one category and nothing is hidden, category controls may be omitted. Hidden categories remain reachable in the menu. If courses appear to be missing, check the location and date and select the hidden categories again.
The selection lasts while the application remains open and resets on a full reload. When you switch locations, a category with the same name may still be hidden; check the selection there if needed.
Categories and booking options
You choose which booking options a course accepts directly in its settings. Categories group courses by topic and do not replace this assignment.
Prices, approvals and usage limits are configured through booking options and course settings. You can assign the same punch card or subscription to several courses across categories.
How do categories affect finances?
The current courseplanner finance area shows payments, payouts and reports for the connected Stripe account. It has no dedicated filter for courseplanner course categories and does not calculate complete revenue, fees or profit per category. The calendar filter does not narrow the finance view.
For single-booking options without a fixed price, the price set on the course is assigned in Stripe to a product for the category and location. The category name can therefore appear there as a product name. Fixed-price booking options, punch cards and subscriptions instead use the relevant booking option.
A category name on a payment is therefore not a complete category report. In particular, punch card and subscription revenue is not automatically allocated to the categories of courses booked later. For payment questions, check the individual transaction and its status.
Analyze products directly in Stripe
Stripe supports product-level reporting. Some Billing metrics, such as monthly recurring revenue growth, can be filtered and grouped by product or price. Revenue Recognition offers a “Product” report export format. Stripe Sigma lets you create custom reports.
Select the relevant category or booking-option product for your report. Category products are specific to a location, so consider the location when selecting a product.
Open Stripe using the link in the finance area and check which reports are available for your account. These analytics tools are not automatically included in the embedded courseplanner finance view; check their applicable costs before use. Pay attention to the date range, product ID and metric: recurring revenue, recognized revenue and money actually paid out are different measures.
Archive and restore categories
If you no longer want to use a category for new courses, archive it using the cross in the location’s category list and save. Use the restore arrow beside an archived category to make it available again. Save the restoration as well.
Existing courses keep their previous assignment. Archiving does not cancel sessions or bookings, remove booking options or trigger a refund. To cancel existing courses, use the course management actions provided for that purpose.