Gather Grove Booking

Changelog

1.215.2

• Fix: a closure that closes appointments now also stops new appointments being booked inside it.
• Fix: appointments on a service that requires approval can be booked again (they showed an error after the booking was saved).
• Fix: the reminder email is sent at the “hours before” you set, and appointments booked the day before still get one.
• Fix: cancelled appointments disappear from the instructor’s calendar feed.
• Fix: a time whose session was cancelled can be booked again.
• Fix: a declined card is no longer counted as a late cancel.

1.215.1

• Fix: the Reports tabs (Classes, Clients, Instructors, Promotions, Operations) switch again, and Export CSV and the custom date range work again.

1.215.0

• New: late fees for overdue memberships — set the fee, when it starts and how often it repeats; added to the member’s next invoice, stopped as soon as they pay, with waive and pause for staff. Off by default.
• New: members can pay ahead with their saved card in one tap.
• New: a month paid ahead is refunded automatically if the membership ends before it is invoiced.

1.214.1

• Fix: changing your email delivery key for the same Postmark server no longer switches your site’s email off. Your Postmark Account token is no longer kept once your domain is verified, and a “Replace key” option replaces disconnecting.

1.214.0

• New: a “payment due soon” email for memberships paid by invoice on a set day — a week before each due date, with what’s owed and a button to pay now. Not sent if the family has already paid. Replaces the renewal reminder for those memberships.

1.213.0

• New: members who pay by invoice can pay from their account page — “Pay now” on an open invoice, or pay next month ahead of time. Paying ahead is held as credit and pays the invoice automatically on the due day.
• Fix: a complimentary membership no longer says it is paid from a card; autopay no longer assumes a card.

1.212.1

• Fix: on the account page, a membership’s payment line and its due day no longer run together.

1.212.0

• New: “Due on day” for memberships. Bill every member on the same day of the month, such as tuition due on the 1st, whenever they joined. Invoices are sent on that day and due the same day; autopay is charged on it. Members see the day at checkout and on their account page. Off by default.

1.211.2

• Maintenance: passes WordPress.org’s Plugin Check with no errors again. Nothing changes in how the plugin works.

1.211.1

• Fixed: cancelling a booking could fail when the class already showed no seats taken. The seat is now returned safely and the count never goes below zero. The same fix covers approvals, waitlist releases and enrollment approvals.

1.211.0

• New: got a closure’s dates wrong? Open it and press “Change dates”. Classes that fall outside the new dates go back on the schedule, and everyone who was booked gets one email saying the class is back on, with a link to book again. Classes inside the new dates are cancelled the usual way. You see exactly what changes before anything happens. Refunds are never taken back, and course dates are restored automatically.
• New: ending a closure can now bring its classes back too. Tick “Also bring back its cancelled sessions” and they return to the schedule with open spots, with the same “back on” email.
• Changed: Sessions → Closures is now “Closures & Bulk Cancels”, and its button is “Bulk cancel classes”, because it cancels some rooms, classes or instructors as often as the whole studio. The snow-day shortcuts are unchanged.
• Changed: a closure that doesn’t cover the whole studio no longer tells clients the studio is closed. Its emails, reminders, account-page banner and notifications say the class is cancelled instead.
• Changed: the closure preview shows the dates with the year and how far away they are (“starts in 11 days”), with a warning when they look unusual, and the confirm box repeats the dates.

1.210.0

• New: with Gather Grove Pulse, every Booking email can be managed from Pulse → Messages — switch automations on and off, edit and reset the wording, preview it and send yourself a test. Edits are saved in Booking, so they stay if Pulse is switched off, and each email keeps a short edit history. While Pulse manages an email, Booking’s Email settings show it read-only with an “Edit in Pulse” link.
• New: Booking’s marketing emails (birthday greeting, first-class follow-up, win-back and the rest) are now sent as marketing: they carry an Unsubscribe link and the one-click unsubscribe header mail providers expect. Someone who unsubscribes — here or from a Pulse email — stops getting marketing from both, but still gets confirmations, reminders and receipts.
• Changed: emails to instructors and staff now end with “This is a staff notice from” your studio, instead of the member wording.
• Fixed: saving the Email or Automated settings can no longer wipe wording or switches the form did not send.

1.209.0

• Changed: the low sign-ups alert now goes to the class’s instructor and the studio admin, a week before the class by default (you can choose how many days). It watches each class’s own Minimum Enrollment and counts people, guests included. The email says plainly how many have signed up against the minimum, links to the class, and — if Gather Grove Pulse is promoting the class — to the promotion. Each class date gets at most one alert, and none if the date is cancelled or fills up first. It stays off until you switch it on under Settings → Email → Automated, where you can also turn off the instructor copy or watch classes without a minimum.

1.208.0

• New: Gather Grove Pulse can now show what a class promotion achieved. Booking tells Pulse who signed up since the promotion started — including dependents and guest seats, cancellations and moves — and how much they paid after refunds, so Pulse can count sign-ups and revenue from its emails and early-bird code. The class editor’s Promote box and the Classes list show the results.
• New: when you pause marketing email in Pulse, Booking’s own marketing automations (win-backs, follow-ups and so on) wait too — up to 7 days, then they are skipped. Class reminders, receipts and other operational email are never held.
• New: Pulse can move a promotion’s early-bird code expiry when the class dates move.

1.207.0

• New: works with Gather Grove Pulse’s “Promote this”. The class editor has a Promote box and the Classes list a Promote link: Pulse can send a short, well-timed series of emails about one class (or one date of a drop-in class) to people who already know you — past students, last time’s group, this category’s regulars — with an optional early-bird code that only works for that class. Without Pulse, administrators see a one-line note instead.
• Fixed: a relative registration close on a course-style class (for example “closes 1 day before”) was measured from midnight UTC instead of midnight at the studio, so enrollment closed 4–5 hours early in North American time zones. It now closes at the right local time, including across daylight-saving changes.

1.206.2

• Fixed: when a membership belongs to a child with no email of their own, renewal reminders, payment warnings and package emails now go to the parent who pays, and say which child they’re about. Before, they were skipped without anyone knowing.
• Fixed: the “membership renews soon” reminder now goes out before every renewal, not only the first one.

1.206.1

• Fixed: on sites with smooth scrolling and a sticky header (common with Elementor themes), the calendar’s class details popup could end up over the header with its title cut off. It now appears once the page has stopped scrolling, stays clear of the header, fits a long popup by scrolling inside it, and closes when its class scrolls out of view.

1.206.0

• New: works with Gather Grove Pulse’s automations. When you switch on a Pulse version of a Booking email (such as the no-show follow-up), Booking steps aside so nobody gets two copies, and takes over again by itself if Pulse’s version is paused. Settings → Email → Automated shows which plugin sends each email, with “Send from Booking instead” and “Let Pulse send it” buttons.
• New: with Pulse active, Booking’s marketing emails respect Pulse’s weekly limit on marketing email per person. A held-back email waits a day and tries again, and is skipped if it can’t go out within two days of when it was due. Operational emails are never held back.

1.205.0

• New: checkout now asks for the waiver BEFORE payment — your details, then the waiver (only if one is owed), then payment, then confirm — on class bookings, appointments, bundles, class packs, memberships and courses. People read and sign the terms before they type a card number. Returning clients who have already signed see no extra step.
• Fixed: on a dark site the booking page card showed as a grey panel, and anything shown directly on it (the waiver form, notices, the confirmation) was hard to read. The card now uses your studio’s own colours.
• Fixed: the first click on “Confirm Booking” after typing in the form sometimes did nothing, and a class pack you had picked could switch back to the drop-in option. One click now books, and your choice stays.
• Fixed: a guest enrolling in a course, buying a class pack with a booking, or buying an appointment bundle no longer gets an account (and a welcome email) when the checkout is refused for a reason like “no upcoming sessions” or an unavailable time.

1.204.0

• Fixed: a guest buying a class pack with a booking, enrolling in a course, or buying an appointment bundle, who had to sign a waiver first, was told “An account already exists for that email address. Please log in” when the booking carried on after signing. The checkout now recognises the account it created a moment earlier and finishes. An account that already existed, or whose owner has since signed in, is still asked to log in.

1.203.0

• New: a waiver built in Gather Grove Forms is now filled in right inside checkout, like any other waiver. The form appears in the booking, and the booking carries on as soon as it is submitted — for members, parents booking for their children, and guests. The “Form page” setting is now optional and only used for emailed and portal links. Needs Gather Grove Forms 1.33.0 or newer.
• New: guests who fill in a waiver form do not have to fill it in again for 24 hours on the same browser, as long as they book with the same email.
• New: if a waiver’s form cannot be shown (Forms switched off or too old, the form archived, or the form takes a payment), bookings that need it are refused with a clear message, and a notice in your dashboard names the waiver and the form. The waiver’s settings warn about forms that take a payment or redirect.
• Security: a guest checkout is no longer given a permanent signing link for the account behind the email they typed.
• Security: a waiver that uses a form can only be signed by completing that form — never by an “I agree” tick, including on appointments, the sign-ahead page and emailed signing pages.

1.202.0

• New: close the studio from Sessions → Closures. Pick the day (or the hours), whether it is the whole studio or only some locations, rooms, classes or instructors, and see every class it would cancel — with the bookings, people and money involved — before anything happens. Untick anything that should still run.
• New: “Snow day: close today” and “Close tomorrow” buttons on the Sessions screen set up an all-day closure for the whole studio and take you straight to that preview.
• New: when you confirm, every class in the closure is cancelled and everyone gets their money back the way they paid: cards are refunded (or, if you choose, turned into studio credit), class-pack sessions, session credits and studio credit come back, and unpaid invoices are cancelled. Course dates are simply dropped; the course carries on. Memberships are not changed.
• New: each client gets one email listing every booking the closure cancelled and what happened to it. A parent who booked for their children gets one email listing each child’s seat. Waitlisted clients and instructors get their own single email, and managers get a summary. Clients and instructors are reminded the day before, unless the closure was announced at short notice.
• New: a “Studio closed” notice on the client account page and the instructor dashboard during the week before and during a closure.
• New: only Studio Directors, Gather Grove Admins and site administrators can close the studio. Managers can see the list of closures.

1.201.0

• Fixed: a class you cancelled could come back. The nightly schedule builder re-created a cancelled date as a normal class when it was the last one it had made, and could re-create a one-off workshop date that had already passed. Cancelled dates now stay cancelled and past dates are never created.
• Fixed: the reason you type when cancelling a class now reaches your clients’ email.
• Fixed: the “class cancelled” email is now sent after refunds run, and tells each client what happened to their payment: refunded to their card, returned as studio credit, their pack session returned, their invoice cancelled, or that there was nothing to return.
• Fixed: cancelling bookings in bulk from the Bookings list now works exactly like the Cancel button on one booking: class-pack sessions, session credits, studio credit, invoices and card payments come back, and the client reads “Cancelled by the studio” instead of “bulk_cancel”.
• New: instructors are emailed when a class they teach is cancelled: the lead instructor, the substitute covering it and any co-instructors. Cancelling several dates at once sends each instructor one email listing them all. The instructor who cancels their own class is not emailed about it.
• New: when a class is cancelled, its waitlist is closed and everyone on it gets one email saying so. An open “find a sub” request on the class is withdrawn.
• Fixed: cancelling “this and following” or a whole series no longer wipes the session’s staff notes. The reason is kept separately.
• Changed: removing a class (moving it to the trash) and cancelling from the instructor dashboard now refund and notify the same way. Both new emails can be edited under Settings → Email → Templates.

1.200.0

• Fixed: searching the schedule or calendar for a category now also finds classes filed under its subcategories. A search for “Yoga” finds a class that is only in Yoga › Vinyasa; a search for “Vinyasa” still does not bring up every Yoga class.

1.199.0

• New: a promo code can now apply to several purchase types at once. Under Promo Codes → Applies To, tick any of Drop-in classes, Class packs, Memberships and Appointments, or tick Everything. Existing codes keep working exactly as before.
• New: the category limit on a promo code is now labelled “Only for these categories (optional)” and combines with the purchase types: “Class packs” + Ceramics means Ceramics class packs only.
• Changed: a promo code limited to some categories now also checks class packs and memberships. A pack or membership qualifies only when every class it can be used for is in those categories, so a Ceramics code no longer discounts a studio-wide pack. A category includes its subcategories: a Ceramics code covers Wheel Throwing classes. Before, the category limit was not checked on pack and membership purchases at all.
• Changed: the Promo Codes list shows each code’s purchase types and category limit, for example “Drop-in + Class packs · Ceramics”.

1.198.0

• New: a Studio Director role for your front-desk lead. A Studio Director can do everything a Gather Grove Manager can, and can also add and edit classes, appointments, packages, instructors, locations, rooms and waivers. They still cannot change Settings or manage the WordPress site. Give someone the role under Users (add it alongside their existing roles).
• Fixed: Gather Grove Managers no longer see Classes, Packages, Instructors, Locations, Rooms, Appointments and Waivers links that only led to “Sorry, you are not allowed to access this page.” Those screens are for Studio Directors, Gather Grove Admins and site administrators.
• Changed: the Gather Grove Booking menu is reordered: daily work first, then your catalog, then Waivers with Waiver Compliance right after it, then sales, Reports and Settings.
• Changed: editing classes and the rest of the catalog now needs the Gather Grove catalog permission instead of WordPress’s general “edit posts” permission. Site administrators keep full access. If an Editor or Author on your site used to edit classes, give them the Studio Director role.

1.197.0

• Fixed: a client who owns two or more packs of the same package now sees the total left across all of them on the booking form (“5 sessions remaining across 2 packs”), not just one pack’s count. Before, someone with an old pack (1 left) and a new pack (3 left) was shown “1 left” and could not book a group of 3.
• Fixed: a group booking can now use seats from more than one pack of the same package. Bookings always use the pack that expires first, then the oldest one.
• Fixed: when a booking that used several packs is cancelled, each seat goes back to the pack it came from.
• Changed: My Account shows packs of the same package on one card, with the total on top and each pack (bought date, seats left, expiry) listed underneath.
• Fixed: the “sessions remaining” shown by the Package: Sessions Remaining widget tag, on the appointment booking form and in the “your pack expires soon” email now counts all of a client’s packs of that package. The “you finished your package” email is no longer sent while the client still has another pack of the same package with sessions left.
• New: in Clients → a client → Packages, click a pack’s name to see its history: every booking that used it (class, date, who came, how many seats, whether they were returned), plus staff adjustments, with the balance after each line.

1.196.0

• New: your site’s list of account names is hidden from visitors who are not logged in. WordPress normally publishes it, which hands password-guessers half of what they need. Logged-in editors are not affected.
• New: after 10 failed logins from one address in 15 minutes, that address has to wait before trying again, on the WordPress login page and on the sign-in form. Someone who mistypes is never locked out for longer than 15 minutes. Both protections can be turned off (see the FAQ).
• Fixed: a member caught by that limit is now told “Too many login attempts. Please wait a few minutes and try again.” instead of being told their password is wrong.
• Fixed: on sites behind Cloudflare, sign-in, sign-up and promo-code limits now count each visitor separately. Before, every visitor shared one count, so one person’s failed attempts could block everyone.
• Changed: bundled Gather Grove Core updated to 0.65.0.

1.195.0

• Fixed: opening a client’s page under Clients no longer shows a critical error.
• Fixed: the client dashboard no longer shows an error for a member whose membership or pack was set up before the site changed plans; their details show read-only.
• Fixed: a booking request that can’t go ahead is now refused before any account is created for the visitor.
• Fixed: the class calendar no longer errors on a course left over from an earlier setup.
• Changed: all your Gather Grove menus now sit together in the WordPress admin sidebar. On a site with other plugins (WooCommerce, Elementor, an SEO plugin) they used to be scattered between them. A menu-editor plugin can still rearrange them.
• Changed: now requires WordPress 6.9 or later. The bundled Action Scheduler, which runs background tasks such as reminders and is shared across Gather Grove plugins, is updated to its current release, 4.2.0, and that release needs 6.9.
• Changed: bundled Gather Grove Core updated to 0.64.6.

1.194.1

• Email delivery now shows when Postmark last reported back on each stream (“Last report: Delivered, 3 mins ago”), and puts a count on the Gather Grove menu if your site sent email more than 30 minutes ago and no report has come back.

1.194.0

• New: Gather Grove → Settings → Email delivery. Connect your own Postmark account once and your site’s email — booking confirmations, reminders, receipts and password resets — can go through it instead of your web server, with delivery and bounce reports, a test email, and DNS records that show whether each one is live. Nothing changes until you connect an account and switch it on.
• If another email plugin (FluentSMTP, WP Mail SMTP, Post SMTP or Easy WP SMTP) sends your site’s mail today, the screen says so and leaves it in charge until you choose to switch.

1.193.0

• Your studio’s brand — name, logo, palette, colors and fonts — now lives in Gather Grove → Settings → Brand, shared by every Gather Grove plugin, so a studio can set it even without Booking. Nothing to re-enter: your saved brand carries over as it is.
• Booking → Settings → Brand keeps the Reports chart color and links to the new Brand screen.

Older releases are listed in changelog.txt, included with the plugin and viewable at https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/gather-grove-booking/trunk/changelog.txt