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Must know
  • Who goes first. With Automatic Promotion on (off by default), the first athlete in the numbered line is offered the spot. Staff reordering changes who that is, and By session requests are skipped.
  • What they pay. What is still owed, including any required membership. If that membership can’t be bought, nobody is promoted.
  • What triggers it. Only cancelling or removing an enrollment that held a spot, or an expired unpaid offer. Cancelling from an invoice in Financials, or raising capacity, does not.
  • Open spots are open to everyone. A spot left open can be taken by any family registering on your club website, because Join Waitlist is only offered while the program is full.
What triggers a promotion. You cancel an enrollment with Cancel enrollment (with or without Also refund this enrollment), you Remove a Spot offered athlete on the Waitlist tab, an active enrollment is permanently deleted, or an unpaid offer expires. Promotion runs only if there is room. What does not trigger it. These free a spot but promote no one, so fill it by hand: cancelling or refunding the program line from an invoice in Financials, a recurring enrollment set to end at period end reaching its end date, and raising capacity. What happens when it runs. With Automatic Promotion on (the Waitlist tab then shows Auto-promote enabled):
  1. Uplifter picks the first athlete in the numbered line. The up and down arrows on each row (Move up and Move down) change that order, and a rejoined athlete goes to the back. By session requests are skipped, and a request whose sessions have all passed is removed.
  2. It charges their saved card what is still owed: the program price plus the required membership if they don’t hold it, with tax on each. Per-session-priced programs charge the sessions left in the current billing period.
  3. It enrolls them, in sessions from today on. Recurring programs set up the subscription once the first charge succeeds.
  4. The family gets the Waitlist Promotion email.
If your club collects the program fee or membership at join (Settings > Registration > Waitlists > When families pay), promotion charges only what is left, possibly nothing. When nobody is promoted. Even with Automatic Promotion on, the spot stays open when:
  • The required membership can’t be bought right now (for example, only staff can grant it).
  • The program has no room across every remaining session (drop-in bookings count), uses a rate card, or no longer sells whole-program enrollment.
  • A free promotion is waiting on requirements the family hasn’t finished, or everyone in line has a By session request.
If the card declines. The athlete is held, not skipped, and so is a family with no saved card. The spot is reserved for 24 hours, but the athlete is off the class rosters until payment clears. The charge is retried during the window. The family sees a portal banner with Add Payment Method and gets the Waitlist Payment Failed email. The athlete shows Spot offered and can only be removed. If the window lapses, the Waitlist Payment Expired email goes out and the next athlete is promoted only if Automatic Promotion is still on. The email. Waitlist Promotion is a system rule under Settings > Communication > Notifications > System Rules, so you can disable or edit it. It isn’t sent when the family still has requirements to finish after paying, or when the offer was withdrawn first. Why did a new registrant get the spot instead of the next athlete on the waitlist? Waiting athletes don’t hold seats. If a seat frees without a promotion, the program is no longer full, so your club website sells it to anyone and stops offering Join Waitlist. A family who tries to join anyway is told to register normally. How to keep the seat for the line. Promote by hand. While a seat is open, the head of the line shows Spot available instead of #1, your cue to click Promote. Manual promotion ignores the Automatic Promotion setting and capacity, and offers Promote without membership. Related: How do I automatically promote people off the waitlist? · What is a family charged when promoted off a waitlist? · What happens when a promoted athlete’s payment fails? · How do I reorder or remove athletes on a waitlist?