Letting parents change their own membership

Every "can we switch to the Tuesday class?" and "we can't commit every week, can we just pay when we come?" is a message you have to read, act on and reply to. You can hand any of that to parents — or none of it. There are three separate switches, all off until you turn them on, in Settings → Club → What parents can do themselves.

They're separate on purpose. Letting a parent move to your other class is a very different decision from letting them cancel, so you're never forced to accept one to get the other.

Switch class

A parent can move their child from one of your classes to another without asking first.

They only ever see classes their child is eligible for — the same age band and class type rule the Enrol button uses. A parent can't put a 6-year-old into your adults class.
They have to give a reason, which comes through to you.
The old enrolment ends and the new one starts straight away, at the new class's price.
You get a notification.

If you only run one class, this does nothing — there's nowhere to move to, so parents won't see the option at all. It starts working the day you add a second class.

Switch to pay-as-you-go

A monthly member can move themselves onto paying per session instead.

They keep their place in the class. Only the billing changes — nothing is un-enrolled and nobody loses their spot.
Monthly charges stop. From then on they're charged your drop-in rate for each session they actually attend.
You get a notification, because your recurring income has just changed.
Only members currently on monthly billing see the option.

Think about your drop-in rate before you turn this on

This is the one switch that can reduce what you take. Compare your two prices: if a class is £18 a month and your drop-in rate is £6, then a child who comes three times a month costs the same either way, four times and you're better off, twice and you're down £6 on that member.

So the question isn't really "do I trust parents" — it's how often do my members actually attend. If most come most weeks, this costs you very little and saves a lot of messages. If attendance is patchy, expect some income to move. Your drop-in rate is the lever: you set it, and you can change it at any time.

Going back to monthly

Parents can book a return to monthly themselves, and it takes effect at the start of the coming month — not straight away.

That delay is deliberate, and it protects both of you. Monthly fees are billed in arrears: the run on the 1st charges for the month just gone. If someone flipped back mid-month, that run would bill them a full month for weeks they'd already paid for session by session. Waiting for the 1st means the pay-as-you-go month is billed per session, and their first monthly charge covers a month they were actually a member for.

So if a parent books it on 12 September, they stay on pay-as-you-go for the rest of September and are a monthly member again from 1 October — with that October fee collected on 1 November as usual. They can cancel the booking any time before it takes effect, and you're notified both when they book it and when it applies. You can also change anyone's billing yourself, at any time, from their profile.

Cancel outright

The third switch lets a parent end a membership instantly. Leave it off and nothing changes — cancellations stay as a request you approve, which is how it has always worked. Even with it on, a parent who owes money or has a Direct Debit still settling can't self-cancel; they're routed to you for approval instead.

What happens to money already paid

If a parent switches part-way through a month they've already paid for, Adminished works out the unused part of that period and puts it on their account as a credit. It shows on their statement as a pro-rata credit.

To be clear about what that is: it's a credit against their balance, which reduces what they owe next time. It is not money sent back to their card. If someone specifically wants a refund to their card, that's still a refund you issue from the payment.

What you'll see

Every one of these actions notifies you — a bell notification linking straight to the member. Nothing happens silently. You'll also see the change on the member's profile and in their billing history, so if a parent later says "I didn't do that", there's a record.

What parents can always do

Regardless of these three switches, a parent can always request a pause from their billing page. That's a message to you, not a change — you decide and apply it. Turning everything off doesn't leave parents with no options; it just means the options are requests rather than actions.

Our suggestion

If you're not sure, turn on Switch class first. It saves you admin, keeps the member and can't cost you anything. Add pay-as-you-go when you're comfortable with your drop-in rate. Leave Cancel outright off unless you have a specific reason to want it.

Setting up classes
Create a class, add a weekly schedule, set capacity and invite students to join.
Taking payments
Generate monthly charges, record cash or bank-transfer payments, and see who still owes money at a glance.
Payment reminders
How automated payment reminders work in Adminished (T+3, T+7, T+14), how saved-card auto-charge bypasses reminders entirely, and how declined cards are handled.
Leave or delete account
How parents leave a single club, how to delete a whole Adminished account, what gets retained for HMRC/GDPR compliance, and how to undo an accidental deletion.

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