Software for wellness businesses

A student from the Tuesday 7:00 pm group lets you know they can't come this week. Without software, that's two or three WhatsApp messages: they write to you, you check where there's a free spot, you confirm, and you jot down somewhere that you owe them a class.

With Bonsai, the student cancels from the app and books themselves into another session with a free spot. They don't need to ask you and you don't need to write anything down.

The key part is that you decide how many changes or make-up classes each student can make. That's the difference between a clear policy and the “okay, just this once” that ends up throwing your groups off balance: if your rule is that students can make up two classes a month, the system enforces it for you and you don't have to say no in person.

When a student frees up their spot, it becomes available to everyone else and to the waitlist, so your classes stay full without you having to orchestrate it.

The other case everyone ends up tracking by hand: an eight-session class pass with only six used by the end of the month. Are those two lost? Do they carry over to next month? Does it depend on whether they gave notice in time?

In Bonsai, it's your call: you can turn on rollover so unused sessions from previous months carry over to the next period, or turn it off so they expire at the end of the period. Both policies are legitimate and each studio chooses its own.

What changes is that it stops being a case-by-case negotiation. Students see in their app how many sessions they have left and until when, without asking you. And you stop refereeing exceptions at the front desk, which is where time disappears and where grievances between students start.

If you want to see how this works together with usage and expiry tracking for each class pass, we explain it on the class pass management page.

A cancellation with two days' notice is very different from one half an hour before class: the first gives you time to fill the spot, the second leaves it empty. That's why the cancellation policy in Bonsai is something you configure, not something imposed on you.

You can set a minimum notice period after which students can no longer cancel: if your rule is 12 or 24 hours' notice, once that point has passed the spot stays taken and the session is used up. Students see it in the app before booking, so the rule is known in advance and you don't have to remind anyone.

That's what prevents the most expensive scenario for a studio with groups of nine: the cancellation half an hour before class, which leaves an empty spot because there's no time left to fill it. You also set how late a class can be booked, with bookings open until X hours before.

When someone cancels within the allowed time, their spot goes back to the group and the waitlist automatically notifies the next person. The class fills up again without you lifting a finger.

And the other way around: you can have a session cancel itself if it doesn't reach a minimum number of sign-ups. That way you don't open the room or pay an instructor for two students, and those who signed up are notified in time to move to another time slot.