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When ClubDock refuses something, it is usually telling you about your club’s set-up rather than a fault. Find what you are seeing below. Each entry says why it happens and what to do.

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Your club

Why: a ClubDock bill has been unpaid for 14 days, so the club is read-only. Your team can still read everything, and registers still work: signing children in and out, marking absences and adding notes. Parents cannot make new bookings, but they can still pay what they owe.What to do: a manager opens Settings → Billing and pays the overdue bill. Changes work again as soon as the payment goes through, not the next morning. See Your ClubDock subscription.
Why: those screens are for managers. Staff see Today, Registers, Calendar, Bookings, Reports and Settings. Opening a manager’s settings page from an old link says only managers can see it.What to do: if they need more, a manager changes their role under Settings → Team. If the new screens do not appear, ask them to sign out and back in. See Managers and Staff.
Why: the steps are for managers, and only until the club has a programme on sale. Staff never see them, and once you are open they are gone for everyone.What to do: if they should be setting the club up, make them a Manager under Settings → Team, then ask them to sign out and back in. They will find Set up your club at the top of the left-hand menu. Every step is also in Settings. See Set up your club.
Why: a club can import once, and only its founder can import. The import is also refused if the address does not end in .classforkids.io, or if Class4Kids could not be read in full. Nothing is ever half-imported.What to do: check the address and try again. If it has already been imported, add anything missing by hand. See Moving from another provider.

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Signing in

Why: codes come from ClubDock, never from your club’s name, so they are easy to miss in a busy inbox. On the main sign-in page, an email that belongs to no club gets no code, and the page says so straight away.What to do: check the spam folder for an email from ClubDock. Check the address was typed correctly, using Use a different email to go back. A code lasts ten minutes, so ask for another if it has expired. See Signing in.
Why: after five wrong codes in fifteen minutes, sign-in is refused for a while, even for the right code. This is what stops anyone guessing a code.What to do: wait fifteen minutes, then ask for a new code and enter it once.
Why: a sign-in lasts eight hours and does not extend itself, so a computer left on in the office overnight is signed out.What to do: sign in again. A passkey makes this one tap on a device that has one.

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Programmes and terms

Why: a programme needs dates before it can be published, previewed or copied. The publishing panel says when this is the reason.What to do: press Add dates and add its sessions. See Sessions and dates.
Why: the dates you chose to put on sale include none of the programme’s sessions. Parents would open a programme with nothing in it.What to do: widen the dates on sale, or leave them empty to sell every date. See Preview and publish.
Why: every programme must name a cancellation rule, and the club has none yet.What to do: a manager adds one under Settings → Cancellation. See Cancellation policies.
Why: it has had bookings, even if they were all cancelled. It is kept as the record of those families’ bookings.What to do: unpublish it to take it off sale.
Why: there is nothing to publish. The editor is empty, or the text is the same as the published version. Publishing identical terms would ask every family to accept them again for no change.What to do: write your terms, or press Generate a starting point, which writes a draft from your club’s settings. Read it, edit it and publish. See Terms and conditions.
Why: a question has no text, a multiple-choice question has no choices, or emergency contacts are set to zero. A club must always have someone to ring when a child is hurt.What to do: the row with the problem is marked. Finish it, or remove it. See Registration questions.

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Parents and booking

Open the child’s record and check, in this order:
  1. Is the club read-only? Parents see “This club is not currently taking bookings”. A manager pays the overdue bill under Settings → Billing.
  2. Is the child waiting for approval, or declined? It shows at the top of the child’s record and on Today. A manager approves or declines. See Rules, warnings and approvals.
  3. Are the child’s details incomplete, or the terms not accepted? The parent is taken to finish them when they sign in. If you added a required question, every family must answer it before booking again.
  4. Are bookings paused for an overdue balance? The parent sees “Bookings are paused” with the amount. Paying it lifts the pause at once. A manager can set a family to Never pause on the parent’s record.
  5. Is the child the wrong age, or at the wrong school, for the programme? Their days cannot be tapped.
  6. Is the date full, past its booking cut-off, or already started? A full date offers a waiting list. A started session cannot be booked.
If none of these apply, you can book for them. See Booking for a family.
Why: the club’s cancellation rule has passed, the rule is “never”, or the session has started. The parent is told the time cancelling closed.What to do: staff can still cancel the place, inside or outside the rule. A session that has started cannot be cancelled by anyone. See Cancelling and changing a booking.
Why: a waiting list is an alert, not a queue. When a place comes up, everyone waiting is emailed once, and whoever books first gets it. Nobody is held a place.What to do: if the date matters, raise the session’s limit. That emails the list again. See Waiting lists.

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Payments

Why: card is offered only once Stripe has finished checking your club. Until then, the Card switch in Settings → Payment methods cannot be turned on. Stripe may also pause card later if it needs something more, such as a document. Managers are emailed when that happens.What to do: open Settings → ClubDock Pay. A Stripe banner at the top says what is needed. Once Stripe is satisfied, card is offered again on its own. See Card payments with ClubDock Pay.
Why: one of these:
  • Your Ofsted registration number and postcode are not entered under Settings → ClubDock Pay.
  • Tax-Free Childcare is switched off in Settings → Payment methods.
  • HMRC did not recognise your details. Managers are emailed when it happens, and payments from a childcare account stop at once.
  • The childcare account would not cover the whole booking. In that case the parent pays by card, or from their childcare account afterwards.
What to do: enter or correct your details exactly as your regulator holds them. Correcting them turns it back on at once. See Tax-Free Childcare.
Why: a parent would be left with a bill and no way to pay it. Bank transfer needs your account details. Tax-Free Childcare needs instructions for parents. Childcare vouchers need a scheme, an account reference or instructions.What to do: fill in the field the message names. See Payment methods.
Why: your club is linked to Xero or QuickBooks, so payments are recorded there and come back to ClubDock. Recording it in both would count it twice.What to do: record the payment in your accounting software. It appears on the booking shortly afterwards. See What reaches your accounts.
Why: the amount is more than the credit left, or more than was paid by card. A closed club cannot refund at all.What to do: check the figures the message names. Money paid from a childcare account goes back to that account, not to a card. See Credit and refunds.

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Accounting

Why: something on it, such as the invoice, a card or Tax-Free Childcare payment, or a credit note, has not reached Xero or QuickBooks. The booking itself is fine, and parents are not affected. Common causes:
  • You have not chosen where card money, Tax-Free Childcare money and Stripe’s fees go.
  • In QuickBooks, the ClubDock bookings product is inactive or has no income account.
  • Your connection to Xero or QuickBooks has expired.
What to do: the booking says what went wrong. Fix the cause, then open the booking’s menu and press Refresh from accounts. Bookings are refreshed one at a time. See When something does not sync.
Why: something has not reached your accounting software. The email repeats each morning until it has.What to do: follow the email to the Sync problem filter on Bookings. If the email asks you to reconnect, reconnect under Settings → Accounting.

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Things ClubDock does not do yet

Some questions have no answer in ClubDock today. Knowing them saves looking.
  • Seeing who changed what. ClubDock records it, but no screen shows it yet.
  • A limit for an extra. Extras share their session’s places.
  • Different rules at different venues of one programme. Different schools, ages or booking windows need two programmes.
  • Approving a child for one programme only. Approval covers the whole club.
  • Reminders about approvals. The count on Today is the only reminder, so check it while a manager is away.
  • A payment history for parents. Parents see what they owe and their credit, but not a list of past payments.
  • Text messages, offline registers and late-collection charges added automatically. None of these exist.