Questions and answers
Craft workshops: questions, answered
bindro sells places at a craft workshop: the studio cuts its opening days into timed sessions, each session holds its own places, and a maker picks a time, signs the liability waiver by typing their name and pays on one phone-sized page. A place is locked while they pay, so two people cannot take the last stool at the wheel. Gift cards and class packs are prepaid balances the studio sells and a maker spends at checkout; kits and firing fees ride along as add-ons. Money reaches the studio two days after that event's last session ends, never before.
Reviewed: 2026-08-09
What studios ask
How do I sell workshop gift vouchers?
You sell a gift CARD — a balance between $5 and $500 that the recipient spends against any workshop you have on sale — and not a voucher for a named class. The buyer picks an amount and gives two email addresses; bindro mints one card, emails the code to the RECIPIENT and the receipt to the buyer, and holds the money as a liability until it is spent. It is valid for 24 months. What you cannot do is sell "a place at the Saturday wheel class" as a gift, restrict a card to one workshop, attach a message or choose a delivery date.
How do studios reduce class no-shows?
By taking the money up front, which bindro does, and by publishing terms it enforces for you: a window before the session at which self-service refunds stop, and a share you keep if a maker cancels inside it. Both are set once on your refund policy page, and a late cancellation then ends the booking, keeps your share and puts the place back on sale. Then switch the reminder on: it is per workshop and off until you tick it, and once ticked bindro emails every booking on that workshop once, a set number of hours before the session — 24 is the usual lead for an evening class. Past that there is no deposit and no card kept on file, and nobody is charged for simply not arriving. So the rest is yours: price the class so that turning up matters, and say in the workshop description what your terms are before a maker pays.
What booking software suits a pottery studio?
It depends on whether your problem is the classes or the whole business. If it is the classes, bindro is configured for them out of the box: opening days cut into timed sessions with their own places, a liability waiver typed and signed before payment, class packs and gift cards as prepaid balances, kits and firing fees as add-ons, and walk-ups sold at the door. If your problem is memberships, open studio hours billed monthly, kiln bookings or a shop till, bindro does none of those and a studio-management platform is the right tool.
How do I put a term of workshops on sale?
Create the workshop once and generate its sessions from a grid of dates and times, then give each session its own stock of places. A maker picks a date, sees which times still have places and pays for that session. Two things to know before you build a term. The hosted checkout sells one session per order, so a six-week course is best sold as one session priced for the whole course. And payouts follow the EVENT: one payout, two days after that event's last session.
When do I get paid for a workshop?
Two days after the last session of that event has ended, in one payout, with nothing held back — craft workshops are a low-risk tier with a zero percent reserve. The timing is per EVENT rather than per session: publish a whole term as one event and the money for week one arrives two days after week six. To be paid as you go, publish each date as its own event. Nothing is released before the workshop has been delivered.
What does bindro charge a studio?
2.5% + $0.99, charged once per order rather than once per place, and nothing at all until something sells. A free taster session costs nothing to publish or to run. Because the fixed part is per ORDER, one person booking four places at a hen-party workshop is charged one $0.99, not four. You choose who bears the fee: absorb it, add it to what the maker pays, or split it. There is no monthly fee, no setup fee and no contract, so a quiet February costs you nothing.
Can I run a waiting list for a fully booked workshop?
Yes, but read what it does before you rely on it. A fully booked session shows a join form; when a place becomes free the worker promotes the front of the queue, holds a place for them for 24 hours and emails a link straight into checkout. The catch is what counts as free: a refund does NOT return the place to the pool, so a cancellation wakes nobody. There is now one exception, and it is worth setting up for: where you have published terms that keep a share of a late cancellation, the maker's own cancellation ends the booking, puts the place back on sale and the queue does fire. Otherwise it fires when an abandoned checkout hold lapses, or when you raise the capacity yourself.
How do class packs work for a craft studio?
You publish a pack in the console — a name, how many credits, the whole-pack price and how long it stays valid — and a maker buys it from your pack shop and gets a code by email. At checkout they type the code and one credit pays for one place. A pack holds 2 to 100 credits, stays valid for 1 to 36 months, and the price must divide exactly by the credits. The money is a liability until a credit is punched, and credits are studio-wide rather than limited to one class.
What happens if a workshop costs more or less than one class-pack credit?
More, and the maker pays the difference in cash on the same order; less, and the pack punches nothing at all and they pay the full price by card. That second case surprises people, so price around it: a credit is worth exactly the pack price divided by the credits, and it buys one PLACE rather than a sum of money, so a $25 taster session against a pack whose credits are worth $40 takes no credit and charges $25. Set your pack so a credit is worth your CHEAPEST regular class, and let dearer classes take a credit plus the difference.
Can I sell kits, materials and firing fees with a place?
Yes — as add-ons on the booking, with their own stock. You publish a catalogue per workshop (a take-home kit, a bag of clay, a glazing-and-firing fee, an apron in three sizes) and the maker picks them at checkout; the price comes from your catalogue rather than the form, and stock moves inside the same transaction that takes the money. Add-ons are not held while a maker fills in the form, so somebody who loses the last kit between the form and paying is told so and charged nothing.
How do I take a booking for a group at one workshop?
One person books several places on one card and becomes the captain of a roster. They get a link that lets them name each maker, or send each place to the person taking it. The part to plan for: a place nobody has named is refused at check-in and does not appear on the door list, so a hen party of eight booked under one name needs the roster filled in before Saturday or seven people are turned away. There is no group RATE — no discounted price that kicks in above a threshold — so price a party workshop as its own ticket type, or use a promo code.
Can I sell a place to somebody who walks in on the day?
Yes, by card, from the day-of page in the console. A walk-up sale takes a real hold and carries you into the ordinary checkout, so the price is derived by the same code, the waiver is still signed, the card is captured properly and the maker leaves with a code that scans — a genuine sale rather than a note in a book. What you cannot do is record a place paid for in cash: crediting your balance for money the platform never held would pay you twice for the same place. Cash you take at the door stays outside bindro.
Does bindro collect a liability waiver before payment?
Yes, and it is refused rather than merely asked: the booking cannot complete without a typed signature, and the acceptance record is written inside the same transaction as the money. The record keeps the signer's name, the exact wording shown, a digest of that wording so a later edit is detectable, and a 36-month retention. Two limits matter for your insurer: the signature is one per ORDER, so a booking of four places carries one signer, and no copy is emailed.
Where can I see what makers told me about allergies or access needs?
On the register, on the allergen sheet for that date, and in the maker CSV. The register is the everyday one: every answer a maker gave is stacked under their name, so the screen you tick people off on is the screen that tells you about the nut allergy — and it needs the grant that reads makers, so a helper on a door role sees the name and nothing else. The sheet is the one to print: it lists a dietary need maker by maker for that date — including the ones who stated nothing, because a blank line reads as a question nobody answered — behind its own permission (an owner or a manager, never the door), a fresh verification even though you are signed in, and an audit line for every read. Access needs are asked once per booking rather than per maker, so they sit on the booking record, on the register and in that same CSV rather than on the sheet. None of it reaches the answers CSV, the one-file archive, an analytics screen or the assistant, ever. Print the sheet and still ask on the day: a form is a record, not the conversation.
Can I put the booking form on my own studio website?
Yes. Every workshop gets a hosted page you can link to, and an embed you can drop into your own site so a maker books without leaving it. Both run the same checkout, so the places, the waiver, the add-ons and the money behave identically wherever the maker started. There is no marketplace behind either of them: bindro will never send you a maker who had not heard of you. Traffic is yours — your page, your embed, your mailing list — which is a real difference from the platforms that also sell discovery.
Can I offer a discount code for a quiet weeknight class?
Yes. Promo codes are created in the console with a percentage or a fixed amount and an optional cap on how many times they can be redeemed, and the discount is applied server-side when the order is confirmed rather than trusted from the form. The last redemption of a capped code is resolved under a row lock, so two makers racing for the final use cannot both get it. A code worth more than the order clamps to a free place rather than going negative, and sales tax is recalculated on the discounted amount.
What should I know before I move my studio's bookings to bindro?
Three things. A refund does not return the place to sale, so cancellations are a manual capacity edit rather than an automatic backfill. Gift cards and class packs are studio-wide balances, not vouchers for a named class, and the gift code emails itself to the recipient immediately. And nothing COUNTS what a maker told you: access needs and "Have you done this before?" are readable under each name on the register and in the maker CSV, and the dietary answers on that date's allergen sheet as well, but no screen totals any of them, so how many beginners are booked on Saturday is something you read rather than a report you open. Everything else — timed sessions with real place locks, a signed waiver on the money path, add-ons, walk-ups, payout after delivery — works as expected.
What makers ask
How do I book a place at a workshop?
Pick a date and a time, choose how many places you want, fill in the details the studio asks for and pay — it is one page on a phone. Your place is held for ten minutes while you pay, so nobody can take it out from under you, and released again if you close the tab. You will be asked to type your full name as a signature on the studio's liability waiver; the booking cannot complete without it. Your confirmation email carries a code to bring on the day and a link back to your booking.
Can I get a refund if I cannot come to the workshop?
Yes, in full, yourself, up to the moment the session starts. The link in your confirmation email opens your booking and refunds everything still refundable back to the card that paid, without asking anyone. After the session starts the studio owns the decision. Two things worth knowing: the place you give up does not automatically go back on sale, so tell the studio if somebody wants it, and money paid with a gift card or class pack goes back onto that card or pack rather than to your bank.
Can I change my workshop to a different date?
Not through bindro — there is no reschedule button and no way to move a booking to another date. What you can do is refund yourself from the link in your confirmation email, up to the moment the session starts, and then book the date you want if it still has places. Ask the studio first if the new date looks full: they can raise a session's capacity. The same applies to giving your place to a friend — there is no transfer, so the practical route is a refund and a fresh booking in their name.
Can I buy a craft workshop as a gift?
You buy a gift card — a balance the recipient spends on whichever workshop they want — rather than a place at a particular class. Choose an amount between $5 and $500, give the recipient's email address and your own, and pay; they get the code and you get the receipt. It is valid for 24 months and can be spent across more than one booking. Plan for one thing: the code is emailed as soon as you pay, with no message and no way to schedule it, so if it is a surprise, buy it close to the day.
How do I use a gift card or class pack code when I book?
Type it into the box on the booking form — case and dashes do not matter — and the total updates before you pay. A gift card takes whatever it can off the total and you pay the rest by card; if it covers everything, there is no card payment at all. A class pack works in whole places rather than money: one credit buys one place, and if the workshop costs more than a credit is worth you pay the difference. An expired, spent or wrong-currency code is refused with one plain message, and nothing is charged until you have seen the total.
What do I need to bring to the workshop?
Whatever the studio says on the workshop page — aprons, closed shoes and long hair are their call, not ours. Bring the code from your confirmation email, on your phone or printed; that is what gets you in. If you booked places for other people, make sure their names are filled in before the day: a place with nobody named on it is refused at the door and does not appear on the studio's list, which is the one avoidable way a group booking goes wrong.
Why am I being asked to type my name as a signature?
Because the studio requires a liability waiver for a workshop with kilns, blades or hot wax in it, and typing your full name is how you sign it. The booking will not complete without it — it is checked on the payment path, not just on the form. What is recorded is your name, the exact wording you were shown, the time, and a digest of that wording so it cannot be quietly changed later. No copy is emailed, so save the page if you want one, and note that your signature covers the whole order rather than each person on it.
When can I collect the pieces I made?
Ask the studio — this is a kiln question rather than a booking question, and bindro holds nothing about it. Pottery generally needs drying, a bisque firing, glazing and a second firing, which is why studios usually quote two to four weeks before pieces are ready. Your booking covers the workshop itself; it is not a receipt for your work and there is no collection appointment to book here. A glazing or firing fee may have been offered as an add-on when you booked.
I have never done this before — is that a problem?
Almost never, and the booking form usually asks so the studio can pitch the class. Be aware of one gap on our side: bindro stores your answer and shows it to nobody, so if being a complete beginner — or having an access need, or an allergy to something in the materials — changes what you need on the day, email the studio as well as ticking the box. That is a limitation of this software rather than of the studio.
What happens if the studio cancels the workshop?
You can refund yourself in full, and the usual "only until the session starts" window does not close on you — a booking whose sessions have all been cancelled stays refundable indefinitely, so a cancelled workshop cannot trap your money. Use the link in your confirmation email. If the studio offered a different date instead, take that up with them: bindro cannot move a booking from one date to another, so in practice it is a refund and a fresh booking. Money paid with a gift card goes back onto that card rather than to your bank.
What does bindro NOT do for a studio?
A capability this vertical does not declare is refused by the engine rather than quietly missing, so it is listed here rather than left to be discovered.
- A refunded place does not go back on sale, and the waiting list never sees it. Refunding a booking returns the money and leaves the place counted as sold, so the session still reads fully booked and the queue stays asleep — it wakes only when an abandoned checkout hold lapses, or when the maker cancels under published terms that keep a share, which does end the booking and does free the place. After a plain refund: raise that session's capacity by one by hand.
- No-show protection goes exactly as far as your published terms. You can set the hours before the session at which self-service refunds stop, and the share you keep on a cancellation inside that window — bindro applies both itself, ends the booking and returns the rest. What you cannot do is take a deposit, hold a card against a no-show, or charge anybody who simply does not arrive. The reminder email exists but is off until you turn it on, one workshop at a time: tick "Send a reminder for this workshop" on that workshop's Reminders page and every booking on it is emailed once, a set number of hours before it starts (24 is the lead we suggest for an evening class). Nothing is sent for a workshop where nobody has ticked it.
- No transfers and no date changes. A maker who cannot come on Saturday cannot hand their place to a friend and cannot move it to next week — this vertical resolves neither ticket transfer nor deferral, and there is no credit note. The only lever is a refund, after which they book again at whatever is still on sale.
- A gift card is a balance, not a voucher for a named workshop: $5 to $500, valid 24 months, spendable on anything your studio has on sale. You cannot sell "one place at the Saturday wheel class" as a gift or restrict a card to one class, and there is no send date and nothing printable — the code is emailed to the recipient, with the name and the message you typed, as soon as it is paid for, so a card bought on 3 December lands on 3 December.
- Class-pack credits are studio-wide and cannot be aimed at one class. There is no pack that covers the six-week wheel course and nothing else, and no way to exclude a masterclass. A credit buys one place: a dearer class takes a credit plus the difference in cash, and a class cheaper than a credit punches nothing at all and is paid in full.
- Nothing counts an answer for you. What a maker told you is readable in three places — the register, stacked under their name, for anyone you have given the grant to read makers; that date's allergen sheet, maker by maker, for the dietary answers only, behind a fresh verification and an audit line; and the maker CSV, which carries a column for every question you asked, access needs and "Have you done this before?" included — but nothing totals them. No analytics screen breaks a date down by what people answered, and a dietary or access answer is kept out of the assistant absolutely and leaves bindro in the maker CSV alone: not in answers.csv, not in contacts.csv, not in the one-file JSON archive. Counting how many beginners are booked on Saturday is reading, not a report.
- One signature covers the whole booking, not each maker on it. The waiver is typed by the person paying, and the acceptance record names that one signer however many places the order covers. There is also no age rule until you write one: the vertical sets no minimum, so a booking for a fifteen-year-old at a woodworking bench is refused only on a date where you have set a lowest age under "Who this date suits" — and what that checks is a date of birth typed on the form, refused before payment but not proof of anybody's age.
- No shop till and no cash. A walk-up place sold at the door is a real card sale on the ordinary checkout, but there is no way to record a place paid for in cash and no counter-sales page for mugs, glazes or fired pieces. Kits and firing fees can be sold as add-ons ON a booking; anything sold separately at your counter stays outside bindro.
What else should I read?
Craft workshops: the overview
Gift cards, class packs and waivers signed before a place is paid for.
bindro vs Eventbrite
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bindro vs Momence
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Selling craft workshop gift vouchers that survive Christmas
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A maker cancelled two days before the workshop. What actually happens next?
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How to price a class pack so every credit buys a place
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Waivers, groups and the door: running workshop day without a clipboard
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