Signups are how students get into an activity group. Parents (or students themselves) sign up via the portal or mobile app; staff then review, allocate to teams, and handle waitlists or payment follow-up.
Opening signups
Signups open when the Signup open date on the activity group passes, and close when the Signup close date passes. See Setting up activity groups to configure these dates.
Outside the window, the activity group is hidden from parent and student signup screens.
What parents and students see
Eligible families see the activity group on:
- The parent dashboard under Co-Curricular Signups.
- The student dashboard.
- The mobile app under Activities to sign up to.
Visibility is filtered by year group, gender restriction and any invite-only flag set on the group.
When a parent (or student) signs up:
- They see the activity group’s description, terms and price.
- They tick the consent / T&Cs if required.
- They submit — and if the group has a price, they go to the payment step (or Pay later, if enabled).
- The signup is recorded and the family sees a confirmation.
Where staff manage signups
Go to Co-Curricular → Activity Groups → [the group] → Signups. The list shows everyone who has signed up:
- Student name and year group.
- Parent who submitted the signup.
- Signup date.
- Payment status (paid, pay-later, no charge).
- Team allocation (or Unallocated).
- Notes from the parent (T&Cs response, custom form data).
Allocating to teams
Most signups need to be assigned to a team. Two ways:
- Drag-and-drop — drag the student onto a team in the team list.
- Edit signup — open the student’s signup record and pick a team from the dropdown.
Once allocated, the student appears on the team roster and on session rolls.
See Assigning staff, coaches and students to groups for the full allocation workflow.
Waitlist
If max capacity is reached and waitlist is enabled (see Setting up activity groups):
- Further signups land in the Waitlist section.
- When a spot opens (e.g. a student withdraws), the next waitlisted student is auto-promoted or available for manual promotion, depending on your school’s setting.
Withdrawals
Two parties can withdraw:
- Parent — from the parent dashboard, they can withdraw their child up until a configured cut-off date.
- Staff — from the signups list, choose Withdraw on a row.
Withdrawn signups stay in the audit log but are removed from active rosters. If the parent has paid, refunds are handled outside PortalHQ.
Bulk operations
The signup list supports:
- Bulk email — send a message to all signed-up parents.
- Export — CSV with student, parent, payment and team data.
- Bulk team allocation — assign selected students to a team in one action.
Use the export for billing reconciliation, attendance reporting and any external system that needs the signup roster.
Late signups
After the signup close date, parents and students can no longer sign up themselves. Staff can manually add a student to the activity group:
- Open the activity group.
- Choose Add student.
- Search for and add them.
- Allocate to a team if applicable.
The signup is recorded with the staff member as the submitter, marked as a staff-initiated late signup.
Payment follow-up
For signups marked Pay later, the signup is provisional until payment is received. The signups list shows pay-later status separately so the finance team can chase outstanding amounts.
Invoice numbers are tracked per signup if your school uses external invoicing.
Tips
- Open signups a week or two before the activity needs to start so families have time to commit and you have time to allocate teams.
- Close signups before the first session so the team rosters are settled when staff first mark a roll.
- Watch the waitlist if the activity is popular — it’s the source of truth for who to add when a place opens.
- Export early and often. Reconciling signups against the SIS or finance system catches missed paperwork.