A new term and fourteen conversations
The autumn timetable needs to be live in three weeks. You message each of your fourteen instructors to ask what they can do. Some reply the same day, some in a week. One sends a photo of her diary. Another says 'same as last term except Tuesdays', and you are not sure which Tuesdays.
You draw the week on a spreadsheet: rooms across the top, times down the side, colour for each format. Two instructors want the same Saturday slot. The reformer room is double-booked on Thursday evening because you forgot the hire. The only person qualified for the new barre class can only do mornings, when demand is low.
Once it is agreed, you enter every class into the booking system by hand, one at a time, and check it against the spreadsheet twice.
Why timetable building takes so long
Studios rely on freelancers, and freelancers have other commitments that change each term. Their availability exists in their heads and their own calendars, not in a format you can compare.
The constraints are also real and tangled: rooms, formats, who is qualified to teach what, which slots sell well, how many classes each instructor wants, and fixed things like hires and kids' classes. A spreadsheet can show them, but it cannot check them.
Then there is the double entry. After all that work, the timetable is typed again into the booking system, which is where mistakes creep in.
What the term-start scramble costs
| Pain point | Result |
|---|---|
| Availability collected by message | Weeks of chasing and misunderstandings |
| Spreadsheet with no checks | Room clashes and unqualified instructors |
| Popular slots uncovered | Demand you cannot serve |
| Manual entry into booking system | Typos in times, rooms and teachers |
| Late publishing | Clients cannot book ahead, regulars drift |
There is also a slower cost. When building the timetable is painful, owners avoid changing it, even when some slots are clearly not working.
How we make the timetable a planning job, not a chasing job
We build a small planning tool that sits in front of your booking system.
- Instructors get a link each term to a form showing the week grid. They mark when they are available, their preferred number of classes and any formats they want to teach more or less of.
- The tool knows each instructor's approved formats, your rooms and fixed commitments such as hires and kids' classes.
- You build the timetable by assigning classes on a grid. The tool warns you immediately about room clashes, unqualified instructors or someone over their preferred load.
- Slots are shown with past attendance for that time, so you can see where demand is.
- Instructors confirm their assigned classes through the same link, and the tool reminds anyone who has not.
- Once confirmed, the timetable is pushed into your booking system through its API, and a check compares the two.
Awkward situations it handles
- An instructor who can only commit to alternate weeks: the slot is shared between two people with the pattern stored.
- A class you want to trial for six weeks: it is added with an end date and a review reminder.
- School holidays: a separate timetable for those weeks can be built from the main one.
- A mid-term change: one class can be moved without rebuilding the whole week, and booked clients are told.
Term start with the tool
Instructors enter their own availability. You build the week on a grid with clashes flagged as you go. When it is confirmed, it appears in the booking system without retyping.
- Availability collected once, in one format
- Clashes caught while you plan
- Attendance history beside every slot
- No double entry into the booking system
Is timetable planning like this for you?
- You collect instructor availability by message.
- The timetable is built in a spreadsheet.
- You have published a timetable with a room clash.
- Every class is entered by hand into the booking system.
- Building a new timetable takes weeks.