When your classes fill up, Enrollsy's waitlist features help you capture interested customers automatically. This guide covers how waitlists work, how to build them at different levels, and how to use external forms if you need advanced features like age restrictions or custom pricing.
Essential Rules of Waitlists
💡 Quick Summary: Enrollees stay on a waitlist until an Admin manually removes them.
Dual Enrollment: An Enrollee can be on a waitlist and a class simultaneously. Being on a Waitlist does not block them from normal enrollment if a spot opens.
Admin Flexibility: Admin users can add enrollees to multiple Waitlists at any time via the Classes page.
Customer Limits: Customers can only enroll themselves in one Waitlist at a time.
Visibility Rules:
Program-Level: Customers can join even if individual Classes have open spots.
Class-Level: Customers can only join if that specific Class is completely full.
Enrollment Does Not Remove Enrollees: Enrollees stay on the Waitlist until an Admin user removes them manually.
Enabling Waitlists (Prerequisite)
Before any waitlist can appear on your Enroll Form, your account must meet the following configuration requirements:
Account & Publishing Checklist
Ensure you have successfully created and published at least one of each of the following components:
Location
Enrollment Period
Program (Note: For class-level waitlists, the individual Class must also be published).
💡 Need help publishing these elements? Check out the Programs and Classes Setup Guide for a complete walkthrough.
System Configuration Setup
Once your architecture is published, you must activate capacity enforcement:
Head to the My Company page in your admin dashboard.
Click Enroll Form in the left menu layout.
Check the box for "Enforce enrollment capacities."
Types of Waitlists
Program-level Waitlist - A Program-level Waitlist is a Waitlist on the Program that encompasses ALL the Classes within that Program. The Waitlist becomes visible when at least one Class in a Program is full.
Class-level Waitlist - A Class-level Waitlist is a Waitlist on the Class. Waitlists on the Class will be for that one specific Class.
Video Walkthrough: Creating Waitlists
Before building out your queues, you can watch this brief video overview demonstrating how to configure waitlist options across both your overall Programs and individual Classes.
Create a Program-Level Waitlist
Best Used For: The Simple Enrollment Model (where customers do not choose their own classes). Programs set up on any other Enrollment Model, must use the Class-Level Waitlist
How it works: This covers ALL classes within a single Program. It appears to customers as soon as at least one class in that Program fills up.
Step-by-Step Setup
Click Classes in the left sidebar.
Select your Enrollment Period on the left, then click the target Program.
Click the Add Waitlist button on the right side of the screen.
Set Capacity (Optional): Enter a number greater than "0" to restrict spots, or leave it blank for an infinite/unlimited waitlist. Click Save.
Once created, the waitlist appears at the bottom of the class view, marked with a "+1 waitlist" indicator next to the class capacity.
Managing Program Capacities & Edits
Managing capacities at the Program level requires understanding how Enrollsy balances structural caps against waitlist data.
How Program Capacity is Calculated
A Program's total capacity is dynamically tied to the sum of its underlying Class capacities.
The Math: If a Program contains 3 classes, and each class has a capacity of 10, the global Program capacity is 30 (10 capacity x 3 classes).
The Admin Overage Rule: If an Admin manually over-enrolls an individual class beyond its limit (e.g., placing 12 students into a class capped at 10), Enrollsy automatically decreases the global Program capacity by that overage amount. In this scenario, the overall Program capacity automatically drops by 2.
Critical Capacity Rules
Capacity Exclusions: A Program's standard capacity does not include its Waitlist capacity. They are treated as entirely separate numbers by the system.
Unlimited Waitlists: If you leave the waitlist capacity field completely blank, it defaults to infinite. An unlimited number of enrollees will be permitted to join the queue via the Enroll Form.
How to Edit or Close Waitlist Spots
If you need to change the size of your queue or stop new entries entirely, use the following steps:
Locate your Program on the Classes page.
Click the blue pencil icon next to the active waitlist.
Update the value in the Capacity field:
To restrict entries: Set it to your precise maximum cap. Once reached, the system will block further entries on the Enroll Form.
To freeze/close the waitlist: Change the capacity number to match the exact number of enrollees currently waiting in that queue. This prevents new customers from joining without dropping the people already in line.
Click Save.
Create a Class-Level Waitlist
⚠️ Important Feature Note: Class-level waitlists are an unlockable feature. If you do not see the option on your dashboard, message our team via the chat support box to unlock it for free.
Best Used For: The Classes Enrollment Model or Days per Week Enrollment Model.
How it works: This creates a waitlist for one specific class. It only appears on the Enroll Form when that exact class is full.
Step-by-Step Setup
Navigate to Classes in the left sidebar.
Select your Enrollment Period and choose the Program.
Select and open the specific Class (or Day of the Week/Date within the class).
Click Add Waitlist on the right side.
Set Capacity (Optional): Enter a maximum number of waitlist spots or leave it blank for an unlimited queue. Click Save.
Once created, the waitlist appears at the bottom of the class view, marked with a "+1 waitlist" indicator next to the class capacity.
Viewing Your Active Waitlists
Once a waitlist is established, Admin users can monitor and track waitlisted enrollees directly from the main dashboard workspace.
Click the Classes (person) icon in the upper-right or left navigation sidebar.
Select your current Enrollment Period.
Checking a Program-Level Waitlist
Location: Look at the top of your selected Program module, positioned directly above the individual Class listings.
What you'll see: The total volume of waitlisted enrollees will display here globally.
Checking a Class-Level Waitlist
Locate the specific target Class within your Program view.
Click the down arrow icon to expand the Class layout details.
Scroll to the bottom of the active enrollees roster; the waitlist queue will be displayed at the very end of the list.
How Waitlists Work on the Enroll Form
When a customer fills out your live Enroll Form, the waitlist selections dynamically adjust based on your backend settings:
Program-Level Waitlists: These display clearly labeled as "Program level" within the selection drop-down menu.
Class-Level Waitlists: These display directly nested under the specific Class names to which they belong.
Alternative: Create a Custom "Waitlist" Program
If Enrollsy's default waitlist features do not support your workflow—such as needing age restrictions, standalone reports, custom waitlist pricing, or allowing multiple waitlist selections—you can build a custom Program instead.
Step 1: Choose Your Architecture Level
Enrollment Period Level: Create a dedicated Enrollment Period named something like "Registration Waitlist".
Program Level: Create a custom Program Option (e.g., "Enrollment Option") and add a "Waitlist" selection.
Step 2: Build the Infrastructure
Create standard Classes under your new Waitlist Program or Period.
Step 3: Configure Fees
If you want to charge a fee to join the waitlist:
Go to the Pricing section in your Program editor.
Add the one-time fee under "What is the total Program cost?"
Ensure you publish the pay-in-full option by clicking the eye icon.
Create a Manual (Internal) Waitlist
If you want to build a waitlist that is completely invisible to customers so that Admins can manually sort and place individuals:
Go to My Company > Enroll Form.
Uncheck the box for "Enforce enrollment capacities."
Create your waitlist as usual.
⚠️ Important: When this setting is turned off, a red caution icon will appear. The waitlist will not appear on the customer-facing Enroll Form, and these spots are completely excluded from Auto-Billing features.
Create an External Waitlist
If you prefer to collect waitlist information via a third-party platform (like Google Forms), you can route customers there directly from your Enroll Form.
Step 1: Admin Permissions
Ensure your Admin user profile has the "Manage Enrollment Waitlist Messages" permission toggled on.
Step 2: Navigate to Message Settings
Go to My Company > Company > Enroll Form and scroll to "Message for using an External Waitlist."
Step 3: Draft and Link
Write your custom waitlist message in the provided text field.
Highlight your call-to-action text and click the Link Icon to insert your Google Form or external URL.
Click the floating Save button at the bottom of the page.
Prefer to watch? See this video for how to create an external waitlist.