Calendar Settings
Calendar settings control how the Conductly calendar behaves, including what determines each event's color and how attendance labels affect billing, instructor pay, and make-up credits. This page also links to a separate per-user Calendar Sync page for connecting Google Calendar.
:::info Looking for instructor calendar visibility? "See the full calendar" and "Hide other students' names" used to live here but moved to Settings > Team, under the Instructor permissions panel's What instructors see on the calendar section. See Team Management. :::
To access calendar settings, go to Settings > Calendar.
Prevent Double Booking
The Prevent double booking toggle controls what happens when a new event would use the same room at the same time as an existing event:
- On (the default) -- Events cannot be scheduled in the same room at the same time. Conductly blocks the conflicting event from being saved.
- Off -- A warning is shown for room conflicts ("Are you sure?"), but you can proceed with Schedule Anyway.
A cancelled lesson never counts as a conflict -- you can book a room over a lesson that's been cancelled without triggering a block or warning.
:::info Room turnover time This setting also governs conflicts caused only by a room's Buffer Time -- the reserved turnover window before and/or after an event. A booking that only overlaps a buffer, not another event's actual hours, still gets a hard block (on) or a warning (off), just with a message explaining the room needs time to turn over. :::
Most schools should keep Prevent double booking on. This is especially important if you have multiple instructors sharing rooms or if your schedule is tightly packed. Turn it off only if your school intentionally allows overlapping events in the same room.
:::info Per-room override A specific room or building can override this school-wide setting -- following it, or set to its own Block, Warn, or Allow rule regardless of what's chosen here. See Double Booking. :::
Scheduling Outside Availability
The Block scheduling outside availability toggle controls what happens when you schedule an instructor for a lesson or class outside their weekly availability -- a day or time no Available block covers, a time that falls in a Break, or a location their blocks don't cover:
- Off (the default) -- A warning is shown ("Are you sure?"), but you can proceed with Schedule Anyway.
- On -- The event is blocked from being saved.
This only checks the instructor named on the lesson or class you're creating -- it doesn't apply to storefront bookings, which can never offer a time outside the instructor's availability in the first place, and it only runs when the event is created, not when an existing one is moved. An instructor with no availability blocks on file at all is never checked, since most instructors don't set any.
Which Rooms Can Be Used
Lessons that families book themselves through your store's Book online products arrive with no room. The Which rooms can be used setting decides whether -- and where -- Conductly assigns one automatically, so a self-booking doesn't need staff follow-up:
- Don't assign a room (the default) -- Self-booked lessons are left without a room for you to assign manually.
- Any room -- Any room in your school is a candidate.
- Only rooms the course allows -- Only the rooms listed on the booked course are candidates. Set a course's rooms on its detail page in the Catalog -- see Assigning Rooms to a Course. A course with no rooms listed can use any room, so switching to this option doesn't strand a course you haven't gotten to yet.
Choosing anything other than Don't assign a room reveals a second toggle, Prefer the room the instructor usually teaches in:
- On (the default once room assignment is turned on) -- Conductly tries the instructor's most-used room among the candidates first, falling back to another free candidate room if it's taken.
- Off -- A free candidate room is picked at random, spreading bookings across your rooms instead of favoring the instructor's usual one.
Either way, a missing room never blocks a paid booking -- if every candidate room is busy at the lesson time, the lesson is still scheduled, just left unassigned for you to place by hand.
Room candidates also honor each room's Buffer Time -- self-booking never assigns a room during its own turnover window, the same as a room a staff member is scheduling into by hand. A room whose Lessons take place at is set to The student's home is never a candidate either -- as a placeholder that's never really busy, it would otherwise look available for every booking.
If your school teaches different instruments in dedicated rooms -- a drum room, a room with a piano -- set Which rooms can be used to Only rooms the course allows and list each course's rooms on its Catalog page. Without that, self-booking has no way to know a piano lesson shouldn't land in the drum room.
Starting Hour
The Starting hour setting controls the time the calendar shows when you first open the page. The default is 9:00 AM -- set it to the hour your teaching day typically begins so you land right on your active schedule instead of scrolling from midnight.
Default Event Duration
The Default event duration setting (labeled Event length) controls how long a new event runs when you click an empty slot on the calendar in Day, Week, or Month view, or create one from the Schedule button's Lesson/Class/Event options. Choose 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, 1 hour, or 1.5 hours -- the default is 30 minutes.
This only affects newly created events -- existing events are unaffected and can still be resized manually. It also doesn't change the calendar's click grid: Day and Week view stay on half-hour increments, so a shorter or longer default changes how long the event you create is, not where you can click to start one.
Apply Make-Up Credits When Scheduling
When Apply make-up credits when scheduling is on (it is off by default), admins can choose how many make-up credits to use for a student while creating a lesson. The event form shows a make-up credit panel so credits can be applied at scheduling time instead of as a separate step.
Limit Make-Up Credits Per Student
Two more settings in this same group cap how many make-up credits a student can receive over time -- a different question from the per-student Max unused make-up credits cap in the student's credits drawer, which only limits how many credits they can hold unused at once (see Credits & Scholarships). A student who spends every credit as soon as they get it never hits that holding cap, but can still hit this one.
- Limit make-up credits per student -- the maximum number of make-up credits a student can receive within the window below. Set to 0 for no limit (the default).
- Make-up credit limit window -- the rolling number of days the limit above is counted over, ending today. Defaults to 60 days, and has no effect until the limit above is set above 0.
The count includes every make-up credit the student received in the window, in any status -- a credit they've already used still occupies a place in the window until it ages out. For example, with the limit set to 2 credits over a 60-day window, a student who received credits on day 1 and day 20 can't receive a third until day 61, even if both earlier credits were already used for make-up lessons.
This limit applies everywhere a make-up credit is issued: an admin or instructor assigning one by hand (including in bulk from the calendar's List view), an automatic credit from a missed lesson, and an automatic credit from a family's portal self-cancellation.
- When an admin or instructor tries to assign a credit that would exceed the limit, Conductly blocks it and shows the date the student will next be eligible.
- When a credit would be issued automatically (a missed lesson or a portal self-cancellation) and the student is over the limit, Conductly silently skips issuing it -- nothing is shown to the family or the person marking the lesson.
Shipped default: no limit. A school that never opens this page sees no change in behavior.
Max Make-Up Credits Held
Max make-up credits held is a school-wide version of the per-student holding cap -- how many make-up credits one student can hold unused at once, counted the same way as the per-student Max unused make-up credits field in the student's credits drawer. Set it to 0 for no cap (the default). When this is set above 0, a student's own field shows it as the placeholder ("School default: N") for any student without an override.
A student's own cap, if one is set on their page, always wins over this school-wide one. Credits that have already expired (see below) don't count toward either cap, since they can no longer be used.
This is a different limit from Limit make-up credits per student above: that one caps how many credits a student can receive over a rolling window, in any status. This one caps how many they can be sitting on, unused, at any single moment. A student who spends credits as fast as they get them can stay under this cap while still hitting the window limit above, or vice versa.
Make-Up Credits Expire After
Make-up credits expire after gives every automatically issued make-up credit an expiry date that many days after the day it's issued. Set it to 0 for credits that never expire (the default).
This only applies to credits Conductly issues on its own -- from a missed-lesson label or a family's portal cancellation. A credit you assign by hand still uses whatever expiry date (or none) you type when you assign it. Changing this setting only affects credits issued after you save it; credits already issued keep the expiry they were given. An expired credit can't be reserved or applied, and is marked Expired by the nightly sweep like any other expired credit.
Count Unmarked Lessons as Attended
Most schools only apply a label -- Missed, Makeup, and so on -- when a lesson doesn't go as planned, and leave the lessons that went fine untouched. The Count unmarked lessons as attended toggle (on by default) controls how the Attendance report treats those untouched lessons:
- On (the default) -- A past lesson or class nobody labeled counts as Attended on the Attendance report, so your attendance rate reflects the whole term instead of just the exceptions.
- Off -- Only lessons you explicitly labeled count. Unlabeled lessons are excluded from the report entirely.
Lessons still to come are never counted either way, and neither are cancelled lessons or non-lesson calendar events like recitals.
Turn this off only if your school labels every lesson individually and wants the Attendance report to reflect only those explicit marks.
Lesson Labels
The Lesson labels section controls what happens to billing, instructor pay, and make-up credits when a lesson is marked Missed (no show), Missed (with notice), Trial, or Makeup from the event popover's Label menu (see The Event Popover). Each label gets its own row of choices, and every row autosaves.
These settings replace what used to be fixed, hardcoded behavior -- if you never visit this page, nothing changes for your school. The defaults below reproduce exactly how Conductly already billed and paid for missed, trial, and make-up lessons.
Billing choices here only affect Per Meeting courses -- flat Subscription tuition never counts individual lessons. See Billing Plans.
Changes apply going forward -- past invoices and past pay are never recalculated when you change a setting on this page.
Missed Lessons -- No Show
| Setting | Choices | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Billing | Bill the family / Don't bill | Don't bill | Whether a lesson marked Missed (no show) still counts on Per Meeting invoices |
| Instructor pay | Pay the instructor / Don't pay | Don't pay | Whether the instructor earns for a lesson marked Missed (no show) |
| Make-up credit | Issue a make-up credit / No credit | No credit | Whether each student on the lesson receives a make-up credit when it's marked Missed (no show), honoring the student's max make-up credit cap |
Missed Lessons -- With Notice
The same three choices as No Show, set independently -- for example, you can bill and pay for a lesson cancelled with notice while still skipping true no-shows.
| Setting | Choices | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Billing | Bill the family / Don't bill | Don't bill |
| Instructor pay | Pay the instructor / Don't pay | Don't pay |
| Make-up credit | Issue a make-up credit / No credit | No credit |
Trial Lessons
| Setting | Choices | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Billing | Bill the family / Don't bill | Bill the family | Whether a lesson marked Trial counts on Per Meeting invoices -- choose Don't bill if your trials are free |
| Instructor pay | Pay the instructor / Don't pay | Pay the instructor | Whether the instructor earns for a Trial lesson, even a free one |
There's no make-up credit choice for trials.
Make-Up Lessons
| Setting | Choices | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Billing | Fixed at Never billed | -- | A lesson marked Makeup is never billed -- the make-up credit that scheduled it already covers the original lesson |
| Instructor pay | Pay the instructor / Don't pay | Don't pay | Whether the instructor earns for teaching the Makeup lesson, in addition to any pay for the lesson it replaces |
:::note New organizations Brand-new schools start with Instructor pay for make-up lessons set to Pay the instructor, not the Don't pay default above -- a new school has no existing pay pattern to preserve, and instructors teaching make-ups for free from day one isn't a sensible starting point. Change it at any time. :::
Relabeling a lesson updates money automatically: switching a lesson to a label whose policy excludes billing or pay voids any earning already generated for it, and switching back restores it. See Managing Earnings.
Color Events By
The Color events by setting controls what determines each event's color across the Day, Week, Month, and List views:
| Option | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Instructor (default) | Events take the color of the instructor teaching them, set on the instructor's detail page. |
| Location | Events take the color of the room they're booked in, set on the room's detail page. |
| Category | Private lessons, classes, and programs each get their own fixed color. |
If the chosen dimension has no color -- an event with no location, or an instructor or room whose color hasn't been set -- the event falls back to Conductly's default untinted look instead of showing a fourth color.
Only rooms have a calendar color, not buildings -- a building can't be booked on an event directly, so there's nothing for Location mode to color there. See Managing Locations.
This setting doesn't change anything for existing schools unless you switch it -- Instructor is the default and matches how the calendar has always looked.
Instructor Availability Background
The Instructor availability background setting picks the color used for the availability overlay on the calendar (the "Show instructor availability" overlay in the calendar's Display menu). Choose a color that stands out against your instructors' calendar colors.
Calendar Sync (Google)
External calendar sync is configured on its own page: Settings > Calendar Sync. It is a per-user setting -- each staff member connects their own Google account.
- Sync is one-way: Conductly is the source of truth, and events sync into a dedicated "Conductly" calendar in your Google account. Events created in Google never appear in Conductly.
- Only Google Calendar is supported. There is no Outlook or iCal sync.
Once connected, you can configure:
| Option | Choices |
|---|---|
| What to sync (owners/admins only) | "Only what I teach" or "Everything at the school" -- instructors always sync their own schedule |
| Event types | Lessons, Classes, School events -- leave all checked to sync every type |
| Event details | Include location and Include notes toggles |
| Event title | Event name (the same title Conductly shows) or Generic placeholder (every event shows "Busy") |
| Sync window | How far ahead to sync (e.g. "Next 30 days") |
Use Sync now to trigger a sync immediately, and Disconnect to remove the connection (this also removes the "Conductly" calendar and its events from your Google account).
:::info What "Include location" sends When on, the synced event's location is the same address the calendar popover shows -- the room's own address, its building's if the room has none, or the student's home for a lesson taught there. See Where Lessons Take Place. Editing a location's address, or moving where a lesson takes place, reaches Google within about an hour (the next sync reconcile), not the moment you save. :::
:::info Event name includes student and instructor names on private lessons Private lesson titles are auto-composed as "Student / Instructor (Course)" -- for example, "Reese D / Joel D (Private Piano)". Choosing Event name syncs that full title to Google, same as it does for classes. If you don't want student and instructor names visible on a synced calendar, use Generic placeholder instead -- it hides every title, in every category. :::
:::tip If sync seems slow right after connecting Google briefly limits how fast Conductly can push events when there's a lot to sync at once -- most often on the first sync right after connecting a large schedule. Conductly retries automatically in the background, so you'll see "Your calendar is syncing -- large schedules can take a few minutes to finish" instead of an error. No action is needed -- there's no reason to disconnect and reconnect; give it a few minutes and check back. :::
:::info Organization-wide switch An administrator can turn Google Calendar sync on or off for the whole school under Settings > Integrations ("Allow staff to connect Google Calendar"), including revoking individual connections. If your Calendar Sync page says sync is turned off, ask an administrator to enable it there. :::
Best Practices
- Keep double-booking prevention on unless your school intentionally shares rooms across overlapping events.
- Set the starting hour to your first lesson. It saves a scroll every time anyone opens the calendar.
- Match the default event duration to your most common lesson length. If most of your lessons run 45 or 60 minutes, set it once instead of resizing every new event you book.
- Leave "Count unmarked lessons as attended" on unless your staff labels every lesson. Turning it off makes the Attendance report stricter -- an unlabelled lesson stops counting as attended, so reports can undercount if labelling habits are inconsistent.
- Switch to Location coloring if you run multiple rooms. It's often easier to scan the calendar by room than by instructor when several teachers share a building.
- Use the generic title mode for privacy. Event name mode shows student and instructor names on private lessons, not just class names -- if instructors share their Google calendars with others, switch to Generic placeholder to keep those names out of view.
- Keep your Conductly calendar as the source of truth. Since sync is one-way, always make scheduling changes in Conductly.