Everything that happens on a timetable. Group classes that recur each week, private lessons booked one at a time, the calendar that shows both, and the day-to-day handling of who turned up, who did not, and who is covering when a teacher calls in sick.
Classes
What is a class?
A class is a specific group of students taking a course on a defined schedule. While a course describes what you teach, a class describes who, when, and where. Each class has an instructor, a time slot, an optional room, and its own roster of enrolled students. For example, 'Piano - Monday 4pm with Maria' is a class. You can have multiple classes for the same course, each with different schedules, instructors, or levels.
The Classes screen in alinaflow
A class is one scheduled instance of a course: a day, a time, a room, a teacher and a roster. Create it from a course so it inherits the level structure, then set the recurring schedule. Conflict detection runs as you save and will stop you double-booking a teacher, a room or a student. Capacity is what drives the waitlist, so set it even if you are nowhere near full.
Adding a new class
The new class form
Inside a class record
A class record
The record is organised into tabs: Schedule, Lessons. Each one is scoped to this record, so what you see is only this record's data.
Schedule
The recurring pattern this class runs on, the room and the teacher. Changing it here reschedules future sessions and checks for conflicts before saving.
Schedule tab
Lessons
Every individual session generated from the schedule, past and future, with its attendance state. This is where a single session gets cancelled or moved without touching the rest of the term.
Lessons tab
Key fields
course - Which course this class belongs to. A class is always linked to one course.
instructor - Who teaches this class. Each class has one primary instructor.
Capacity - Maximum number of students that can enroll in this class.
Day - The day of the week when this class meets.
Start Time - When the class begins.
Season / Term - The academic period this class belongs to (e.g., Fall 2026, Summer Term).
The Calendar shows all scheduled lessons and events for a location, organized by room and time slot. Each card represents a lesson or event - color-coded by course. Dotted cards are placeholders (classes with a schedule but no enrolled students yet). Click any card to see details, change status, or manage instructor substitutions. Use the week navigation to browse past and future schedules.
The Calendar screen in alinaflow
Everything with a time on it in one view: group classes, private lessons, one-off sessions, trials and shows. Filter by teacher or room to answer the two questions that come up most, which are who is free and what is in that room at four o'clock. Changes made here are real reschedules, so families are notified according to your notification settings.
The same calendar can be grouped three ways. Pick whichever answers the question you have: which room is free, who is teaching, or what a family has on.
Grouped by Location
Grouped by Location
Grouped by Teacher
Grouped by Teacher
Grouped by Family
Grouped by Family
Substitutions
How do substitutions work?
When an instructor can't teach a scheduled lesson (illness, conflict, vacation), you mark them absent for that day. The lesson then needs a substitute. The Substitutions page lists all open requests - lessons that have lost their instructor and need coverage. From here you assign a replacement instructor, and the lesson stays on the schedule with the new person teaching. Substitutions keep the calendar accurate and students informed without having to cancel and reschedule.
The Substitutions screen in alinaflow
When a teacher cannot take a session, record the substitution here rather than editing the class. The class keeps its identity and its history, the cover teacher gets the session on their schedule, and payroll pays the person who actually taught it.
Key fields
Open requests - lessons that have an absent instructor and no substitute yet. Resolve them before the lesson time.
Assigning a substitute - Pick any active instructor. The system doesn't enforce skill matching; it's up to staff judgment. The lesson card on the calendar updates immediately to reflect the new instructor.
Attendance
How does attendance work?
Every class or event on the calendar moves through a four-stage workflow: Not started → In progress → Pending review → Confirmed. instructors mark per-student attendance (Present / Late / Absent / Excused) while teaching, or staff enters it after the fact from this page. Only Confirmed attendance feeds payroll and the consecutive-absence rule (3 absences in a rolling 30-day window flags a student as consecutively absent). The tabs below split the work into four queues so no one loses track.
The Attendance screen in alinaflow
Mark attendance in one tap per student, or let students check themselves in with a QR code. The system flags consecutive absences automatically, which is the earliest reliable signal that someone is about to leave. A missed session can generate a makeup credit here rather than being argued about later.
Key fields
Pending - Past-due classes and events with no attendance entered yet. This queue grows every day staff doesn't keep up, so it's sorted oldest first. Use the (it happened) and (it was cancelled) buttons for one-click entry.
Loaded - classes and events whose attendance has already been entered. Split into 'pending review' (the instructor finished, waiting on staff confirmation) and 'all completed'.
students absences - Every confirmed absence across all classes and events with reason + comment, so you can see who's slipping. Click through to the student detail page for context.
instructors absences - Every instructor marked absent for a lesson, with the absence reason, optional medical report download, and whether a substitute was assigned. Used for payroll and HR follow-up.
Level suggestions - Any student an instructor flagged for a level change during Finish class. Approve writes the new level to the enrollment; Reject clears the suggestion without touching the enrollment.
Load modal - DeTres-style fast entry: Fecha Dictada, Minutes Late, Dictada Por (the instructor who actually taught), a checkbox list of students (uncheck absentees), and a comment. One submit confirms the whole thing.
Makeups
What are makeup credits?
A makeup credit is a debt your school owes a student for a lesson that didn't happen the way it was supposed to - either the class was cancelled, or the student missed class under a policy that allows recovery. Each credit can be redeemed into a future lesson (same class, or a different one if the source policy allows it), creating a temporary enrollment for a single lesson so they show up on the attendance list for that day only. Credits expire based on the source class's configured duration, and can be refunded (optionally as a billing credit memo) instead of redeemed.
The Makeups screen in alinaflow
A makeup credit is created when a student misses a session that your policy says is recoverable. The credit carries an expiry so it cannot be banked indefinitely, and families book against it themselves. This page is where you see what is outstanding and what is about to expire.
Key fields
Status filter - Active = redeemable, Consumed = already used in a future lesson, Expired = past the credit's expiry window, Refunded = released back (possibly as a credit memo on billing).
Redeem - Picks a candidate lesson for the student to attend as a makeup. The candidate list respects the source class's policy (substitute instructor allowed, other classes at the same level, etc.).
Refund - Writes the credit off. Use this when the student won't actually recover the lesson - e.g. they dropped the class, or the school is issuing a credit memo on their account instead.
Auto-grant - Credits appear here automatically. Cancelling a lesson with GenerateMakeupOnClassCancellation enabled grants one per active enrollment. Marking a student absent with GenerateMakeupOnStudentAbsence enabled grants one per absence.
Private lessons
Private lessons
Private lessons are 1:1 - one instructor, one student. They work exactly like regular classes (attendance, payroll, makeups, substitutions) but are shown here separately for easier management. Recurring private lessons generate a weekly schedule; one-off private lessons are single dated sessions. For group instruction, use the classes menu instead.
The Private lessons screen in alinaflow
One student, one teacher, one slot. Booked individually rather than on a recurring roster, and priced per session or from a package. Families can request them from the portal, and requests land here for approval rather than going straight into the calendar.
One-off lessons
One-off lessons
One-off lessons are single-date sessions - drop-ins, makeup redemptions, placement tests, masterclasses. They can be linked to a course (for pricing) or be Course-less. Students are added via the detail page with one of three modes: Charge (auto-invoice), Redeem Makeup Credit (consume an existing credit), or No Charge (comp / manual invoice).
The One-off lessons screen in alinaflow
A single session that is not part of a recurring class and not a private lesson: a catch-up, a workshop, a trial that turned into something. Use this when you need the session to exist on the calendar and on the invoice without creating a whole class around it.
Adding a new one-off lesson
The new one-off lesson form
Inside a one-off lesson record
A one-off lesson record
The record is organised into tabs: Schedule, Lessons. Each one is scoped to this record, so what you see is only this record's data.
Schedule
When the session runs, in which room and with which teacher.
Schedule tab
Lessons
The session itself and its attendance state.
Lessons tab
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