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Activity Add-ons - Require or Suggest Activities before Checkout
Activity Add-ons - Require or Suggest Activities before Checkout

Upsell relevant session activities or services by linking required or suggested activities to your offers.

Samantha Postlethwaite avatar
Written by Samantha Postlethwaite
Updated over a week ago

Activity add-ons improve how clients discover your important offers in-store! You can link unlimited activities to any session-based activity so that when it's added to the cart, a pop-up invites you to add required or suggested activities to the cart before continuing.

Do you use merchandise service add-ons to offer before or after care?

👇 Here's why you should consider using required/suggested activities 👇

In this article:

3. FAQ


1. How to link required or suggested activities

💡 Before you start

Only the subcategory and activity names show when prompting clients with activity add-ons. The program and category names are not visible. We recommend including important identifiers (e.g., age groups, etc.,) to the subcategory or activity name.

You may configure a session activity so that when it's added to the cart, a pop-up requires and/or suggests adding one or more activities to the cart.

Here's how:

  • Go to the Activities > Edit tab to configure an activity as usual. Scroll to its Additional Settings to add Required or Suggested Activities at any time.

    • Only session activities can be required or suggested. Not drop-ins.

    • You may require or suggest session activities from another program.

  • Choose if clients need at least one add-on or all of them to register for the activity. SmartRec checks if the participant was registered to the linked activity at any point or if it's in the cart. If not, they'll be prompted to add it.

  • Save the activity.

💡 Tip


2. Purchase required or suggested activities

As usual, select an activity and who to register. If the add-on has never been purchased for the participant, or if it isn't in the cart, a pop-up prompts to add required items for this activity, or suggests items frequently bought together.

- When you add a required/suggested activity to the cart -

Activity add-ons support multiple installment plans (i.e., planned payments).

Clients can add multiple items that each offer different payment plans. Payment due at checkout (for each item) depends on which installment option was selected when adding it to the cart.

Required add-ons can't be removed from the cart unless you remove the main activity.

To remove a required add-on from the cart, you must first remove the primary activity it's linked to. When you do, the required add-on is automatically removed from the cart. However, you can remove suggested add-ons at any time.

Required/suggested activities can't have their own activity-add on(s).

If an activity add-on has its own required and/or suggested activities, they won't be prompted when the main activity is added to the cart. Only the add-ons linked to the main activity are required or suggested.

  • In the example below, the activity ''Fun in dance' requires participants to register for the 'Soccer' activity. The 'Soccer' activity has its own add-on which requires participants to register for 'First aid'.

  • Only the first level of add-ons is prompted, meaning only add-on(s) linked to the main activity (Fun in dance) will pop up.

👇 Clients will only see to add 'Soccer' to the cart,

even though the soccer class also has an activity-add on.

What if a required/suggested activity has linked merchandise?

When you link required merchandise to an activity, it's listed at the bottom of 'Required items for this activity' or items 'Frequently bought together'.

Unlike activity add-ons, linked merchandise pops up each time a client buys the item, regardless of whether the merchandise had been purchased in the past. Careful - linked merchandise is a bit different from service add-ons, which are merch that can only be purchased if a client registers for the main activity.

2.1 Invoices for required/suggested activities in Client Billing

Required/suggested activities don't look different from other invoice items. In the example below, the 2nd invoice item is an activity add-on.

❗ Careful! If an admin cancels a required/suggested activity,

it doesn't impact the client's enrollment to other activities.


Frequently Asked Questions

Can I make a session activity required or suggested on a drop-in?

Required or suggested activities on drop-ins are not supported, meaning if you link activity add-ons to a drop-in, they won't be prompted in the store after the client adds the main activity to their cart.

Can I make a drop-in activity required or suggested?

No, you can't suggest or require someone to purchase a drop-in activity. Drop-ins are ineligible for this feature.

Can I make a session activity that also has drop-in spots required or suggested?

You can link a session activity with drop-in spots to a main activity. However, only the session spots are considered if the activity is required or suggested. Drop-in spots won't be considered. Once all session spots are filled, the activity add-on is considered full.

Is there a report that shows which activities are linked as required or suggested?

To see which activities have an activity add-on, you can download the 'Information on the activities of this program' report (in the Reports tab). A column in the report shows if an activity add-on is linked or not. It doesn't provide the name of the add-on(s).

Can I get a list of participants registered to a required or suggested activity?

You can get a list of registered participants by pulling the Registration information report for the activity in question.

You can also generate an Activity/participant list by going to Activities > Registration, selecting the activity and choosing Activity/participant list from the Operations menu. You can customize the columns you want to see in the report before you generate it.

Can admins bypass restrictions on required or suggested activities?

Admins can bypass activity add-ons.

Below, an activity with two required activities is added to the cart. If neither activity add-on was ever purchased nor is in the cart, a pop-up invites clients to add them to the cart so they may continue.

  • The admin has the 'Skip and continue' option to let them proceed without adding the required activities to the cart.

  • The client can't proceed because one of the required activities is full (no open spots). As a result, they are unable to complete the purchase.

Is there an alert if an activity's schedule conflicts with activity add-ons?

No alert is made to clients nor to admins if the schedule for an activity add-on is in conflict with the main activity's schedule.

What if a required or suggested activity is full?

If spots are full for a session add-on, clients won't be able to add the full activity to the cart. Only admins may bypass this restriction.

What if a client cancels a required activity?

If a client cancels a required activity, it's up to the administrator to follow up in Client billing. When a required activity is cancelled, it doesn't cancel the main activity.

When should I use linked merchandise vs linked activity add-ons?

Link merchandise to your activities when you want to sell 'stuff' when someone buys an activity.

Link activity add-ons for anything that may require a childcare tax receipt, that needs a form, attendance, participant lists, schedule holders, etc.,

Can I link merchandise to activity add-ons?

You can link suggested or required merchandise to activity add-ons. You may even pay for suggested or required merchandise in installments (if configured).

* Last updated in April 2024

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