With anny, you can set up course series, workshops and events so that the offer, room, trainer, equipment and participants work together seamlessly. In this article, we’ll look at how to structure resources, Services and available sessions for your offers, how to automatically block additional resources per session, and how to use a minimum number of participants with automatic cancellation.
Courses & events in the anny context
Resources are everything that can be booked or blocked in anny, for example:
complete offers such as “Course XY” that have fixed dates/sessions
rooms (studio, seminar room, event space)
trainers / coaches
equipment (reformer machines, tech, materials)
Services are your concrete offers on resources, for example:
“Yoga for beginners, 75 minutes”
“Participation – Presentation Training”
“Event ticket – Afterwork Meetup”
Instead of working only with general opening hours, you use available dates for courses & events. An available date is a fixed time slot, for example:
Tuesday, 18:00–19:30 “Yoga – Beginners”
Every second Thursday, 09:00–12:00 “Communication Workshop”
The central principle for courses & events in anny: For each session of a resource, you can link additional resources as provided resources, which are automatically blocked for that time.
When is an offer its own resource and when is it a service?
Service
Use a Service when the offer is provided directly by a person.
Person = resource, offer = Service
The person is available once, the offer is also available once in parallel
Example:
Resource: “Trainer Alex” with the Service “Private lesson”
→ The customer books the person directly.
Resource
Use a separate resource when the offer has its own availability and multiple seats (course/event).
Offer = resource
Services = ticket options (e.g. “External rate”, “Member rate”)
Trainer and room are added to the session as provided resources and are blocked for that time – they are not booked directly.
When do I use Smart Availability (dependent resource) and when provided resources for a session?
Smart Availability (dependent resource)
The resource only becomes relevant when the booking is made.
It dynamically controls whether and when something can be booked.
It is not blocked when creating the session, but is booked dynamically together with the booking.
You can find everything about the Smart Availability feature in the dedicated Smart Availability article.
Provided resources for the session
The resource is already blocked when the session is created.
The block is static, independent of bookings.
Ideal when it is clear: “This resource must definitely be reserved for this session.”
Step-by-step setup
Build your resource structure
Create your offer (e.g. Yoga), the rooms (studio) and trainers (e.g. Max) as separate resources.
In the left menu, go to Resources and click + New in the top right.
Define Services
Go to the Services / booking options tab.
For the offer resource, define the corresponding Service (e.g. “Adult rate”).
Plan available sessions
Open the course resource (e.g. Yoga) and go to the Availability tab.
Set the availability type to Multiple available and define the available quantity as the number of participants (e.g. 15).
Scroll down to Available dates and click + Add available dates.
Under the General tab, configure the settings:
Create the session with title, date & time.
For recurring offers, use the series function.
Now open the Settings tab to automatically reject all bookings if the requirements are not met before the session:
Define a minimum number of bookings (e.g. 7).
Set a cancellation deadline (e.g. 24 hours before start).
Under Provided resources, define the resources that should be scheduled and blocked for the session:
Add the trainer(s) and the room so they are automatically blocked for the session.
Check the booking page
Review the display in day/week view.
Test the visibility of available sessions and go through a test booking.
How to define a minimum number of participants per session with automatic cancellation
Feature update: January 2025
Per available session, you can define:
a minimum number of participants (e.g. 8 people)
a cancellation deadline before the start (e.g. 24 hours before)
Customers do not see that a minimum number has been defined.
If there are not enough bookings by the deadline:
the session is automatically cancelled
all bookings are rejected / cancelled
existing payments are refunded automatically
customers receive automatic emails about the cancellation and refund (if applicable)
Admins additionally receive:
a warning about 1 hour before the automatic cancellation
a notification as soon as the minimum number has been reached
Setting up minimum participants & cancellation deadline
Setting up minimum participants & cancellation deadline
In the left menu, go to Resources and select the course/event resource.
Open the Availability tab and navigate to the available sessions.
Select the session for which you want to set a minimum number.
Open the Settings tab.
Fill in the field Minimum number per session.
Set the cancellation deadline relative to the start time (e.g. 24 hours before).
Click Save.
Decide whether you want to notify customers about changes by turning the notification bell on or off.
How can I let a session take place anyway?
How can I let a session take place anyway?
If you notice that the minimum number will not be reached but you still want the session to take place:
Before the cancellation deadline, open the session again.
Adjust the minimum number downwards (e.g. from 10 to 6).
Save – this prevents the automatic cancellation.
Troubleshooting minimum participants & cancellation
Troubleshooting minimum participants & cancellation
Session was not cancelled automatically:
Check the cutoff time: was the observation time maybe before the deadline?
Was the minimum number perhaps reached in time?
No refund was issued:
Check whether payments were recorded for the bookings.
Without a payment, there is no refund.
No email arrived:
Has the booking status actually been changed (rejected/cancelled)?
Check email settings and, on the customer side, spam/junk folders.
How to move or cancel all bookings for a session at once
Feature update: January 2025
You can use changes to a session to update all matching bookings in one go.
Where can you change sessions?
Admin calendar (planner view)
Resource → Availability tab → Available sessions → edit session
What happens automatically?
Move session:
All bookings whose start and end time exactly match the session are moved with it.
Cancel session manually:
All exactly matching bookings are rejected.
Change linked resources (e.g. change trainer/room):
Bookers are automatically informed about the changes.
Matching rule (very important)
Only bookings whose time period is exactly the same as the session are adjusted.
Bookings that only overlap or lie within the time period are deliberately not changed.
Troubleshooting: moving/cancelling bookings
Troubleshooting: moving/cancelling bookings
“My booking was not moved!”
Compare times 1:1 (start & end). Even a few minutes difference will prevent matching.
“An overlapping booking was not changed – why?”
Explanation: this is a safety feature to prevent other, unrelated bookings from being changed by mistake.
How to add a custom message when changing a booking status
Feature update: January 2025
After each status change, you can add a short, custom message that will be included in the automatic email. Here’s how it works:
Via the Bookings menu
Via the Bookings menu
In the left menu, go to Bookings.
Click the three dots on the right side of the booking.
Change the status (e.g. to Confirm, Reject or Cancel).
A pop-up appears for an optional message.
Enter a short explanation, for example:
“The minimum number of participants was not reached. Please book an alternative date.”
“Today’s session is cancelled due to illness.”
Confirm – the message is shown in the status update email.
Via changes to the session within the resource
Via changes to the session within the resource
Open the resource for which a session should be cancelled or changed.
Click the three dots to the right of the corresponding time slot.
Edit or cancel the time slot.
A pop-up appears for an optional message.
Enter a short explanation, for example:
“The minimum number of participants was not reached. Please book an alternative date.”
“Today’s session is cancelled due to illness.”
Confirm – the message is shown in the status update email.
Text Guidelines:
No greeting or signature
Short, factual, concrete
Ideal: reason + next step for the booker
Typical examples
Yoga course
Main resource: course
Provided resources (dependencies): “Trainer Lisa” + “Studio 1”
Coworking event
Main resource: “Afterwork Event”
Provided resources (dependencies): event space + 2 side rooms
Training / seminar
Main resource: “Excel Basics – Seminar”
Provided resources (dependencies): “Coach Max”, “Seminar Room 2”, “Beamer”