Learn Workbench

Go to tryworkbench.co and click “List Your Workshop” at the top right of the navigation bar. This will guide you through the self-service account creation process, allowing you to list your courses and start booking students.

Alternatively, you can visit tryworkbench.co/business and select “Join for Free” or “Get Started Today”.

Create an Account:

You can log in with an existing Google account or create a new one. You will be prompted to agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your password must be at least 8 characters long.

Business Setup:

Upload a Company Image: Upload a company image. File formats are SVG, PNG, JPG or GIF. The maximum size size is 800x400 pixels. We recommend choosing a picture that represents your company, like a logo or a photo of your workshop

Business Name: This is how your business name will appear on the platform. It doesn’t have to be your legal business name, but it should be consistent with how your business is represented elsewhere.

Phone Number: Enter your business phone number or an alternate contact number.

Website: If you have a business website, enter it here. You can skip this step if you don’t have one.

Address: Enter the address where most of your classes will be held, typically your main studio or workshop.

Connect a Calendar:

This is where you can connect another personal or business calendar. This calendar can later be overlaid on your calendar in the central scheduling hub. Events in this calendar will only be visible to you.

Currently, this step only supports another Google Calendar. If you wish to link with Acuity, Wix, or another scheduling platform, you can do so later in the admin portal.

If you do not have a calendar to integrate, skip this step for now. You can always integrate another calendar later, using the admin portal.

Set Working Hours:

This section allows you to set your business hours. If you host private classes/appointments, students will only be able to request time within your set business hours. If you wish to allow students to request a private class/appointment at any time during the day, click the “Allow all times” toggle.

Select your time zone. If your business operates in multiple time zones, select the one for your main office.

Check the boxes for the days you’re open and enter your operating hours for each day. You can update this at any time in the admin portal.

Proceed to the Next Step.

Onboarding

Once you’ve completed the initial setup, you will be logged into your admin portal. Here, you will be prompted to integrate a bank account to set up payouts, create a course, list a course, and share your page to reach a wider audience. We recommend you start with setting up payouts.

Set Up Payouts:

Click the “Set Up Payouts” button in your main dashboard. You’ll be taken to the Stripe integration page to securely link your bank account. Workbench uses Stripe as its trusted payment processor. This integration page will prompt you to create an account with Stripe, which is necessary to allow Workbench to collect your booking revenue. Revenue is collected in your Stripe account in real time, and will be remitted to your business bank account daily. After completing the setup, you’ll return to the admin portal, where you can create your first course.

Create a Course:

You can create a course by clicking “Create a Course” on the onboarding page or by navigating to “My Courses” in the left-hand menu and selecting “Create a Course”.

Course Name: Enter the name of your course (e.g., “Build a Table,” “Learn to Weld”). This is how the course will appear to students, so keep it short and descriptive.

Upload Course Images: Upload at least three high-quality images (PNG, JPG, or JPEG). These images will be visible to students on the course sign-up page and should provide a good sense of the course.

Course Type: Select either a Group Class or a One-on-One Appointment. Group classes have a set capacity and schedule, while one-on-one appointments are private sessions scheduled by individual students during your business hours.

More detail on One-on-One Appointments:

These appointment types are limited to a capacity of 1.
When you select the One-on-One appointment checkbox in the course creation page, an Appointment Details section will appear. This section allows you to set pre and post appointment buffers, minimum notice, and start time increments.
“Buffer Before” is the amount of time you require between events on your calendar. Example: if you set a buffer of 15 minutes, and have another event at 12pm, the platform will not allow a student to schedule a One-on-one appointment before 12:15pm.
“Buffer After” is the same principle as “Buffer Before”, though it applies to the buffer after your session instead of before.
“Minimum Notice” is what you use to set a minimum time period between when the student books the session, and when the session is scheduled to start. Example: a buffer of one week will not allow students to book one-on-one sessions that start within 7 days.
“Start Time Increments” are the intervals at which students can schedule the start time. Example: Setting a start time increment of 15 minutes allows courses to start on the 15th, 30th, or 45th minute of each hour. Setting a start time of one hour only allows courses to start on the hour.
The course needs to be listed to accept bookings. Once you have created the One-on-one course, you can list in in the My Courses page.

Course Description: In the About This Course section, provide details about the course, including what students should bring, any frequently asked questions, etc.

Instructor: Select or create an instructor for the course. All you need is the instructor’s first name, last name, email, and a brief bio. If you are the business owner and sole instructor, put in your own details. This section is simply to allow the student to view which instructor is teaching that particular session, in case they have a preference. If you have multiple instructors and want to do private sessions, we recommend you complete this course creation flow once for each instructor as a one-on-one appointment type. Once you add an instructor once, that instructor will be saved and available to link to any future courses you create.

Location, Price, and Capacity: Enter the course location, price per student, class capacity, difficulty level, and category (e.g., Metal, Leather, Beverage, Ceramics, Glass, Wood, or Textiles).

Cancellation Policy: Choose a cancellation policy. After you select the cancellation policy, Workbench will handle cancellations and refunds entirely on your behalf. You do not need to worry about remitting refunds or removing the student from the course.

Flexible: Full refund 1 day prior.
Moderate: Full refund 5 days prior.
Firm: Full refund up to 30 days before; 50% refund up to 5 days before.
Non-refundable: No refunds after booking.

Reschedule Policy: Choose between Agile (free rescheduling up to 24 hours before start time) or Fixed (free rescheduling up to 5 days before start time).

Once all information is complete, click “Create Course”.

Scheduling a Course

Schedule a Course:

After creating a course, you’ll be prompted to schedule it. You can do this from the “My Courses” page.

Single-Day Course: For one-time courses, simply enter the date, start time, and end time, then click Save.

Multi-Day Course: For courses that span multiple days (e.g., a weekend course), select Multi-Day Course and enter additional dates and times.

Recurring Course: For recurring courses (e.g., every Tuesday and Thursday), select Recurring Dates and check the days of the week that the course will occur. Set the start and end times for each day and choose an expiration date for the recurring schedule (up to one year in advance).

Manage Course Schedule:

Scheduled courses will appear on your public calendar, allowing students to book them. You can view and manage your course schedules in the “My Courses” page at any time.

Track Course Data:

In the course management page, you can view revenue, tickets sold, unique students enrolled, upcoming course dates, student enrollment per date, total earnings, and the attendee list for each course.

Managing Courses and Students

Editing Courses:

To edit a course, navigate to “My Courses”, select the course you wish to update, and click “Edit” in the upper right-hand corner.

Previewing Courses:

You can preview how a course appears to students by selecting “Preview” from the course page.

Calendar Overview:

Go to “Calendar” in the left-hand menu to see your complete schedule, including all scheduled courses and events imported from your external calendar. Use the “Overlay My Calendar” toggle to view external calendar events alongside your Workbench courses.

Viewing Orders:

In the “Orders” tab, you can view all orders for your scheduled courses. You can filter orders, take actions on specific orders, and create manual orders by clicking “Create Order”.

Creating a Manual Order:

To create a manual order for a course, click “Create Order” in the Orders tab and fill out the details on behalf of the student.

Managing Students:

The “Students” tab shows all students who have enrolled in your courses. Students are created automatically when they self-enroll in a course, but if you have walk-in or phone-in requests for enrollment, you can manually create students by clicking “Add Student” and enrolling them in your course..

Issuing Refunds

From the **“Orders” **page; by clicking on a specific order, you can issue a full or partial refund using the “Refund” button on the top right. Keep in mind that refunding the application fee will withdraw the fee from your business account. We recommend refunding application fees only when the refund is due to an issue on your end.

Integrations

Connecting Integrations:

Go to the “Integrations” tab to connect your account to Acuity Scheduling, FareHarbor, or Eventbrite. Simply click the ”+” icon next to the desired service to link it. More integrations, including Wix, are supported, and we’re continuously adding more options.

Integration Requests:

If there’s a specific integration you would like to request, please contact us via the support channels.

Business Settings and Support

Modify Business Details:

In the “Settings” tab, you can edit your business contact information, name, profile picture, website, and time zone.

Change Working Hours:

To update your working hours, navigate to “Calendar”, click the gear icon, and select “Availability” to adjust the hours you set during account creation.

Support:

For additional help, email us at [email protected] or use the live chat feature, located in the bottom right corner of your screen. Your chat history will be saved, so you can exit the chat and will still receive a response as quickly as we can get back to you..

This guide outlines the steps for setting up and managing your business on Workbench. If you need further assistance, feel free to contact us through our support channels.