Dojo TigerDocs

Your first week: a checklist

The setup tasks in the order that works, from studio details to taking your first payment.

This is the "do these in this order" article. Nothing here takes long on its own, but several steps depend on an earlier one existing — you cannot build a belt ladder without a program, and your registration link is not much use until there is something on it to sign up for.

Work down the list. Stop wherever you like; the app is usable long before the list is finished.

Day one: the studio itself

  1. Fill in your studio details

    Studio then General → Studio Information. Name, contact email, phone, address, business hours and logo.

    The URL slug on this card is the most consequential field in the app: it is the address of your public website, your registration page and your kiosk. Set it now and don't change it later.

    The Contact Email is also where the app writes to you — a failed monthly payment, for instance, emails the studio at this address rather than the family.

  2. Create your programs

    Classes then Programs. One per thing a family would sign up for separately. Set the Monthly Rate even if you collect money outside the app — the financial reports and every discount rule are calculated from it.

    Full walkthrough: Setting up your first program.

  3. Add your weekly class times

    Classes then Schedule. Program, day, time, instructor. Sessions — the things you take attendance against — are generated from these, so an empty schedule means an empty attendance calendar.

Day two: what students earn and sign

  1. Build your belt ladder

    Students then Ranks. Ranks are per program, in order, with a colour each. A student enrolled in two programs holds two ranks.

  2. Write your waivers

    Studio then Waivers. Families sign these during registration, so they need to exist before you hand out your registration link. Editing a waiver's text later creates a new version and leaves already-collected signatures against the old one.

  3. Add any registration questions you need

    Studio then Questions. Custom questions appended to the public registration form — medical notes, how they heard about you, whatever you currently ask on paper.

Day three: people

  1. Add your staff

    Studio then Team. Roles are owner, admin and instructor, and one person can hold more than one. Read Who can do what first — an admin can charge cards and issue refunds, and that cannot be narrowed.

  2. Get your existing roster in

    Two buttons at the top of Students then Students: Add student for one at a time, and Bulk add for a spreadsheet-style table you can work down when migrating an existing roster. Enroll them into programs afterwards from Students then Enrollments.

  3. Print your QR code

    Studio then QR Code. It points at your public registration page. This is the lobby-poster flow the product was built around — a prospect scans it on their phone and fills the form in while they're standing there.

Try your own registration form

Open your registration link on a phone and fill it in as if you were a parent, then delete the test registration from the worklist. It is the fastest way to find a missing program, a waiver that reads badly, or a question you forgot.

Day four: money, if you want it

Payments are entirely optional. A studio that collects tuition by direct debit, cash or a card machine can leave every switch off, and the app will never mention payments anywhere.

If you do want to take money through Dojo Tiger, do it in this order and read each article before you flip the switch it describes:

  1. How money works in Dojo Tiger — read this first. Three separate switches, and the asymmetry between them.
  2. Connecting Stripe
  3. Turning on card charging
  4. Setting your prices
  5. Turning on automatic monthly billing — only once one-off charging has worked at least once.

Week two and beyond

Once the setup above is done, these are worth an hour each when you get to them:

  • Your public website — Studio then Website. Four templates, and your programs and schedule fill themselves in. It has a draft/publish split, so nothing goes live until you publish it.
  • The kiosk — Studio then Kiosk, opened on a tablet by the door. Students check themselves in with a personal code or by name.
  • Announcements and video — Engage then Announcements and Engage then Content, both of which families read in their own view.
  • Alerts — Students then Alerts. Set a number of days without attendance and pick who gets told; a nightly job does the rest.

What you don't need to do

  • You never create sessions by hand. They come from the weekly schedule.
  • You never create a student from a registration by hand. Enroll the registration and the student is created for you.
  • You never have to finish one program before adding the next, or finish setup before taking a real registration. Everything here can be added later without disturbing what already exists.

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