Tutorial: first event from account to roster

This is one path through the product, in order. It is not a feature tour. By the end you have a team, a sign-up with one date, a test name on the roster, and a URL you can send to real people.

1. Create the account, then open a team

Register at /register. After email confirmation, the dashboard lists teams. Create one if you do not have one. Name it after the group that owns the events, not after yourself: “Lincoln PTA,” not “Jen’s stuff.” Sign-ups always belong to a team. That is how a co-chair can help later without exporting a spreadsheet.

Invite the other person who will stare at the roster with you. Do this before the event is live. Shared access after things go wrong is how duplicate events get created.

2. Create the sign-up container

Team menu: Sign-ups → Create. Fill only what you know.

• Title people already use in conversation.
• A short description with the facts that do not belong in a slot name: parking, what to bring, whether kids can come.
• Public listing off. You will turn it on later only if strangers should find this.
• Default capacity equal to the room, not a hopeful number.
• A location if you have one saved. Otherwise add it from the form.

Save. You now have a container and a public URL, but nobody can register yet because there is no instance. That empty state is expected. Details are in How to create a sign-up.

3. Add one instance

Open the new sign-up and add a single date. Put the start and end times you would write on a flyer. Leave recurrence off. Recurrence is for a class series, not for a first test. If people must pick a job, add slots on this instance. If they only need to say they are coming, stop here.

If you are unsure which of those you need, read Dates versus volunteer slots before you build twelve slots you will delete.

4. Register yourself as a test

Open the public page in a private browser window so you see what an attendee sees, not the Manage link. Register with a real email you can check. Confirm that:

• the confirmation email arrives
• the roster in the dashboard shows your name
• remaining capacity dropped by one
• the unregister link in the email opens the confirm page

Unregister the test row. The spot should reopen. If any of that fails, fix it before you send the link to thirty parents.

5. Share on purpose

Copy the /signups/{id} URL and send it to the group that should register. Do not turn on public listing for a first classroom party. If this is a public workshop you want found in Search, turn listing on and also send the team page. The difference is in Share a public sign-up link.

What you should not do on day one

Do not attach a long custom form until the basic roster works. Do not create a recurrence of twenty dates “just in case.” Do not put a student’s last name or a gate code in the description. Do not build a second sign-up when you meant to add a second instance.

After this path works once, the next event is a copy of the same decisions: container, dates or slots, a test name, then a share. The playbooks for churches, schools, teams, and nonprofits start from this same sequence.