General business settings

Settings → Business → General is where most of your operational toggles live. Each setting below describes what it does and when you'd typically turn it on.

General Settings

• Brand Logo - This is included in Transactional Emails and Basic Marketing Emails.
• Email Timezone Settings - This denotes the timezone that your dashboard "lives" in to designate when time specific communications are sent.
• Date/Time Formats - Choose how dates and times are displayed to clients. This does not impact how dates and times are viewed in the dashboard.
• Confirmation Email Body - This correlates to the handlebar found in Transactional Emails .
• **Cancellation Policy **- The cancellation policy shown to clients during checkout. Write this in plain language so clients understand your refund and late-cancel rules before they book.
• Late Cancel/No Show Policy Overview - This policy will be shown to customers before they book.
• Remember Late Cancel Policy Agreement - Turn this on to only require customers to agree to this policy one time, rather than having the system prompt them to agree at each booking.
• Waiver of Liability - Add your liability waiver for customer agreement.
• Flat Rate Shipping Price - When using Arketa's retail feature, and allowing the option of shipping orders, this flat price will apply to orders.

Subscription & Payment Settings

• Block Booking When Subscription Fails - Prevents clients from booking against a subscription when its payment has failed. Turn on if you want to enforce payment resolution before allowing further bookings on a failed subscription.
• Add Action on Subscription Cancellation - Automates what happens to upcoming reservations when a client cancels their subscription. Choose between marking reservations after the billing cycle as unpaid, or canceling them outright. Use this if you don't want to manually clean up reservations after cancellations.
• Enable Pay with Account - Lets clients pay with their account balance at checkout. Turn on if you want clients to be able to use pre-loaded credit or refunded balances toward future purchases. Not available for subscriptions, and may result in a negative balance the client can pay off later.
• Enable Refund with Account Credit - When enabled, refunds are issued as account credit instead of returning funds to the client's payment method. Use this if you'd prefer clients re-spend with you rather than collecting cash refunds.
• Enable Tipping in Point of Sale - Shows tip options to clients during point-of-sale checkout. Turn on if your staff accepts tips (common for spas, salons, and personal training).
• Custom payment method types - Allows business owners to allow custom payment types to be selected when using cash checkout, such as Zelle, CashApp, etc. Once enabled, set up payment methods in Settings > Payments > Payment Settings > Payment Method Types.
• Ask for Payment Method - Prompts clients with active memberships to add a payment method in the mobile app if they don't have one on file. Use this to reduce failed renewals.
• Allow Recurring Classes Without Payment Method - Lets clients create recurring class bookings even without a payment method on file. Disable if you want to guarantee a card is on file before any recurring booking is created.
• Allow recurring pricing option repurchase - Allows clients and staff to repurchase the same recurring pricing option (subscription or recurring bundle) even if they already have an active or recently purchased pricing option of the same name.
• Make revenue category mandatory for each offering - Forces partners (business owners) to select a revenue category when creating or editing pricing options and service types. Turn on if you rely on revenue categories for reporting and want to prevent gaps in your data.
• Community pack credits - Allows class packs to be configured to grant community enrollments; purchasing a bundle containing such a pack at community checkout will auto-redeem one credit. Great for businesses that enroll in semester based programming, or if you have multiple communities all priced the same that you want clients purchase and choose their community at checkout.

Reservation Management

• Enable Unpaid Reservation Resolver - Lets Arketa automatically resolve unpaid reservations. The resolver starts retrying from 3 days before class, but it only charges or cancels within the final 6 hours before the class start time, rechecking roughly every 2 hours. Because it acts only inside that 6-hour window, resolution is not guaranteed to complete before class. Use this to reduce manual cleanup. Sub-options:
  • **Charge Payment Method on File: **If no pricing option is found, charges the client's payment method on file for the price of a drop-in.
  • **Cancel Unresolvable Reservations: **If the client has no pricing option to auto-resolve and the auto-resolver can't charge their payment method on file, the reservation is canceled. Cancellation happens within the final 6 hours before the class start time (never earlier), and the client gets a cancellation email.
• Block Double Booking - Prevents a client from booking the same class twice. Turn on to avoid duplicate bookings on the roster.
• **Limit clients to one device at a time - **When a client signs in on a new device, sign them out of all previous devices. Reduces account sharing for on-demand video and community access. Does not apply to staff. Helpful for overall account safety and prevents sharing of logins for VOD and other content protected by an account login.
• Show Spots Remaining - Displays remaining spots at class checkout. Useful for creating urgency. Sub-options:
  • Always Show Spots Remaining
  • When this many or fewer spots remain: Set a custom threshold (e.g., only show when 5 or fewer spots are left).
• Enable multiple credits required for booking - Lets you require more than one credit per booking for classes, appointments, and events. Use this for premium or longer sessions that should cost more than a standard credit.
• **Use package price when pack booking has no payment record - **If a class booking from a pack has no payment or order on file, use the package offering price (per credit) for revenue in reports and exports. Enable for legacy pack holder bookings or when you need payroll or sales totals without stored payment data.

Check In Settings

• Enable Client Check-In - Turns on check-in methods across the dashboard. Use this if you run a physical location and need to track who's actually in the room. Sub-options:
  • Enable Gym Check-In: Requires self check-in or front-desk check-in for everyone at the facility. Optionally requires team-member confirmation.
  • Allow check-in outside of studio's geofence: Lets clients check in even when they're outside the studio's geofence. Useful for outdoor classes or poor GPS areas.
  • Enable Barcode Check-In: Lets clients check in by scanning a barcode at the front desk. Assign barcodes from each client's profile.
  • **Enable Self Check-In for Group Classes: **Prompts clients to self check-in inside the mobile app when they arrive at the studio.
• Enable Auto Check-In from Email - Automatically checks clients in when they click the livestream link within 30 minutes before or after class start time. Use this for virtual classes to avoid manual reconciliation.
• Allow Check-In for Unpaid Reservations - Lets clients check in even when their reservation isn't yet paid. Use this if you'd rather resolve payment afterward than block someone at the door.

Communication Settings

• Enable one-click unsubscribe for transactional emails - Adds a one-click unsubscribe link to all transactional emails sent to clients. Turn on for stricter email-compliance posture (helps with deliverability requirements from major email providers).
• Enable Group Messaging - Lets partners and clients create and participate in group conversations in the inbox and the branded mobile app. Use this for community building or team-style messaging.
• Disable Confirmation Emails (Group Classes) - Stops you from getting a notification every time a group-class booking happens. Clients still get their confirmation. Turn on if your inbox is getting flooded.
• Disable Confirmation Emails (Appointment Booking) - Same as above but for appointments. Clients still get notified.
• Disable Confirmation Emails (Purchases) - Same as above but for purchases. Clients still get notified.

Client Experience Settings

• Enable Book for a Guest - Lets clients book for friends by purchasing drop-ins for guests. Turn on if you want to support guest passes. Note: update each package or subscription separately to allow them to be used for guests.
• Apply member discounts to guest bookings - Lets clients use member tier or member discounts when the member books for a guest. Off by default; non-member promo codes are unaffected.
• **Enable Guest Passes for Gym Check-In **- Lets clients book for friends by checking them in via gym check-in. Turn on if you want to allow Members to use guest passes at check-in without enabling app-based guest booking.
• Enable Purchasing Communities for Guests - Lets clients purchase community access multiple times for guests or family members. Use this if account holders should be able to buy access for others.
• Prompt clients for default location in branded app - Asks clients to pick a default location in the branded app. Use this if you operate multiple locations and want a smoother in-app experience.
• Client Records - Lets you keep records on your clients. Turn on if you want to track records for performance- or health-related tracking.
• Show Room Name to Clients - Shows the room name after a client books a class so they know where to go. Useful for multi-room studios.
• Timezone Display - Shows session times in the local timezone with the timezone abbreviation. Use this if you have clients booking across timezones (livestreams, traveling clients).
• Show Client Profile Images - Displays client profile images on check-in screens. Useful for front-desk staff who want to recognize clients by face.

Legal and compliance

• Enable signed liability waiver - Add custom waiver text that clients must accept before their first booking
• Tax-inclusive pricing — When enabled, displayed prices include tax. The Stripe processing fee appears as a separate line item at checkout. See taxes for more detail.
• Enable signed agreement terms — When enabled, clients will be required to sign agreement terms before booking when purchasing pricing options or communities with Agreement Terms listed.

Staff & Access Settings

• Enable Time Clock - Requires hourly employees to manually clock in and out for their shifts. Turn on if you pay staff by the hour and want timekeeping built into Arketa. Sub-option:
  • Round Time to Nearest 15 Minutes: Rounds time-clock entries up to the nearest 15-minute increment. When disabled, time rounds to the nearest minute.
• Disable Front Desk & Guest Team Members from adding clients as Free or Unpaid - Prevents Front Desk and Guest team-member roles from adding clients to classes as free or unpaid. Use this to enforce payment discipline at the front desk.