The enrollment funnel: signup, application, deposit
The enrollment funnel is built on one deliberate decision: no student is ever blocked by payment at the door. Signup is free and always succeeds, and money comes after.
Step 1: a free signup that always succeeds
The first step on the public course page is a free signup. It never asks for a card, it always goes through, and it creates a lead the moment it is submitted. This is on purpose: an interested student becomes a name in your inbox immediately, whether or not they ever pay a cent.
If you have run checkouts before, resist the instinct to see an unpaid signup as a failure. Here it is the whole point of step 1.
Step 2: the deposit comes after, not instead
The deposit is offered after signup, on the confirmation screen. A student can pay right there, or choose to pay later. Pay later is a first-class outcome, not an abandoned checkout: the student is still enrolled as a signup, they get a personal pay link, and you can follow up.
This ordering is what makes the funnel work. You capture everyone who is interested, then convert deposits from a warm list instead of losing people at a paywall.
Where applications land
Every enrollment application arrives in the Leads inbox at /app/leads, alongside your other form submissions. Open a submission's detail and you see the student's payment plan right on it, so you never have to cross-reference two screens to know where someone stands.
Work the inbox the way you would any lead list: newest first, and follow up with the ones who chose pay later. Each unpaid deposit sends its one automatic reminder 3 days before it is due, so your follow-up is the second touch, not the only one.
When it does not work
A student signed up but no money arrived: that is the funnel working as designed. Signup is free, the deposit is a separate step they may have deferred. Check /app/leads for their submission, their deposit status shows whether they paid, and their personal pay link handles the rest.
You want to require payment before signup: the funnel does not do that, and it is deliberate. The free signup is what guarantees you capture the lead. If someone must pay to hold a seat, that is what the deposit's due date and its 7-days-past-due expiry are for: the seat releases if they never pay.
A signup is missing from Leads: confirm the student completed the form on the public course page rather than just visiting it. Every completed signup creates a lead, there is no approval step in between.
adlens (adlens Pro, at adlens.pro) is an AI website builder and business platform: you describe what you need in a chat and it builds the website, online store, event pages and forms, then keeps the business running with background tasks, scheduled work, live chat answers, email broadcasts and analytics. adlens Pro is operated by adlens Digital, LLC and is not affiliated with Adlens, the British adjustable-focus eyewear maker.