When someone registers for a course, Certifications shows each active registration process they are allowed to use. After they choose one, that process controls the form they complete, whether they update contact details first, the checkout settings for the order, and the confirmation email. Use this article to set up a course registration process.
What It Controls
A course registration process defines:
- Which courses it applies to. A process serves either every course or only the courses you choose.
- The registration form the registrant completes, which comes from Setup’s web forms for course registrations.
- Whether to collect updated contact details first, using a contact web form shown before the registration form.
- Checkout settings, using either your account’s Certifications defaults or checkout settings for this process.
- A confirmation email, sent after the registration order is paid, with a separate email you can write for virtual or on-demand offerings. Use this email for details about a course someone has purchased. If you also need to remind people who have not registered for a course required by a certification application, use an application notice instead. You do not need both for the same purpose.
Certifications offers a person every active registration process that either serves all courses or includes the course they are registering for.
This setting does not decide course availability by itself. An offering’s sell-until date, whether the course is published to the portal, and whether the course type is enabled can each affect registration, so check all of them if a course is not showing up where you expect it.
Purchases through an online store or shopping cart
When someone buys a course through an online store or the universal shopping cart, the store’s course registration process setting controls the confirmation email. If the store does not have one configured, no course confirmation email is sent for that purchase. Rhythm sends only the individual confirmation email for each registrant; it does not send a separate summary email listing every course and registrant in one purchase.
Where to Find It
Go to Certifications › Setup › Training › Registration Processes. This opens the Registration Processes list. From there:
- Create Course Registration Process opens a blank form.
- A row’s Edit icon opens that process so you can update it.
- A row’s Clone icon starts a new process copied from that one.
Prerequisites
- You need the permission your administrator grants for course registration processes.
- The registration form you want to use must already exist in web forms. The form picker only shows registration forms created for course registrations.
- If you want registrants to update contact details first, the contact form must already exist as a Rolodex contact web form.
The Settings
| Setting | Options | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name, identifier, status | Text, text, active or inactive | Active | Registrants can choose only active processes |
| Available in the portal | On, off | On | Saved on the process, but does not change which processes the Portal offers |
| Application Form | Any active course registration form | None | The form the registrant completes to register |
| Restrict to certain courses | On, off, with a course list | Off (applies to every course) | When on, this process is available only for the courses you choose |
| Available to training providers | On, off | On | Saved on the process, but does not change which processes are offered to providers |
| Show Contact Form | On, off | Off | When on, the registrant updates their contact details on the selected form before seeing the registration form |
| Override Checkout Settings | On, off | Off | When on, this process uses its own checkout settings instead of your account’s Certifications defaults |
| Confirmation Email | On, off | Off | When on, sends an email to the registrant after their order is paid |
| Confirmation Email for Virtual/On Demand Offerings | On, off | Off | When on, sends a different email for virtual or on-demand offerings instead of the main confirmation email |
| Cc / Bcc (next to the confirmation email subject line) | Email addresses | None | Copies the addresses you enter on every confirmation email this process sends |
The registration questions come from the form named in Application Form. To change a question, edit that form under Certifications › Setup › Training › Forms instead of editing the process.
Dependencies and Precedence
- A registration process needs a registration form before you can save it. If it collects contact details first, it also needs a contact form.
- You set up the registration form’s design separately under web forms, including where a candidate can choose a course offering. Save & Return Later is not available on course registration forms, so the process does not have a setting that lets registrants save a partial registration and return to it.
- If your registration form collects payment through separate order-review steps, build those as distinct pages for Collect Order Details and Confirm Order Details. Remove the Submit transition from the Getting Started page, then place Submit on the Confirm Order Details page so the form submits only after the registrant confirms the order.
- The email templates you write here use merge fields from the contact, organization, course, registration, offering, training provider, training location, and order. You can place the offering’s start and end date merge fields, such as the offering’s scheduled start and end, in the confirmation email’s date and time line to show the offering’s time. The date and time come through as one combined value rather than separate date-only and time-only fields. Raw date merge fields render as an ISO-style timestamp, such as
2025-10-09T19:00:00.000Z, unless you format them. Wrap a date merge field with themomenthelper to show it in a friendlier format, for example{{moment courseOffering.start_date format="dddd, MM DD YYYY"}}. - Adding a currency-formatting modifier to an order total merge field can show
(unknown currency code ?)instead of a currency symbol. If that happens, remove the modifier and type the currency symbol as plain text in the template. - If a Cc or Bcc recipient does not receive a confirmation email but the registrant does, treat that as a separate delivery issue rather than assuming the feature failed. Check that address on its own, since delivery for extra recipients can also depend on account-wide email configuration.
Tip
Use Preview in the confirmation email editor to send the current email to any address, filled in with a real registration you choose. Enter the ID of an existing registration. You can copy it from that registration’s 360 page by opening the options menu and choosing Copy ID to Clipboard. This helps you check formatting and merge fields before saving.
Change Impact and How to Revert
- Deactivating a process stops new registrants from choosing it, but does not change anyone already registered through it.
- Restricting a process that previously applied to every course immediately narrows who can see it. Registrants for other courses lose access to that process the next time eligibility is checked.
- Turning off Confirmation Email stops the email for new paid registrations from that point on. It does not resend or recall anything already sent.
Permissions
You need the permission your administrator grants for course registration processes to view, create, edit, or clone one.
Validation and Errors
Warning
A process’s course registration confirmation email is sent for every course that process serves. The process does not have a separate setting that limits the email to only some courses, such as only paid courses. If you need to send a confirmation for only certain courses, restrict a process to those courses and turn on its confirmation email. A process with no course restriction sends its email for every course it serves.
- Saving a process requires a name, an identifier, and a registration form.
- If you restrict the process to certain courses, you must choose at least one course.
- If you turn on the contact-details step, you must choose a contact form.
- If you turn on either confirmation email, that email needs a subject and body before you can save.
- Turning on Override Checkout Settings requires filling in the checkout fields the override needs.
Warning
The confirmation email controls in the payment step have been reported missing during course checkout, with checkout then failing with an invalid order value. If this happens, contact Support with the registration process and course involved.
Warning
Confirmation email previews have been reported to show a different start or end time than the course offering’s configured time, in either time zone display option. If a preview looks wrong, verify it against a real registration and contact Support if the mismatch continues.
Related
See "Related" in the sidebar for courses and course types, web forms in general, and how Rhythm sends email.