Staff can add someone to an event from the Console in three ways. You can use the same registration form a member uses, create a registration record without an order, or open an existing registration and edit it. Each option works differently, so choose the one that matches what you need to record or fix.
Prerequisites
- You can open the event you are registering someone for, or the registration you want to change.
- Registering someone, creating a registration, editing a registration, and modifying an order each require a separate permission. If your role does not include the permission for that action, the Console will not let you open that page.
Register a Contact Through the Registration Form
Use this option when you want the same process a self-service registrant uses, including orders, pricing rules, and the confirmation email.
- Go to Meetings & Shows › Events › [event name] › Registration.
- Choose Process a Registration.
- Find or quickly add the contact, then choose Start Registration.
- Complete the registration form the same way the contact would.
Result
Rhythm creates an order and a registration for the contact, just as it does for a self-service registration. The contact receives the same confirmation email when the registration's process has confirmation emails turned on. If that option is off, nobody receives an email from this step.
Tip
You can also start from the contact record. On the contact’s Registrations tab, choose Register for an Event, pick the event, and choose Register. Rhythm opens the same registration form for that contact.
The form does not warn you before checkout when the contact is already registered for the event. Rhythm checks for an existing registration only when you try to check out, and it refuses checkout with a message that the person is already registered. If the first attempt fails or is refused partway through and someone tries again, that check does not always catch the repeat. You can end up with more than one registration record for the same person, and the extra one can stay in Draft even though the later attempt reports success. After a failed or refused attempt, check the contact's registrations for the event before you register them again.
Staff processing in the Console skips some checks a self-service registrant faces, so it is not a reliable test of an invitation-only registration process. To confirm invitees can register, always open the exact link from the invitation email. A successful test in the Console or through internal navigation does not prove the emailed link works.
Tip
If someone cannot complete self-service registration on their own, registering them here is a practical stand-in while you investigate the problem. This helps when Portal access is blocked, a VPN interferes with checkout, or the storefront or a webinar registration page will not load for them.
Tip
If someone can join or renew their membership while registering for the event, use the embedded membership form component on the registration form. Do not bundle a membership product inline in the registration package, because that is not the supported way to offer membership at registration. To change that component's settings, open the registration form, find the Renew or Join component, and edit it with its pencil icon.
When the registration total is $0.00, check the donation options at checkout before assuming nobody wants to donate. Rhythm populates the Donations section only when a donation amount is already entered, so a free registration can default to a no-payment checkout that skips donation selection.
Tip
To stop members from registering themselves in the Portal while staff can still register people from the Console, turn off Allow online registration via the portal or set a close date on the process. The Console does not enforce that setting or the process's close date, so Process a Registration keeps working here after Portal registration is closed.
For on-site check-in payments, it is often quicker to hand the attendee a tablet or phone so they can enter their own card details. This also works as a stand-in when a card reader is not available.
Write a Registration Record Directly, with No Order
Use Manually Create a Registration when you need to record a registration that no order describes. Common examples include a complimentary speaker registration, a correction, or a record an import missed. Nothing is charged, no order is created, and no confirmation email is sent by this method.
- Go to Meetings & Shows › Events › [event name] › Registration.
- Choose Manually Create a Registration.
- Fill in the contact, registration type, package, process, badge details, status, and any other fields you need.
- Choose Save Changes.
Result
Rhythm saves the registration record and assigns a registration number automatically. This method does not check the contact’s existing registrations, so you can create a second registration for someone who already has one.
Warning
Because this method does not send an email, resend the confirmation afterward if the person needs one. On the new record, use Registration Options › Resend Confirmation Email. See Find, Review, and Follow Up on Registrations. A registration with no order can also fail or show an error when you preview or resend its confirmation email, whether it was created this way or left behind by an import. The missing order, not the creation method, is usually the reason.
A record created this way can be saved with no Process set. Without a process, the registrant has no confirmation email to resend and no Modify Registration option later, because both come from the registration's process. If someone you registered manually says they cannot modify their registration, open it, choose Edit Manually, and set Process: in Basic Registration Details. A registrations query with the criterion "process is blank" can find every affected record at once.
Badge Organization and Location fill in automatically from the contact's own organization and preferred address when you choose the contact. They stay blank if those contact fields are blank or not set the way you expect. Badge Job Title is not filled in from the contact on this screen, so type it directly if you want it to appear. You can correct a badge's printed name the same way, directly on the registration record, without creating a new contact.
This method, and any order or invoice created outside the normal checkout flow, does not go through the usual order-to-registration relationship. Because of that, a registration created this way may not be matchable back to an order after the fact, even when one exists elsewhere for the same purchase. An imported registration with no order behaves the same way: its Order field on the registration's 360 page shows blank.
This is also an accepted temporary workaround when someone cannot reach the registration page because of an unresolved access problem. You can register them here while the problem is being fixed, then correct or replace the record later if needed. You can also use this method to give someone registration history for a past event without touching their existing profile. Choose their existing contact, and Rhythm adds the registration without changing any other contact profile data.
Tip
When someone is automatically created as a guest registration's contact, their new contact record shows a banner naming the main registrant. Clicking that name opens the related contact record.
Approve a Pending Registration or Correct Any Field
- Open the registration record.
- Choose Edit Manually from the action menu.
- Change the field you need. To approve a pending registration or move it between Active, Cancelled, Draft, or Pending Approval, change Status:. These four statuses are fixed; Rhythm does not let you add a custom status, such as a "No Show" status, in the Console.
- Choose Save Changes.
Result
Rhythm saves the change on the registration record. This edit only updates the registration itself. It does not create, restore, or relink an order, and it does not cancel or change any sessions or tickets tied to the status change. Rhythm also has no separate verification or review step before a registration activates. Moving a registration to Active here, or through checkout, does not run any document check or staff sign-off, so you need to confirm who someone is outside Rhythm today.
You can change almost any field on the registration record this way, except email address. The registrant's email address lives on their CRM contact record, not on the registration, so update it on the contact. Rhythm then reflects that change on the registration automatically.
Warning
Changing a registration’s status directly can correct what staff and reports show, but it does not fix an underlying issue such as a missing or broken order link. If a registration still shows no order, no invoice, or no confirmation email after you change its status to Active, the missing order is a separate issue. The status edit will not recreate it. Use a direct status change to correct the record you can see, not to redo checkout. An Active registration with no linked Order ID is not just a cosmetic gap. It means the link between the registration and its order is broken and needs correcting, not only a status that needs correcting. See Recovering a Registration with a Missing or Unlinked Order below.
This is also the safest way to correct a registration that did not update automatically after something else went wrong. For example, an order might be cancelled while the registration stays Active, or checkout might not finish and leave the registration in Draft. In those cases, open the registration and set its status directly to match what actually happened, whether that means Active or Cancelled. A registration record can also exist when the registrant's own screen looks stuck, such as on a loading or confirmation page after they click continue. Check whether the registration was actually created before you assume the attempt failed outright. Portal registration can also stall intermittently on its final processing step. Pressing Continue again while it is stuck can interfere with completion, and refreshing the page afterward can leave the registration saved as a draft instead of finished.
For group members, correct one attendee at a time. Open the group, open each attendee’s registration, and correct its status the same way. If several registrations are affected, use a query to find them by current status and event before you fix each one. You can often correct affected registrations in bulk without help from engineering by running the query and then updating each match, or by using Bulk Changes to update several at once.
Tip
If a registration you know is correct still does not appear in a query or report as expected, try editing and resaving it. You can make a small change, such as adding a character to the internal notes and then removing it. Re-saving the record can resolve a case where background processing has not refreshed it for search yet.
If the underlying cause was a setup problem, such as a misconfigured process or package, fixing that configuration only changes future registrations. Registrations already created under the old setup usually still need the same manual correction. A configuration fix by itself does not repair them.
Warning
Editing a registration manually changes only the registration record. It does not rerun checkout, charge the registrant, or touch the order. Changing Type or Package this way does not update the linked order or invoice to match. If the change should collect more money, you need a separate invoice or Modify Order, not a manual edit. Use Modify Order instead of a manual edit whenever you are changing what a confirmed registrant bought, especially when you are removing a session, ticket, or fee. A manual edit alone will not update the related order, session, or ticket data to match.
Recovering a Registration with a Missing or Unlinked Order
Some registrations end up Active, or otherwise look complete, without being linked to the order that paid for them. You can spot these registrations by a blank Order field, or by a total, balance due, and amount paid that are all blank even though the registrant paid. This can affect older registrations that used Bill Organization or Pay Later and were left without a linked order. It can also affect registrations with a checkout or import problem described elsewhere in this article. Automated registration emails will not go out until the registration has an order linked to it, so changing only the status can still leave the registration with no email.
- Find the order that actually paid for the registration, using the invoice number, the payer's name, or the event and date as a starting point.
- Open the registration and choose Edit Manually.
- Under Order Related Information, enter that order's identifier so the registration is linked to it.
- Set Status: to Active, if it is not already.
- Choose Save Changes.
Result
The registration now carries the order's identifier, so reports and automated emails that depend on a linked order can work again. Manually updating Order Related Information does not change the original order's amount or line items. It only realigns what the registration itself shows.
Tip
For several affected registrations at once, copy each order's identifier, run a registrations query to find the draft or unlinked registration it belongs to, and use Bulk Changes › Mass Update to set the registration's order_id field before you change its status. This is faster than repeating Edit Manually one record at a time.
Warning
If a registration is still subject to payments that have not finished processing, think twice before editing its order-related fields by hand. Leaving those values alone so they update automatically as payments come in is often safer than re-entering totals that a later payment could overwrite or conflict with.
If the registration's totals are otherwise correct but Amount Paid, Balance Due, or Total show blank, restore those three values directly on the registration through Edit Manually. For a registration where a coupon waived the entire cost, set Amount Paid, Balance Due, and Total all to 0.
Why You Cannot Modify a Registration from the Console
Modify Order opens the registration’s own form so the registrant can add or change what they bought. Rhythm then creates a change order for the difference. A setting on the registration’s process controls whether this option is available.
Warning
If the registration’s process does not allow registrant edits, nobody can modify that registration from the Console, including staff. Modify Order shows modification as disabled instead of opening the form. Turn on and save that option on the process before anyone, including staff, can use Modify Order on registrations that use it. Staff are not left without options while it is unavailable. You can still make changes directly on the registration, such as editing it manually or creating records without an order, as described above. If a change like this should have a cost, send the customer a separate invoice yourself. Editing the registration will not generate one.
Modify Order cannot change a registration's package or registration type, because that choice is locked in once the registration is processed. If someone needs a different package or type, cancel the existing registration and register them again with the one they need. You can change the package or type directly on the registration record with Edit Manually, but that edit does not go through checkout. It will not create or update an order to match, and it will not behave like a normal Modify Order result.
Whether Modify Order lets you add a new guest to an existing registration depends on the event's registration setup. If no guest option appears on the modification form, adding a guest that way is not currently available for that registration. If a guest cannot be added and you need one on-site, cancel the existing registration and its order. Then reprocess a new registration that includes the guest from the start. Creating a separate order for just the guest through the universal cart can run into the same restriction, so cancel-and-reprocess is the more reliable fallback.
Console and Portal modification always use the same edit form. There is no way to give staff a different modification form than the one attendees use in the Portal. Whatever form the process assigns for edits applies in both places.
The Portal enforces the process’s edit deadline, but the Console does not. A blank deadline does not close Portal editing either, so registrants can still modify their registration when no deadline is set. Staff can still open Modify Order and make a change after the deadline that would stop a self-service registrant, as long as the process allows edits.
Move a Registrant to a Different Event
Rhythm has no direct way to move a registration from one event to another. To switch someone's event, cancel and recreate the registration instead.
- Cancel the original order. See Cancel or Delete a Registration in the Console.
- If the existing registration is not canceled along with the order, cancel it directly.
- Create a new order for the new event's fee structure.
- Process a new registration for the new event, using either method described above.
Tip
If the original order was a group order tied to real registrations, canceling it lets you choose which of the group's registrations to cancel. That way, you can move one attendee without disturbing the rest of the group.
Bulk-Load Registrations with Custom Data Tasks
For a batch of straightforward registrations, especially for contacts who already exist in Rhythm, you can skip the registration form. Load the records through Settings › Custom Data Tasks, using the Contacts/Registrations task.
Prerequisites
- Gather the event's identifier before you start. The task requires it, and the upload fails at submission if you have not collected it in advance.
- For anyone who already exists as a contact, have their contact ID or a matching email address ready. For anyone new, gather enough contact information to create their record.
Rhythm looks for an existing contact by ID or email address on each row. When it finds a match, it can take the registrant's name, email address, and organization from that existing contact record. You do not need to repeat organization fields that are already on file. For a person who does not exist yet, include those values in the file and map them to the matching Contact fields, because there is no existing record to fill them in from.
Tip
Before you upload, split your file into two groups: rows whose email address matches an existing contact, and rows that do not. Import the matched rows first using their contact IDs to update the existing profiles. Review the unmatched rows separately to decide whether new contact records should be created for them.
Warning
This method creates registration records only. It does not create or link an order, because the registrant never went through the normal registration process. You can update the registration's financial fields by hand afterward, and create an invoice or payment manually if the registration needs one. Registration custom fields are not accepted through this task either. If you need to bulk-update a registration's custom field values, use a different method.
Tip
If your event bundles a purchase with automatic registration for one included event, and the purchaser also needs registrations for the event's other included events, find the purchasers with a query and bulk-add the remaining registrations with this task. Once you know the target package, you can prefill its event, type, and package identifiers in the upload template so you only need to supply each registrant's identity.
An earlier limitation that blocked importing more than one registration for the same contact through this task has been fixed. You can import two or more registrations for one contact without error.
Confirmation Emails for Registrations
A registration's confirmation email comes from its process, and it uses the same template editor whether you are setting it up or fixing a problem with it.
Warning
If a confirmation email is not sending or shows a template error, check the template's merge fields first. A stray character in a merge field, such as an extra curly bracket before a field like {{billToContact.name}}, causes a template compilation error and stops the email. Removing the extra character fixes it.
The template editor's merge-field picker defaults to the Contact category. Change the first selector to Order, Registration, or Registration Package to reach additional merge fields from those categories.
A confirmation email's clickable text and its actual link target are set separately. If a link shows the right text but sends people to the wrong place, check the hyperlink target on that text in the confirmation content. Correcting the target, not the visible text, fixes the link.
A CC address entered during registration receives only the order confirmation email. The event registration confirmation email is configured to reach only the registrant, so a CC recipient never gets a copy.
Tip
If someone needs their confirmation resent but the registration has no order to resend from, or you just need a quick stand-in, copy the confirmation email's content and send it as a direct message from the contact's CRM record. Replace any merge field, such as first name, with the actual value before you send it.
If Something Goes Wrong
| What you see | What it means and what to do |
|---|---|
| You are refused opening Process a Registration, Manually Create a Registration, Edit Manually, or Modify Order | Your role does not have the permission for that specific action. Ask an administrator to grant it. |
| A registration shows no order, invoice, or confirmation email even after you set its status to Active | The status edit does not restore a missing order link. Investigate the checkout or cancellation issue, or contact Support if the order truly never completed. |
| Modify Order shows modification as disabled | The registration’s process does not allow registrant edits. Turn that option on for the process, then try again. |
| Checkout refuses a manual registration as already registered | The contact already has an active or pending-approval registration for this event. Find and use the existing registration instead. |
You have not entered a valid value for work address | The address is missing a country, or its ZIP code includes the extra four-digit ZIP+4 extension. Add the country and try a five-digit ZIP first. |
| The registration wizard stops on an organization or employer field | The contact's employer affiliation could not be resolved to an organization record, often because the employer was only entered as free text or the affiliation is an empty placeholder. Create or link the correct organization record for the contact, then continue. |
| The registration form will not advance past a custom field | A custom field on the registration form may be in a bad state. Open that field and save it again; the Next button typically reappears once it is re-saved. |
| Errors only happen with one specific contact record | That contact's record may be in a bad state. Deleting it and re-creating the person as a new contact can clear an isolated, record-specific error. |
| You cannot reproduce a checkout error a registrant reported | Ask the registrant for a short screen recording of the failure with the browser's developer console open, so you can see the problem as it happens on their end. |
| Someone could not add a function or session through Modify Order while the issue was unresolved | As a temporary workaround, sell the item to them through the online store instead. |
| A payment shows in the processor but no registration or order completed in the Console | This can follow an order-processing error. Refund the payment in the processor and have the person complete a new registration. |
| A charge went through but the registration is stuck in Draft with no matching order | Rapid, repeated checkout attempts can leave a payment captured by the processor while Rhythm never finishes the matching order. Check the processor directly before asking the registrant to pay again. |
| A failed or errored registration attempt still charged the card | The charge can happen even though the registration never completed, and it may not show in the Console right away. Check the payment processor directly, and confirm whether the first attempt actually went through before retrying payment. |
| Modify Registration fails partway through for one specific registration, but works for others on the same form | The problem can be isolated to that one registration record rather than the form or process. Try a different registration on the same form to confirm, then contact Support with the specific registration if only one is affected. |
| A registration's payment record itself will not open or process | As a contained recovery, set the registration's status to Cancelled, move the problem transactions to a separate batch for review, then reprocess the registration's order with the confirmation email suppressed, using the manual offline credit card payment method. |
| You need Support to investigate a registrant's failed attempt | Do this before manually completing their registration. A manual fix removes the failing state, so Support and engineering can no longer inspect or reproduce the problem. |