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Subscription hold vs. appointment hold: which do I need?

Pausing a student for the summer and holding a spot for a family who is deciding are two different holds in Opus1.io. Use a subscription hold when a student is already enrolled and taking a break: lessons stop, invoices for those dates are recalculated, and the dates cannot be edited afterward. Use an appointment hold to save a time slot for someone who has not enrolled yet. It charges nothing and expires on its own.

Applies to: Owner, Manager, Staff
PLUS Feature: No
Plan: All
Last updated: October 27, 2026

Table of Contents

  1. Overview
  2. Which hold to use
  3. Subscription holds: pausing a student who is already enrolled
  4. Appointment holds: saving a time slot for a family who is deciding
  5. How to tell them apart on screen
  6. Other settings called "hold"
  7. FAQ
  8. Related Articles

Overview

Opus1.io uses the word "hold" for two features that solve opposite problems. A subscription hold pauses an enrollment the student already has. An appointment hold reserves a time nobody has booked yet.

Picking the wrong one costs you in both directions. A subscription hold placed by mistake changes the family's invoices and cannot be edited, so fixing it means ending the subscription and enrolling the student again. An appointment hold placed when you meant to pause a student leaves their lessons and billing running as if nothing happened.

Why it matters: Ask one question before you click anything: is this student already enrolled in the lessons you want to hold? If yes, you want a subscription hold. If no, you want an appointment hold.

Which hold to use

What you are trying to do Use this Why
A student on monthly private lessons is taking the summer off and coming back to the same lessons Subscription hold Lessons and billing pause, and the enrollment continues afterward
A group class student is away for part of the term Subscription hold The student is marked on hold for those dates while the class meets for everyone else
A family wants Tuesday at 4:00 PM with Ms. Rivera but has not decided yet Appointment hold The slot is kept for them without charging anything
You are sending a quote and want the time kept while the family reviews it Appointment hold on the proposal One step sends the proposal and reserves the slot
A trial lesson was booked and you want the same weekly time kept in case the family enrolls Automatic hold on the trial service Opus1.io places the appointment hold for you
The family wants to hear if a time opens up, but you do not want to block it from anyone Appointment waitlist notification Nothing is reserved, and the family gets an email when a matching slot is free
The student is leaving End the subscription Neither hold is meant for a student who is not coming back

Subscription holds: pausing a student who is already enrolled

Use a subscription hold when the student is enrolled and the break has a known start and return date. Summer, a family trip, a sports season, or a short medical leave are the usual cases. The enrollment stays in place, so the student comes back to the same subscription without being enrolled again.

Where: Client profile, then Subscriptions, then Hold on the enrollment you are pausing.

Who can place it: Staff, managers, and owners. Limited Staff do not see the Hold button.

What Opus1.io does for the dates you enter:

  • Private lessons. With Cancel appointments during hold on, lessons in that window are marked On hold. Opus1.io does not issue makeup credits for them, because the break was planned. Lessons after the end date stay on the calendar, and those are the student's return.
  • Group classes. The same toggle reads Mark client as cancelled during hold. The student is marked on hold for class dates in the window, and the class still meets for everyone else.
  • Billing. Invoices that overlap the hold are recalculated from the payment plan's rules. A full month inside the hold often drops to $0, and a partial month is discounted for the days on hold. Paid invoices are not refunded to the card. If the family paid more than the new amount, the difference becomes a monetary credit on the payer's account.
  • Payroll. Lessons marked on hold are left off payroll unless that teacher's pay rate counts them. See Other settings called "hold".

The plan has to allow holds and bill monthly, and a hold cannot start in the same calendar month the subscription started. A student who enrolled in May can be held from June.

⚠️ Warning: The dates lock as soon as you click Place On Hold. Opus1.io has no way to edit, extend, shorten, or cancel a subscription hold afterward. Confirm the start and return dates with the family before you save.

When the end date passes, the subscription comes off hold by itself. There is nothing to click to resume it.

The full walkthrough, including how invoices are recalculated and what to do if the dates are wrong, is in How do I use subscription holds?. If the hold will not save, What does "Plan doesn't allow hold" mean? covers each error message.

Appointment holds: saving a time slot for a family who is deciding

Use an appointment hold to keep a specific time free while someone decides whether to enroll. The hold is a placeholder on the calendar: a service, a time, a teacher, and a location, with an optional client and a staff note. It does not create a subscription, send an invoice, or charge anyone.

Where: Click Book Appointment at the top of Opus1.io and fill in the slot the same way you would book it. Click Hold appointment, choose an expiration date, add a note if you want one, and click Place Hold. The hold lasts through the end of the expiration date.

While the hold is in place, that slot is unavailable to other clients. The client named on the hold can still book it. A hold with no client named blocks the slot for everyone. You can hold a single lesson or a weekly recurring time, and the note shows on the main calendar and on the teacher's schedule.

An appointment hold ends in one of two ways:

  • Open the hold on the calendar and choose Cancel hold to release it straight away. On a recurring hold, this releases the rest of the series.
  • When the expiration date passes, Opus1.io removes the hold and the slot opens again.

To keep the slot and send the price in one go, choose Send As Proposal on the booking payment step, then turn on Hold appointment? and set an expiration date. Sending a proposal without that toggle does not reserve anything. The steps are in Sending Combined Proposal-Appointment Holds.

How to tell them apart on screen

When a colleague says a student is "on hold", the Opus1.io calendar and client profile tell you which kind they mean.

Subscription hold Appointment hold
Where it starts An existing monthly subscription on the client profile Book Appointment, before anyone is enrolled in that slot
What you click Hold, then Place On Hold Hold appointment, then Place Hold
What the client profile shows On hold from the start date to the end date, with the button reading Hold Scheduled or On Hold and disabled Nothing on the subscription. The hold lives on the calendar
What the calendar shows The student's existing lessons in the window, labeled on hold The reserved slot itself, with any staff note
Billing Invoices in the window are recalculated No charge
How to undo it You cannot. End the subscription and enroll the student again Cancel hold, or let it expire
After it ends The enrollment continues with the lessons after the end date The slot is open to anyone

A lesson that was already on the books and now says on hold came from a subscription hold. A slot on the calendar with no lesson behind it, often with a note such as "Waiting on Chen family", is an appointment hold.

Activity history uses different wording too. A subscription hold reads like "put Maya Chen's subscription on hold from June 1 to August 31." An appointment hold reads like "set a Private Piano Lessons hold until May 15."

Other settings called "hold"

Three more Opus1.io settings use the same word. Each one connects to the holds above, but none of them is placed from the client profile.

Automatically hold weekly time slot for client is on an appointment service, usually your trial lesson. Opus1.io places an appointment hold on the same weekly time for the follow-up service you choose, for the number of days you set. Cancelling or moving the trial removes that hold. Why: The family's slot stays free while they decide, without anyone at the front desk remembering to hold it. See How Do I Set Up Trial Lessons?.

How many days should the class slot be held for? is on a group class trial payment plan that pre-enrolls the student in future class dates. It keeps that unpaid seat for the number of days you set, then removes the pre-enrollment. It does not pause a subscription and does not create an appointment hold. See How do I create a trial payment plan for my group classes?.

Count appointments/classes on hold? is on a teacher's pay rate. It decides whether lessons and classes marked on hold by a subscription hold count toward payroll. It is off unless your school turns it on. Appointment holds are never on payroll, because no lesson took place.

FAQ

Do I need an appointment hold to keep a student's time slot during a summer break?
No. A subscription hold keeps the student's lessons after the return date on the calendar, so their weekly time is already theirs when they come back. Opus1.io only needs an appointment hold when nobody is enrolled in that slot yet.

Can families pause their own lessons or hold a time slot themselves?
No. In Opus1.io, both kinds of hold are placed by staff, managers, or owners. Families cannot pause a subscription or reserve a slot from their own account or a self-booking link. If they want to be told when a time frees up, set up an appointment waitlist notification for them.

Can I hold a seat in a group class for a family who is still deciding?
Not with an appointment hold. Appointment holds, including the one on a proposal, work only for appointment booking in Opus1.io. For a group class trial, a trial payment plan that pre-enrolls the student can keep their seat for a set number of days.

An appointment hold is still on the calendar after its expiration date. What should I do?
Open the hold on the Opus1.io calendar and choose Cancel hold to release the slot. If expired holds keep appearing, contact support with the teacher, date, and time of the hold so the team can look into it.

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