Building dive groups

Dive Groups is where you group divers under an instructor or guide for the life of a course or activity. Course students stay in their group; fun divers get a guide; the day's trips are then arranged on the trip sheet.

Four tabs: Courses, Activities, Pro and Overdue

The board is split into tabs so each kind of work has its own space. Every booking shows on exactly one of them:

Courses — certification courses and course bundles (and any dated organised trip). Students are grouped under an instructor and signed off when they finish.
Activities — fun dives, snorkels, night dives and any other guided session. This tab works differently from Courses: instead of one card per guide, it has a divers pool on the left and dated outing groups on the right. You build a group for a given day and guide, drop the divers in, then place that group on a boat from the trip sheet. See The Activities tab below.
Pro — long professional programmes that run over weeks or months (divemaster training, instructor internships, IDC). A pro candidate works with many different instructors over their programme, not one, so this tab is a simple tracker, not an assignment board — see The Pro tab below. A programme lands on this tab when its service is ticked "Pro / extended programme" in the Dive Menu. Ticking Pro only changes which tab a booking shows on — it never changes pay.
Overdue — bookings whose dates have passed without being finished. They move here automatically the day after their last date, so the Courses and Activities pools only ever show today and future. See The Overdue tab below.

The number on each tab is how many divers are on it. Switch tabs from the row at the top of the board.

Whether a role sees this full board (Operational view) or only their own groups (Teaching view, the personal My Dive Groups page) is set per role in Settings → Roles. A role with View but not Edit on Dive Groups sees the board read-only — names, groups and cert levels, but no assign, move or sign-off controls.

When you'd use this

Assigning students and customers to an instructor or guide.
Checking at a glance which courses are running, when they start and end, and who's ready to sign off.

The Courses tab at a glance

On the Courses tab each dive group is its own card, laid out in a grid that fills your screen, ordered by urgency (past end date first, then soonest-ending). (Activities and Pro each use their own layout — see below and below.) A card shows:

The course name at the top, with badges when something needs your eye: "Past end date", "Finishes today" / "Finishes tomorrow" (amber), "Starts today" / "Starts tomorrow" (blue), "All ready" (everyone can be signed off), or "Over capacity" (red).
The card's colour (left edge + avatar) is the course category — the same colours as your Dive Menu — so every Beginner course looks alike at a glance, whoever teaches it.
The instructor or guide underneath, with their role badge (Instructor, Divemaster, …), and the group's start and end dates on their own line ("Starts today · ends tomorrow", or the dates).
One row per diver: their name (a link straight to their booking), progress ("Pool 1/2 · Dives 2/4"), a Move this student to… dropdown (moves only that one student to another instructor, or Remove from group — the rest of the group stays put), and a Sign off button. A diver's dates only show on their row when they differ from the group's. If a person has more than one course on the board, their row shows a "2 courses · assign separately" chip — each course is its own booking and moves on its own.
Signed off the wrong person? Undo it. The moment you press Sign off, that student stays on the board greyed out with a 10-second Undo countdown — click Undo and they snap straight back into their group with the same instructor. After the 10 seconds they drop off as normal. Spotted it later? Open their booking and press Undo sign-off (see Managing bookings). Undo needs the same permission as signing off.
A finished group closes itself. When the last student in a group is signed off (or their booking is cancelled), the group closes automatically. A student who books the same course later always starts a fresh group, so a finished group can never be reused and an old instructor pay split can never carry over. Undoing a sign-off reopens the group. If you ever see "That group has finished", refresh the page and assign again.

The Needs an instructor pool on the left is grouped by start date, the same way the Activities tab's Active-divers pool is: today's and tomorrow's dates open automatically, every other date starts collapsed, past dates tint amber and read Overdue. Press a date header, or the pool's own Expand all / Collapse all, to open or close every date at once. When a single date has more than one course waiting, that date splits again into collapsible course sub-groups (by course name, each with its own count) so you can open just the course you're staffing; these start collapsed, and each such date has its own Expand all / Collapse all for its sub-groups. A date with only one course skips this extra layer and simply lists its waiting divers. Every waiting diver still renders exactly once — this only changes how they're grouped on screen, not who's waiting.

Ready to sign off — a panel pinned at the top. Every student who has finished their course (their progress bar is full) is mirrored here into one place, so you can run down the list and press Sign off on each without hunting through the group cards for them. It's the same student shown in two places — signing off here, or on their card below, certifies them and clears them from both instantly, with the same 10-second Undo. The panel only appears when at least one student is ready, and its count shows how many students are ready (this is per student, so it can differ from the Ready to sign off filter pill above, which counts whole groups where everyone is ready). Only students who already have an instructor appear — someone still in Needs an instructor has no instructor of record yet, so they can't be certified until they're assigned. Each row shows the student's course and date, their certification level and preferred language, and an Activity history toggle that reveals which instructor they're signed off under — the same layout as the Activities tab's "Ready to mark Done" panel.

The Activities tab: divers pool and outing groups

Activities are guided per outing, not for the life of a course — the same diver might dive with one guide this morning and another tomorrow. The tab is laid out around that:

Ready to mark Done — a panel pinned at the top. Every diver whose dives are all placed (their bar has gone green) is mirrored here into one place, so you can run down the list and press Done on each without hunting through the date sections for them. It's the same diver shown in two places — pressing Done here, or in their date section below, clears them from both instantly, no page refresh. Pressing Done is one of the two checks (the other is the booking being paid in full) that release the guide's commission, so this panel is your reminder of who's waiting on it. The panel only appears when at least one diver is ready, and its count shows how many.
Active divers — a narrow list on the left, grouped by start date. Every active activity diver stays in this list until you press Done — being added to a group, or having all their dives placed, does not remove them (a package diver often dives across many days, so they need to stay in view until they're finished). Done is the single exit: it clears the diver off the board, takes them out of any group that isn't on a boat yet, and finalises the guide's commission. A Done diver still in a group (one already on a boat) stays visible on that group's card with a green Done pill — so a delivered group never looks empty if it's taken off a boat later (they get no certificate, so it's not a sign-off); you can still press Done early for someone leaving with dives unused. Pressed one by mistake? For about 10 seconds the row shows an Undo button (with a countdown) that brings the diver straight back. Each date is its own collapsible header showing how many divers start that day; today's and tomorrow's sections open automatically, every other date starts collapsed — press a date header, or Expand all / Collapse all (next to the "Active divers" heading) to open or close every date at once. Inside an open date, the divers are split again into collapsible activity sub-groups by trip type (e.g. "2 Dive Morning Trip", "Night Dive"), each with its own count; these start collapsed, and each open date has its own Expand all / Collapse all for its sub-groups. A date already in the past is still shown (nothing is hidden), tinted amber and marked Overdue so it stands out; today's section carries a green top edge. Each row shows, top to bottom: their name (a link straight to their booking) with the ＋ Group dropdown; their package, with a small › Activity history toggle beside it that opens a drawer with more detail; their certification level as a colour-coded chip (e.g. blue "Advanced", green "Open Water") plus their preferred language if one's on file, or a muted "No cert on file" prompt to add it from the customer's profile, an In [guide] chip if they're already in an outing group (so you can see they're partly organised), plus any board note or keep-together tag set on their booking, and a Grp pill when they booked together with others on one order — every member of that order shows the same coloured pill (hover it for the group size), so you can spot at a glance who belongs together when building groups; and a dive wallet progress bar ("4/10" — counted from published trip sheets, the exact figure the pay engine uses) that turns green when every dive is placed (they're ready to Done), ending in the Done button. The Activity history drawer shows who's guided them so far, on which date(s) (from published trip sheets) and an If never placed, pay dropdown — the guide who gets the commission only if the booking's dives never make it onto a published trip sheet (as soon as anyone is placed on a sheet, this is ignored).
- Add them to a group the fast way: pick a group from the small ＋ Group box on their row — no need to open anything. Or drag the diver (the grip handle next to it) onto a group card.
- Add several at once: tick the checkbox on each diver you want, then use the bar that appears above the list — Add to group… puts everyone selected into an existing group in one go, or New group with N opens the new-group form and adds them all the moment it's created.
Outing groups — a grid filling the rest of the screen. An outing group is a guide + a date with divers dropped in. Press New group, pick the guide and day, then add divers (from the pool's dropdown, by dragging, or with a multi-select). A diver can be in more than one group when they dive on different days. Each card shows the guide's role badge, a category-coloured avatar, how many divers are in it, an Over capacity warning if it exceeds your centre's guide cap, and its state — Building, On a boat, or Overdue (its day has passed and it's still not placed). Press a diver's name in the card to open their booking. Press the pencil on a card (while it's still Building) to change its guide, date or time slot; the bin deletes the group. A "Place on the trip sheet →" link on the card takes you straight there. Drag a member's grip handle onto the pool (or its "drag here to unassign" hint) to take them out of a group. You place a group on a boat or location from the trip sheet; once that sheet is published, the group dissolves on its own and each diver's wallet ticks up. An empty group can't be placed — add divers first.
Needs grouping — an amber panel above "Ready to mark Done". If you delete an outing group (or take a member out of one) after a diver has already been marked Done, that diver's dive is finished but they're no longer in any group. They'd otherwise drop off the board entirely (a done dive isn't in the pool and isn't overdue), so instead they gather here, flagged Needs grouping, ready to drag or ＋ Group back into a group. The panel only appears when there's someone in it, and each diver leaves it the moment they're back in a group. It's there so a done diver is never lost when you rebuild a group.

The Activities top bar reads the same as Courses: a List / Calendar toggle, then the search box, then the filter chips. Use the filter chips (in List view) to isolate a slice: Active divers shows just the divers list (hides the grid), and Starts today / Overdue narrow the outing-groups grid to that day or to overdue ones (hides the pool). Chips with nothing behind them hide themselves.

Calendar view lays the outing groups out on a timeline — one row per guide, with a single-day marker for each outing on its date (the morning/afternoon/evening slot shows in the marker's label). A bottom "Active divers" lane shows divers not yet in any group, on their booking date. Drag an outing marker onto another guide's row to move that outing to them. Use the Day / Week / Timeline controls to change the date range. (This is the planning overview; the day-by-day boat placement still lives on the Trip Sheet.)

Managers get two email buttons on the top-right of the Activities tab, the same as the Courses tab: Email newly-assigned staff (only the guides assigned or reassigned since the last send) and Email all assigned staff (every guide who currently has an active outing group). Neither sends on a single click — each opens a confirmation first, then sends one email per guide telling them which outing they're leading and the divers in it. Assigning or changing a guide never emails automatically; it just re-arms the "newly-assigned" button.

The Pro tab: a simple tracker

A Divemaster intern or IDC candidate works over weeks or months. The Pro tab is a plain list, one row per candidate — no pool, no drag-and-drop, no List/Calendar toggle. Each card shows:

Name (a link to their booking) and their programme.
Their real start and end dates for the whole programme.
The lead instructor for the programme (or "No instructor yet").
A progress hint ("Dives 12/40") estimated from published trip sheets — a guide, not a record.
A status label: In progress, Past end date, or Ready to sign off.
A Sign off button — the same action as Courses, with the same 10-second Undo if you press it by mistake.

Assigning instructors and splitting the commission. A Pro programme pays commission just like a course, so you set who earns it right on the card:

Use the — Add instructor — dropdown on the card to pick a person — they're added to the list and the dropdown resets, ready for the next one. Add as many instructors as worked the programme.
With two or more instructors, each shows with a percentage box you can type into — the split auto-balances to keep the total at 100% (the first person added is the lead; the running Total shows under the boxes). Adding a person defaults to an even split; edit the boxes for an uneven one (e.g. 50 / 25 / 25), or press Even split to divide it equally again. Press the ✕ to remove someone. A single instructor is a plain row and simply earns 100%.
Press Save to apply the split (or Discard to undo your changes). If anyone in the split has no commission rate set on the Team page, a note warns you their share won't be paid until it's added.
When you press Sign off, each person's share moves to the Commissions screen (To review) to be approved, then paid in the next payroll run — exactly like a course. Editing the split needs the payroll permission; everyone else sees the instructor list read-only.

Adding instructors and splitting needs the payroll permission; setting the lead needs the dive-groups edit permission. Use the Find a pro candidate… box to search by name or programme.

The Overdue tab: tidying up past dates

Real days get busy, and some bookings never get their final click: a diver who did all their dives but was never marked Done, a customer who never showed up, a course that ran longer than the dates typed at booking. Instead of piling up in the pools, these move to the Overdue tab automatically the day after their last date. Two exceptions stay where they are: a course student already in a dive group (their card shows a Past end date badge instead) and a diver already placed in an upcoming outing group.

The tab has a Courses column and an Activities column. Every entry shows how many of its dives are on published trip sheets, and offers the same choice of buttons:

Sign off (courses) or Done (activities): they finished. This is the normal completion, so it feeds sign-offs and pay exactly as if pressed on the main tabs.
No-show: they never came. The booking is kept on record, not deleted.
Put back: this is still happening. The entry returns to its home tab for 7 days, where it shows a Move to Overdue button if you change your mind.
Extend…: the dates were wrong. Pick the real end date and the entry goes back to normal life.
Remove: a duplicate or a mistake. The booking is cancelled, not deleted.

The dive counts are facts from published trip sheets; which button to press is always your call — nothing is suggested or automatic. When several divers have all their dives on published sheets, a Sign off all ready (or Mark done all ready) button clears them in one confirmed step.

Changed your mind? The Recently resolved list at the bottom shows the last 30 days of signed-off, done, no-show and removed bookings, each with a Bring back button that restores the booking (and its order) to active. Nothing on this tab ever deletes a booking or touches pay that has already been approved.

Finding people

On Courses:

Use the Find student or instructor… box at the top — the grid narrows to matching groups as you type.
Or use the filter chips: All, Needs an instructor, Starts today, Starts tomorrow, Finishes today, Finishes tomorrow, Past end date, Ready to sign off. Chips with nothing behind them hide themselves, so you only see the states that exist today.

On Pro, use the Find a pro candidate… box — see The Pro tab above.

The Activities tab has its own search box and chip row — see above; its search also matches by guide name.

Building groups

Open Dive Groups from the sidebar.
In the Needs an instructor card, pick an instructor from a diver's Assign dropdown — that creates (or joins) the instructor's group for that course. You can also drag a diver onto a group card.
Drag between cards to reassign, or drop a diver back onto Needs an instructor to unassign. The dropdown on each row does the same job without dragging.
Switch List / Calendar at the top for a timeline view by instructor.

If you assign someone who is already booked on overlapping dates, a warning box appears — "⚠️ Instructor already booked — [name] is already booked on [course] ([dates]), which overlaps these dates" — so you don't accidentally put one instructor on two trips at once. It's only a warning: choose Add anyway to go ahead (handy when you're deliberately moving people around), or Cancel to leave it. Adding more divers to the same group or fun-dive trip never warns.

Emailing instructors their assignments

Assigning someone to a dive group does not email them automatically. When you're ready, use the two buttons at the top of the page (managers only):

Email all assigned instructors — emails every instructor who currently leads an active dive group.
Email newly-assigned instructors — emails only the instructors you've assigned or reassigned since the last send.

Each button asks you to confirm first (these are real emails), then tells you how many instructors were emailed. An instructor with no email address on file is skipped. (Fun-dive guides aren't emailed by these buttons — they're for course dive groups.)

Splitting commission between staff

Most groups have one earner at 100%. When a group was genuinely shared, you can split the commission — the same way on both tabs:

Courses (Courses tab): on a course's dive group, press Add instructor in the card footer.

Activities (Activities tab): on an outing group, press Add staff in the card footer (it reads Edit split once a split is set, with the split shown beneath, e.g. "Lucas 50% · Emma 50%"). A co-guide is paid for that group's dives only — never the diver's whole package. This is how a second divemaster on a fun-dive outing earns their share.

In both cases:

Add the second person and set the percentages — they auto-balance to 100% (set one and the other adjusts). Everyone needs at least 1%.
Save split. The footer then shows the split.

Each person is paid their share at their own commission rate, straight through to payroll and their payslips. If someone has no commission rate set on the Team page, the modal warns you — their share won't be paid until a rate is set. Deleting a group that has a split discards the split too (a manager is needed to remove a split). Managers and owners only.

A split belongs to one course, not the instructor forever. If you later add a new student to an instructor's group that already has a split, you'll be asked whether to add them to that same split or start them a new group where the instructor earns 100%. This stops a split you set for one course quietly applying to every future student of that instructor and course — pick "new group" whenever the later course wasn't actually shared.

Dive counts are capped at what the service sells. A one-dive service placed on a two-dive boat counts as one dive, not two — so a split between two guides stays fair. If a diver genuinely did more dives than their service includes (an on-the-boat upsell), record it with the trip sheet's per-diver dive count, or add a second booking.

Capacity signals

Caps come from your centre settings (students per instructor, divers per guide). A group over its cap shows an "Over capacity" badge. Blank/0 = no cap.

Under-18 divers

A diver who is under 18 on the day carries a violet U18 badge on the board — in the divers pool, on a placed group member, and on the Courses, Activities and Pro tabs. Hover it to see their age and a reminder that a parent or guardian must consent.
It's worth reading before you group people: the diver's age, not just the fact they're a minor, changes the depth they're allowed to and who can supervise them.
The badge needs the diver's date of birth on their customer record. No date of birth means no badge — so a blank badge means "we don't know", not "they're an adult". The badge also follows them onto the trip sheet and its printout.

Tips

Once assigned, each leader sees their groups in My Groups and the day's plan in My Trip Sheet.
The Trip Sheet seeds its course groups from here — its Dive Groups panel also shows each course's start date.

trip-sheet.md, my-groups.md, schedule.md, boats.md