---
title: "How it works — Palaestral"
description: "What Palaestral does around a lesson — the booking, the waiver, the payment, the record of the client and what goes wrong — and who it is built for."
canonical: "https://palaestral.com/how-it-works"
---

# Everything around the hour.

Palaestral is booking, payments and client-record software for an independent instructor who sells their own time — surf, yoga, running, strength. You teach the session. Palaestral takes the booking, collects the waiver, charges the card and handles what goes wrong — and keeps the record of every client you teach.

ScheduleAn example week

- **Mon**: 06:15 Running (2 of 3 booked); 12:00 Yoga (1 of 3 booked); 17:30 Strength (2 of 3 booked)
- **Tue**: 06:30 Surf (2 of 3 booked); 12:00 Strength (1 of 2 booked); 18:00 Strength (3 of 3 booked)
- **Wed**: 07:00 Yoga (2 of 3 booked); 12:00 Running (1 of 3 booked); 17:30 Running (2 of 3 booked)
- **Thu**: 06:30 Surf (2 of 3 booked); 12:00 Yoga (2 of 3 booked); 17:30 Running (3 of 3 booked)
- **Fri**: 06:30 Called off; 12:30 Strength (1 of 2 booked); 17:00 Yoga (1 of 3 booked)
- **Sat**: 08:00 Surf (2 of 3 booked); 10:00 Surf (3 of 3 booked); 16:00 Strength (1 of 2 booked)
- **Sun**: 07:00 Running (1 of 2 booked); 07:45 Surf (2 of 3 booked); 09:30 Yoga (1 of 3 booked)

Next Monday

- 06:15Track intervalsRunning · Park track1 of 3
- 12:00Lunch flowYoga · Studio room0 of 3
- 17:30Back squatStrength · Gym floor1 of 3

## What it does

1. ### Takes the booking

   Your page shows the times you actually teach, generated from rules you set once. Someone picks one and the seat is held while they pay.

   Also lesson packs a client buys once and books against, and a waitlist that offers a freed seat to the next person in line.

   - [Booking](https://palaestral.com/product/booking)
   - [Calendar feed](https://palaestral.com/product/calendar)
   - [Agents](https://palaestral.com/product/agents)
   - [Packs & memberships](https://palaestral.com/product/memberships)
2. ### Collects the waiver

   The person booking signs your waiver for each person coming, by name, before the booking completes, and unless you stop asking ages, anyone under 18 needs a guardian named.

   - [Waivers](https://palaestral.com/product/waivers)
3. ### Charges the card

   You are the merchant. The money goes to your own account, Stripe bills its fee to you, and any 1099-K is issued in your name.

   - [Payments](https://palaestral.com/product/payments)
4. ### Remembers the client

   What they booked, what they signed, what they paid and what you noted after the session — still there when they book again next summer.

   - [Clients](https://palaestral.com/product/clients)
5. ### Keeps the plan

   A plan per session, in blocks you arrange, attached to the lesson it is for — and any plan you keep as a template can start the next one.

   - [Strength](https://palaestral.com/for/strength)
6. ### Handles the exceptions

   A morning called off, a cancellation inside your own terms, a refund that has to reach somebody. Calling a morning off is one press; telling everyone and sending the money back follow on their own.

   - [Surf](https://palaestral.com/for/surf)

## What stays with you

The booking is the smallest part of it. What builds up is the part worth having in one place: every client's history, the waivers they signed, the plans you wrote for them and the record of what you earned.

Waivers are kept for 5 years, or until a minor turns 20 if that is later — long enough to still be evidence. The periods are on the [privacy page](https://palaestral.com/privacy#how-long-it-is-kept), stated from the same numbers the deletion job uses.

## Who it's for

An instructor who sells their own time, and one instructor is a complete customer: surf, yoga, running, strength, climbing, pickleball.

There is no marketplace, no feed and no ranking. Your page is yours, and people reach it through your own links and through search — never through a Palaestral directory of instructors.

- [Surf](https://palaestral.com/for/surf)

  Call a flat morning off, offer another time.
- [Yoga](https://palaestral.com/for/yoga)

  Packs that keep count, class by class.
- [Running](https://palaestral.com/for/running)

  Weekly places, held and paid for ahead.
- [Strength](https://palaestral.com/for/strength)

  Notes that come back with each lifter.
- [Studios](https://palaestral.com/product/studios)

  A studio's roster, and a page of its own.

Five steps from a link in your inbox to a page your clients book from.

- [Get started](https://palaestral.com/start)
- [Pricing](https://palaestral.com/pricing)