For studios
What this is for
This page is written for you, the studio owner or the parent entering your
own dancer. It walks through getting set up, building your entries, and
paying — start to finish.
The short version: you make one account, you build your routines once, and
the site checks your work as you go instead of bouncing an email back at
you three days later.
Getting an account
You need an account before you can enter anything. Making one takes about a
minute and there’s no password to invent.
Open the competition’s registration link
They’ll have sent it to you, or it’ll be on their website. It shows the
event with its dates, venue, categories and prices.Click Register your studio
Choose what you are
Dance studio — A studio entering its dancers — or
Independent / parent — Entering one or a few dancers.Fill in the form
Your studio’s name (or your family’s name), your first and last name,
and your email address. Use an email that isn’t already tied to a
competition-side account.Check your email for a six-digit code
The screen says Check your email and tells you the address it went
to. Type the code in and click Verify & create studio.You’re in
You’ll land on your studio home page.
Herding Cats signs you in with a code emailed to you. Nothing to remember,
nothing to reset, nothing to write on a sticky note. If a code doesn’t
arrive, check your junk folder first.
Getting your front desk in too
You don’t have to do this alone. Go to Team and use the
Invite someone form: their first name, last name, email, and whether
they’re an Owner or a Member. They get an email link, sign in with
their own code, and you’re both working in the same registration at the
same time.
Owners can edit the studio profile and invite people. Members can build
entries.
To take someone off, click Remove next to their name. To cancel an
invitation that hasn’t been accepted yet, click Revoke.
Finding your way around
There are four pages along the top:
| Page | What’s there |
|---|---|
| Home | Your starting point |
| Registrations | Every competition you’re entering, with its status |
| Team | Who from your studio has access |
| Settings | Your studio’s name, phone, website, and address |
Waiting to be verified
The first time you enter a particular competition, they have to say yes to
your studio. This is one time only — once they’ve approved you, it never
happens again with them.
Meanwhile you’re not stuck. Keep building your entries. You’ll see:
Verification pending. The competition is confirming your studio —
keep building your entries; submitting unlocks the moment they approve
you.
Only the Submit button waits. Everything else works.
Building your entries
Open Registrations and click into the competition. This is where you’ll
spend your time.
Find Add a routine
Choose a category from the Choose a category… menu, type a
Routine title, and click Add.Repeat for every routine
They stack up down the page. Click a title to rename it, then Save.Cast your dancers
Click Cast dancers on a routine and tick who’s in it.Upload the music
Click Upload music on each routine. Once it’s there the button
changes to Replace music, and there’s a small button to remove it.Watch the warnings as you go
The site checks your work live. Too few or too many dancers for the
category, a dancer outside the age range, a dancer in more routines than
the competition allows — you’ll see it right away, not in an email next
week.Check the total
It adds itself up as you build, using each category’s price.
If your list of dancers is empty when you go to cast a routine, you’ll see
a note saying so. Building the dancer roster isn’t something you can do
from these pages yet — email
MeowCaniHelpYou@tryherdingcats.com and we’ll get you sorted.
Nothing is submitted until you say so, and nothing is lost between visits.
Build over three evenings if you like. There’s a Discard this draft
link if you want to start over.
Holding spots before you’re ready
Some competitions let you reserve spots before you’ve built anything —
useful when a competition is filling up and you know roughly how many
routines you’ll bring.
If yours offers it, you’ll see a box to enter a number and a
Hold spots button. There’s usually a fee per spot, and it gets credited
toward what you owe when you actually submit. To let a hold go, set the
number to zero and click Release hold.
Unclaimed holds expire on a date the competition sets.
Submitting
Check everything over
Once you submit, you can’t edit it yourself any more.Click Submit registration
Confirm
The button changes to Confirm — submit 14 routines (with your actual
number). Click it again to go.You’ll see it land
The status changes to Submitted, and a banner confirms the
competition has your entries.
Competitions set an edit deadline. Before it, you can fix your own
submission. After it, you have to ask them — which is what change requests
are for, below.
Paying
Once you’ve submitted, a Payment card appears with three lines:
Total, Paid, and Balance.
By card. If the competition takes cards, there’s a
Pay {amount} online button. It takes you to a secure checkout page.
Your card details go straight to the payment company — the competition
never sees them, and neither does Herding Cats.
A deposit now, the rest later. If they offer it, you’ll also see
Pay {amount} deposit instead.
By check. If they accept checks you’ll see: This competition accepts
checks — they’ll record it here when it arrives. Click
View / print invoice for something to send with it. The invoice tells
you exactly what to do:
Paying by check? Make it payable to the competition, include
REG-XXXXXXXX on the memo line, and send it per their registration
instructions.
Every payment shows in a history list underneath, labeled Card payment,
Check payment, Reservation fee, or Refund.
After paying by card, give it a few seconds. The page says as much:
Payment received — it appears in the payment history within a few seconds
of Stripe’s confirmation. Refresh if you don’t see it yet.
Asking for a change after you’ve submitted
You can’t edit a submitted registration yourself — but you can ask, and the
asking is built in so it doesn’t turn into a lost email thread.
Open the registration and scroll to Change requests
The card explains: Describe what you need — swap a dancer, retitle a
routine, drop an entry. The competition reviews and applies it.Write what you need in plain words
Be specific. The example given is exactly the right level of detail:
Please swap Ava M. for Riley T. on “Aftermath” — Ava has a conflict.Click Send request
Wait for their answer
Your request sits as pending. When they decide it becomes
approved or denied, and if they left you a note it shows under
Competition:. You’ll get an email either way.Withdraw it if you change your mind
There’s a Withdraw link on anything still pending.
Approving a change doesn’t make it happen by itself. Somebody at the
competition then goes in and makes the edit. Give them a little time
between the approval email and the change showing up.
What the statuses mean
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Reserved | You’re holding spots. Nothing entered yet. |
| Draft | You’re building. Only your studio can see it. |
| Submitted | It’s in. |
| Payment due | Submitted, money still owed. |
| Locked | The competition has locked it. Ask them for changes. |
| Cancelled | Withdrawn. |
What the competition can and can’t see
They see what you enter for their events: your studio’s details, the
routines, the categories, the dancers you cast, and the music you upload.
They cannot see other competitions you enter, or anything about dancers you
haven’t entered with them. Your roster stays yours — competitions only ever
see who you actually enter.
Other studios can’t see anything of yours at all.