Registration systems and data structure
Event registration category rules
Your registration has member, non-member, student and guest categories, and every borderline case turns into an email thread.
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The short answer
Category rules answer four questions for every category: who qualifies, what evidence is needed, who decides when it is unclear, and what the category changes in the system, such as the fee tier, session access or capacity pool.
Write the rules in plain sentences before configuring anything. A system can only enforce a rule that someone has already stated.
Rules for each category
Use one row per category. If two committee members would answer a column differently, the rule is not finished.
| Category | Who qualifies | Evidence | Who decides doubtful cases | What it changes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Member | Current members on the date of registration. | Membership number checked against the list. See member verification. | Membership secretary. | Fee tier, member-only sessions. |
| Non-member | Anyone else invited to attend. | None. | Secretariat head. | Fee tier. |
| Student | Full-time students as defined by your committee. | Student ID or letter, checked before confirmation. | Secretariat head. | Fee tier, possibly a capped pool. |
| Speaker or panellist | People confirmed in the programme. | Programme list from the programme owner. | Programme owner. | Hold-back pool, no fee. |
| Invited guest | Named by the chair or a sponsor-liaison owner. | Invitation list with the name of who invited. | Committee chair. | Hold-back pool. |
| Group delegate | Named person under a group booking. See group workflow. | Booker's confirmation. | Secretariat head. | Follows the delegate's own category. |
Decisions to settle before opening registration
- Date of eligibility: membership on the day of registration, the day of payment, or the day of the event.
- Whether a delegate can change category after confirming, and who approves it.
- Whether a category has its own cap. If so, how it interacts with the room limit in your capacity controls.
- What happens to a delegate found in the wrong category after registration: re-price, transfer or cancel.
- Who owns the fee table. The category rules say who is in which tier; finance owns the amounts.
Keep the number of categories low
Each category is a rule to explain, test and police. If two categories behave the same way in every row above, merge them and use a single list field for reporting.
Test the final set with a few fictional borderline cases, such as a lapsed member or a student who is also a speaker, before the form opens.
Worked example · Fictional example
A professional body clarifies who counts as a student
Fictional organisation and figures, written to show the level of detail that is useful.
Persatuan Fiktif Perunding Cukai is holding a one-day seminar for about 180 people. Its draft form has a student category, but the committee has not said whether part-time postgraduate students qualify.
At the planning meeting the committee decides that evidence is a student letter on institution letterhead, checked by the secretariat head before the registration is confirmed. A part-time student is sent to the committee chair as a doubtful case. The secretariat records the decision in the rules table so the next team does not reopen it.
Use this yourself
Category rule sheet
Copy this block once per category and attach it to your registration brief.
- Category name (as delegates see it):
- Who qualifies, in one sentence:
- Date on which eligibility is judged:
- Evidence required and when it is checked (before or after confirmation):
- Who decides doubtful cases (role and backup):
- What the category changes: fee tier / sessions / capacity pool / badge:
- Own cap? Number and who set it:
- Can a delegate change category later? Who approves:
- Fictional test cases agreed (list three):
Handle it in-house, or bring in help?
Your team can usually handle this when
- You have three or four simple categories and one approver.
- Eligibility is checked against a list you already keep.
- Exceptions are rare and the chair is happy to decide them.
Outside planning help earns its fee when
- Several bodies, chapters or sponsor groups each have their own eligibility rules.
- Category decides access to sessions, rooms or pricing that finance must defend.
- Past events had category disputes and no written rules to settle them.
Want category rules agreed before registration opens?
A conference project lead can take the category questions to the committee, finance and membership team, get each rule and approver written down, and make sure the registration set-up matches the decisions. The committee keeps the final say on who qualifies.
Questions organisers ask
How many registration categories should we have?
As few as your rules need. Each extra category needs its own eligibility rule, evidence, approver and tests. If categories behave identically, merge them.
Should evidence be checked before or after someone pays?
Decide it once and write it down. Checking before confirmation avoids refunds and re-pricing, but it slows delegates down. Your finance contact should agree the route.
Who sets the fee for each category?
Finance or the committee. The category rules define who belongs in each tier, and the fee table is a separate document.
Do category rules need a data protection review?
If the evidence is a document or list containing personal data, ask your data protection contact how it may be checked and kept.
Related resources
Content record: Draft. Written from the cited sources and checked by automated rules; not yet independently reviewed.