Messages & Alerts
Every message AnchorPoint shows you falls into one of four groups: a confirmation before something happens, an alert explaining why something is blocked, a validation message on a form, or an error after something failed.
This page covers all four — with, for the destructive ones, what actually happens to your data and your money when you click Confirm.
Confirmations: what "Confirm" really does
Several of these do less than people expect, and a couple do more. Read the right-hand column before you click.
Classes
| Dialog | What it says | What actually happens |
|---|---|---|
| Confirm Class Cancellation | Cancelling this class will mark it cancelled and notify enrolled students. | The class is marked cancelled and students are emailed. No registration is cancelled and no money is refunded. The dialog says so: you must transfer, or cancel and refund, each student individually afterwards. |
| Confirm Class Deletion | "This action cannot be undone. Do you want to continue?" | The class record is permanently deleted. |
| Cancel Registration | Shows the student, then lists every payment made against the registration. | Cancels that one enrolment. Each payment is handled separately — leave it, refund it in full, or refund a custom amount, each with its own refund method. |
| Mark As No-Show | — | Sets the registration to no-show and clears any result, test record and certificate-mailed date. Can still be corrected afterwards, even once the registration is cancelled. |
This is the single most common misunderstanding. Cancelling the class tells the students; it does not touch their registrations or their money. Work through the roster afterwards.
Payments
| Dialog | What it says | What actually happens |
|---|---|---|
| Delete Payment | "Are you sure you want to delete this payment? This action cannot be undone." Plus, for processed payments: "Deleting this automated payment will not refund any payments that have already been processed". | Removes the row from the ledger. Money already taken through Stripe or Clover stays taken. To return money, refund it instead. |
| Remove Payment Method | "Remove the card ending nnnn…? Payments already taken on it are not affected, and the card can be added again later." | Detaches the saved card. Harmless — past payments are untouched. |
Gift certificates and coupons
| Dialog | What it says | What actually happens |
|---|---|---|
| Void Gift Certificate | "Any remaining balance will no longer be redeemable. This action cannot be undone." | The certificate is dead and its remaining value is gone. There is no un-void. |
| Resend Email | "Resend certificate code to its recipient?" | Emails the certificate again. Safe. |
| Resend Receipt | "Resend the purchase receipt for code to its purchaser?" | Emails the purchase receipt again. Safe. |
| Deactivating a coupon | — | Switches the coupon off but keeps its redemption history. Reversible — reactivate it any time. |
API tokens
The three token actions look similar and are very different. The dialogs spell out the difference, which is worth reading.
| Dialog | What actually happens |
|---|---|
| Revoke API Token | Stops working on its very next request. Reversible — reactivate it later and the same secret works again. |
| Rotate API Token Secret | A new secret is issued and the current one stops working immediately. Name, expiration and status are unchanged. The new secret is shown once. |
| Delete API Token | Stops working immediately and disappears from the list. The token's name is then permanently reserved and can never be used again. If you might want it back, revoke instead. |
Courses, instructors and locations
| Dialog | What actually happens |
|---|---|
| Delete Certificate | Deletes the certificate template for that course. Cannot be undone. |
| Remove Course from Instructor | Removes the approved-course link. The instructor and the course both remain. |
| Remove Profile Photo | Deletes the uploaded photo. Initials go back to standing in for it. |
Locations cannot be deleted from the interface at all — only archived, which keeps their history intact.
Leaving a form
Any drawer you have edited shows "Discard Changes?" — "You have unsaved changes. Are you sure you want to discard them?" with No, Keep Editing and Yes, Discard. Discarding loses only what you typed; nothing saved is affected.
As of v1.4.1 the confirm button on a destructive dialog is red. A blue confirm button means the action is safe.
Alerts: why something is blocked
These appear inline, in the form or panel you are working in, and each one names a rule you need to work around.
Capacity
| Message | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| "This class is full. The student is unable to be transferred." | The destination class has no seats left. | Raise its capacity, pick another class, or defer the student instead. |
| "n students are registered. The selected room only supports capacity. Resolve this before saving." | You're moving a class to a room smaller than its roster. | Choose a bigger room, or reduce the roster first. |
| "This capacity (new) is lower than the current number of registered students (taken)." | You're lowering a class's capacity below what's already booked. | Leave it at or above the current headcount. |
| "Cannot exceed room capacity of n" | A class can't seat more than the room physically holds. | Change the room, or lower the number. |
| "Full — re-registering exceeds capacity" | The class you're re-registering a deferred student into is full. | Pick a different class, or make room in this one. |
| Tooltip: "Class capacity is full" on a disabled Add Student | Same rule, on the class page. | Raise capacity or choose another class. |
| Tooltip: "Unavailable for canceled classes" on a disabled Add Student | The class is cancelled. | Reinstate it, or use a different class. |
Refunds and payments
| Message | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| "This payment wasn't processed by card, so it has to be refunded manually." | Cash, check and external payments have no processor to reverse. | Return the money outside AnchorPoint, then record the refund here. |
| "A cash or check refund returns the principal only. The amount surcharge on this payment will not be returned." | Card surcharges are only returned through a card refund. | Expected behaviour. Tell the student if they ask. |
| "This payment was taken through Clover, which the app can no longer refund. Refund it in Clover and record the reversal there." | Legacy payments predate the Stripe integration. | Refund in Clover, then reconcile. |
| "Amount can't exceed the amount still refundable." | You've asked to refund more than remains. | Lower the amount. |
| "Class price has increased/decreased since registration" | The class tuition changed after this student registered. | Informational, and admin-only — the student doesn't see it. Use Adjust Tuition if you want to bring them into line. |
| "Our online ordering is undergoing upgrades. Please get in touch with us to get registered while we undergo these updates." | Payment processing has been put into maintenance mode. | Take registrations by phone until it's switched back on. |
Everything else
| Message | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| "Cancelled Class Has Active Registrations" | The class was cancelled but students are still enrolled against it. | Transfer, defer, or cancel each registration. |
| "You have several exports in progress. New jobs may take longer." | The export queue is backed up. | Wait, or space your exports out. |
| "Upon re-registration, the student will automatically receive a standard registration confirmation email." | Heads-up before you re-register a deferred student. | Nothing — just so the email isn't a surprise. |
| "Registration Closed" / "This class is not available for registration." | A student hit the public register page for a class that is full or closed. | Enrol them manually if you want to make an exception. |
System alerts
Coloured banners across the top of every page are notices from your organization or from AnchorPoint — blue for information, yellow for a warning, red for something critical. Some carry a link, and some can be dismissed with the × on the right.
Dismissing one only affects your own browser. Colleagues still see it.
Validation: why the form won't save
The ordinary ones
Most are self-explanatory: "Field is required", "Invalid email format", "Enter a valid phone number", "Field must be 255 characters or less", "Enter a valid URL, including https://".
Two worth knowing precisely:
- Phone numbers must be exactly 10 digits, numbers only.
- Passwords must be at least 8 characters with an uppercase letter and a number. On the sign-up, reset and verify screens a special character is required too.
The ones that are really business rules
These block you because of how the system works, not because you typed something wrong.
| Message | The rule behind it |
|---|---|
| "Down payment must be less than class cost" | A deposit can't cover or exceed the whole price. Use a full payment instead. |
| "Discount cannot exceed 100%" / "Percentage cannot be greater than 100" | A coupon can't discount more than the whole amount. A coupon worth more than the tuition settles at $0, never a negative. |
| "Use at most two decimal places, e.g. 2.75" | Money is stored to the cent. |
| "Amount must be greater than 0" | Zero-value payments, refunds and discounts aren't recorded. |
| "Card payments need the purchaser linked to a student record. Choose a student under Purchased By, or record this as cash or check." | A card charge needs someone to charge. Link the purchaser, or take it as cash or check. |
| "This code isn't valid, or has no balance remaining." | The coupon or gift certificate is void, expired, or spent. |
| "Publishable keys start with pk_" | You've pasted the wrong Stripe key. The publishable key is the one that starts pk_. |
| "That publishable key does not belong to the selected environment." | A test key with Live selected, or the reverse. Match them. |
| "Expiration date must be after the start date" / "must be in the future" | Date ordering. |
| "End date must be after start date" | Same, on class dates and export filters. |
| "Tracking code is required when a carrier is set" | If you name a carrier, you must give the tracking number. |
| "Please enter a reason" / "A reason is required to waive" | Waivers, cancellations and regenerations are audited. The reason is permanent — write it for the next person who reads it. |
Errors: when something has gone wrong
The one you'll see most
"The given data was invalid."
This means a form failed validation on the server, but the message doesn't say which field. It's a known rough edge: most forms show this generic text rather than naming the problem.
What to do: go back over the form and check every required field, especially dates, amounts and anything you pasted in. If a field is highlighted, start there. The API Tokens and Gift Certificate forms are the exceptions — they show the specific field message.
The others
| Message | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| "Unknown Error Occurred" | Something failed in a way the application couldn't interpret. | Retry the action. If it repeats, note what you were doing and contact support. |
| "Network Error" | Your browser couldn't reach AnchorPoint. | Check your connection and try again. Nothing was saved. |
| A card decline, or a message naming a specific problem | These come from the payment processor or from AnchorPoint's own rules and are written to be read. | Do what it says — usually try another card. |
| "Error loading something" in a table, with a Reload Table button | The data didn't load. | Click Reload Table. If it persists, reload the page. |
| "No something found" in a table | The table is empty, or your filters exclude everything. | Clear the filters. Coupon and gift certificate tables open on Active, so expired and voided records are hidden until you change the status filter. |
Your session expired. AnchorPoint returns you to sign-in without a message, so it can look as though something went wrong. It didn't — sign back in and carry on. Anything you had typed but not saved will be lost.
Page-level errors
| Page | When |
|---|---|
| 404 — Page Not Found | The record doesn't exist, or the link is wrong. Use Go To Dashboard. |
| 500 — Something went wrong | An unexpected failure. Try Again reloads; if it recurs, contact support. |
A note on success messages
Most confirmations of success come from the server rather than being fixed text, so the exact wording can change. What matters is that a green toast means the action completed, and a red toast means it did not — if you see red, nothing was saved.
A few are fixed and worth recognising:
| Message | After |
|---|---|
| "Student successfully registered." | Manually registering a student into a class |
| "Payment has been applied" | Applying a payment |
| "Card has been saved" | Saving a card to an account |
| "Gift certificate has been issued" | Issuing a gift certificate |
| "Export queued — we'll notify you when it's ready" | Starting an export |
| "Retry queued" | Retrying a failed export |
| "Transaction Completed" | Finishing the manual transaction wizard |
| "name password has been updated" | Resetting another user's password |
| "Account Details Updated" / "Account Password Updated" | Changing your own profile or password |
Related
- Icons & Statuses — what the marks on screen mean
- Glossary — terms that appear in more than one form