Setting Up Parent Accounts
Parents access the Family Hub using their own account, separate from the student. You create a parent record, link it to one or more students, and send an invite. The parent signs up themselves — you never create the acc
How Parent Identity Works
A parent is a separate identity from the student. One parent can be linked to multiple students (siblings). One student can have multiple parents linked to them. Each parent record is tied to your school — if the same parent has children at two different studios using Octavia, they have one login but separate parent records at each school.
Creating a parent record and sending a Hub invite are two separate steps. A parent record can exist in your system before the parent has signed up, which lets you set up the link and billing-contact details in advance.
Creating a Parent Record
From a student's profile, go to the parent / guardian section and add a new parent. You can either:
- Link an existing parent already in your school's records
- Create a new parent and connect them to the student
The key fields are:
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Name | The parent's display name |
| Required — this is the address the invite is sent to and what they use to log in | |
| Relationship | e.g. Mother, Father, Guardian — for your reference |
When you link a parent, you can also record their relationship to the student and mark them as an emergency contact. Once a parent record is linked to a student, they appear as a contact for that student across the platform — invoices can be sent to them, news items targeted to them, and so on.
Linking a Parent to Multiple Students
If a parent has two or more children at your studio, link the same parent record to each student. The parent then sees all their linked students in one Hub view and can manage availability, view invoices, and respond to news for all of them from a single login.
Choosing Which Parent Is Responsible for Payment
If a student has more than one linked parent, you can choose which one should be treated as the payment-responsible parent. This matters because, unless the student has their own billing access enabled, Octavia sends invoices and receipts to the payment-responsible parent by default.
To change this:
- Open the student's detail page.
- Go to the parent / guardian section.
- Find the linked parent you want to receive billing emails.
- Mark that parent as the one responsible for payment.
The change applies to future billing emails for that student.
If no linked parent is marked as payment-responsible, Octavia falls back to the first linked parent on the student's record.
Sending a Hub Invite
Once you have created the parent record and are ready for them to access the Hub, send them an invite. If you're creating a brand-new parent record, you can choose to send the invite immediately as part of that same flow. You can also come back later and add the parent's email address, then send the invite once you're ready. The invite email directs them to create their account at the Family Hub signup page and uses your school details so it looks like it's coming from your studio.
You can send the invite in two places:
- From the student's detail page, on the Parent / Guardian Details card, click Invite to Hub
- From Manage Parents, select one or more parents and use the bulk Invite to Hub action
Before the email is sent, Octavia shows you a preview of the invitation and lets you choose whether to CC myself for your own records.
The parent then:
- Clicks the link in the email
- Creates their account (email + password)
- Gains access to the Hub for your school
After an invite is sent, Octavia records when it was last sent so you can keep track of follow-up. On the parent card and in Manage Parents, you'll see the latest invite date for parents who have been invited but have not yet activated their Hub access. If they later activate their account, that old invite date no longer needs attention and is hidden unless you send them another invite after activation.
If you try to create a new parent using an email address that's already registered to another parent at your school, Octavia will guide you back to the existing-parent flow so you can link that parent instead of creating a duplicate.
Hub Access Permission
When you create a parent record, they are given Hub access by default (hub_allowed = true). This means as soon as they complete signup, they can access the Hub.
You can revoke a parent's Hub access at any time without deleting their account. See Managing Family Hub Access for how this works and what parents can see.
A Parent Who Already Has an Octavia Account
If a parent already has an account at another studio using Octavia, you don't need to send them an invite at all. Once you have created their parent record and left Hub access enabled (the default), the next time that parent logs in to Octavia, your school and their linked students will appear in their Hub automatically. No action is required on their part.
You may still choose to send them a courtesy email to let them know they've been added — but this is optional. The account connection happens automatically as soon as the parent record exists in your school, because their Octavia account was already active and their Hub setup was already complete.
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