Slots, RSVPs, Guest Counts, and Capacity

A slot is one row on your sheet with a label and a number of spots: a dish to bring, a shift to cover, a time block to reserve, or an item to donate. An event can be a single slot or dozens, and each slot has its own capacity. Guests see every slot as a card with live availability. On a Several dates & times event, each slot also has a real date and time, plus an optional name like Gym or Saturday shift.

Each slot can have one optional reference photo, uploaded by the organizer. Use it to show a themed treat, a craft to recreate, or an example of an item to bring.

1. Turn on Use signup slots, find the slot while creating or editing an event, and select Add reference photo.
2. Choose a photo to preview it in the editor. For a new event, select Create draft. For an existing event, press Save in the unsaved changes bar.
3. Guests see the saved photo on the published event's slot card. They can select the photo or View photo to enlarge it.

Use Replace photo or Remove photo below the preview to change it. Adding, replacing, and removing all require Save on an existing event. The editor updates immediately, while guests keep seeing the saved version until you save. Refreshing before saving discards the unsaved photo change.

Photos keep their full shape without cropping. Private events reveal reference photos only to confirmed attendees using their private event link.

Duplicating an event copies its reference photos. Saved team templates and recurring series copy the slot setup without photos; add photos to those new drafts before publishing.

Under When is this event? you can choose Several dates & times instead of one fixed date or a poll. That is the setup for office hours, volunteer weeks, and sessions spread across a few days.

• Set a first day and a last day in the event timezone. The public page shows that window.
• Use signup slots turns on, and guests claim a specific time. Each slot needs a date inside the window, a time, spots, and an optional label.
• Confirmation and reminder emails use that person's slot date and time, not the first day of the window. Same idea as a single-date event reminding everyone of Friday, except each signup can have a different Friday.

These dates belong to one event. Duplicate the event when you want the same sheet again, or use an Org recurring series to create separate weekly or monthly events. AI can generate dated slots if you describe the pattern, for example office hours Monday through Thursday from 3:00 to 6:00 every hour.

A reading group can offer three sessions with eight places each. Five readers in the afternoon session leave three places there. A full evening session does not fill the afternoon session.

Leave the event-wide attendee limit empty unless you also want a total limit across the event. Setting that limit to eight would cap the whole event, even though each session has its own eight places.

Use the reading-group template, or follow the dated-slot setup instructions.

Not every event needs a structured sheet. In RSVP mode there is no slot picker at all; guests just say they are coming, and the optional attendee limit caps total headcount. In slot mode you control the structure: you can make choosing a slot required, or leave it optional so guests can sign up even without claiming a specific spot.

You can also allow multiple slot selections, letting one guest claim several spots in a single signup, for example the same volunteer taking both the setup and cleanup shifts. Capacity is checked per slot, and the person counts once toward the event headcount.

Two separate switches. One asks the guest a question. The other decides whether that answer fills the slot.

Collect additional guest count is for the whole event. The form asks how many extra people are coming, up to 50 including the person signing up. You get a headcount. It does not, by itself, take extra spots.

Count whole party toward slot capacity is per slot. It only appears when guest count is on, because with guest count off every signup is already one person and the toggle would do nothing. Turn it on for seats, cars, and tickets, where a family of four uses four spots. Leave it off for desserts, snacks, or a volunteer shift, where one signup covers the commitment even if guests tag along.

• Guest count off: one signup is one person and one spot. The whole-party toggle stays hidden.
• Guest count on, whole party off: Jane plus two guests uses 1 dessert slot. You still know three people are coming.
• Guest count on, whole party on: Jane plus two guests uses 3 seats on that slot.

Guest counts always count toward the event-wide attendee limit either way, so your total headcount stays accurate for food, chairs, or space. The same rules apply to dated slots: a Tuesday 3:00pm slot with 2 spots will not take a party of 3 if whole party is on.

Capacity works at two independent levels. Per-slot capacity controls each row, and the attendee limit caps the entire event. The form closes when either layer fills: slots can have room while the event is at its headcount cap, and vice versa. Leave the attendee limit empty for unlimited total attendance.

When a signup link hits a group chat, a dozen people can go for the last spot within the same second. Reservations are checked and claimed in a single atomic database operation, so exactly one of them gets it and everyone else sees the slot fill in real time. Pending signups from the double opt-in flow hold their spot only until they expire, so abandoned holds release automatically.

Capacity protection applies to the limits on this event. It does not check a guest's personal calendar or prevent overlapping commitments across events. Read the overbooking guide for a worked checklist, or the party-size reference for group reservations.