Verified product availability
Oakline forest school software feature matrix
A factual guide to what Oakline includes today, what depends on configuration or connectivity, and what is not currently supported.
01
Bookings and session types
Forest School booking software for term programmes, flexible dates and private events.
Create full-term blocks, let families choose specific dates, or sell individual occurrences.
Run date-based programmes with capacity and availability evaluated for each occurrence.
Connect organiser bookings, deposits, extras, guest lists and party rescheduling.
Active bookings feed occurrence capacity; full dates can accept waitlist requests. When a place opens, from a cancellation or a capacity increase, Oakline automatically emails an invitation to the next family on the list.
Available where the provider permits rescheduling and a suitable occurrence has capacity.
02
Family and child records
One family portal keeps the information supplied during booking connected to delivery.
Each provider has a tenant-branded parent experience for bookings, balances, child records, messages and Learning Journeys.
Families can add the portal to supported phones and browsers and open it in a standalone window; device and browser support varies.
Authenticated families can manage bookings, balances, credits, family details and supported child information.
A parent account can manage sibling records and keep their information connected over time.
Child information remains available to authorised provider and staff workflows.
Operational child records include emergency and additional-needs context entered by the family or provider.
Parents and providers can keep account-based conversations connected to the family relationship.
Families can review published Moments, Development, Gallery and Attendance for the selected child.
Providers configure their own terms, privacy and consent wording and remain responsible for keeping it appropriate and current.
03
Parent communication
Transactional booking details and practical session instructions are kept distinct.
After a completed booking, the parent receives the session, date, time, location, attendee and payment context recorded for the checkout.
A provider can enable and write a separate welcome email for a session. For a checkout spanning several sessions, Oakline currently sends the first enabled session's welcome email.
Configured welcome emails can cover kit lists, spare clothes, towels, weather notes, food guidance, meeting points and other practical preparation.
The confirmation is part of successful checkout; the separate practical email is sent only when the relevant session has it enabled and populated.
04
Registers and field use
A working register with child context, plus full offline field capability for unreliable woodland signal.
Mark attendance against the live session occurrence from the mobile working register.
Shown when recorded in the child profile and accessed by an authenticated provider or staff user.
Includes recorded dairy-free, gluten-free and other dietary details supplied for the child.
Known triggers, calming and regulation strategies, support information and other context are available when recorded.
The online child file supports two emergency telephone contacts plus recorded doctor or surgery information.
Families can consent separately to internal records, website use, social media and marketing materials, or give no consent, available when the family or provider has completed the record.
Families can update child information through their private portal; providers use the connected record in operations.
The register has a print layout and can be saved as a PDF through the browser print dialogue.
Access the register, medical, SEND and payment information with no signal; supported actions synchronise after reconnecting.
Supported accident records can be saved with no signal and synchronised later.
An administrator can attach one RBA to a session. Staff receive read-only register access, offline capable, and parents can view it during booking. Creating or editing an RBA requires connectivity.
Save up to five RBA templates per tenant from Settings, then load one into any session's RBA or save a session's current RBA as a new template. Requires connectivity.
Setup, payments, fresh server data, messages, RBA creation and editing, and Learning Journey photo uploads require an internet connection.
05
Observations and Learning Journeys
A session-first record that separates meaningful observations from attendance administration.
Publish a shared session note and optional child-specific headline, observation and next step.
Practitioners can review recent child observations while writing; parents have separate Moments and Development views.
Photos must be tagged to a present child and pass the recorded photo-permission checks before family sharing.
Parents can export a selected child and date range, with an option to add attendance.
This is a planned direction. It is not part of the current Learning Journey workflow and has no published delivery date.
Headline, observation and next-step text can be written with no signal and synchronise when connectivity returns.
Adding a photo to a Learning Journey entry currently requires an internet connection.
06
Payments, discounts and vouchers
Booking balances stay attached to the family and session that created them.
Payments are created for the provider connected to the booking; Stripe processing fees are separate from Oakline fees.
Track amounts paid and outstanding, with supported provider cancellation, refund and credit workflows.
Record supported offline payment methods alongside online activity.
Enabled GBP pilot providers can confirm child or adult places while the funder pays them directly. Oakline records a separate fee per confirmed place; automatic monthly Stripe invoicing is currently off.
Providers configure eligible discount rules and promotional voucher codes.
Available for eligible block bookings when the provider enables payment plans and Stripe Billing is configured.
07
Reporting and exports
Operational and cash-basis views explain which date and payment state each total uses.
Filter payment activity by month, year, date range and family, with gross revenue, Oakline fees, Stripe fees and net value.
Filter by outcome, including previously-hidden rejected/failed checkout attempts, always shown at £0 to avoid double-counting revenue.
Search transactions by customer name or email, with autocomplete.
See how a refund was issued and how much account credit was applied per transaction.
Sibling, multi-session, voucher and other discount amounts, tracked separately from when this feature shipped; earlier bookings show their discount as 'Other'.
Review session-level performance and confirmed family spend for the selected period.
Financial, booking, attendance and payroll views provide print/PDF export, and the Transactions tab and staff payroll each provide CSV export.
Oakline operational reports do not replace accounting software or professional accounting review.
08
Staff compliance, time and payroll preparation
Staff profiles connect compliance evidence, session assignments, working time and payroll preparation.
Configurable training records support provider, issue date, expiry date, certificate file and notes.
Oakline marks expired and approaching-expiry training records in the provider interface.
Automatic email reminders before staff training or certificate expiry are not currently supported.
Provider administration and staff account roles are separated; fine-grained permissions for every individual field are not currently provided.
Team members can be associated with the sessions they work.
Staff can review assigned work, worked hours, estimated pay and holiday information.
Staff record work events through the staff calendar and dashboard.
Calculated from recorded clock events and configured standard, leader or staff-specific hourly rates.
Available from recorded worked time and the provider's configured holiday accrual percentage.
Providers can review monthly time, estimated pay and holiday information.
Monthly payroll data can be exported for external review.
Exports support payroll preparation; Oakline does not submit payroll to HMRC.
09
Integrations and public access
Oakline provides focused integration points without presenting every internal workflow as an open API.
Used for provider onboarding and supported online booking payments.
The provider must have API access enabled and requests require an API key. Only public tenant and session fields are returned.
Developers can render API JSON directly into their own HTML without an iframe. A server-side proxy is recommended when the key must remain private.
Each provider has a tenant-specific public booking experience and can link families directly to it.
Oakline is an installable Progressive Web App rather than a separately distributed native-store app.
10
Privacy, GDPR and security
Technical controls support responsible operation, but software alone cannot make a provider compliant.
Production uses secure transport and separates provider, staff and family areas.
Oakline acts as a software platform and data processor; each provider remains the data controller and must configure and use the system lawfully.
Compliance depends on the provider's lawful basis, policies, data accuracy, staff practice and wider obligations.
Scope and evidence
Clear boundaries are part of the product description
This matrix describes Oakline's current public product scope for UK Forest Schools and outdoor education providers. Configuration, permissions, connectivity and Stripe account state can affect availability.
Oakline does not present operational reports as statutory accounts, its privacy controls as an automatic compliance guarantee, or its PWA as a native app-store product.
Check the Help Centre for workflow instructions or contact Oakline about a specific requirement.
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