01
How the class count works
Most schools set a minimum number of classes per belt, and most track it with a roll book, a spreadsheet and an instructor's memory. WeeksPro counts it from attendance as it happens. Set “Classes required” on a belt, and every check-in a student makes after their last grading counts toward it — from the door kiosk, a coach's roll call, a class roster or a staff check-in. Open mat and general training count too, and two classes in one day count as two.
The grading date you record is the dividing line. Classes on grading day count toward the belt just earned, and the count for the next belt starts the following day. Students who haven't graded with you yet count from the day they joined, toward the belt after your starting one — nobody needs a white belt “awarded” to be tracked.
Because the count reads the attendance record, fixing attendance fixes the count. Move a check-in to the right class, add a class a student forgot to check in to, or delete one that shouldn't be there, and the Eligibility tab updates straight away.
02
Juniors, adults and more than one ladder
Many schools run a junior syllabus with tags or stripes and an adult one with full belts, often with different class requirements. Link each belt to a program and every program becomes its own ladder, with its own order. Belts that aren't linked to a program form a general ladder.
Each student progresses on the ladder of the belt they hold. For a student with no belt recorded yet, WeeksPro uses the program they're enrolled in; if it can't tell — say they aren't enrolled in either — the Eligibility tab says the ladder is unknown rather than guessing a junior into the adult syllabus. Recording their current belt settles it.
03
Grading invitations that don't spam
Telling students they're ready is the other half of the job. Switch on invitations and pick your next grading — an event on your timetable, or a line of text like “Saturday 18 October, 10am”. Add your own paragraph (what to bring, the grading fee) and a reply-to address.
Each student is emailed once for each belt: the moment a check-in makes them eligible, with a daily catch-up for anyone missed. They're invited again only when you schedule a new grading, so a student who misses one grading hears about the next. One button emails everyone who's due right now, whether or not automatic invitations are on.
04
Switching without resetting anyone
Changing software shouldn't send a brown belt back to zero. When you record a student's current belt you can enter the classes they've already done toward the next one; that opening balance is added to the live count until their next grading, and the Eligibility tab marks it so you can tell carried-over classes from recorded ones.
A student's current belt is the one with the most recent grading date. Record the real dates from your old records and their history reads correctly from day one. Requirements measured in time rather than classes — two years at first dan, for example — can be written into the belt's requirements for students to read, but WeeksPro doesn't enforce them: the count is classes, not calendar time.