# Academy and automation

> Students pay and get in on their own. Sign-ups, access, renewals and cut-off with nobody doing it by hand.

Source: https://fcgsystems.es/en/services/process-automation/ · FCG Systems

**A custom academy: students pay, get in on their own and you see everything.**

A custom academy is the whole circuit from the moment someone pays until they get in: payment, automatic sign-up, access to the content, welcome and renewal notices, access control and cut-off for unpaid fees, and a dashboard with enrolments and attendance. If they stop paying, they lose access. With nobody doing it by hand.

If today your team signs students up one by one, or you have automations that fail just when most enrolments arrive, the problem is not volume: it is that nobody trusts the circuit. Every failure is a student who can’t get in, a payment that doesn’t add up or access that stays open without payment.

We build it with n8n, Make, APIs and custom code, depending on what your academy needs, and we also cover migration from your current stack. Every critical flow ships with error logs, retries and documentation, and everything in your company’s name. An automation that fails silently isn’t finished.

## Signs you need it

- Someone signs students up one by one
- Some students have access without paying, or the other way round
- Sign-ups fail right in the middle of a launch
- Support lives on "I can’t log in" messages
- Automations fail and nobody notices
- To know how many students are active, you open three tools

## Who it is for

- **The founder of an academy:** You control who has paid, who has access and who should have lost it, without asking anyone.
- **Your CMO:** Every sign-up carries its source all the way through, so they know which acquisition ends in paying students.
- **Your CTO or whoever runs the technical side:** Automations with error logs, safe retries and documentation, instead of flows only the person who built them understands.
- **Your support team:** Fewer "I can’t log in" messages and a dashboard to solve incidents without asking for technical help.

## What we build

- **Payment, sign-up and access:** Payment confirmed, student created, access granted, welcome sent. And the reverse when someone cancels.
- **Cut-off for unpaid fees:** If they stop paying, they lose access. Access control in sync with payment status.
- **Notices and renewals:** Renewal reminders and failed-payment notices before they turn into a cancellation.
- **Academy dashboard:** Enrolments, attendance, access and cancellations on one screen, with no exports.
- **Migration and material:** Move from your current platform and load all the content, without losing students or history.
- **From lead to student:** Forms, CRM, email and WhatsApp working from the same record, with the source of every sign-up.
- **Alerts and logs:** Logs, safe retries and error alerts on every critical flow.

## Rules, AI or custom software.

Not everything is automated the same way, and your academy doesn’t need the same thing at every step. This is what we weigh before building.

| Criterion | Rule-based automation | AI automation | Custom software |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it solves | Moving data and running fixed steps between tools | Steps that need reading or interpreting text: classify, summarise, extract | Core processes with their own logic and a dashboard for the team |
| Example | Payment confirmed, access granted, welcome sent | Student messages tagged and routed to the right person | A dashboard for enrolments, access and cut-off with permissions and an activity log |
| Tools | n8n, Make, webhooks and APIs | n8n or code with AI models and output validation | TypeScript, Python and Postgres |
| When it stops being enough | When logic piles up exceptions or volume drives costs up | When the output can’t be checked or measured | Rarely: it grows on the same system |

## How we work

1. **How a student gets in today:** We walk the whole circuit: payment, sign-up, access, notices. How many students it moves, its exceptions and what is done by hand.
2. **Design:** Which system owns each record, which tool fits and what happens when something fails.
3. **Build:** Versioned flows in a test environment, connected to what you already use, without stopping your launches.
4. **Testing:** Real and edge cases: duplicate payments, incomplete data, retries and enrolment peaks.
5. **Migration and go-live:** Move from your current stack and load all the material, with error alerts and documentation for every flow.
6. **Operation:** Upkeep, error reviews and improvements. If something breaks, someone answers.

## Deliverables

- Payment, sign-up and access circuit in production
- Dashboard with enrolments, attendance and cancellations
- Migration from your current stack
- Tests with real and edge cases
- Logs and error alerts
- Documentation and handoff, all in your name

## What changes

- **Control:** You know who got in, where they came from, what they paid and who should have lost access.
- **Less support:** Fewer access incidents and fewer hours of your team signing people up by hand.
- **Room to grow:** The same circuit handles your next launch without adding manual hours.

## Format

- Format: Automation Sprint · fixed-scope project
- Duration: 1–3 weeks
- Typical tools: n8n, Make, Airtable, Postgres, Webhooks, REST APIs, JavaScript, Python

## FAQ

### What does a custom academy include?

The whole circuit from the moment someone pays until they get in: automatic sign-up, access to the content, welcome and renewal notices, access control and cut-off, and a dashboard with enrolments and attendance. It includes migration from your current stack and loading all the material.

### What happens if a student stops paying?

They lose access automatically, with a prior notice if you want one. Access always follows payment status, so it doesn’t depend on someone remembering to check who owes what.

### What should be automated first?

What repeats daily, moves a lot of students and causes errors when done by hand: sign-ups and access after a payment, renewal notices, lead routing and reporting. We start with the bottleneck that costs you the most today, not the easiest one.

### What happens if an automation fails in the middle of a launch?

Every critical flow logs what it does and raises an alert when something goes wrong. Processes can be retried without duplicating sign-ups or charges, so a failure is caught when it happens and fixed without redoing work by hand.

### Can you fix the automations we already have?

Yes. We start by reviewing what each flow does, where it breaks and what depends on it. Sometimes reinforcing it is enough; sometimes it is better to rebuild it on a structure that can be maintained and doesn’t depend on whoever set it up.

### Do you work with n8n, Make or Zapier?

Mostly n8n and Make, plus custom code when volume or logic calls for it. If you already run flows on another tool, we assess them before suggesting a migration. The tool is picked for your system, not out of habit.

### Do you use no-code or code?

Both, depending on what the process needs. To move data and run fixed steps, n8n or Make are enough and ship sooner. When there is heavy volume, logic with exceptions or a dashboard of your own, we write code. We decide with your case in front of us and document it so it doesn’t depend on whoever set it up.

### When is an automation no longer enough?

When the logic piles up exceptions, the cost per run climbs or your team needs a dashboard of its own. At that point custom software usually pays off, and the move happens without stopping the operation.

## Related case studies

- [An own campus connected to the sales CRM](https://fcgsystems.es/en/case-studies/own-campus-connected-to-the-crm/)
- [A custom CRM that replaces Airtable, with commissions per agent](https://fcgsystems.es/en/case-studies/custom-crm-with-agent-commissions/)
- [A shared inbox on the official WhatsApp API](https://fcgsystems.es/en/case-studies/shared-inbox-official-whatsapp-api/)
- [Funnel, tracking and CRM connected for an online academy](https://fcgsystems.es/en/case-studies/sales-funnel-system-online-academy/)
- [Infrastructure for launches with thousands of sign-ups](https://fcgsystems.es/en/case-studies/high-volume-launch-infrastructure/)

## Contact

Email hola@fcgsystems.es or use the form at https://fcgsystems.es/en/contact/. Reply within one working day.