When an invitation expires

An invitation can be given a date after which it stops working. It is optional — leave it empty and the invitation lasts until its places run out.

Setting one

On the invitation, set the date it should stop being redeemable. After that, opening the link says the invitation has expired.

Which day it actually ends

The date you set is the last day the link works, in your site’s own timezone. An invitation set to expire on 31 March works all through the 31st and stops at midnight.

Your site’s timezone, not the learner’s — so somebody in a different country redeeming late on the last day may find it has already closed where the site is. If that matters for who you are selling to, give yourself a day’s margin.

What expiry does not do

It does not remove anybody. Places already redeemed are enrolments like any other. People who used the link stay on the course with all their work, for as long as the course itself allows.

It does not refund unused places. If a customer bought fifty and used thirty, the twenty that expired are not automatically credited. That is a conversation, not a mechanism.

Why use one

• A quotation with a shelf life. A price you offered in January is not a price you are bound to in December.
• A cohort. If the course runs on fixed dates, an invitation that outlives the course is a link that enrols somebody into something already finished.
• Limiting a link that has got loose. An invitation link is not personal, so a date is a way of bounding how long a forwarded one keeps working.

Extending or reopening

Change the date to a later one and the link works again, including for places that were left unused. That is usually kinder than issuing a new invitation, since the link your customer already has keeps working.