bindro.

Questions and answers

Dive shops and certification: questions, answered

bindro sells dive courses and guided dives with the medical questionnaire, the signed RSTC statement and the liability waiver collected before any money moves. With application review on, no payment intent exists until a human has read the declaration and the uploaded statement. A diver who declares a condition raises a physician-clearance requirement automatically and is refused at check-in until the centre signs it off, though bindro never judges anybody’s fitness to dive. Places are held per session, rental kit is sold by size with real stock, and a ten-dive pack is drawn down one dive at a time. bindro is not PADI or SSI: it issues no certification and sends nothing to either agency.

Reviewed: 2026-08-09

What dive centres ask

How do dive shops handle medical forms at booking?
On bindro the medical form is part of the booking, not a form emailed afterwards. The diver answers the medical questionnaire, uploads the signed RSTC statement and types their signature on the liability waiver before the booking can complete. Turn on application review for the course and nothing is charged at all until a human at the dive centre has opened the statement in the approvals queue and approved: the application files with no order behind it and no payment intent exists, so there is no money to refund if the answer is no. Whether or not you review applications, a declared condition raises a physician-clearance requirement on that diver by itself, and check-in refuses them until your centre signs it off.
What booking software works for PADI centres?
bindro works for a PADI or SSI centre as the booking and payment layer, and not as an agency system: it takes the enrolment, the medical questionnaire, the RSTC statement, the waiver and the money, holds the place per session, and can split a course fee into a deposit and instalments. It is not connected to PADI or SSI in any way — no eLearning codes are bought or issued through bindro, no PIC is submitted, and no certification card is produced. You keep doing that in the agency’s own system, exactly as you do now.
How do I collect waivers before a dive trip?
The waiver is a typed e-signature field inside the booking form, so a place cannot be bought without it. The acceptance record is written inside the same transaction as the payment — signer name, the exact wording as it was shown, a digest of that wording and the retention period — and on a dive course it names the DIVER: one acceptance per person on the booking, not one for the order. The door reads it, which is the point of naming them — a diver no acceptance covers is refused at check-in and is not on the roster your crew carries. One limit worth knowing before you plan around it: the record belongs to that booking, so a diver who books three trips signs three times and bindro has no "already on file" for waivers.
Can bindro stop a diver who answers yes on the medical questionnaire?
At the boat, yes, and automatically. A questionnaire that declares any condition at all raises a physician-clearance requirement against that diver as the booking confirms — no rule to write and nobody to remember — and until somebody at the centre signs it off, check-in refuses them and they are not on the roster your crew carries offline. What bindro does not do is judge the answer: it decides that a doctor has to countersign, never whether the diver is fit, and the clearance queue and the door refusal both name the declaration rather than the condition. What a diver actually declared is read in the approvals queue before the money, and on that diver’s own record and your divers list afterwards; your own CSV of your own divers carries the column too, behind a fresh verification. It is kept out of analytics, out of every AI feature, off the clearance list and off the roster your crew carries offline. Money is a separate gate and it is application review: with it on, every booking for that course files as an application with no charge, the submitted answers and the uploaded statement land in your approvals queue, and payment is impossible until somebody at the centre decides. Use both where a course must not be paid for before you have read the statement — on its own the clearance stops the dive, not the payment.
Does bindro issue PADI or SSI certification?
No. bindro is not an agency and has no connection to one. What it can issue is its own completion certificate: after a session has been delivered, you issue a credit to each diver who was actually checked in, carrying the hours and a serial number, and it prints as a certificate. That is a record of attendance you generated, useful for a specialty or a refresher log. It is not an Open Water card, it is not recognised by any agency, and processing the real certification stays where it is today.
How do I sell an Open Water course that runs over four days?
Publish the course as an event with a session per day, generated as a series, and each session carries its own capacity so a pool day and a boat day can hold different numbers. One thing to plan around: the hosted checkout still sells one session per order, so a diver buying the whole course from the public page books the course’s dates as they are published rather than picking days. Multi-line, several-sessions-in-one-order bookings ship on the JSON API today, and the console can take one on a diver’s behalf.
Can I take a deposit now and collect the balance before the course?
Yes — you publish it yourself on the ticket type: the deposit as a share of the course fee, how many charges follow it and how far apart they fall. The diver pays the deposit at checkout, their card leaves a stored mandate, the database refuses a schedule that does not total the balance owed, and plan money rests on its own liability account until the last charge clears, so no payout is ever funded by a half-bought course. ONE THING IS NOT AUTOMATIC: bindro does not charge the stored card for the balance. That switch is set in no environment on purpose — a checkout happens with the diver watching and a sweep bills with nobody present — so the schedule is a published commitment you collect against rather than a direct debit. Plan your season on that, not on the collection arriving by itself.
Can I invoice a school, a club or a corporate customer instead of taking a card?
Yes, on credit terms with a purchase-order reference. The booking confirms with no card, the places are committed, the invoice is raised for the total bindro derived itself and the bill goes to the accounts-payable address while the joining details go to the divers. Nothing pretends the money arrived: no ledger entry exists and your balance does not move until you record the remittance. An invoice left unpaid past its due date is voided automatically and the places go back on sale.
Can I sell a ten-dive pack that a diver draws down over the season?
Yes. You publish a pack — how many dives, what it costs, how long it is valid — and a diver buys it once and redeems a credit when they book a dive. The money from a pack sale is held as a liability rather than credited to you, and it becomes your revenue as each dive is redeemed, which is the honest treatment: an unredeemed pack is a dive you still owe. The pack price has to divide exactly by the number of credits, so each dive is worth an exact figure at redemption.
How do I rent kit in the right size along with the place?
Rental kit is an add-on with a variant per size and its own stock on each variant, so eight large wetsuits is eight, and the ninth diver is told at the point of booking rather than at the shop door. The whole basket — place plus kit — is one payment, one fee and one balanced set of ledger entries. Add-on stock is not held while the diver fills in the form: it moves when the booking confirms, so a diver who loses the last large between the form and paying is refused cleanly and charged nothing.
Can I group divers by certification level before the course runs?
Yes. The booking form asks each diver for their current certification level, and that answer is treated as a request, not as a decision. Your roster shows what was requested, and an instructor with the right role assigns the group they will actually dive in; the assignment is its own field, so the roster and the door read your decision rather than the diver’s claim. Every assignment is audit-logged with who made it, and it can be changed or cleared as the course fills.
What happens when the boat cannot sail?
You cancel the session and refund. Divers on a cancelled event can refund themselves from the link in their confirmation email, in full, and the refund reverses your proceeds first, then tax, then the platform fee, so a cancellation does not leave you paying a fee on money you gave back. What bindro cannot do is move a diver to next Saturday: there is no deferral in this vertical, so a weather call is a refund and a fresh booking, and it is worth saying that in your own conditions.
When does the money from a course reach the dive centre?
Two days after the course has finished, never before. Dive courses sit in the medium risk tier: a payout is scheduled per delivered event once its sessions have ended, twelve per cent is held back as a reserve for ninety days against cancellations and chargebacks, and the rest is transferred. A payout only reaches "paid" when a real transfer reference comes back from the provider — the database refuses to record a payment that moved nothing — so the console never tells you money left when it did not.
Who in my team can see a diver’s medical answers?
Only the roles you grant. Two screens read them: the approvals queue before anyone pays, on order-write, and the diver’s own record afterwards, on attendee-read. Both mean an owner, a finance user or a manager, and neither reaches a divemaster on door duty or a volunteer. Permissions are decided by the platform from the role on the membership, never from anything the browser sends, and hiding a link is never what stops someone: a hand-typed URL is refused by the same check.
How long does bindro keep a diver’s medical answers?
Twelve months after that diver’s last session, and then the identity and the answers on their record are anonymised automatically because they are classed as health data. The signed acceptance record for the waiver and the medical declaration is a separate artefact and keeps its seven-year retention, so what survives is the proof that they signed, not the answers they gave. If your insurer expects the questionnaire itself years after a course, download it while it is live and keep your own copy.
Does the check-in list work on a boat with no signal?
Yes. Check-in here is a name list: your crew opens the session, sees who is booked and ticks divers off, by scanning the code in their email or by tapping the name. Sync the roster before you leave the dock and the phone works with the network off — the roster is signed, so a tampered copy is refused, and the check-ins and the corrections your crew makes at sea replay when you are back in coverage, counting once however many times the phone tries. The honest limit is freshness rather than coverage: the copy you carry is as fresh as its last sync, so a place sold ashore after you cast off is not on it until the phone catches up.
Can I run a waitlist when a course fills up?
No. A full course shows "Course full" and takes no names, so there is nothing to promote when somebody drops out. Waitlists are not among the capabilities this vertical declares, and a capability that is not declared is refused by the engine rather than quietly missing. Centres that need one usually add a date instead: publishing the next course early and pointing the full one at it collects the same demand in a form the platform can actually sell.
What does bindro cost a dive centre?
Two and a half per cent plus ninety-nine cents per paid place, and nothing at all for a free course or a comp place. There is no monthly fee, no setup fee and no minimum, so a centre that runs four courses a quarter pays for four courses a quarter. You can choose whether the fee comes out of your proceeds or is added at checkout. Signing up needs no verification: verification is required before your first payout, never before your first sale.
Can I take a booking over the phone or at the shop counter?
Yes. The console takes a booking on a diver’s behalf and asks the same questions the public form asks, so a phone booking cannot skip the medical questionnaire or the waiver — an incomplete registration is refused there exactly as it is online. A counter payment is recorded as an external payment against the order. Be aware of the consequence: there is no card charge behind it, so that booking cannot be refunded through bindro and you settle it the way you took it.

What divers ask

Why does bindro ask me a medical questionnaire before I can book?
Because a dive centre cannot legally put you in the water without it, and asking afterwards means asking someone who has already paid. The RSTC medical standard sits behind the questions, and the centre needs your answers and your signed statement before your place is confirmed. Your answers are classed as health data: they are kept out of analytics and out of any AI feature, visible only to staff at that centre whose role allows it, and anonymised twelve months after your last course.
What happens if I answer yes to one of the medical questions?
Whether you can dive that day stops being automatic and starts needing a doctor. A yes sets a physician-clearance requirement on your place — the platform does not judge your answer or decide whether you are fit, it just records that a doctor has to countersign — and until the centre confirms it holds that countersigned form, check-in will not admit you. Expect to be asked for a physician’s countersignature on the RSTC statement; that is the standard, not the centre being difficult. Your payment is a separate question: many centres running courses also turn on application review, which files your booking for a person to look at and takes no money until they approve it.
Do I have to upload the signed medical statement myself?
Yes, as part of the booking. There is a file field for the signed RSTC statement, and where any answer on it is yes it needs a physician’s countersignature before you can dive. A photo of the signed page from your phone is normally fine. The upload is attached to your booking and can be opened by the centre reviewing it; if the booking is rejected, what you submitted is scrubbed rather than kept, and your place goes back on sale.
Can I book a place for my buddy at the same time as mine?
You can buy both places on one booking, and you will be asked the per-diver questions — date of birth, certification level, emergency contact, medical answers, signature — for each of you. What does not exist here is an invitation link that lets your buddy fill in their own medical form: you are typing their answers, and their signed statement is uploaded with yours. Many divers prefer to book separately for exactly that reason, and the centre sees the same two places either way.
Can I pay for a course in instalments?
Where your centre has published a plan on the course, yes. You pay the deposit when you book, your place is confirmed from that moment and the door admits you on a part-paid booking; the remaining amounts and their dates are shown to you as part of the booking. What does not happen is bindro taking those amounts off your card by itself — the centre collects the balance from you on the dates in the schedule. Ask them how they want it paid; a course with no plan published is paid in one go.
What happens to my money if the dive is cancelled for weather?
You are refunded in full, and you can trigger it yourself from the link in your confirmation email rather than waiting for the shop to get to it. bindro cannot move you to another date — there is no rebooking mechanism in this vertical — so a cancelled dive is a refund and a fresh booking on a date that suits you. Refunds go back to the card that paid, and the centre is never paid out for a course that did not run.
Will I get my certification card through bindro?
No. bindro takes the booking and the payment; your certification comes from PADI, SSI or whichever agency your centre teaches under, through their system, exactly as it would if you had booked by phone. The centre can issue you a completion certificate through bindro showing the hours and a serial number once you have been checked in on the course, but that is the centre’s own record of attendance and not an agency qualification.
How old do I have to be to book a course?
Ten, which is where the junior programmes start, and the rule is enforced when the booking is made rather than discovered at the shop: a date of birth under the minimum is refused on the spot, with the rule named, and an unreadable date is refused too rather than waved through. If the diver is under eighteen on the day of the course, a parent or guardian is emailed their own link and has to countersign before that diver is admitted — worked out from the birth date on the form, so a blank guardian box does not skip it, and sent to the guardian’s own address where one was given and to whoever booked where it was not. Until it is signed, check-in refuses that diver, which is a refusal at the dock rather than a note nobody reads.
Is my medical information used for marketing or shared with anyone?
No. Health answers are excluded by class, not by policy: they are kept out of analytics exports and out of every AI feature on the platform, with no setting that turns that off, and they are visible only to staff at your dive centre whose role grants it. They are anonymised automatically twelve months after your last session. The centre you booked with is the only organisation that can see your booking at all; another centre asking bindro about you is told nothing.

What does bindro NOT do for a dive centre?

A capability this vertical does not declare is refused by the engine rather than quietly missing, so it is listed here rather than left to be discovered.

  • No PADI, SSI, RAID or NAUI integration — bindro issues no certification, no eLearning code and no digital card, and transmits nothing to any agency.
  • No assessment of a medical answer: bindro decides only whether a physician’s countersignature is required, never whether a diver is fit to dive, and the clearance queue names the declaration rather than the condition. Judging the countersigned statement, and the sign-off that lifts the door refusal, are the centre’s.
  • No club or buddy roster. Several places go on one order and the booker answers for each diver, but there is no invitation link that lets a buddy fill in their own medical form.
  • No club, school or group rate — the checkout cannot price a place differently because several were bought together.
  • No rescheduling a diver onto another course date. A blown-out dive is refunded and rebooked; bindro cannot move a place from one session to another.
  • No photo or video delivery to divers after the course.
  • No live roster at sea. The door works with the network off, but the copy your crew carries is as fresh as its last sync: a place sold ashore after you cast off is not on it, and it catches up when you are back in coverage.
  • No sales tax added at checkout and no tax report — the price a diver sees is the price that is charged.
  • No waitlist on a full course. A full course says "Course full" and takes no names.
  • No automatic collection of the balance of a plan. You publish the deposit, the number of charges and the interval on the ticket type and the deposit is taken at checkout; bindro never charges the stored card for the rest of it, because it does not bill a card with nobody present. Collect the balance the way you collect anything else.
  • No handing a place to another diver. A diver who cannot come is refunded, and the place does not return to sale by itself — raise the session’s capacity by one to resell it.
  • A diver’s medical answers are anonymised twelve months after their last course, well inside the seven years the signed waiver record is kept. Keep your own copy if your insurer wants the questionnaire itself years later.
  • No dive log, no equipment servicing history, no air-fill or cylinder testing records, no retail till and no rental asset tracking — bindro sells the place, it does not run the shop.

What else should I read?

Dive shops and certification: the overview

Medical forms and waivers collected, and read by you, before anyone gets in the water.

bindro vs DiveShop360

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bindro vs Checkfront

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bindro vs Peek

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Gating a dive course on the medical form, not on trust

Reviewed 2026-08-09.

Selling an Open Water course that runs over four days

Reviewed 2026-08-09.

Renting kit in the right size, at the moment the place is booked

Reviewed 2026-08-09.

Deposits, instalments and the day the boat cannot sail

Reviewed 2026-08-09.

Checking divers in on the dock, and what to do about the boat

Reviewed 2026-08-09.

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