Setting Up Members in Noto

Last updated: June 22, 2026

Members are the people you serve — students, clients, parents. This article walks through how Noto models members, the fastest ways to add them, and the settings that trip people up most often.

How Noto thinks about members

Every member belongs to a family, even a family of one. Within a family, each person is either:

  • Guardian — typically the billing contact. Has portal access, can hold payment methods, receives invoices. Guardians can also be scheduled if the student is an adult

  • Dependent — typically the student. Attends classes; billing flows through the family's guardian(s).

A single household can have multiple guardians and multiple dependents — for example, two parents paying for two children. Guardians and dependents have separate profiles so you can store guardian-specific data (e.g., "Relationship to Student") on one and student-specific data (e.g., "Music Interest", DOB, allergies) on the other.

Add a single member

From Dashboard → Members, click Add Member. The dialog has two tabs:

  1. Guardian — fill this in when adding the billing contact.

  2. Dependent — fill this in when adding the student.

You can submit either tab on its own, or fill out both at once to create a guardian and a dependent in the same family in one step. When both are filled in, Noto automatically links them into a shared family.

Commonly added at creation:

  • Email, phone (plus alternates)

  • Address, birth date, timezone

  • Send portal invite — emails the guardian a link to set up their account in the member portal (don't check this for dependents unless they need their own login)

  • Labels — colored tags for segmentation (e.g., "Trial", "Scholarship")

  • Custom fields — your studio-specific data (see below)

  • Referred by — assigns staff credit for the referral

Add a guardian + dependent together

In the create dialog, fill out the Guardian tab, then click into the Dependent tab and fill it out too. When you save:

  • Both profiles are created

  • A new family is created and both are linked to it

  • The guardian becomes the primary ledger owner by default

This is the fastest path for a new family signing up for the first time.

Multiple guardians on one family

When two parents both need to receive invoices:

  1. Add the second guardian to the same family (open the first guardian's profile → add family member).

  2. On the second guardian's profile, enable "Ledger owner & invoice recipient".

Both guardians will then receive invoices. Autopay does not double-charge — only the family's payment method on file is debited.

Custom fields and labels

Custom fields and labels are how you segment members for filtering, automations, and reporting.

  • Custom fields are structured data (single-select, multi-select, text, date, boolean). Set them up in Settings → General → Data and Customization. Examples: "Skill Level", "T-Shirt Size", "Emergency Contact Phone".

  • Labels are colored tags for lightweight grouping. Examples: "VIP", "Trial Member", "Needs Follow-Up".

Custom fields are typically used for information that you want to capture about every client, while Labels are typically used for ad-hoc information.

Lead capture forms (recommended)

Instead of manually typing new members in, set up a Noto form and embed it on your website. When someone submits:

  • A CRM lead is created automatically

  • Custom fields on the form are linked directly to the resulting guardian or student profile — no re-entry

Configure forms under Forms → New Form. Start from the "Contact Us" template, set the internal name, public title, and Lead Owner / Lead Status under Submissions so leads land in your CRM correctly. For each question, link the form element to a custom field on either the guardian or student profile.

Bulk import

For large migrations (moving from another platform), Noto supports CSV import through the internal data-room tooling — your onboarding rep will handle this. Under Settings -> General -> Data & Customization -> Data upload, you can find a template for bulk-importing members.

Ask your Noto rep to run a dry-run import first; they'll send back a preview before the real run.