This update enhances RTOPilot's feedback system by integrating with our new feature request platform.

What's new

Live Chat and Support

You can now chat with us directly inside the RTOPilot app using the ‘Support’ option in the sidebar.

We’ll be adding new documentation that will also live in the ‘Help’ section of the widget.

Enhanced Feature Request System

We've also streamlined how you can share feedback and request new features. RTOPilot now connects directly with our dedicated feedback platform, making it easier for users to submit suggestions and track the development of new capabilities. Your input helps us prioritise improvements that matter most to your organisation.

Just click the ‘Feedback’ button in the Admin Portal sidebar to share with us:

Public Changelog: https://www.rtopilot.com.au/changelog

Public Roadmap: https://feedback.rtopilot.com.au/en/roadmap

This update brings two new note-making capabilities to help RTOs better manage student information and assessment compliance requirements.

What's new

Overhauled Student Notes System

Admins can now add and view detailed notes directly on student profiles. This streamlined approach makes it easier to track important information and maintain comprehensive student records throughout their training journey.

Outcome Comments

Trainers can now add comments to individual outcomes, providing feedback that helps track student progress and assessment decisions. These comments will be stored on the student enrolment profile to maintain a log for audit purposes.

Minor Improvements

• Improved the pricing override user experience with helpful tooltips and visual indicators

• Improved non-RTO onboarding form behaviour

This update resolves several data formatting issues in AVETMISS reporting to ensure compliance with Australian standards.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed phone number formatting in AVETMISS exports to use proper null values when phone numbers are not available
• Corrected contract identifier handling to meet AVETMISS specifications for blank values
• Resolved overseas address detection logic to properly identify and format international student addresses

Hey RTOPilot community,

November has been focused on improving student engagement, streamlining trainer workflows, and giving you more control over communications. We've introduced a learner survey system, given trainers the ability to enrol students directly, and added email preferences so users can manage what they receive.

What’s new:

ASQA/AQTF Learner Survey

We've introduced an automated learner survey system that helps you collect feedback from students after they complete their training.

Students receive a survey email after completing their enrolment. The multi-page form includes progress tracking to prevent survey fatigue, covers training quality, trainer effectiveness, and demographic information, and auto-saves progress so students don't lose their responses if they close their browser. All questions are optional.

Administrators can export survey responses to CSV for analysis and ASQA reporting. You can also toggle survey emails on or off per organisation.

Trainer Portal Improvements

Trainers can now enrol students in their classes without needing administrator access - useful for last-minute additions or walk-ins on training day.

From the class details page, trainers can quickly capture name, email, and phone number. The feature bypasses enrolment cutoff dates and capacity restrictions when needed, and supports QR code generation for student self-serve enrolments.

Email Preferences

Users can now choose which emails they receive from RTOPilot.

Students can opt in or out of class updates and changes, class reminders before sessions, certificate renewal reminders, and online learning completion reminders.

Trainers can manage class reminders and class updates.

Coordinators can control booking updates they receive for corporate bookings.

Preferences are accessible via the user's profile page and only show options relevant to each role.

Transfer Enrolments

You can now transfer enrolments to another existing student.

Select "Transfer Student" from an enrolment lead, search and select the target student. Useful if a student has signed up using an incorrect email address or someone else’s account.

Payment Receipt Improvements

We've improved payment receipts and changed when they're sent. Students now receive receipts immediately after payment, rather than waiting for enrolment completion.

The receipt layout has been reorganised with better visual hierarchy - invoice details (total, invoice number, date, itemised breakdown) are now grouped separately from your organisation's details (business name, ABN, address, phone). We've also added a clear notice at the top explaining that the receipt confirms payment, not enrolment, so students know to expect a separate confirmation email.

Certificate Backdating

Administrators can now edit certificate issuance dates after generation.

Useful for correcting errors or issuing backdated certificates for past completions.

Class Notes on Enrolment Pages

Class notes now appear on public enrolment pages, helping prospective students understand class details before enrolling.

Use this to communicate prerequisites, what to bring, parking information, or any special requirements.

Online Learning Reminders

Automated reminder emails now go to students who haven't completed their online learning components. Emails note that certificates won't be issued until online learning is complete and include a direct link to the student portal. Students can opt out via email preferences.

Minor Improvements

General:

• Email links now inherit your organisation's theme colours for consistent branding Improved text contrast in themed buttons and components for better accessibility

• VET nominal hours can now be edited when Training.gov data changes

• Student ID now visible on student details page for easier reference

• Setting to add company coordinators without email confirmation (optional)

Invoices & Payments:

• Set, and re-set default invoice footers from within invoice forms

• ABN now be recorded at checkout to make payments on behalf of a business, which is reflected on on receipts

• Payment receipts now downloadable via the payments view

Search & Filtering:

• Student and enrolment tables now support certificate number search

• Unit courses page size defaults to 10 for better performance

Bug Fixes

We've addressed several issues this month based on your feedback:

• Fixed corporate booking forms not submitting properly

• Fixed certificate issued date validation

• Corrected export sorting and date range selections

• Updated postcode mappings for accurate location data

• Various UI fixes throughout the platform

We're committed to making RTOPilot the most reliable and user-friendly training management system for RTOs. As always, your feedback drives our development, so please continue to share your thoughts and suggestions through our in-app feedback channels or via WhatsApp.

Looking forward to sharing more updates with you soon!

Try now for free

Your support means a lot to us We're a small team with big ambitions for RTOPilot - but we need your support. If you think what we're doing is cool, find it useful, or you want to help support our future development plans, please share this newsletter with other RTOs in your network.

Thanks for being part of the journey.

Manning
Founder, RTOPilot

LMS, Enrolment & Class Management, AI-powered RTO Onboarding, Invoicing & Receipts

Hey RTOPilot Community,

October has been a massive month. We launched our integrated Learning Management System and rolled out our first AI tools, alongside dozens of improvements to your finance and enrolment workflows.

What's new

Learning Management System

We've built a complete LMS from the ground up and integrated it directly into the Student Portal - and the best part is that it's included completely for free within RTOPilot!

The new LMS allows you to: create and organise course materials, track student progress, and deliver assessments all within RTOPilot.

Students access their learning materials directly through their portal, keeping everything in one place.

Results also automatically sync across the entire system. When a student completes an assessment in the LMS, their outcomes are instantly visible to trainers for marking and flow through to admin records - no exports or manual data entry required.

Enrolment & Class Management

We've also launched a whole host of small new features that are designed to make managing your classes and enrolments smoother:

Custom Pre-Payment Data Collection

Custom data collection questions can now be added as a step before payment. This is a new option on top of the normal post-enrolment collection option via the Student Portal.

Class Notes Overhaul

Class notes are now displayed on enrolment pages and in the Student Portal making it easier to communicate important details.

Extended Enrolment Cutoff

Enrolment cutoff can now be set up to one day after class start, giving you more flexibility for last-minute or late enrolments during class.

New Attendance Sheet Format

Our attendance sheet design has been improved with custom branding and can be downloaded in either PDF format or as a spreadsheet directly from the Admin Portal in addition to the usual location in the Trainer Portal.

Manual Price Overrides

Set a custom price when enrolling students manually - useful for one-off pricing arrangements or special scenarios.

Certificates for Deferred Enrolments

Certificates can now be manually downloaded for enrolments in a deferred status. Useful for when a specific student needs their certificate but their employer has not yet paid.

AI-Powered RTO Onboarding

We're using AI to make setting up and managing units in RTOPilot much easier.

We've replaced our old onboarding flow with a single search - RTOs enter their code and the system automatically pulls their units and locations from training.gov.au.

The system also prefills business information like legal name, ABN and key contact info and suggests the right code format to use in RTOPilot.

This is just the start of a broader effort we're making to integrate AI tools into RTOPilot that will help save time with compliance and admin tasks.

Invoicing & Receipts

Receipt Management

Admins can download and resend receipt emails for any student payment for an enrolment lead, with PDF receipts now automatically attached to all receipt emails.

Business Receipts for Students

Students can now request receipts for company purchases during checkout by providing their ABN and business name - useful for corporate card payments and business expense claims.

Corporate Booking - External Invoice Numbers

External invoice numbers can now be added to RTOPilot invoices as a separate field, making it easier to match invoices with your accounting system.

Corporate Booking - Invoice Workflow Control

Draft invoices can be saved without line items so they can be finalised later.

You can also now send invoices to corporate coordinators as a separate action, giving you more control if you want to send them a PDF or use an invoice from an external system like Xero or MYOB.

Minor Improvements

• You can now delete AVETMISS exports you no longer need

• Search bar has been added the Locations module for easier navigation

• Non-VET unit details can now be edited without the need to recreate them

• Added a new org setting that allows trainer details including surname to be made private from students

• Character counts added to text area fields for better visibility on text limits

• Embedded booking widgets now scroll back to the top automatically when pages resize

Bug Fixes

We've also addressed several issues this month based on your feedback:

• Fixed incorrect NRT logo usage on some certificate types

• App now validates first and last names properly to prevent USI validation errors

• Discounts are now properly accounted for when calculating RTOPilot fees

• Temporarily removed the cash payment modal option

• Placeholder text is now correctly rendered in student profile form fields

• Coupons are now preserved when navigating between course and class pages

• Corporate booking details now prefill correctly when creating corporate classes

Calendar Sync, Smart USI Handling, Advanced Filtering

Hey RTOPilot Community,

This month was focused on addressing your feedback. We're launching a whole host of features like calendar sync, coupon filters, smarter USI handling, and a bunch of smaller improvements that should make RTOPilot more reliable and flexible in your day-to-day use.

What's new

National VET Conference 2025

We're attending the National VET Conference in the Gold Coast, October 30-31 at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre.

If you're heading along, swing by Booth 27 to say hello and grab a T-shirt with some swag. We'd love to meet you in person, show you what we're working on (including our upcoming LMS), and hear your thoughts on RTOPilot and the future of training.

Calendar Sync

Subscribe to Your Organisation's Training Calendar

You can now generate a calendar feed URL that syncs your RTOPilot schedule with external calendar applications like Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, and Apple Calendar.

This makes it easier for trainers and administrators to stay on top of upcoming sessions without constantly checking RTOPilot. Calendar feeds typically sync every 12-24 hours depending on your calendar provider.

The feed link can be found at the top of the Calendar page in the Admin Portal. We're working on bringing the same features to Trainers later in the year, so they can subscribe to their own filtered-down calendar.

Enrolment & Coupon Filtering

Class Start Date Filters

You can now add class start date filters to your enrolment page URLs and embed codes. This is useful when you want to show only upcoming training opportunities or limit visibility to specific date ranges.

Coupon Date Restrictions

Coupons now support class start date restrictions. When creating or editing a coupon, you can also limit it to classes that start within a specific date range. This gives you more control over promotional campaigns and ensures discounts are only applied to relevant sessions.

UX Improvements

Better Course Management

Courses now have their own dedicated module, making it easier to manage your templates separately from active classes.

You'll also now find quick duplicate and delete actions directly on course and class pages, saving you clicks when setting up similar courses or cleaning up old ones.

Payment View Cleanup

The payments view has been streamlined to show related operations (fees, refunds, adjustments) as updates to existing rows rather than creating separate entries. This significantly reduces clutter and makes it easier to track the full lifecycle of each transaction.

Delete Corporate Bookings

You can now delete empty corporate bookings that are no longer needed, helping you keep your corporate bookings list organised.

Smart USI Handling

RTOPilot now automatically handles USI Registry System outages. Whenever the system goes down, RTOPilot enters staging mode where USIs can be collected without immediate validation.

Once the Registry System is back online, all staged USIs are validated within 30 minutes, making sure student validation will never be blocked by system downtime.

Historical Training Data

Historical training activity is now included in AVETMISS exports, giving you more complete reporting coverage.

We've also enabled renewal reminders for imported historical training, so students with expiring certificates from previous systems will automatically receive notifications.

Minor Improvements

• ASQA reporting tools are now available in the new Reporting module with additional compliance report types

• Enrolment webhooks now include course ID for better integration filtering

• Surnames on Certificates are now displayed in uppercase with reduced size

• All address fields now use Google address search to improve standardisation

• AVETMISS exports provide more detailed feedback

Bug Fixes

We've also addressed several issues this month based on your feedback:

• Fixed corporate booking selection persistence when editing classes

• Resolved payment matching issues where some transactions failed to connect with Stripe data

• Corrected Stripe product name updates when course names are changed

• Fixed LLN question answer reset behaviour when navigating between questions of the same type

• Trainer removal now properly un-assigns that trainer from all sessions in the organisation

• Resolved class enrolment cutoff selection issues

Two-Factor Authentication, Finance System Overhaul, Bulk Class Creation

Hey RTOPilot community,

August brought a wave of new improvements focused on financial compliance, operational efficiency, and user experience. We've upgraded security with 2FA and user profiles, delivered an improved transaction list that many of you have been requesting, plus powerful bulk operations and quality of life features designed to save you more time every week.

What's new

Bulk Class Creation

Create Hundreds of Classes in Minutes

We've introduced a powerful bulk class creation workflow that allows you to quickly create a large number of repeat classes and sessions.

The workflow supports creation of classes that run over multiple days and which have multiple session per day. It also allows you to edit the details of individual sessions in the review screen, so you can make small adjustments to specific classes which don't fit the template, i.e. different pricing, start time and/or assigned trainers.

Finance System Overhaul

Improved Transaction History

We've improved the transaction history page to provide more useful information and detailed fee and GST breakdowns for accounting and reconciliation.

We've also applied a unique transaction numbering system so that the transaction order is never overridden.

This new page replaces the old one under 'Payments' > 'Student Payments' > 'Transactions' in the Admin Portal.

GST Handling

You can now set a GST component for non-accredited training. This can be accessed when creating a new course or editing an existing (non-accredited) one.

We've also updated the system to account for GST so it's calculated and better displayed throughout the system.

Tax invoice emails have also been improved with more detailed GST information.

Two-Factor Authentication

The new user account page now includes Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) for enhanced security.

The User Profile page and 2FA setup can be accessed from within the user menu in the bottom left of the Admin Portal:

Corporate Booking Improvements

Include Individual Enrolments in Corporate Invoices

Invoices can now display enrolments as individual line items (with student name) in addition to being grouped together at a class or course level.

Useful if delivering training for an employer or agency that must attach a record of payment to a specific individual's training.

New 'All Courses' Page Link

You can now share an overall course page link for a Corporate Booking (shows all available courses under a booking) rather than just a specific course or class.

This new link is located here on an individual Corporate Booking page:

Minor Improvements

General:

• "Class templates" have been renamed to "Courses" throughout the system

• Google autocomplete is now enforced for all student-entered addresses in RTOPilot to reduce errors

• Session forms no longer default to AM

• The certificate verification page is now public and indexed on Google

• RTOPilot billing fees now have a tax invoice created and attached to them

• Improved Class enrolment cutoff slider to provide a wider range of time increments

Enrolments:

• You can now resend enrolment confirmation emails for leads who may have missed them

• Badges have been added for Corporate Booking enrolments in Class detail view

• View the exact time when an enrolment was cancelled for better record-keeping

• Enrolment leads that haven't completed their LLN are now shown in 'Flagged Enrolments' on the dashboard

• LLN feedback has been softened and made less specific for the student

Bug Fixes

We've also addressed several issues this month based on your feedback:

• LLN question inputs now properly require answers before submission

• Resolved various user invite bugs to ensure smooth onboarding of new team members

• Sessionless classes are correctly excluded from enrolment pages

• Form inputs maintain their values while LLN questions are being submitted

• Corporate location selection is now properly restricted to classes which are associated with a booking

• Sessionless classes are now omitted from enrolment pages

We're committed to making RTOPilot the most reliable and user-friendly training management system for RTOs. As always, your feedback drives our development, so please continue to share your thoughts and suggestions through our in-app feedback channels or via WhatsApp.

Hey RTOPilot community,

July has been packed with improvements that make RTOPilot more flexible and user-friendly. We've focused on giving you better control over your billing processes, making historical data more useful, and streamlining everyday tasks with better search and usability features.

What's new

Improved User Experience

New Search Capabilities

Search bars have been added to all top-level tables, making it much easier to find specific students, classes, or records quickly.

Better Table Management

We heard your feedback - everyone wants to see more data on a page!

• Rows per page increased to a maximum of 500 entries

• Default display for top-level tables set to 100 rows

• No maximum height restriction on class enrolments card for better visibility

Better Student Communication

Student AVETMISS Profile Reminders

Students who need to complete their profile information before class will now receive additional automatic reminders which will increase student completion rates and improve data quality across the system.

Reply-to Emails

Your RTOPilot organisation email has been added as the default reply-to address in emails sent to students. This will help students get the support they need if they reply to any emails sent through RTOPilot.

Markdown Support

Course and Class descriptions now support markdown formatting, giving you more control over how key information is presented to students.

Learn more about markdown formatting: https://markdownguide.offshoot.io/basic-syntax/

Flexible Corporate Billing

Include Individual Enrolments in Corporate Invoices

You can now select individual enrolments and include them in corporate booking invoices. This gives you much more flexibility when managing unique billing scenarios.

Configurable Certificate Delivery

We now allow you to choose whether RTOPilot will withhold corporate booking certificates from being sent to students if the enrolment hasn't been paid for via invoice. This gives you better control over certificate delivery and payment compliance.

This new setting is available under 'Settings' -> 'Enrolments' -> 'Behaviour' in the Admin Portal.

Historical Data Management

Certificate Generation from Imported Training

You can now also generate certificates on imported historical training data. If you've imported or migrated training records from other systems, you can now issue certificates from that historical training.

Imported Student Data Display

The student table now displays imported AVETMISS information, giving you a complete view of both current and historical training records in one place.

Minor Improvements

• Our LLN assessment is now built directly into the student enrolment flow

• Class templates with VET units allow for other certificates to be issued by default (beyond SoA)

• Extended class cutoff date options

• Improved feedback for USI authorisation failures

• Failed RTOPilot billing attempts are now automatically retried

• Admins receive in-app notifications if billing has failed

Bug Fixes

We've also addressed several issues this month based on your feedback:

• Fixed date of birth fields not working in modals

• Properly randomised LLN questions

• Prevented refunds for leads when sessions expire

• Fixed trainers not being included when classes and sessions are duplicated

• Corrected price visibility issues for corporate booking classes

• Fixed name prefill functionality on new unit modal

• Students not enrolled in Statement of Attainment courses (e.g., VOCs) are no longer prompted to complete AVETMISS data collection

• Enrolments for non-Statement of Attainment courses are no longer included in AVETMISS exports

• Imported/migrated students can now update their USI information

We're committed to making RTOPilot the most reliable and user-friendly training management system for RTOs. As always, your feedback drives our development, so please continue to share your thoughts and suggestions through our in-app feedback channels or via WhatsApp.

Looking forward to sharing more updates with you soon!

Try now for free