Case study · Paying client, in production

L'Atelier Clamart: a complete platform for a creative arts studio.

Bookings, memberships, age-category credits, weekly scheduling, Stripe payments, smart waitlist, transactional emails, full back office. In production since March 2026.

The scale of the project, at a glance.

2,500+ Lines of backend code
15 PostgreSQL tables
8 Business modules shipped
March 2026 In production since
Tech stack
Next.js 14 React TypeScript Tailwind CSS Express PostgreSQL Stripe Brevo FullCalendar Vercel + Render

Before: paper, Excel and phone calls.

L'Atelier Clamart is a creative arts studio in the Paris area (Clamart, plus a second venue) with several teachers, several class categories (babies, kids, teens, adults), recurring weekly classes, holiday workshops, and one-off events.

Before the platform: a paper notebook for the schedule, an Excel sheet for attendees, bookings by phone and text message, attendance ticked off by hand. The consequences: double-booked slots, cheque and cash payments that were hard to trace, tedious parent communication, and a team drowning in admin.

A complete platform, not a generic booking tool.

A custom web platform delivered in March 2026, covering the studio's entire business, on the customer side as much as the team side. It is used daily by clients (bookings, credits, payments) and by the team (scheduling, management, communication, finance).

Architecture: Next.js 14 frontend + Express backend, PostgreSQL database, Stripe payments, Brevo emails, hosted on Vercel + Render, optional SMS via Twilio.

The whole business in one interface.

01

Client bookings

Class catalog, visible weekly schedule, booking in 2 clicks, guest management (parents booking for their children).

02

Age-category credits

Each age group has its own credits, plans and expiry dates. Automatic alerts before expiry.

03

Stripe payments

Credit purchase + booking in a single transaction. Cards, Klarna installments, automatic invoices, conditional refunds within 12h.

04

Weekly schedule + seasons

Template week view, month calendar, season management (school year, French school holiday zones), automatic generation wizard.

05

Smart waitlist

A slot frees up → automatic notification to the first in line, with 2 hours to confirm. No answer → next in line.

06

Complete admin back office

KPI dashboard, client management, plans, teachers, venues. Financial stats (revenue, sales by plan). Multi-role admin/teacher/client.

07

Multi-teacher

Several teachers per class, assignment by availability, per-teacher schedule view, session requests submitted by teachers themselves.

08

Transactional emails

Booking confirmations, pre-class reminders, credit expiry alerts, secure token-based client invitations, next-day schedule sent to teachers.

The platform in production.

Under the hood.

Frontend: Next.js 14 (App Router) + React + TypeScript + Tailwind CSS, FullCalendar for the admin schedule view, custom design system (teal + terracotta palette).

Backend: Node.js + Express + TypeScript, ~2,500 lines of code, 15 PostgreSQL tables, JWT authentication in HttpOnly cookies with double-submit CSRF protection.

Security: server-side validation of every price, Stripe webhooks wrapped in PostgreSQL transactions with amount re-verification (anti-tampering), security headers (CSP, X-Frame-Options), CHECK constraints in the database.

Integrations: Stripe (payments + Klarna + invoice-first billing), Brevo (transactional emails + newsletter), French government API for automatic school-holiday sync.

Before / After.

Before

  • A paper notebook for the schedule
  • An Excel sheet for attendees
  • Bookings by phone and text message
  • Attendance ticked off by hand
  • Cheques and invoices hard to trace
  • Parent communication by individual texts
  • Manual, unreliable credit tracking

After

  • 100% of bookings online
  • Automated Stripe payments (cards + Klarna)
  • A schedule everyone can see (clients, teachers, admin)
  • A team freed from phone support
  • Credits managed automatically, expiry alerts
  • Automatic email communication with parents
  • Smart waitlist with automatic follow-up

The platform has been in production since March 2026, used daily by clients and by the team. It keeps evolving as needs grow.

Planning a similar platform?

Creative studio, music school, gym, coaching business, association… A custom booking + payment + admin platform, built around how you actually work.

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