# Create a cohort and set its period

> Registering the cohort, choosing the dates, and understanding what the default cohort does.

## What you will get

A cohort ready to take students and to be picked on an enrolment. The path is
**Students › Cohorts** and the blue **New Cohort** button.

Only the **Name** is required. Everything else is optional — but the dates are
worth the effort, because they go into the contract.

## Step by step

![Cohort form with name, intake period, status, start date, end date and the Moodle options](/Apps/edupay/ajuda/turma-formulario.png)
*Five fields and two checkboxes. The Moodle options at the bottom only appear if you have connected the class environment.*

**1. Give it a name that reads on its own.** A cohort is not tied to any course,
and the name is all you have to recognise it later. *Management Postgrad —
2026.1* works; *Cohort 3* does not.

**2. Fill in the Intake period** if your school works that way. Free text, up to
20 characters — usually something like `2026.1` or `Feb/2026`. It gets its own
column on the list.

**3. Leave the Status as Open.** It is the only status in which a cohort is
offered on an enrolment.

**4. Set the Start date and End date.** These two become contract variables: the
template can print the course's start and end. The end cannot come before the
start.

**5. Click Create.**

## The default cohort

The **Set as default cohort** checkbox marks one cohort as the school's main
one. Two things follow:

- **There is only one per school.** Marking another unmarks the previous one,
  without warning.
- **It cannot be deleted.** Its row on the list has no **Delete** button.

Every school is born with one: **Turma Geral**, created along with the account.
If you do not organise by cohorts, you can leave everything in it and get on
with life.

## Cohorts and Moodle

Schools that connected the class environment see two more fields:

- **Moodle cohort ID** — the cohort on the other side that matches this one.
- **Also create in Moodle** — on save, EduPay tries to create the cohort itself
  and fill in the ID.

That ID is what makes student syncing work. Without it, the enrolment never
reaches the class environment.

## How you know it worked

> [certo]
> The screen opens the new cohort with the green banner **Cohort created
> successfully.**, showing **Status**, start, end and **No. of Students** at
> zero. With Moodle creation ticked, the message is different: **Cohort created
> and linked to Moodle successfully.**

## If something goes wrong

> [erro]
> **The end date was refused.** It cannot come before the start date.
>
> **You are looking for where to set the number of seats.** That field does not
> exist. The system does not track cohort capacity.
>
> **You are looking for where to link the cohort to the course.** That does not
> exist either. Cohorts and offerings are independent — the enrolment joins them.
>
> **The message says the Moodle cohort could not be created.** The cohort was
> created anyway. Fill in the **Moodle cohort ID** by hand, under **Edit**.


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https://edupay.estudiosite.com/en/ajuda/day-to-day/create-a-cohort
2026-08-05