Planner & WiFi Automations

The Planner is a marketing calendar that can run your WiFi for you. Plan an event once, attach a WiFi automation to it, and CaptiFi applies it at the start time and puts everything back at the end time, in your venue's own timezone. No late-night logins to switch the quiz night splash off, no forgetting to rename the network back after a festival.

You can schedule four kinds of automation, and you can switch on any combination of them for the same event:

Automation	What it does	Works on
Change WiFi name	Renames your guest network for the window, then restores the original name	Venues with a CaptiFi device or a linked UniFi controller
Swap splash page	Shows a different design from your design library, then returns to your default	Every venue
Message strip	Adds a short dismissible banner on top of your current splash page	Every venue
Tag guests who connect	Adds a custom tag to every guest who connects during the window	Every venue

This guide walks through all four, then shows what to do with the guests a tag collects.

Where to Find It

1. Log in to my.captifi.io
2. Go to My Venues → Planner in the sidebar
3. You land on the Calendar tab. The second tab, Scheduled automations, lists everything queued or already run

The calendar shows your marketing events, and the card on the right lists upcoming automations with a live countdown to each one.

Step 1: Plan the Event

Click any day on the calendar, or the Plan an event button, and fill in the event itself:

1. Event title, for example "Packers home game"
2. Date, the day the automations run
3. Type, one of Marketing, Promotion, Holiday or Note. This only affects how the event is labelled on your calendar
4. Colour, the dot shown on the calendar
5. Notes (optional), anything you want to remember about the date

Step 2: Open the WiFi Automation Section and Pick the Venue

Scroll down inside the same window to WiFi automation and choose the Venue the automations apply to.

Automations always target a single venue. If the same event covers several venues, save this event, then schedule it again for each one.

Once a venue is chosen you see all four automations, each with its own switch. Anything your hardware cannot do is greyed out with a short explanation, like Change WiFi name below on a venue whose controller cannot rename networks remotely.

Start and end times are venue-local

Every time you enter here is your venue's own local clock, and the end time is required: every automation reverts itself. You never schedule the "undo" yourself.

Step 3: Change WiFi Name

Switch on Change WiFi name and enter:

1. Temporary WiFi name, up to 32 characters
2. Starts at and Ends at (reverts), the window on the event day

At the start time your guest network is renamed. At the end time your original name comes back automatically.

Renaming your WiFi disconnects everyone

When the network name changes, every connected device is dropped, and phones do not automatically join a network with a new name: guests must pick the new network themselves and sign in again. On UniFi, applying the change also briefly re-provisions your access points. Schedule name changes for quiet hours (before opening, after closing, or a lull between services), never mid-service.

Step 4: Swap Splash Page

Switch on Swap splash page and pick any design from your venue's design library. Thumbnails show the design's colours, Live now marks the one guests currently see, and Preview opens the real splash page in a new tab so you can check it before the event.

Pick the design, then set the window. At the end time your venue's default design is restored.

Tip: build the event design ahead of time by duplicating your default, or start from a seasonal template. A design used by a scheduled automation cannot be deleted until that automation is cancelled or finished.

Step 5: Message Strip

The lightweight option: a short banner on top of whatever splash design is already live, so there is no design work at all.

1. Message, up to 200 characters
2. Style, Banner (your brand colours), Success (green), Warning (amber) or Urgent (red)
3. Starts at and Ends at (reverts)

Guests can dismiss the banner, and it disappears for everyone automatically at the end time.

A strip is for short text with an end time. If you want a designed image that stays up until you change it, use a promotion on the splash page instead.

Step 6: Tag Guests Who Connect

This is the one that builds you a marketing list out of a single day.

1. Tag, up to 30 characters, for example "Packers VS Jets"
2. Starts at and Ends at (reverts)

Every guest who connects to your WiFi inside that window gets the tag added to their guest profile, whether it is their first ever visit or their fiftieth. It works on every venue and every sign-in route, because CaptiFi logs the guests itself.

Tags are never taken away

When the window ends, tagging simply stops. Every guest who was tagged keeps the tag, which is the whole point: the list is still there next time the fixture comes round.

Step 7: Repeat Weekly (Optional)

Leave Repeat on Off for a one-off day. Switch it to Weekly to run the same automations every week:

1. Pick the days of the week
2. Optionally set Repeat until, an end date. Leave it empty to repeat indefinitely

"Quiz night splash, every Friday 17:00 to 23:00" then runs itself until you stop it. Each week appears in the Scheduled automations list as its own entry, so you can cancel a single week without touching the series, and times stay fixed to your venue's local clock across daylight saving changes.

Step 8: Save, and Check What Was Scheduled

Click the save button, which counts what you switched on, for example Schedule 4 automations. Nothing changes on your network until each start time arrives.

The event day now carries a small badge for each automation kind, plus your event chip, and the card beside the calendar lists everything with a live countdown.

Managing Scheduled Automations

Open the Scheduled automations tab (or View all on the card) for the full per-venue list. Upcoming shows everything queued, with what it will do, its window, who scheduled it and a countdown.

Editing One

Click Edit on any automation that has not started yet to fix a typo or move the times, without rebuilding the event. The window and that automation's own field (the WiFi name, the design, the message and style, or the tag) are all editable.

Once an automation is running or finished it can no longer be edited, so the Edit button disappears and you use Stop now or Cancel instead. The weekly repeat rule itself is not editable here: cancel the series and schedule it again from the calendar event.

Cancelling or Stopping One

Click Cancel and the button arms itself, so a stray click never cancels anything. Click Confirm cancel to go through with it.

• Cancelling one that has not started simply removes it
• Stopping one that is running now reverts it immediately: your default splash design or original WiFi name comes straight back, and guests already tagged keep their tag

History and Statuses

The History tab shows what has already run, with its final status and any error details.

Status	Meaning
Scheduled	Waiting for its start time
Active now	Applied and running; reverts at the end time
Done	Applied and reverted, all finished
Failed to apply / Failed to revert	Something went wrong; the error is shown and we email you straight away
Cancelled	Stopped by you, or its venue or event was removed
Skipped	Not applied because the account's subscription was not active at the time

Automatic Revert

Every automation has a mandatory end time, and CaptiFi always puts things back:

Automation	At the end time
Change WiFi name	Your original WiFi name is restored
Swap splash page	Your venue's default design goes live again
Message strip	The banner is removed
Tag guests who connect	Tagging stops; guests already tagged keep their tag

Splash swaps always revert to the design marked as your venue's default (not simply "whatever was live before"), so make sure the right design is set as default.

Using the Guests a Tag Collected

A tag is only worth adding if you can act on it later. Here is the whole path.

1. The Tag Lands on the Guest Profile

Open My Venues → Guest Visits and click any guest who connected during the window. Their tag is on the profile, alongside your own private owner notes. You can add or remove tags by hand here too, which is handy for regulars and problem guests.

2. Turn the Tag Into an Audience

Go to Marketing → Audiences → Segments and click New segment:

1. Give the segment a name, for example "Packers VS Jets crowd"
2. Choose the venue (or venues) it covers
3. Add a condition: field Guest tag, operator contains, value the exact tag you used
4. Save

Guest tag matches the whole tag exactly, so a tag of "VIP" never picks up a guest tagged "MVP".

3. Target Them in a Campaign

The saved segment now shows its conditions and a live guest count, and it is selectable as the audience in the campaign wizard for both email and SMS.

So the full loop for a venue next to a stadium is: schedule the tag on match day once, let the WiFi collect the crowd, then email that exact crowd before the next home game.

Which Automations Work on Your Hardware

Splash swaps, message strips and tagging work on every platform, because CaptiFi serves your splash page and logs your guests itself. WiFi name changes need remote-rename support from your WiFi controller:

Your WiFi hardware	Splash swap	Message strip	Tag guests	WiFi name change
CaptiFi plug-and-play device	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
UniFi (all connection types)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
TP-Link Omada	Yes	Yes	Yes	Not yet
Cisco Meraki	Yes	Yes	Yes	Not yet
Ruckus	Yes	Yes	Yes	Not yet
Aruba Instant On	Yes	Yes	Yes	Not supported

Where WiFi name changes are not available the toggle is disabled, with a short explanation for your setup behind the question mark. We are extending support to more platforms over time; check What's New for updates.

Email Confirmations

• Morning-of confirmation: on days with scheduled automations, the account owner gets an email at 8am venue time listing what will run ("Tonight at 17:00 we will switch The Ship Inn to the Quiz Night splash")
• Failure alerts: if an automation fails to apply, or fails to revert at the end of its window, you get an immediate alert so nothing stays wrong silently

Both respect your notification preferences.

Overlaps and Conflicts

• Two WiFi name changes can never overlap on the same venue; the Planner blocks the save, because there would be no way to know which name to restore
• Overlapping splash swaps, message strips or tag guests windows on the same venue trigger a warning first; you can confirm and save anyway if the overlap is intentional (for example, tagging both "Game Day" and "VIP Booth" over the same afternoon)

Team Permissions

Creating, editing or cancelling automations requires the Manage splash pages permission (see Team Members). Automations belong to the venue, not to the person who created them: everyone with access to the venue sees them on the calendar and in the Scheduled automations list, with the creator's name on each row.

Troubleshooting

Issue	Solution
The WiFi name toggle is greyed out	Your WiFi hardware does not support remote renaming yet; see the support table. Splash swaps, message strips and tagging still work
Guests still see the old splash mid-window	Splash changes apply to new connections; a guest already online keeps their session. Reconnect the test device to see the new design
No guests got tagged	Check the window covered your opening hours in the venue's local time, and that the automation shows Done rather than Skipped or Failed in History
My tag segment counts zero guests	The value must match the tag exactly, including capitals and spaces. Open a guest profile from that day to copy the tag as it was saved
An automation shows Failed	Open it in the history list to see the error. Common cause: your controller was unreachable at fire time. We retry automatically before marking it failed, and you receive an alert email
An automation shows Skipped	The account's subscription was not active when the start time arrived. Fix billing under Account → Billing, then schedule it again
I cannot save two automations at the same time	Same-type windows on one venue overlap; adjust the times, or confirm the warning for splash swaps, message strips or tagging. Overlapping WiFi name changes are always blocked
I cannot delete a splash design	It is referenced by a scheduled automation; cancel the automation first
The Edit button is missing on a row	Editing only applies before an automation starts. Use Stop now to revert a running one, or Remove to clear a finished one from History

Related Pages

• Splash Page Builder: the design library, seasonal templates and promotions
• Guest Analytics: guest profiles, where tags added by the Planner (and by hand) show up
• Email & SMS Campaigns: build an audience from a tag and send to it
• Multi-Venue Management: managing several venues, WiFi names and site settings
• Team Members: permissions for who can schedule automations