How do you run your club (payments/attendance)?

[MattTaylor]

I've been looking into software systems that will help me run my club.

One thing I noticed is that they don't seem to operate as simply as I do.

I have a local hall booked in advance for the next year for a couple of hours twice a week.

I have students that pay a monthly subscription and they can turn up to any of those classes and train.

Some of the software systems want me to create classes and have students book into those classes based on whether they have a subscription that allows it or some maximum attendance has been reached.

I imagine that's could pretty useful if you have multi-martial arts centre with all sorts of classes going on.

So I'm wondering how is your dojo run?

A simple pay and turn up type of thing or something more complex?

Thanks,

Matt

[sensei8]

Welcome to KF, MattTaylor; glad that your here!!

I'll run the dojo; and the software won't and/or can't!!

The software can only act against the information that I provide it, and that isn't enough because parameters of a dojo change outside of the given software parameters. And no software is going to tell me that I've got to start a new class and set up times. That matrix, and it's a good thing, is not set in stone!! That means that I can override the program as I feel fit and necessary. Therefore, the software can only suggest, and that leaves me to either accept the suggestion or ignore the suggestion.

I've no software to suggest to you because I don't use any software outside of bookkeeping and various Microsoft programs.

So, I use the simple turn up and pay; seems to have worked for me for a very long time!!

[JR 137]

I'm not an instructor, nor do I run a dojo...

Where I currently train, our CI uses a wirebound book that's some sort of ledger-type book. I pay him at the beginning of the month, he stamps and a initials my card, and writes the payment in his book.

At the dojo I trained at 15 years ago, I mailed a check to his house every month.

Neither one use a MA specific computer program. They use a Quicken type program that they input money received and money spent.

[MattTaylor]

Great, thanks for your inputs.

[jaypo]

We used to us Martialartsadmin.com for $25.00 per month, and switched to perfectmind.com for $200.00 per month which did everything including taking debit card and auto draft payments. However, we only had 1 customer that used that feature, and we were basically giving away $200.00 per month.

I've found that nothing can have the cost benefit analysis of Microsoft Excel! I have a spreadsheet with students, their payments, and accounting. Simple and easy. And free!

[ashworth]

I have a diary that I take to every class, in it I write what students turn up, what they pay(Students pay per class rather than monthly payments) then when I get back home I transfer the data onto an excel document. It works for me, simple easy to use.

[tallgeese]

We run Zen Planner to manage class attendance AND auto pay. We try really hard to sign everyone up on auto pay. It just saves the trouble of monthly conversations about money. There are still occasionally hiccups. Cards expire, etc, but it's way handier.

[Rig]

I've looked at loads of different Martial Arts specific web platforms as well as other general purpose CRM ones and I'm yet to find what I'm looking for..

https://www.martialytics.com has a good reputation and is used by a few of my friends for their commercial clubs.

I find a well thought out Excel spreadsheet works well for me and I use use Google Contacts for managing student data, not just names and addresses (useful to have on your phone in cases of emergency) but also the notes field and custom dates (I use one for licence expiry as well as birthday)

[RJCKarate]

I use a couple of different systems rather than one alone.

Booking into their first lessons -

I use a program called Smoothbook where you can set up your class times, days, categories etc and have a "book now" button

This alerts me when someone has booked and also sends automatic emails of confirmation, reminder (24h before), and follow up (next day). It's great.

Joining and member management -

The software I use to manage our dojo including member records, event registrations, event payments, gradings, attendances, email correspondence, text messages etc is called DojoExpert - it's great and the owner will work with you to customise it. It has the ability to take payments through PayPal regularly for fees, but I only use it for event based fees, and the below for regular. When people join they full out an eForm and this inputs directly into my management system. The only paper we have is the signed waiver/disclaimer.

Trainings fees -

We require fees to be paid monthly, 12 months of the year. We use a direct debit company where the student can select their method of payment and it comes out automatically. I use this rather than the inbuilt system as it allows me to more easily suspend and cancel payments, provide more flexibility in payment options, and they've written all the financial disclaimers for me. I can also easily just add a charge for gradimgs etc. I have templates built for each program, so it's a fully electronic sign up and cancellation etc.

It's taken me 8 years to get to this system, but it works really well and is fairly seamless and has reduced my manual workload and admin significantly. We're a dojo with a commercial facility, 8 classes a week, and 80 students, but we're not a business, we're a non profit and it means I do everything from teach to admin while having a full time day job - so I try to use efficient self regulating systems.

P.s. typed this in my phone, sorry for any mistakes.

[MattTaylor]

Really good feedback from all.

Seems you have a nice system there RJCKarate. Thanks for mentioning Smoothbook as it's not something I had ever heard of.

Matt