How class booking is set up for a gym

Who sets a gym up?

There is no self-serve sign-up: our team sets up every gym. A gym's classes, passes and rules are written into a settings file by a developer and loaded into the database.

What does the gym give us?

Six things. None of them needs the gym to learn any software first.

• Its kinds of class. For each one: a name, a short description, how long it lasts, how many places it has and its price.
• Its weekly timetable. Which class runs on which day, at what time, with which coach. A slot can have its own capacity or price.
• Its class passes. For each one: how many classes it covers, its price and how many days it lasts.
• Its rules. How long before a class a member may cancel or move a booking, how far ahead members can book, and what happens to the money when a member cancels in time.
• Its own Stripe account, or the details to open one. The gym is the merchant, as the payments page explains.
• Its addresses. The email address bookings should come from, the email addresses of the staff who will sign in, and access to the gym's domain so we can add the records that email and booking need.

What do we set up, and in what order?

1. We write the gym's classes, timetable, passes and rules into its settings and load them into the database.
2. The software turns the weekly timetable into dated classes that can be booked. It tops them up every hour, so there are always classes to book as far ahead as the gym's rules allow.
3. We connect the gym's Stripe account, so a payment for a booking goes straight to the gym. Apple Pay and Google Pay work through the same card payment once the gym's domain is registered with Stripe.
4. We set up the gym's domain to send booking emails, which means adding a few records where the domain is managed.
5. We add the staff who may sign in to the gym's private screens.
6. The timetable, booking and pass pages go on the gym's own website, under the gym's own domain.

A gym that wants the website built as well can have it on the website plan, and a gym that keeps its own site has class booking added to it.

What can the gym change itself afterwards?

In its private screens the gym can add or remove a weekly class, change how many places a class has and change the price of a class or a pass. It can also cancel a single class, and everyone booked on it is emailed a choice of another class or a refund. A class cannot be made smaller than the number of places already booked.

Day to day, the same screens show who is booked on each class, take a booking for someone who pays at the desk, move a booking and send a message to everyone in a class. They work in a phone's browser.

What still needs our team?

Anything that is in the settings file and not on a screen. That is:

• a new kind of class, a new pass or a new coach;
• a change to the gym's cancel, move or booking-ahead rules;
• adding or removing a member of staff who can sign in.

The gym asks, we change the settings and release them. Putting these on a screen is part of the self-serve work.

How do staff sign in?

Staff sign in with a link sent to their email address, and there are no passwords. The link works once and expires after 15 minutes. Only the email addresses we have added for the gym can ask for one, and a signed-in session ends after 12 hours.

What does a member have to enter to book?

A name, an email address and a phone number, plus a tick on a short health declaration. There is no account and no password. The gym's cancellation rule is shown before the member pays, and a pass buyer also accepts the pass terms. Payment is Stripe's own payment box, shown on the gym's page.

Which emails does the software send?

A confirmation with a private link to the booking, so the member can move or cancel it without signing in. Then a cancellation or move confirmation when they use it, a pass receipt, and an email to everyone on a waitlist when a place opens.

A reminder email goes to each member 24 hours before a class, and the coach is emailed the class list about an hour before it starts.

Which rules are the same for every gym?

• A member chooses every class on a pass when buying it. If one of those classes fills first, the whole purchase is stopped, so nobody pays for a pass with a class missing.
• A pass runs from the date of its first class, not from the day it was bought.
• A waitlist takes up to 20 people for a class. A waitlist place is not a reservation: everyone waiting is told when a place opens, and the first to book gets it.
• A member may move a booking as often as they like while the gym's own deadline for changes has not passed.
• A place is held while a member pays and released if they do not, so a class is never sold twice.

What else does our team set up?

The rest of the suite, in the same visit: member accounts, waivers and PAR-Q, recurring memberships and Direct Debit, and the move from the gym's old software, which the office at 09:00 describes.