How to switch gym management software: 30-day plan

The thirty days at a glance

Before you start: five questions

A switch usually goes wrong because of something learned too late. Answer these five questions in the first three days. Each answer can move the calendar.

1. 1.What notice does the old contract require? If it is thirty days, the cancellation goes out on day 1.
2. 2.Can the old system export your data to a file? Ask for a test export now, not on day 20.
3. 3.How does it hold payment details? Saved cards and direct debit authorisations do not come out in a spreadsheet.
4. 4.Do memberships renew automatically? If so, that renewal must be switched off before day 22.
5. 5.Who decides what? Write a name next to each row in the table above.

Saved cards are the slowest part

Card details never leave in an ordinary file. They move from one payment processor to another, through a formal, encrypted request. As a rule, the account owner has to request the transfer.

Between the request, the old processor sending the data and the new one importing it, allow weeks. That is more than a thirty-day plan absorbs comfortably.

So there are two ways to handle payments. Either request the transfer on day 1, and move the date if needed. Or each member pays again in the new system, at the first charge. The second is simpler, but it needs a clear message and a week of follow-up.

Direct debit mandates

If members pay by direct debit, ask who holds the mandates. When they sit under the old provider's own account, they may not move at all. Then every member signs a new mandate in the new system. Plan the message for it from day 15.

The date: the end of a billing cycle

On day 22, the period that started in the old system has already ended there. The next one is charged by the new system. Nobody pays twice, and nobody is left with half a month to settle.

If everyone pays on the same day of the month, day 22 is that day. If each person pays on a different day, no single day ends every cycle. In that case, the period each person already paid comes into the new system as paid, with its end date. The first new charge falls when that period ends.

Pick the weekday too. A Tuesday or Wednesday leaves working days to fix things before the weekend. Avoid a public holiday week, and the weeks when your gym takes on the most new members.

That is why the old system's automatic renewal is switched off before day 22. Get it confirmed in writing by whoever provides it. In Rummo, a plan only renews if it is marked to renew, and nothing renews by default.

Weeks 1 and 2: build the new system

Build the new system before importing anyone. A member imported into a space with no plans and no timetable has nothing to do there.

1. 1.Plans: memberships, class packs, drop-ins. Take the chance to merge the ones nobody buys.
2. 2.The template week: recurring classes with capacity, coach and room. Generate the weeks from day 22 onwards.
3. 3.Booking rules: when booking opens and closes, the cancellation cutoff, the waitlist.
4. 4.The waiver, if your gym uses one.
5. 5.The payout account, so payments reach the gym.
6. 6.The team, each person with their role.

Then import the members. The file comes out of the old system and goes into the new one. Exporting has an article of its own. Finally, create three dummy members and walk them through everything: join, book, cancel, pay and check in.

What to pull out of the old system, and what to do with each list, is covered here. What to export before switching gym software

Week 3: both systems in parallel

From day 15 to day 21, both systems are open. The old one keeps the bookings and the payments. The new one is there to check against. One week is enough: any longer and the two lists start to drift apart.

In the old system, the timetable ends on day 21. Classes from day 22 onwards exist only in the new one, and can only be booked there. That way no class has bookings in two places.

Meanwhile, the team checks three things:

1. 1.Every morning, the front desk opens the day in both systems. Classes, times, capacity and coach have to match.
2. 2.Anyone who turns up to train and is missing from the new list is a row the file missed. They get added that day.
3. 3.People who sign up in the old system this week come over in a file with just those sign-ups.

The first day of this week is also the day of the message to members. It says three things: what changes, when, and what each person needs to do.

Day 20: go or postpone

Two days before, the owner decides. Postponing a week costs little. Switching with the wrong numbers costs a month of fixes and some hard conversations. Go ahead if all five answers are yes:

• The number of active members matches in both systems.
• Every active plan in the old system has an equivalent in the new one, and you know who goes where.
• The old system's automatic renewal is off, confirmed in writing.
• The new payout account is live and tested with a small real payment.
• Classes for days 22 to 28 are in the new system, with the right capacity.

If any answer is no, the date moves to the start of the next cycle. The message to members goes out again, with the new date.

Day 22: switch day

Early in the morning, before the first class, the list is short and runs in this order:

1. 1.Confirm in the old system that no charge went out today.
2. 2.Activate any plans not yet active in the new system.
3. 3.Set the drop-in price, if your gym sells single classes.
4. 4.Open the day at the front desk: anyone arriving without an account is marked present and gets the link.
5. 5.At the end of the day, count who booked, who checked in and who paid.

The three things that block a booking on day one

In a system with rules, three things stop a member booking on day 22. Better to know them before someone finds them at the front desk.

• No plan. Anyone missed in the assignment has no right to book. With a drop-in price set, they can book by paying for the class.
• A plan waiting for payment. If the charge goes through the app, the plan only becomes active once the payment comes in.
• An unsigned waiver. Once published, the waiver is required of everyone, including people who have trained with you for years.

Days 23 to 30: the first week

The first week is for closing whatever is still open. Three lists are enough:

• Everyone with an unpaid charge, with name, amount and phone number.
• Everyone invited who has not joined yet.
• Emails that never arrived, invitations included.

Whatever was left unpaid in the old system is collected there. That way each period stays whole, in one system. On day 30, cancel your access to the old system, but keep the full export.

One week reading both systems, and booking and charging in only one.

Who does what

The mistakes that make a switch expensive

• Switching on renewal day without turning off the old renewal. This is the mistake that charges twice.
• Running both systems for a whole month. Each one ends up with its own version of the truth.
• Importing everyone who ever trained with you. People who left years ago get an invitation they never asked for.
• Telling members on the day itself. Whoever missed the message finds out at the door.
• Cancelling the old system before the full export is saved.

How this works in Rummo

Member import is on every Rummo plan. The file can bring each person's plan and dates. On screen, each plan in the file is matched to one of yours. It comes in as already paid, with no charge. People already in your space are not duplicated: their empty fields are filled in.

To assign plans afterwards, there is bulk assignment, up to two hundred people at a time. Before you confirm, the screen shows what that adds up to per period. It also asks you to type the number of people. A partly used pack is assigned one person at a time. The class count is then adjusted, with the reason written down.

Anyone who joins through your space's link with the email from your file lands on the record they already had. The dashboard lists charges unpaid for more than seven days, and invitations not accepted after a week.

Members pay in the app by card or SEPA direct debit, or pay at the gym. Memberships, packs and online payments are on the paid plans. The member app is in European Portuguese.

The page on switching to Rummo puts these steps in one place. Switching to Rummo

An Excel sheet or a CSV comes in over three steps, and you see every row before saving. Member management