- Set up your club. Six short screens.
- Copy your invite link and send it to each of your regulars. It's on the Your club is live! screen at the end of setup. Later, you can make a new one from the person-add icon at the top of the app.
- Post the same link in your WhatsApp group, or in Spond, for everyone else.
- Run your next session through ClubPad. Don't re-create sessions you've already played.
- Once your regulars are booking and paying in ClubPad, stop taking bookings the old way.
If your club runs on WhatsApp
Most clubs start in a group chat. Someone asks who's in, people reply with their names, and the organiser keeps the list and chases the money. ClubPad takes over the list and the money. The chat stays.
- Post the session in ClubPad instead of asking who's in. Set the number of places when you publish. Once it's full, anyone else goes on the waitlist, and moves up if someone drops out.
- Share it to the group. Tap the share icon at the top of the session and send it to the chat. It sends a link people can book from.
- Let ClubPad keep track of who has paid. Every booking gets its own payment reference, and players pay by Revolut, bank transfer or cash. You confirm what arrived on one screen, instead of scrolling back through the chat.
- Keep the chat for talking. The banter, and "anyone want a hit on Thursday?", stay in WhatsApp.
If your club uses Spond
Spond already takes bookings, so this is a move from one app to another. The main thing is not to run both. There's more on the differences in ClubPad vs Spond.
- Pick a night to switch. Publish that session in ClubPad only, and tell your members in Spond that bookings have moved, with your invite link.
- Don't keep both going. If half the club books in Spond and half in ClubPad, you end up checking both.
- Payments change. Spond takes card payments, with a fee on each one. In ClubPad, Revolut, bank transfer and cash have no fees.
- ClubPad also runs the night. It builds the courts for each round and records who won. Spond has no mixer for running the games.
How to switch over
Message your regulars first. A link dropped into a busy group chat gets buried. Send a short note to the five or ten people who play every week. Once they're in, post the link to the whole group.
Start with your next session, not a past one. Publish the next night in ClubPad and let that be the first one people book there. Your club's history starts from here.
Keep approval on while the link is going round if you're opening it to a big group. You'll see every name as it arrives, and you can switch to instant join once the regulars are in.
Tell everyone when bookings have moved. Wait until your regulars have joined and you've run a couple of nights, then post in the chat, or in Spond, that bookings are in ClubPad from now on.
What happens to each thing
| Thing | What happens |
|---|---|
| Keep it. WhatsApp is for the chat. ClubPad takes bookings, payments and results off it. | |
| Spond | Does the same job as ClubPad for bookings. Stop using it once your regulars have moved. |
| Session admin | Moves to ClubPad. You set the capacity, price, when booking opens and the payment deadline when you publish. If someone drops out, the next person on the waitlist moves up. |
| Payments | Move to ClubPad. Cash, Revolut or bank transfer, with no fees, and every paid booking gets its own reference. |
| Photos | Photos go with a night once it's recorded. At the end of a mixer night, tap Finish & Save Results. For a night you ran by hand, tap Record Results in History. Then add the photos. |
| History | Starts from your first ClubPad session. |
