Choosing Sailing Club Software: Questions to Ask

Your committee has agreed the club needs better systems, and someone (possibly you) has been asked to look into it. Choosing sailing club software is a decision you'll live with for years, it touches every member, and it involves the club's money and personal data. This guide is a vendor-neutral way to approach it: how to decide what you need, how to run demos, and the questions to ask any supplier, including us.

Agree what you need before you look

Demos are persuasive. Without a list of your own, you'll end up impressed by features you won't use and miss gaps in the areas that matter. Before contacting anyone, spend one committee session on three lists:

1. Problems today. The specific things that go wrong: renewals, chasing payments, duty no-shows, an out-of-date website, too much depending on one volunteer.
2. Must-haves. The things the club can't run without. Be strict: if the club could manage without it for a season, it belongs on the next list.
3. Nice-to-haves. Useful but not decisive. These break ties between otherwise equal options.

Also note who will run the system day to day. The best product for a club with a paid secretary may be the wrong one for a club run entirely by volunteers who change every few years.

Evaluate from three seats

A club system has three kinds of user, and a demo usually only shows one. Ask to see all three.

The member

Ask for a test member login and try the everyday jobs on your phone: find the next event and enter it, pay a subscription, see your duties and swap one, update your boat details. If any of those take more than a minute to work out, expect support emails from members.

The committee

Have each officer try their own job: the treasurer raising and chasing invoices, the membership secretary processing an application, the sailing secretary setting up an event with entry fees. Watch for how much each task depends on the vendor, and how much the club can change itself.

The visitor

Look at live club websites built on the platform, not just the vendor's own marketing site. Can a prospective member find out how to join? Can a visiting sailor find the Notice of Race? Does it work well on a phone?

Questions to ask any vendor

These are the questions that tend to separate suppliers. None has a single right answer, but you should get a clear one.

Where does payment money go?

When a member pays by card, does the money go straight into the club's own account, or does it sit with the vendor and get paid out later? Who is the merchant of record? How are refunds handled, and who can issue them? Ask who pays card processing fees and whether they are passed on to members. If you want the background, see taking card payments at a sailing club.

Card, Direct Debit, or both?

Some systems take card payments only, some offer Direct Debit, some both. Ask which, and whether members can spread payments (instalments) or save a card for automatic payments. Just as important: can members still pay by bank transfer or cheque, and how does the treasurer record those? Most established clubs have members who won't change how they pay.

Can we get our data out?

Ask what you can export yourselves, in what formats, without a support ticket: members, invoices, payments, event entries. And ask what happens to your data if you leave. A good supplier will be relaxed about this question.

How does it help with data protection?

Your club is responsible for its members' personal data. Ask how members can see or download what's held about them, how a member's account is deleted and what happens to their invoices and bookings when it is, and whether old data is cleaned up automatically. Our GDPR guide for committees explains why these matter.

Who can do what, and is there a record?

Can you give the social secretary access to events without also giving them the member list and the club's finances? Are those permissions enforced by the system or just hidden in menus? Is there a log of admin actions you can search and export? This matters every year when officers change at the AGM.

Who does the setup?

Is the club expected to configure everything from a blank account, or does the supplier set up the website and the technical parts? What is left for the committee to do, and how long does it realistically take? Is training included?

How do members join, and how do existing members come in?

Many clubs need applications to be approved by the committee, sometimes with a proposer and seconder, rather than anyone joining and paying online instantly. Check the joining process matches your rules. And ask exactly how your existing members get onto the system: does someone have to key in every record, or do members complete their own details?

What's included, and what costs extra?

Ask for the full cost over three years, including setup, the subscription, payment fees and any add-on modules. Features that are "available" but priced separately change the comparison.

Run a fair comparison

1. Send your must-have list to each supplier before the demo, so they show you what matters rather than a standard tour.
2. Ask the same questions of each, and write the answers down in the same format.
3. Get the people who'll do the work (treasurer, membership secretary, events) into the demos.
4. Ask for a test login and try it without the salesperson present.
5. Agree a decision date and stick to it; the season doesn't wait.

What to ignore

Long feature lists with modules you'll never switch on. Claims you can't check. Pressure to sign before the committee has seen the product. And be wary of any system that only one person on the committee understands, because you'll be back where you started when they step down.

How Yacht Clubs Manager answers these

For completeness, here are our own answers, briefly and factually:

• Payments: card payments go through Stripe directly into the club's own Stripe account. The club pays Stripe's fees; they aren't added to members' bills.
• Card or Direct Debit: card only, as a single payment per invoice; we don't offer Direct Debit, instalment plans or automatic card payments. Invoices can also be paid by bank transfer or cheque, recorded by the treasurer, and members can tell the club they've paid by transfer.
• Data export: invoices and invoice lines export to CSV or Excel, event entries to PDF, and members can download their own data.
• Data protection: members can delete their own account once nothing is outstanding; before an admin deletes a member, every open invoice, booking and order is listed for a decision; old data such as IP addresses and email content is cleaned up automatically.
• Permissions: specific admin permissions per member, enforced by the server, and an admin actions log of recent changes that you can filter and export.
• Setup: our team sets up your site (branding, domain and email sending); your committee then configures membership types, forms, invoices and the rest in the admin console.
• Joining: applicants fill in a form the club designs, the committee accepts or declines, and accepted applicants get an invitation to sign up. Existing members are invited from a three-column spreadsheet and complete their own details.

For the full picture, see our yacht club software overview, the features list and pricing, or get in touch with your committee's questions.