What is sports facility management software?

Software that runs a single record from the booking to the end-of-day till at a venue rented by the hour. What separates it from a calendar app is that it also holds the fact that the hour was sold: price, deposit, collection, canteen and the end of day all come out of the same record.

What must a pitch booking system solve?

Seven jobs at least: show the day on one screen, work out the hourly tariff itself, open recurring matches forward, record deposits and no-shows, keep cash, card and online apart, put the customer history in front of you as the booking is opened, and report day by day.

What should I check before choosing a booking system?

Whether work stops when the internet drops, how many devices can use it at once, what staff can and cannot see, whether several venues fit in one account, what can be shown to the customer, and — for card collection — whose account the money lands in.

How are double bookings prevented?

Three routes have to be closed separately: stopping an overlapping hour before the record is taken, writing recurring matches forward so nothing can be written over them, and resolving two devices selling the same hour at the sync layer.

Can customer history be kept?

Yes, and the form that earns its keep on a busy evening is this: team name, phone, how many times they came and how many times they did not, shown by itself while the booking is being opened. If it takes a separate screen and a search, it goes unused.

Can several courts be run from one schedule?

They should be. The right view is one grid rather than a calendar per court: courts as columns, hours as rows. Where slot lengths differ (60 minutes on a pitch, 90 on padel) the grid has to draw each court in its own slot.

Can collections and the till be tracked?

Cash, card and online takings belong on separate lines at the end of the day; the reason is reconciliation, because the three reach the bank on different schedules. Canteen sales belong in the same till.

Which kinds of venue does this fit?

Renting by the hour works the same way for five-a-side football, futsal, padel, tennis, basketball and volleyball. The one real difference is slot length; if the software sets that per court, changing the sport does not mean changing the system.

For five-a-side, padel, tennis, basketball and volleyball venues

Sports facility management software: what it must do, how to choose it

Choosing software for a venue that rents space by the hour is not choosing a calendar app. In a business that sells hours, the system has to hold more than who is coming when: whether that hour was paid for, by whom, and what is left in the till at the end of the day. This page sets out what sports facility management software has to solve, and what to check before choosing one.

The test fits in one sentence: does a single record run from the booking all the way to the end-of-day till?

What makes an hour-selling business different

In a shop, an unsold product stays on the shelf. At a venue rented by the hour the slot is consumed: 9 pm was blocked, it was not offered to anyone else, and if the team does not turn up that hour can never be sold. The product disappears with the evening.

That single difference decides most of what the software has to do:

Free hours must be visible. "Anything free tonight?" should be answered at a glance, not from a paper diary.
A booking needs something behind it. A slot held by word costs nothing to cancel; a deposit changes that.
Double booking must be impossible. Two teams on one pitch costs more than money — it costs standing.
Collection belongs inside the record. Money written in a separate book cannot tell you, at the end of the month, which match it belonged to.

The seven jobs the software has to do

1. The day's schedule on one screen

Courts as columns, hours as rows. Booked hours, free hours and today's occupancy in the same frame. If the venue has three pitches, that is one grid and not three separate calendars — the person on the phone asking "anything at eight?" does not care which pitch.

2. Hourly tariff

There is never one price: weekday and weekend, daytime and evening, indoor and outdoor are priced differently. The software should find the price itself from the day of the week and the time range. Every place where staff do the arithmetic in their head is a mistake waiting to happen on a busy evening.

3. Recurring matches

Much of a pitch's income comes from teams that arrive at the same hour every week. Writing them in by hand each week leaves the slot empty the day it is forgotten. The software should take the recurring match once and fill the schedule forward by itself — and stop it in one tap when the team leaves.

4. Deposits and no-shows

A deposit is the only instrument that moves the cost of a no-show from the venue to the customer. Here the software has two jobs: record the deposit in the till of the day it was taken, and remember the team that failed to show. The second matters more: when the same phone number calls again, the venue should be able to decide knowingly whether to hold a slot without a deposit.

5. Collection and the till

Cash, card and online takings belong on separate lines at the end of the day. The reason is reconciliation rather than bookkeeping: what goes through your own terminal and what arrives from a payment link reach your bank on different schedules. Canteen sales belong in the same till; in a "pitch here, canteen there" arrangement the end-of-day has to be assembled from two sources, and when it does not add up nobody can find out why.

6. Customer record

Team name, phone number, how many times they came, how many times they did not. Those four fields are not a CRM, but they are the only customer information that earns its keep at a venue. The software should put it in front of you by itself while the booking is being opened; if it takes a separate screen and a search, nobody uses it on a busy evening.

7. Reporting

Court revenue, deposits, canteen, dues and expenses, broken down by day. More than the monthly total, what matters is which day and which hour earns — that is where a tariff decision comes from.

Questions to ask before choosing

What happens when the internet drops?

If the signal is weak at the entrance, or the line goes down, work must not stop. Opening bookings, closing matches and taking cash have to keep working offline, and the data should sync by itself once the connection returns. A setup that lives only in the browser and asks the server for every action will stop the venue in exactly that moment.

How many devices can use it?

On an evening shift there may be a phone at the counter, a tablet in the office and a browser at home. All three should show the same data, and a booking opened on one should appear on the others. A "single device licence" means, in practice, a single shift.

Should staff see everything?

An attendant needs to open bookings; they do not need the whole till, the reports or tariff editing. Without role separation, the only way to draw that line is "don't give them the password", which is not a solution.

Is more than one venue involved?

An owner with two venues should see both in one account and separately: each with its own courts, tariff and till. Opening two accounts means adding the totals up by hand at the end of the month. There is a dedicated page on this: managing several courts and venues.

What can the customer be shown?

Expecting a team to install an app is not realistic. The booking should have a link the team can open to see its hour, its court and the status. The television at the entrance does the same job inside the venue — and on that screen amounts and phone numbers should never appear.

Is there card collection, and who holds the money?

Card collection is no longer optional at a venue; the real question is whose account the money lands in. In a properly built setup the business connects its own merchant account and the money goes there. In a pooled model, someone else is holding the weekend's takings on Monday. More on this: online payments at a five-a-side venue.

Which venues this fits

Renting by the hour is not specific to five-a-side football. The same arrangement works on a padel or tennis court, in a basketball or volleyball hall, and on a futsal pitch. The one real difference is the slot length: usually 60 minutes on a pitch, 90 on padel. If the software can set that per court, changing the sport does not mean changing the system.

How ArenaPro covers these

ArenaPro puts the seven jobs above in one app: the day grid, an hourly tariff per court, recurring matches and their dues, deposits with a no-show history, barcode canteen sales with stock, a till that keeps cash, card and online apart, day-by-day reporting, role separation and several venues on one account. The entrance television turns into the day's schedule; the customer follows the match from a QR code. It works offline and syncs across devices once the connection returns.

The setup order is the same at most venues: courts and tariff first, then recurring matches, then the deposit arrangement, and optionally the board at the entrance.