Group lessons
The weekly class most clubs run most of, and the one most clubs still run out of a group chat
1st month free. A card is required to start, and nothing is charged until your free month ends. The free profile and free tiers never need one.
TL;DR
Running a weekly class on WhatsApp and invoices, or on AllSquads
- In the group chat the roster is whoever replied, the money is whoever transferred, and you reconcile the two on Sunday night.
- On AllSquads a place exists because it was paid for, so the roster for Tuesday is the paid list and nothing needs reconciling.
- You set the recurrence once; every week's session is generated for you and the class keeps running without a calendar to maintain.
- A full session flips to full by itself and queues the next player in join order, instead of a scroll back through the thread to see who asked first.
- Drop-in is a switch, not a separate class: a term program with drop-in on takes the committed block and the casual player on the same roster.
A group lesson is a regularly scheduled class that repeats on a set cadence, weekly, fortnightly or daily. It is the most common class type on AllSquads and the one whose admin cost is easiest to underestimate, because the class itself is simple. A term of individual bookings, cancellations, waitlist offers and payment chasing is not, and in most clubs all of that still runs through one person's phone.
Try it on this term's class
1st month free. A card is required to start, and nothing is charged until your free month ends. The free profile and free tiers never need one.
How most clubs run a weekly class today
Whoever runs the class makes a group chat. On Sunday a message goes out asking who is in for Tuesday, and the thumbs-ups are counted on Monday night. The price was agreed a term ago and is repeated by text when someone new joins, usually because a friend forwarded the chat. Money arrives by bank transfer into a personal account or the club account, with a reference that is a first name at best, and a spreadsheet with a paid column gets updated when the coach remembers. Regulars are invoiced at the start of term and chased at the end of it.
- The roster lives in the thread, the money lives in the bank feed, and the truth lives in one person's memory.
- A new player joins by being added to the chat, and leaves by going quiet.
- Nobody is sure whether the parent who paid in week three paid for week three or for the term.
Where the group-chat class breaks
None of this is a problem while the class is small and nothing changes. It becomes one the first time something does, and in a weekly class something changes every week.
- Chasing payments: somebody always pays late, and the person chasing them is the coach, at ten o'clock on a Monday, by text.
- No-shows: a thumbs-up is not a booking. Six said yes, four turned up, and nobody paid for the two who did not.
- The roster in your head: whoever runs the chat is the only person who knows who is in, so a sick coach means a cancelled class or a frantic handover.
- Cancellations by text: a player pulls out an hour before and expects the money back, and the answer depends on how the coach feels that day rather than on a policy.
- Member rates from memory: members get a discount in theory, and the theory is applied at a slightly different rate every term.
- The waitlist is a mental note, and the first person to see the spot-open message wins, whether or not they asked first.
- When the treasurer asks what Tuesday earned this term, the answer is a bank export and an afternoon.
How a group lesson is scheduled on AllSquads
You set a start date, a recurring frequency, the day or days of the week, a start time and a duration. AllSquads then generates the sessions on a rolling basis, so you are not creating next month's classes by hand and you are not maintaining a separate calendar that has to agree with your booking page. Change the schedule and the generated sessions follow it. The Sunday message asking who is in stops being necessary, because the session already exists and the people in it are the people who booked.
How players book and pay
Players book individual sessions and pay at checkout by card, wallet or a saved card, so a place on the roster is a place that has been paid for. If you enable drop-in, a player can book into any single session without committing to a longer enrolment, which suits the casual player who wants to try one week before deciding, and fills a spot that would otherwise go empty. Both kinds of booking appear on the same session roster, so the coach taking the class sees one list rather than two, and the receipt goes to the player automatically instead of being asked for.
Capacity and waitlists
Capacity is set per class. When a session fills, it shows as full and the waitlist activates automatically. You do not switch it on, and you are not the one telling people the class is full. If a place frees up, it is offered to the players in the queue in the order they joined rather than to whoever happens to see the message first, and anyone who joins the waitlist becomes a contact you can message.
Pricing, member rates and cancellations
Group lessons carry a standard price per session, with an optional member price that applies automatically at checkout for anyone with an active membership on their contact record, so a member rate is worth having rather than another thing to remember. Cancellation is governed by the class's own policy, which you configure once: a notice threshold in hours, and what a player gets back if they cancel with at least that much notice. Cancelling inside the threshold never returns credit, whatever the refund type is set to, and the player sees that before they confirm, so the conversation never reaches you.
Term, drop-in, or both at once
A group lesson is booked session by session and keeps running. A term program is booked once for a whole block and has an end date. They are not a choice you make once and live with: drop-in is a toggle on a term class, with its own price, so one class can take the ten-week enrolment and the parent who wants a single week first, and both land on the same roster. If your regulars want the commitment and the casuals want the door left open, run the term with drop-in on. If nobody commits to a block and the class simply continues, run it as a recurring group lesson.
Who it suits
Weekly junior squads, adult social groups, swim squads, fitness classes and cardio sessions: anything that runs on the same day at the same time and does not need a fixed end date. If you are running the same class indefinitely and your admin is currently a group chat plus a spreadsheet plus a bank app, this is the format that removes the most work, and it is usually the first class a club moves.
Manual vs AllSquads
| WhatsApp, invoices and a spreadsheet | AllSquads | |
|---|---|---|
| Getting paid | Bank transfer when they remember; you chase the rest by text | Paid at booking by card, wallet or saved card, before the place exists |
| The roster | Thumbs-ups in a thread, copied into a spreadsheet | The paid list for that session on the coach's phone, drop-ins included |
| Cancellations | A text, a judgement call, and a refund you owe from your own account | A per-class policy: notice threshold in hours, credit issued automatically, nobody adjudicates |
| Reminders | A message the night before, if someone remembers | Email and in-app a day out, in-app an hour out, every session |
| Member pricing | From memory, at whatever rate was agreed last term | Set once on the class, applied automatically at checkout for members |
| Waitlist | A mental note and a first-to-reply scramble | Activates when full and offers the place in join order |
| Payouts | Money lands in someone's personal account across the week | One transfer to the club's bank every week, itemised per booking |
| Records | A bank export and an afternoon | Every booking, payment and credit on the player's contact record |
Where the group chat is fine
If ten regulars play with one coach, everyone pays on the day, the price never changes and nobody ever needs to prove who paid, a group chat is a perfectly good booking system. The admin cost of that class is close to zero and no software makes it lower. The manual way stops being fine at the first waitlist, the first member rate, the first parent who wants a receipt, or the first week the coach is away. Most clubs cross that line without noticing, because each of those arrives one at a time.
Which setup fits your club?
The same class, same night, with no end date in sight
Good fitThat is precisely the shape this format exists for. Set the recurrence once and stop rebuilding next month's calendar; the sessions keep appearing and the roster for each one is already the list you take to court.
You want the ten-week block paid for before week one
Good fitThen run it as a term program, which takes one enrolment for the block, and if you still want casual players in the room turn drop-in on: both kinds of player sit on the same roster. The block's revenue lands in the weekly payout as it is paid, and pro-rata pricing handles the family who joins in week four without a side calculation.
Half your players are regulars and half are casual
Worth knowingThis works, and the money is the thing to decide first. Per-session pricing charges the every-week regular and the twice-a-term casual the same rate. If the regular should pay less, member pricing does it automatically at checkout, or run the regulars as a term enrolment and leave drop-in open for everyone else on the same class.
You need to know who has and has not paid, per session
Good fitThat is answered by the roster rather than by a spreadsheet. A booking exists because it was paid for at checkout, so the roster for a session is the paid list, and a drop-in booked on the day is on it by the time you get there.
You coach on your own, with no club behind you
Good fitA coach account runs a weekly class the same way a club does: your own booking page, your own contact list, and your own weekly payout to your own bank once Stripe is connected. If a club later wants you on its roster, your independent classes and the club's sit side by side in the same dashboard, and you keep both.
Choose AllSquads, or stay in the group chat
Choose AllSquads if
- More than one person needs to know who is booked, or the coach is ever away.
- Anyone pays a different rate to anyone else: members, families, casuals.
- A class has ever been full, or you have ever told someone you would let them know if a spot opened.
- You have refunded a late cancellation from your own pocket to avoid the argument.
- A treasurer, a committee or a parent has asked for a record you had to build by hand.
Stick with WhatsApp if
- One coach, a handful of players, everyone pays on the day and nobody ever cancels.
- The class is free and all you need is a headcount.
- You would honestly rather spend Sunday night reconciling than ten minutes setting a class up once.
Rather have it walked through?
A free 30-minute call. Two minutes to book, no pitch.
Move the class across in a week
There is nothing to migrate and the trial is the same product the paid tiers run. Most clubs move one class first, run it beside the group chat for a week, and move the rest once the roster has stopped needing a spreadsheet.
Bring your contacts across
Contacts, then Import, takes a CSV with names and emails; duplicates are skipped by email, and anyone who books later is added to your contacts automatically.
Create the class once
The class wizard asks for the day, the time, the duration and the recurrence, then the price, the capacity and the cancellation policy. The sessions after that are generated for you.
Set the member rate and the policy
An optional member price and a notice threshold in hours. Both are applied at checkout from then on, so nobody applies them from memory again.
Share the link where the thumbs-ups used to go
Post the class link in the group chat. Players book and pay from their phone, get their receipt and their reminder, and the roster fills without you copying anything anywhere.
Connect your bank when you are ready
You can take bookings before Stripe onboarding is finished. The money accrues and pays out on the usual weekly schedule once it is.
What to try in your first week
Everything below is inside the free trial and takes an evening. Each one ends with something you can look at, and show the committee.
Create Tuesday's class and open its page on your phone.
The next sessions are generated, priced and bookable, with no calendar entry made by hand.
Book yourself in as a player, then open the session roster as the coach.
Your name is on the paid list for that session, with the amount paid beside it.
Set the capacity to two, book two players, then try a third.
The session shows as full and the third player lands on the waitlist, in order.
Cancel one booking outside your notice window and one inside it.
The first returns a credit automatically; the second returns nothing, and neither needed a message from you.
Set a member price, then check out once as a member and once as a visitor.
Two different amounts at checkout, and no member list checked by anyone.
Import a spreadsheet of last term's players.
A contacts page with every player from the sheet on it, duplicates skipped, ready to be messaged before the term starts.
Got a question right now?
Instant answers, in the page, without leaving it.
What AllSquads is
AllSquads is booking, payments and admin software for sports coaches and clubs. Players find your classes, book and pay online, and get reminded before every session. You get the roster, the money and the contact record in one place, with a payout to your bank every week. It runs term programs, casual classes, camps, private lessons and court hire side by side, so the whole operation is in one system rather than a booking tool plus a spreadsheet plus a payment app.
- Over ten thousand
- bookings taken
- Thousands
- of players
- Hundreds
- of classes live
- A growing group
- of Australian clubs
Less admin
Automated booking confirmations, 24hr and 1hr reminders, waitlists, credits, and cancellation management. Stop chasing people.
Get paid weekly
Players pay online at booking, via payment links, or you manage payments manually. Payouts are paid weekly, for the week ending Sunday, direct to your bank account.
Player contacts & CRM
Every booking adds a player to your contacts automatically. Import your existing list via CSV. Track membership, booking history, and notes.
Messaging & group chats
Message players one-on-one or in groups. Class group chats created automatically. Broadcast announcements to all followers.
Analytics built in
Track revenue, bookings, and player retention over time. Coach view, club view, and court hire stats — all in one dashboard.
Court hire management
Day-view calendar with one column per court. Member and non-member pricing. Peak and off-peak rates. Your cancellation policy.
“I had all of term 1 paid in the first week. 75% less admin, 100% fewer late cancellations, and 80% fewer emails and phone calls.”
Read how Tennis on 11th runs dozens of programs on AllSquads
Talk to a person
Two minutes, no pitch.
Founding rate locked for life
First 100 paying signups lock the founding rate, no matter what we change later.
Frequently asked questions
Where this comes from
- Recurring schedules, generated sessions and per-class capacity
- Help centre: Class types
- Drop-in on a term class, on one roster with the enrolments
- Help centre: Term classes
- Waitlist activates on full and is strictly first come, first served
- Help centre: Player guide
- Cancellation notice thresholds and what a player gets back
- Help: Cancellation policy
- Member pricing applied automatically at checkout
- Help centre: Class types
- One weekly payout, with Stripe's processing fee absorbed
- Help centre: Payments
- Reminders a day before and an hour before each session
- Help: Notifications
- Contacts created on first booking, or imported from a CSV
- Help centre: Club guide
- The free trial needs a card; the free tiers do not
- Pricing page
Put your first class online tonight
Start your free trial - full tier access, 1st month free. A card is required to start, and nothing is charged until your free month ends. The free profile and free tiers never need one.