Complete First 30 Days — New Club Setup Guide — GoClubPro

Training Module 52 | Day-by-Day Guide for Brand New Clubs

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What This Guide Covers

You've just created a new club on GoClubPro. Everything starts empty. This guide walks through your first 30 days — from a blank account to a fully operational club with members registered, fees configured, fixtures loaded, and the team communicating.

Primary audience: Brand new Club Admins, Founding Committee Members Also useful for: Clubs migrating from another system

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THE GOLDEN RULE

Always build in this order:

Season → Competition → Teams → Fee Config → Import Fixtures → Invite Members → Activate

Skipping steps or doing them out of order creates problems that are difficult to unwind. Follow the sequence.

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DAY 0: ACCOUNT CREATION

What happens automatically

When you create a club on GoClubPro, you are automatically assigned the Club Admin role. The club is created with:

• Your club name
• A unique join link
• An empty season, team, and member structure

Do immediately

1. Set your profile: Profile → update your name, photo, phone
2. Enable MFA: Profile → Security → Enable MFA (do this before anything else — you're about to hold significant data)
3. Set club details: Settings → Club Details → add your ABN, contact email, address, and logo

Time: 20 minutes

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DAYS 1–3: BUILD YOUR STRUCTURE

Day 1: Create Your Season

1. Admin Panel → Seasons & Competitions → Create Season
2. Name: "[Year] [Season Type] Season" (e.g., "2026 Winter Season")
3. Start date: First fixture date
4. End date: Last fixture date (estimated)
5. Save

Don't activate the season yet — activation should be the last structural step, not the first.

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Day 2: Add Competitions (Grades)

For each grade/division your club runs:

1. Admin Panel → Seasons & Competitions → select your season → Add Competition
2. Name each competition clearly (e.g., "Men's A Grade", "Under 16 Girls")
3. Save each competition before adding the next

How many competitions? One per playing grade. If you have 5 grades (A Grade, B Grade, Under 18, Under 16 Boys, Under 16 Girls), create 5 competitions.

Do NOT create one competition called "All Teams" — the fee configuration lives at the Competition level.

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Day 3: Create Teams

For each Competition, create at least one Team:

1. Admin Panel → Teams → Create Team
2. Name: "[Club Name] [Grade Name]" (e.g., "Northside FC A Grade")
3. Assign to the correct Competition
4. Save

At this point: Season → Competitions → Teams all exist. Members will be assigned to Teams in a later step.

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DAYS 4–6: CONFIGURE FEES

Day 4: Set Up Fee Configuration

This step must come before activating the season or inviting members.

1. Settings → Fee Configuration
2. For each Competition, set:

• Registration Fee
• Match Fee
• Season Plan price (optional — if you offer it)
• Season Plan cutoff round (optional)

3. Save each competition's fees before moving to the next

If you're unsure of the exact match fee: Set a placeholder amount now. You can update it before the season activates. But do not leave it blank — blank means "not configured" and no fees will generate.

Reference:

• What did the previous admin charge last season?
• What does your association charge in levies?
• Build up from: your costs + association levy + buffer = registration fee

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Day 5: Confirm Bank Transfer Details

Bank Transfer and wallet credit work out of the box — there's no processor to connect, no identity verification, and no waiting period. Members can start declaring payments as soon as fees are configured.

Ensure you have:

• Club bank account name
• BSB
• Account number
• A naming convention for reference (e.g., "FirstnameLastname Registration 2026")

You'll put this in your welcome broadcast and Email 2 of the onboarding sequence.

Time: 5–10 minutes — just confirming your bank details are correct and current.

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Day 6: Assign Your Treasurer and Set a Verification Rhythm

Every Bank Transfer declaration and wallet top-up sits as PENDING until a Treasurer reviews and confirms it — nothing is auto-approved.

1. Admin Panel → Members & Roles → assign the Treasurer role to the right person
2. Decide how often declarations will be reviewed — daily during registration weeks is recommended, weekly at minimum
3. Brief the Treasurer on the Reconciliation tab (where pending declarations appear) before members start registering

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DAYS 7–10: IMPORT YOUR SCHEDULE

Day 7: Connect your league platform (If Applicable)

If your sport uses your league platform:

1. Obtain your Club ID from league platform admin portal
2. Obtain Competition IDs for each grade — one per competition
3. Admin Panel → Integrations → Add your league platform Source
4. Enter Club ID + Competition ID for Grade 1 → Save
5. Repeat for each grade with a separate Competition ID
6. Run sync: Admin Panel → Integrations → Sync Now

Verify: Schedule → fixtures should now show your season's draw.

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Day 8: CSV Import (If Not Using your league platform)

If your association provides a CSV export of the draw:

1. Download the CSV from your association's platform
2. Open in Excel — verify columns (Date, Time, Opponent, Venue)
3. Standardise date format (DD/MM/YYYY)
4. Remove extra columns
5. Save as clean CSV
6. Admin Panel → Integrations → Upload CSV
7. Map columns during import
8. Verify results in Schedule

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Day 9: Manual Fixture Entry (If Needed)

For grades not in your league platform or without a CSV:

1. Admin Panel → Schedule → Add Fixture
2. Enter each fixture manually
3. For a 20-round season: approximately 60–90 minutes of data entry
4. Pro tip: Have a coffee, put on music, and batch all of these in one session

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Day 10: Verify the Schedule

Before inviting members:

• Schedule → check all grades have fixtures
• Check the first fixture of each grade is correct (date, time, venue, opponent)
• Check the last fixture is the expected round count
• Fix any incorrect imports

Why verify now? Once members join and start RSVPing, changing fixture details is more disruptive.

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DAYS 11–14: ACTIVATE AND INVITE

Day 11: Add Your First Admin Team

Before opening registration to all members, add your core committee:

1. Admin Panel → Members & Roles → Invite Member
2. Invite your Co-Admin, Treasurer, Coaches — role by role
3. Have them accept the invite and set up their accounts
4. Treasurer: log in and verify the Treasurer tab is accessible
5. Coaches: log in and verify they can see the Selection Board and their team's Squad Builder

Why invite committee first? They need to be set up and able to answer member questions before you open the floodgates.

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Day 12: Set Your Active Season

1. Admin Panel → Seasons → your season → Set as Active
2. Confirm

What this does:

• Enables registration fee generation for all members joining
• Makes match fees generate when fixtures pass
• Activates the Schedule for RSVP
• Shows the current season's standings and data in all dashboards

This is the point of no return for the season. Once active, fees start generating. Make sure fees are configured correctly before activating.

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Day 13: Test the Full Journey

Before broadcasting to all members, do a full test run:

1. As admin: check that a player account in your test (or use your own account) can see their registration fee
2. Pay the test registration fee (can refund yourself afterwards)
3. Verify the payment appears in Treasurer → Accounting
4. RSVP to a fixture → verify coach sees it in Squad Builder
5. If everything works: you're ready for members

If anything is wrong, fix it now — before members encounter it.

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Day 14: First Member Broadcast

Send your launch broadcast:

Template:

[Club Name] — [Season Name] is now open for registration!

We're excited to welcome you to the [Season] season. Here's how to get started:

1. Log in (or sign up if new): [join link]
2. Pay your registration fee: Payments → Fees → Declare Paid (bank transfer, or wallet credit if you have a balance)
3. Complete your profile: update photo + emergency contact

Season Plan — Save $[X] by paying once for the whole season. Available until Round [X].

Fixtures are loaded — check Schedule to see when and where you're playing.

Registration deadline: [Date].

Questions? Contact [Admin Name] at [email] or [Treasurer Name] at [email].

See you on the field!

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DAYS 15–21: FIRST WEEK OF REGISTRATIONS

Day 15: Monitor Join Requests

Check Admin Panel → Members → Pending Requests every day during registration week.

Target: Approve within 48 hours.

Process for each pending member:

1. Check they are who you expect (name recognition, or cross-check against your association's membership list)
2. Approve → assign to their team (you can do this during approval or immediately after)
3. The member gets their welcome email automatically

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Day 16: Assign Members to Teams as They Join

Don't let team assignments pile up. Assign each approved member to their team immediately:

1. Admin Panel → Members → find newly approved member
2. Edit profile → assign to [Team Name]
3. This makes them appear in the coach's Squad Builder for the next fixture

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Days 17–18: Chase Incomplete Registrations

By Day 17 (Day 4 after launch):

1. Treasurer → Aging → filter by registration fee
2. Who's joined but not paid?
3. Send a personal message or trigger the Aging reminder for each unpaid member

Registration payment in the first 2 weeks correlates strongly with season completion.

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Day 19: Noticeboard Launch Post

Post your first Noticeboard update — social content to signal the club is alive:

"Welcome everyone to the [Season] season! [X] members have already registered — great to see so many familiar faces back and some new ones too.

Training starts [Date] — details in the Schedule. RSVP so your coach knows to expect you.

[Photo of last season's team / ground / training session if available]"

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Days 20–21: Coaches Set Up Their Squads

By now, fixtures are loaded and members are assigned to teams. Coaches can start using Squad Builder for the first fixture.

Admin checklist to verify:

• Every team has at least one member with Coach role
• Every team has members assigned
• First fixture is 1+ week away (enough time for RSVP to accumulate)
• Coaches have received their onboarding (point them to Module 39)

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DAYS 22–30: FIRST ROUND AND STEADY STATE

Day 22: Send RSVP Reminder for Round 1

Before the first fixture:

1. Noticeboard post: "Round 1 is [X] days away — RSVP to your fixtures in the Schedule section!"
2. Coaches: open Squad Builder and check RSVP rates

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Day 25: First Squad Confirmations

Coaches confirm their Round 1 squads. This is a significant milestone — the first time the selection workflow runs end-to-end.

Admin: check that:

• Every team with a Round 1 fixture has a confirmed squad (or at least a Draft)
• Coaches who haven't confirmed: send them a direct message

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Day 28: First Payment Reconciliation Session

Treasurer's first structured session:

1. Treasurer → Reconciliation → any bank transfer declarations to match
2. Treasurer → Aging → any members 14+ days unpaid on registration
3. Send Aging reminders where appropriate

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Day 30: 30-Day Health Check

Assess how the launch has gone:

If anything is below target: address in the next week. By Round 2, the club should be fully operational.

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VISUAL: 30-Day Setup Timeline

WEEK 1 WEEK 2 WEEK 3 WEEK 4
(Days 1–7) (Days 8–14) (Days 15–21) (Days 22–30)
────────────── ────────────── ────────────── ──────────────
Create Season Import Approve join Chase remaining
+ Comps fixtures via requests registrations
+ Teams your league platform/CSV daily
 
Configure Verify Assign members Coaches confirm
fees + Season schedule to teams as Round 1 squads
Plans they join

Confirm Add committee Chase First payment
bank details first; have unpaid reconciliation
 them test registration session
 fees

 Activate First Noticeboard 30-day
 season launch post health check
 
 Launch 
 broadcast 

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TOOLTIPS & HINTS

• Do not activate the season until fees are configured — activation triggers fee generation
• Invite committee first, members second — your admins need to be operational before the influx
• Test the full journey yourself before broadcasting — one admin doing a $1 test payment catches 90% of setup errors
• Batch fixture entry if needed — one 90-minute session beats weekly manual additions

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FAQ

Q: I activated the season before configuring fees. What happens? A: Fees won't generate retroactively. Configure fees now and they'll apply to new fixtures going forward. For any members who should have had fees generated already, Treasurer can add manual ledger entries.

Q: I forgot to assign the Treasurer role and Bank Transfer/wallet declarations are piling up unverified. What do I do? A: Assign the Treasurer role now (Admin Panel → Members & Roles). Nothing is lost — every declaration since launch is still sitting in the Reconciliation tab waiting for review. Work through them oldest first.

Q: Can I set up the club in stages (some teams ready, others not)? A: Yes — you can add teams gradually. Just ensure fee configuration is in place for each competition before activating. Members assigned to a competition without fees configured won't have fees generated.

Q: We're migrating from another system. How do we bring existing data? A: Contact GoClubPro platform support for data migration options. For manual migration: add members via invite, record historical payments as manual ledger entries, and import fixtures via CSV.

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COMMON MISTAKES

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SHORT ONBOARDING SCRIPT

"Welcome to GoClubPro! Your first 30 days follow this order: Week 1 — build the structure (Season, Competitions, Teams, Fee Config, Treasurer assigned). Week 2 — import fixtures and verify the schedule, then invite your committee, activate the season, and launch the member broadcast. Week 3 — approve join requests daily, assign members to teams, and chase registration payments. Week 4 — Round 1 squads confirmed, first payment reconciliation, 30-day health check. Never activate the season before your fees are configured — that's the one order that can't be reversed."

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MICRO-TRAINING QUICK TIPS

• Order: Season → Comps → Teams → Fees → Fixtures → Committee → Activate → Members
• Do NOT activate before fees are configured
• Bank Transfer and wallet credit work out of the box — assign your Treasurer role by Day 6
• Test the full payment journey yourself on Day 13 before broadcast
• 48-hour join request approval SLA during registration period
• 30-day health check: all teams have members, all grades have fixtures, ≥60% registration fees paid

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Training Module 52 | See also: 06 Admin Panel · 09 Settings · 20 New Season Setup · 37 Payment Collection Today