Data Files samples / Gym and fitness studio
Tannery Yard Fitness
Members on monthly plans, direct debits, classes and bookings, personal training packs and visits for an independent gym.
Overview
For an independent gym, a fitness studio or a club with a timetable: one database for the members and what they pay, the classes and who books them, personal training, and who has stopped coming.
Tannery Yard Fitness is an invented gym and studio in Leeds with a gym floor, a main studio and a cycle studio. Members join on one of four monthly plans, pay a joining fee, and then pay by direct debit on the day of the month they joined. A weekly timetable of about twenty-five classes is taught by self-employed instructors paid by the class, and three trainers sell personal training in packs of five, ten or twenty sessions.
The records cover about twelve months up to today, and the fortnight ahead: next week's classes with places already booked, personal training sessions on the diary, and the next month's fees invoiced. A few direct debits fail each month and are tried again; most are then paid at the desk and a few are written off. Members freeze, give notice and leave, and some keep paying long after their last visit, which the gym wants to know about before they cancel.
In Rutba Data Files, choose Gym and fitness studio on the start screen, then With sample records to look around, or Empty for the same design with nothing in it.
It suits, with small changes
- A boxing or martial arts club with monthly members
- A yoga or pilates studio with a class timetable
- A climbing wall or swimming club
- A dance school with termly or monthly fees
- A personal training studio selling session packs
- A leisure centre run by a community trust
Read on
- Tutorial: the everyday tasks: 7 everyday tasks, step by step, each naming what to open.
- Tables, fields and relationships: every field of 15 tables, and how they are related.
- Queries, forms, reports and print templates: what each one shows, its criteria and calculated columns, and when to print it.
Things you should know
- Everything in a sample's records is invented: the business, the people, their addresses, e-mail addresses on example domains that reach nobody, and phone numbers from the ranges kept for drama and fiction. Tax, company and bank numbers are placeholders of zeros.
- The dates count back from the day the file was made, and some run on into the weeks after it, as real bookings and due dates do. Made from the Data Files start screen, a sample is dated from that day. Queries that compare with today (overdue, due this week) show more as a downloaded file gets older.
- To start empty, choose the same business on the start screen and then Empty: the same tables, queries, forms, reports and print templates, with nothing in them but the Start Here guide.
- Your records live in one file on your computer. Keep copies: File, Save As makes one, and a copy on another drive or in your own cloud storage keeps it safe if this computer is lost. Close the database before copying the file by hand.
- Every change to the design (a new field, a renamed table) is a numbered step that Data Files keeps, so you can see what was changed and when.
- Prices are shown with VAT in them, as the price list on the wall shows them. Each invoice line's VAT is worked out from its price to the penny and the lines added up, so an invoice's Net and Tax agree with what the Monthly invoice prints.
- Places Booked on Class Sessions and Sessions Used on PT Packs are kept up to date by hand as bookings are made, cancelled and used, the way a stock figure is. The free places and packs running low come from them.
- Invoice, membership and receipt numbers are typed, one on from the last, with a new run each year. The sample gave them in date order; Data Files does not fill them in for you.
- A member who has given notice stays Active until their Ends day has passed, so they still show in Plan mix and still pay. Cancel Requested and Ends tell them apart.
- A member whose payment failed twice cannot get in until they pay at the desk. If they never do, their invoice is set to Written off and their Status to Lapsed about a month later.
- Every visit comes from the door reader, including members coming for a class, so a member who only comes to classes is not missed by Not seen for 30 days.
- A print template prints every record of its table unless you choose some, so choose the new member, invoice or pack you mean before pressing Print.
- The gym is closed on Christmas Day and New Year's Day, so those days have no visits, classes or training sessions. Fees are still collected on them.
Starting with your own records
Start with Business: the gym's name, address and VAT number, which every document prints. Then Plans (your prices and terms), Staff, and Classes. Enter Members as they join, each with a plan, fee and payment day, and raise their first invoice. Then each week put the timetable into Class Sessions and take Bookings, and each month raise the invoices and record each collection in Payments. Visits come from your door reader, or can be typed at the desk.
Making it yours
Every change to the design is a numbered step in Data Files, so a change can be seen and undone.
- Add a Junior plan with a Minimum Months of nought and a field on Members for the parent who pays.
- Keep a waiting list for full classes: a Waiting status on Bookings, and a query of waiting bookings for classes where a place has come free.
- Charge for classes on their own, for people who are not members: a Price field on Classes and a Class Payments table.
- Record inductions: an Induction Date on Members and a query of members who joined over a week ago and have none.
- Track goals for personal training: a Goal field on PT Packs and a Notes field on PT Sessions for what was done.
- Raise fees once a year: change Monthly Fee on Plans, and on each member after their written notice, so invoices take the new price.
- Pay instructors by attendance as well as by the class: a bonus column in the Instructor pay query worked out from the bookings that came.
Questions people ask
- How do I print this month's invoices only?
- Open the print template Monthly invoice and choose the invoices in the list (sort it by Invoice Date), then press Print or Save as PDF. Or open one in the Invoices form and print it from there.
- Why does a member show in Not seen for 30 days when they came to a class last week?
- They came in without their card, so the door reader has no visit for them. Add a visit in the Visits form with Entry Class, or ask them to use their card.
- How do I change a plan's price?
- Change Monthly Fee in Plans for new members. Existing members keep the fee in their own Monthly Fee until you change it there, after giving them the month's notice the agreement promises.
- A class shows no free places but someone cancelled. Why?
- Places Booked on the session was not taken down when the booking was cancelled. Open the session in the Class Sessions form and correct it.
- How do I see how much each instructor is owed?
- Print the report Instructor pay by month: the classes held and their fees for each instructor. Cancelled classes are left out.
- Can a family plan hold more than one person?
- The family plan is one member record for the person who pays; write the others on it in Notes. To give each their own card and visits, add a Members record for each with a fee of nought and a note of who pays.
- How do I change the gym's address or VAT number on every document?
- Open the Business form and change it there. Every print template takes its letterhead and footer from that one record.
The other samples
- Shop
- Food and beverages
- Cafe or restaurant
- Takeaway
- Florist
- Pharmacy counter
- Wholesale and trading
- Workshop or maker
- Builder
- Used car dealer
- Salon
- Barber shop
- Repair shop
- Garage and MOT centre
- Cleaning company
- Consultancy or agency
- Clinic
- School or training centre
- Charity or club
- Property rentals
- Estate and letting agent
- Guest house or B and B
- Building front desk
- HR, payroll and timesheets