Getting Started with myClubhouse

Heads Up: This is a long article, you do not need to read it all at once! Please refer back to it often, any questions, please ask.

This article is for clients who have recently signed up for a free trial or annual licence of myClubhouse and would like to know where to start.

Welcome

Welcome to myClubhouse. Once your Your new myClubhouse site is ready and you should receive your login details in a separate email.

You will find your site at: https://www.myclubhouse.co.uk/ExampleClub

Where ExampleClub is the subdirectory you chose to use when you completed the free trial form. In some cases we may have needed to change the subdirectory from your original choice.

Free Trial Expiry

This is normally 30 days after your trial starts. To check, sign in to your myClubhouse site and check the red message on the home page. By default this is under the carousel.

Help & Support

We have a small selection of User Guides in our Knowledge Base here: How-to articles .

If you still need help, all issues should be raised via our Service Desk at https://simmetrics.atlassian.net/servicedesk where you must create your own account (separate from your myClubhouse accounts) and raise a ticket to deal with:

Licensing and billing questions
Technical support
Product trial questions
Other questions
Report a bug
Suggest a new feature
Suggest an improvement

In addition, you can raise a ticket by clicking the medical bag icon at the top of your myClubhouse site. In all cases you can track the progress of your ticket on the service desk at https://simmetrics.atlassian.net/servicedesk.

Please note: we cannot deal with requests by email and you cannot create a new Service Desk ticket by email; you must visit the Service Desk to do this.

More help on raising a ticket can be found here: Service Desk

Support Hours

You are welcome to raise a ticket at any time of the day or night, but please always be mindful of our Support Hours when awaiting a response.

Our Support Hours are:

Mon - Fri: 09:00 – 18:00

We try to respond to tickets by the end of the next working day.

Please note: Telephone support can only be offered by prior appointment.

Free Online Demo/Tutorial

We would dearly like to help you to get the most out of the system and see its potential for your organisation. As the system is so flexible and our clients' needs so diverse, we find the best way to do this is to have a conversation with you about the challenges you are facing and then show you the ways in which we could help.

Technicalities

We use Zoom online meeting/screen sharing software to host the demos and it is free for you to use. We find it seems to work best on most devices (but if you want to use a different system, please ask). You can invite multiple colleagues to join you and you would not need to be in the same location, as each of you can join the meeting using a web browser. The audio works best through computer microphone and speakers or computer headset, but if you don't have these there is a telephone number so you can dial in, a mobile phone on speaker setting usually works well. We record the meetings, unless you ask us not to, and can share the recording with you in case you want to show a colleague or go though something again.

Times/Dates

We understand some of our clients work business hours and some run their clubs on a voluntary basis in their spare time. Therefore we are very flexible on what times we can arrange the demos. We are happy to arrange during working hours/evenings/weekends to suit you. Please just give a few suggestions in your reply and we will do our best to accommodate. You should allow 1 to 2 hours depending on how much you want to discuss.

Contact us now to book your free online demo!

FREE Site Set-Up Service

Please contact us to help you with your site set-up, this is completely free of charge, even during your free trial. We will help you set up your Membership Categories, Forms and Custom Data Fields, Payment Methods etc. We can also import any existing data you may have and help you launch the site to your committee and members (if required). Please just put a request in on our Service Desk.

Data Import/Migration

You can perform your own data import by going to your myClubhouse site Admin > Launch > Import Data and following the instructions on screen. If you would like any assistance with this, please do not hesitate to ask.

If you do not currently have a membership database, or would like to start from scratch, you can ask your members to register themselves by sending them a link to your registration page the (found in your myClubhouse menu bar under Subscriptions > Register for Membership). This could benefit your club by getting all your members used to myClubhouse straight away.

Introduction to Your System

Your Account on Your myClubhouse Site

[Please do not confuse this with the client account on our own Client Zone which you set up (or we set up for you) when you signed up for your free trial or annual licence.]

An admin account has been created for you to use to go through the site's preferences (login details sent separately).

If you sign in using this account you will have access to all administrative tools. You can change the username and password once signed in.

If you have not received your login emails, please check your junk email folders and let us know if you still have any problems. You should whitelist the email address ExampleClub@myclubhouse.co.uk and add it to your address book (see below).

New Email Address

We have set up the email address ExampleClub@myclubhouse.co.uk, which forwards to the email address you gave us on your free trial form. All emails sent from your new myClubhouse site will come “from” ExampleClub@myclubhouse.co.uk, with a reply-to address of your own email address; you can change the reply-to address in General Club Settings Admin > Settings > General Club Settings (see Step 1c below), but if you wish to change the “from” address, please contact us for details.

Culture Settings

Please note, by default all site will be set to English UK culture settings, this mainly affects time zone, date formats and currency. If you would like other settings, please let us know as we can easily change it.

Administrative Roles

Please note, your site cannot function properly without a Secretary, Membership Secretary and Treasurer (although you can change the names of these roles and all roles can be filled by one member/user). Therefore I have assigned these roles to your own login account until the correct member/staff has been added to the database. You can add as many roles as you like and set individual permissions for each Club Role Admin > Settings > Club Roles.

To give you the best idea of layout, we have prepared your site with some stock images or, with permission, images from your website and social media pages for your carousel and your logo (if available). You will obviously want to change any stock images and possibly add other images to your site header and improve the site colours to suit your club’s image, steps to do this are detailed below.

Add-On Modules

Admin > Settings > Configure Modules

The following add-on modules are available. You can switch on the free ones at any time and I have given you a 30-day free trial of the others, where appropriate.

Family Groups (free)
Leagues & Teams (free)
Club Shop
CMS - Content Management System/Web Page Builder
Entitlements on Membership Subsets
Tokens Rewards and Payments
Blogs & Discussion Forums
Site Analytics
Equestrian

Pricing details are available here, under Optional Add-on Modules.

Documentation

As this is the new release, there is little up-to-date documentation as yet, please see our selection of User Guides in our Knowledge Base and do not hesitate to contact us if you need any help.

Setting-Up Instructions

The instructions below cover the basic steps to set up your site. They do not cover everything in great detail. Once you have covered the steps below, please feel free to explore the other options, especially those in the Admin menu, which have not been covered here. Please pay particular attention to the Finance section, as various parts of the site cannot work correctly until Payment Methods, Plans and Schemes have been set up; this is a common cause of confusion for our new clients. We strongly encourage you to take advantage of our FREE Site Set-up Service and FREE Online Demo/Tutorial where we can cater to your needs.

Club Settings (`Admin > Settings`)

If you sign in and click on the Admin menu dropdown, then Settings, you will find most of the items you need to set-up are there. Start with the General Club Settings section:

General Club Settings (Admin > Settings > General Club Settings)
1. All your basic club details. we may have completed some of this based on the information provided on your application. Please check for accuracy and complete the rest. You can change any of these settings at any time. Please refer to on-screen instructions and tooltips and if you have any queries and we will be happy to answer anything not covered there.
2. If your club has pages for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Strava, Linkedin, or YouTube you can also add them here and the icons will appear in your site header. This guide will help you complete this: Connecting Social Media
3. We use an email provider that requires all ‘sending’ email addresses to be verified in order to maximise deliverability. Therefore, if you wish to send ‘From’ your own email address (recommended), you must first contact us to get it verified.
Set Up Sections & Branches (Admin > Settings > Set Up Sections & Branches)
1. Sections: Optional. Enter any different sections, to which a member can belong. E.g. if you run a multi-sports club, you may have a different section for each sport. When creating membership categories, you will be able to assign them to sections. Membership categories that do not have a section assigned are known as ‘Core’ membership categories. More information is on the page. (We can change the wording ‘Section’ to anything of your choosing.)
2. If your club has different geographical branches or venues to which a member may be affiliated, please specify here. This is optional and should be left un-set if it does not apply.
Site Styles & Colours (Admin > Settings > Site Styles & Colours)
1. Follow this guide to help you set up the colours on your site. Site Styles & Colours (Focus on the main colours and the banner design for initial setup)
Club Roles (Admin > Settings > Club Roles)
Committee, Secretary, Treasurer etc.
Set up as many roles as you like, a single member can hold several roles and overlapping roles are fine. These roles can be given basic security settings (giving access to certain areas of the site). To give more detailed security permissions, you will need to use the Entitlements Manager.
Entitlements Manager (Admin > Settings > Entitlements Manager)
This is very powerful tool, giving specific permissions to very specific users, groups or roles. You will probably want to leave the default permissions, as set up in the Club Roles, and come back to this later if you find you have more specific needs.
Configure Modules (Admin > Settings > Configure Modules)
This shows the optional modules which are either included free, or can be purchased as a licence add-on. Use this page to switch on or off (if not appropriate to your club).

myClubhouse Home Page (Admin > Home Page)

The Home page is fully customisable, like a CMS page. Just go to the Home page and sign in. Then scroll to the bottom and click the yellow “Edit” button.

Elements can be added, removed, edited and reorganised. You can add your own text and images and really put whatever you like on this page. This is included with the core annual licence, you do not need the CMS add-on module.

For more information on how to configure a CMS page, please see CMS .

The following elements will be shown on your Home page by default, and can be configured from separate pages on your site:

Configure Carousel (Admin > Page Customisation > Configure Carousel)
Here you can add images to the carousel, which appears on the Home Page. You can also set up Caption and Description text, which will appear on the picture, and a link URL which will turn the image into a clickable link.
For your great convenience, you can also set Active Dates for each image, or use the “Active” checkbox to switch the image on or off without deleting.
What’s more, you can even set the image to display and hide for certain member lists, so e.g. you may show certain images only to junior members and certain images only to the public (those not signed in).
This guide will help you with the Image Carousel widget: Image Carousel
Please make sure you own the copyright to any image displayed or have the appropriate permission or licence to display publicly.
Important Legal Note: It is your responsibility to ensure you own the copyright or have the appropriate licence for any images you display on your site.
Manage Announcements (Admin > Page Customisation > Manage Announcements)
This can also be accessed directly from the Announcements widget on the home page, just click the Manage button.

Enter any announcements or news items to appear on the home page. The expiry date or duration of the announcements can be set. Users will also be able to mark announcements as ‘Read’ to remove them from their default newsfeed view.
What’s more, you can even set the image to display and hide for certain member lists, so e.g. you may show certain images only to junior members and certain images only to the public (those not signed in).
More help on News & Announcements can be found in this guide here: News & Announcements
Configure Home Page Links (Admin > Page Customisation > Configure Home Page Links)
Home page links are the large link buttons which appear under the image carousel in the main home page.

If you want to display links appropriate to the role of the logged-in user, you should use this page to configure them. (You can also configure “custom links” direct from the home page, but these will remain the same to all users.)
This guide will help you set the home page links: Common Links Widget/ Home Page Links

Finance (Admin > Finance)

Configure Sales Tax Rates (Admin > Finance > Tax Rates)
If your club is registered for sales tax, or equivalent, in your country then you will need to select ‘Yes’ to Enable Sales Tax. If this does not apply to your club, you can leave this page with sales tax not enabled.
1. Enter the name for sales tax in your country e.g. “VAT” in the UK, and your registration number, if appropriate.
2. Enter any Codes and rates that are relevant to your club. These codes will be associated with membership categories and products as appropriate. You will need to come back to this page to amend any rates if they get changed by the government.
Manage Payment Methods, Plans and Schemes (Admin > Finance > Payment Methods, Plans and Schemes)

A Payment Scheme = 1⁺ Payment Method(s) + 1⁺ Payment Plan(s)

Payment Methods
Set up or modify acceptable payment methods and any surcharges (e.g. to cover admin/PayPal fees). You will not have to accept all payment methods for all items (subscriptions, events etc.) as these can be configured individually.
Follow these links for our help guides to setting up GoCardless, Stripe and PayPal.
Manage Payment Plans
Here you can set up multiple payment plans e.g. pay by instalments, take a deposit, grace period and surcharge. The default payment plan is to take a single payment with no deposit and a 14-day grace period. You can change this and add others. Payment plans can be associated with different items (subscriptions, events, etc.).
Manage Payment Schemes
Payment schemes bring together the payment methods (e.g. cash, cheque etc.) and payment plans (e.g. instalments, deposits etc.) and allow them to be connected with products and services that a member can purchase. Please see on-screen instructions to set up.

Subscription Settings (Subscriptions menu)

Membership Categories (Subscriptions > Membership Categories)
Your Membership Categories are listed here. Click ‘Add Category …’ to set up each one. Follow the detailed instructions on screen. Please note, you can list multiple rates for each category, this allows you to set price increases in advance, which will come into effect on the date you specify. Don’t forget to Save Changes when you are finished.
These guides will help you create new Membership Categories: How to Create a New Membership Category How to Create a Group Membership Category
Membership Start Times (Subscriptions > Membership Start Times)
These are the options you would give to someone registering on the site for the first time.

Event Settings (Events menu)

Edit Event Types (Events > Edit Event Types)
a. Any type of event you would like to add to the calendar e.g. social, competition, meeting, training etc. Each event added to the calendar will require an Event Type.
b. You will need to have defined your Pricing Structure and Product Categories (for both instance and series events) in advance.
Follow these guides to help you create your first Events: How to Create a Single Event How to Create an Event Series

Forms Settings (Forms menu)

Forms Manager (Forms > Forms Manager)
Here you should set up forms/questionnaires. In particular, we have three built-in forms:

Membership Registration - supplementary questions you wish to ask people when they register for membership.
Parental Consent Form - for the parent/guardian to complete upon registration of a minor.
Reasons For Leaving - you may also wish to modify this form which can provide useful feedback when people leave your club.

You will find these built-in forms in the list. There are no questions to start with, click Edit to modify settings and add questions.

This guide will help you create new Forms: Forms

Leagues and Teams (Teams menu)

If you have switched on the Leagues module, in Configure Modules page, you will have access to use the Leagues and Teams manager.

Follow this guide to help you set up Leagues and Teams: Leagues/ Teams

Email Settings

Member List Manager (Email > Member List Manager)
Set up groups using all kinds of dynamic criteria, such as age, membership category, gender etc. These groups can then be used for a multitude or purposes e.g. to send out emails, download membership lists or restrict invitations to an event.
Note: Lists are described as ‘dynamic’ because they are self-updating e.g. a list of 'Current Members' will check membership expiry dates and whether people have renewed so, if you have an annual renewal period, you may find the list rather depleted on the first day of the season!
This guide will help you create Member Lists, including examples of common ones: Member Lists

Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy (Information > Privacy Policy)
You must set up your club's your Privacy Policy on myClubhouse; this is to tell your members and site users what information you collect and what you will do with it. There is a link to the Privacy Policy in the footer of every page. When signed in as an administrator, go to the Privacy Policy page, click on the yellow 'Edit' button and paste your club's policy in the HTML editor. If your club does not have a Privacy Policy, you muse write one, please find guidance from the ICO (Information Commissioner's Office) on their website www.ico.org.uk.

Membership Data

Once you have imported your membership data, you should check the details of each member for accuracy or ask all club members to check their own details.
To correct any details for a member, use the Member Directory (Information > Member Directory) to find the member you require and click the ‘Admin’ button next to their name, then ‘Edit’.
Check if your imported data has created a current, paid subscription for each current member. If not, use the Subscription Manager to mark all subscriptions for current members as Paid. You need to do this, so that the system will know that they are club members and will grant them access to the member features. If there are too many to do, ask us for help using the Service Desk.
If you have not opted for data migration, all club members will have to be added manually. myClubhouse works on the basis that all club members are included in the database with up-to-date subscription details.
Use 'Register for Membership' under the Subscriptions menu to add each member to the database.
Once you have added your members, you can apply roles to those members in a position of responsibility. Go back to Step 5, above, to learn how to add members to roles.

Publicising Your New Site

All set? Then please go to Admin > Launch > New Site Launching Tools. Here are a number of tools for notifying your members about the new site.
More details available at How to Launch to Your Members .

CMS – Content Management System/Web Page Builder

myClubhouse has an optional CMS module which allows you to build your own web pages via our simple HTML editor. You may upload images and embed links to videos via Vimeo, YouTube etc. You can add as many pages as you like to your site and configure the menus as you please (see Admin > Menu > Configure Menu). Our ‘spaces’ system allows you to configure who has control over different areas of the site and tracks who has modified and published different pages. For best results, please try to stick to a responsive, bootstrap-based design.
More details available at CMS .

Feedback

We welcome feedback. myClubhouse is under constant development and improvement, so if you have an ideas or comments (good or bad), we would love to hear them through the Service Desk. If you think of a new feature or simple modification that would be really useful to you, you can request it and we will consider all suggestions. It may be possible for some small modifications to be made in a matter of days, and ideas for new features will be put into the pipeline for approval. Although we strive to fulfil as many requests as possible, please be aware that myClubhouse is an off-the-shelf product (not bespoke) and we must consider all our clients’ diverse needs before agreeing to, or prioritising any changes.

For all feedback, please head over to our Service Desk at https://simmetrics.atlassian.net/servicedesk. You can raise a ticket at any time of the day or night, but please always be mindful of our Support Hours when awaiting a response.

Please make sure you are aware of our Terms and Conditions.

Contents

Welcome

Free Trial Expiry