For many, accounting might be the epitome of an unpleasant task with a pleasant outcome. A necessary evil and a pillar of every business and the economy at large. While this may vary from sector to sector, from our twenty five years of experience in the fitness industry, we feel fairly secure in saying that it is not a favoured pastime for many independent gym and fitness club owners.
But in this era of profound and readily available automation, accounting needn’t be the bother it used to be. Endless ledgers and lengthy manual reconciliations have been banished to the annals of history. And in its place? Software.
And not even the cumbersome, inefficient software of the 1990s and early 2000s. The last decade has seen a revolution in lightweight, impactful software across the fitness industry. One that has allowed independent gym owners to get access to many of the tools previously too prohibitively expensive or specialised.
So today we will be taking a fresh, 2020s look at Gym accounting software, with specific focus on how this relates to independent gym and fitness owners, whether they own just one fitness facility or multiple. We will be answering some of the questions frequently asked about gym accounting software by gym owners. Questions that we have heard firsthand in our partnerships with gym owners up and down the country.
What will we cover in this article?
(you can also click to skip ahead!)
What is gym accounting software?
First let us start off by defining the key piece of terminology we are going to be using in this article. What do we mean when we say ‘Gym accounting software’.
While any accounting software can be utilised by independent or franchise gym or fitness club owners and management, we are making reference to software either specifically designed for or heavily compatible with the accountancy management of a fitness facility or business.
While we will often make reference to gyms and fitness clubs, this can also include swimming pools, studio spaces, personal trainers, tennis clubs, sporting facilities and much more.
It is software created and designed to help manage the finances of a fitness business, taking into account the intricacies and oddities of the sector and the bespoke needs of fitness business owners as users.
As with other types of accounting software, it is designed to heavily automate otherwise tedious and laborious processes such as generating invoices, assisting and ordering payroll, aiding with membership billing and direct debits, performing reconciliations, secondary spend processes and much more.
When combined, the best gym accounting software will be able to save fitness business owners not only a significant amount of time, but also save money, as well as freeing up management and staff capacity.
The amount of hours per week that can be salvaged from manual processes by adopting accounting software for the average independent gym or fitness club is staggering, and as we all know, those hours can be put to good use elsewhere!
How do we recommend approaching the search for gym accounting software?
As with any important endeavour, failing to plan is equivalent to planning to fail. While accounting software for gyms and fitness clubs will help save a lot of time in the long run, that doesn’t mean the selection process should be time-light. Quite the opposite in fact.
An old adage says that if 80% of the work is done upfront, that means that only 20% need be done later.
While it is possible to pick and choose accounting software, it will save a lot of hassle for a gym or fitness club if they get it right the first time.
Picking apart the finances and operational side of a gym or fitness business from a piece of accounting software can be a pain. As we will cover, because accounting software is so useful to so many parts of a gym or fitness club, even if it has only been in place a few months, the untangling will be noticeable.
It is tempting to look around at some of the best accounting software out there, pick one and see how it goes. But to this mindset, we urge caution.
There are many options available and many features, and, of course, not every option will contain every feature.
As such, we believe it is prudent to learn of and understand each of the main features of accounting software and how they apply to a gym or fitness operation.
Of course, bookkeeping and accountancy at a gym or fitness club cannot be done by accounting software alone. We know this will be apparent to 90% of the people reading but it is important to state that accounting software does not replace an accountant. An accountant or accountancy firm is still important (if not invaluable).
Obviously gym owners can attempt to go it alone, some have even made it work. But it takes a certain type of mind, a significant amount of time and a fantastic amount of motivation while also running a fitness business.
Mastery of spreadsheets, accountancy lingo and an ability to be confident in research. Alternatively, a prior career as an accountant would probably help. When all is said and done, we are confident that for 95% of gym owners, the most efficient combination will be powerful accounting software to help support and assist a qualified accountant.
The best features to prioritise when looking for in Gym Accounting Software for independent gyms and fitness clubs.
Developing a point we introduced in the introduction, we know that over the last decade the fitness industry, one that has always been renowned for being fast-paced and dynamic, has continued to speed up in the face of the smartphone and app revolution.
Long gone are the days where being an independent gym owner just meant owning twenty pieces of equipment in a warehouse, taking cash and running everything out of a ring-binder. Making sure every class runs on time and every member is paid up for the month is no longer enough.
With a more complicated and sophisticated fitness industry come new challenges and new solutions. This can perhaps be most keenly felt with finances and payments. Gym members today, especially those under 40, expect their gyms to be able to accept a wide variety of payments at any time and in any place.
And ultimately that is what these features will be looking at, what is required to make life easier for both gym owner and gym member alike. What will appeal to both while enabling the smooth flow of capital from the latter to the former.
How can we start to tame and then utilise the staggering amount of data generated by even a relatively small gym operation.
Luckily the right accounting software can help turn these headaches into a source of powerful data driven insight.
Application-Based and Online Payments
As we implied above, a good portion of this article will focus on how accounting software can help a gym or fitness club meet the expectations of the digital generations.
The budget fitness chains have embraced seamless app and online payments, positioning themselves in such a way that flexible payment systems are now expected and the norm.
Unlike some of the business practices that they have attempted to perpetrate, this one is not part of the ‘race to the bottom’. In fact, when implemented correctly, these flexible payment systems and online/application-based payments can help transform how the membership of a gym interacts with their fitness facility.
Therefore, it is only natural that our first recommended feature is gym accounting software that allows an independent gym or fitness business to access the benefits of these seamless online payments and app integrations features.
The best gym accounting software will allow an independent gym or fitness business to fully integrate their financial operations with their online presence.
It is a key rule in business that the less barriers there are to a transaction, the more likely it is to occur and the more profitable the business can become. Gating away gym membership payments, class payments and secondary spend options behind archaic payment methods is not a good way to operate an independent gym or fitness business in the 2020s.
It is important to remember who the target audience is. The majority of the gym-going population is below 45. This means we are only a year away from that population being born in 1980 at the latest.
This, in turn means that the majority of people that most gyms and fitness clubs are targeting to be their members have a significant amount of technological knowledge and have integrated it into their daily lives.
With that integration comes a certain expectation of their gyms and the online payment system that the gym uses.
Conversely, and happily, this is also a system that benefits every independent gym or fitness business that adopts it.
As any independent gym owner knows, confidence that payments will arrive in a timely manner is the backbone of any operation, whether it is new and fledgling or old and venerable.
With gym accounting software that is setup to process monthly direct debits and online payments, gym owners can have a significant amount of the monthly stress taken out of their business-as-usual operations.
Suddenly reconciliations, missing payments and manual searching will be a thing of the past, all while the membership enjoys a streamline and accessible customer experience.
Financial Reporting
Like any industry, the benefits of having detailed financial reports cannot be overstated.
They allow independent gym and fitness business owners to act and make decisions with confidence.
Of course, in the past the trade-off was having to invest a significant amount of time, energy and expense in ensuring that these reports were created, were correct and were on time.
However, with the rise of powerful gym accounting software, these concerns should no longer be so dominant. Now, with the best gym accounting software it is possible to generate financial reports that are as complete as they are comprehensive at the click of a few buttons and with the setting of a few parameters.
As a company that deals in membership management and BI software, we know the power of data-driven decision making. With the right software, gym owners no longer need to operate in the dark. With the source of cash flow, outgoing and secondary spend all at their fingertips, gym owners can start making confident and informed decisions that will shape their fitness business.
With these variables being consistently monitored, nasty surprises and setbacks are unlikely to be an issue.
Furthermore, gym accounting software allows fitness business owners to build a versatile and easily interrogated archive of their financial data. No longer does that archive need to exist within an account when gym accounting software allows gym owners and management to craft their own monthly and weekly snapshots.
The Automation of Billing and Invoicing
As we said in the introduction, one of the key features that define the best gym accounting software from the rest is just how much time they can unlock for a gym owner.
Nowhere is this more apparent than with the automation of bills and invoices.
The ability to generate custom invoices on the fly is invaluable to gym owners at the centre of a complex and dynamic fitness business. By taking out significant chunks of the invoicing and billing process, this will allow trusted individuals within the gym to dedicate their time to other ventures, developing the business or receiving feedback from those on the gym floor.
Gym management and staff are often faced with a bewildering array of payment options. Monthly membership, quarterly membership, yearly membership, one-off class payments, monthly class payments, bundle-class payments, secondary spend, lockers and showers, sauna, car parking, refreshments.
The list can be endless and each bill may require a specific or bespoke template, even if there is only a minor variation, cataloguing and then training someone to understand this can take valuable time and resources better spent elsewhere.
With gym accounting software, this process becomes automated and reduced to a few button clicks, easier for staff to be trained in and for management to train.
Gym accounting software can help management reduce both billing cycles and business-as-usual (BAU) billing down from a time intensive activity to one that is routine, professional and automated.
Reconciliations
Similarly, once billing and payments have been unified into a single digital environment via gym accounting software, reconciliation can become that much easier.
It is important for every business, including fitness business owners to stay transparent. With multiple revenue streams and cash-flow, this has been known to be a problem, especially for new gyms.
Which is why gym accounting software that allows gym owners to tame their various sources of income and reconcile them into one versatile and intelligent working space is vital. Gym accounting software allows staff to isolate individual areas of revenue or expense, as well as identify potential issues within certain membership categories or areas of the gym.
Automated Tax Calculation & Payment
And once all of the above features have been implemented, that allows gym accounting software to make tax compliance a much easier and stress free process than it is without it.
Often viewed as an unpleasant task when not automated, requiring a brief period of intense manual reconciliation and much cursing, gym accounting software can help turn that process into a mostly automated, confident and reassuring process.
With the aforementioned archive of financial data prepared, cash flow and revenue streams properly parsed and sorted and billing in good shape, a lot of the associated stress is alleviated before April even rolls around.
As well as that, the potential for errors is significantly reduced. And if any errors do occur, the accounting software will be able to help identify the error and determine how widespread it is in much quicker order than the comparable manual process.
Confidence and Security
And to finish off our feature list, a feature that cannot be taken for granted.
Security.
Financial data is highly sensitive and important to the day-to-day runnings of a fitness business. Equally, if it is compromised it represents a significant source of potential liability.
Therefore our last feature is a distinct feature of accounting software and what it can offer to gym and fitness business owners.
It is a rare type of product that allows not only greater efficiency across the gym or fitness club, but also greater security and compliance.
When a new gym or fitness club undertakes the task of handling financial data manually and without prior consultation, there is always the risk that certain procedures will fall into place that seemed intuitive at the time.
But unfortunately what seems intuitive to gym staff and management may not always be compliant. That is why it is important to note that when a gym engages with and utilises gym accounting software, they aren’t just receiving the software but the expertise and assurance of the company that made it.
While that doesn’t mean all software will be of impeccable compliance and standing, it does mean that with the right research gyms and fitness business owners will be able to purchase software that will help guide and ensure the compliance, security and safety of their business for years to come.
Our Closing Thoughts...
And leading on neatly from the importance of integration between gym membership management software and gym accounting software, if this article has helped to convince you of the importance of either; Ashbourne might just be the partner in the fitness industry that you have been looking for.
Here at Ashbourne we have spent the last twenty five years helping independent gyms and fitness business owners in raising their operations to the next level. Whether it is with our bespoke gym membership management software, fully supported by a trained team of specialists or our powerful data-driven insights generated by our BI dashboards and reporting suite.
We have helped hundreds of independent gym owners to navigate the ever-dynamic and challenging fitness industry. We are constantly improving our craft and helping others do the same, so if this article has convinced you that your powerful software solution will elevate your operation, book a demo with us today here!
Also check out our quick tips blog posts with some quick answers on your most frequently asked questions on accounting software!
Get your club in shape.
Want to discover how? Let us show you.
Simply select your preferred timeslot and we’ll be in touch to have a chat about your health club,
the goals you want to achieve, and how our system can help you.
the goals you want to achieve, and how our system can help you.
Get your club in shape.
Want to discover how? Let us show you.
Simply select your preferred timeslot and we’ll be in touch to have a chat about your health club, the goals you want to achieve, and how our system can help you.
Get your club in shape.
Want to discover how? Let us show you.
Simply select your preferred timeslot and we’ll be in touch to have a chat about your health club, the goals you want to achieve, and how our system can help you.
