The last fortnight before a society day
The society booked for thirty-two in March. It is now June and the office has no idea whether that is still thirty-two, or twenty-six, or forty. The organiser is a volunteer with a day job who replies to emails at midnight. The kitchen needs to know how many bacon rolls and how many roast dinners, and whether anyone is vegetarian or has an allergy. The starter needs names in groups. The office needs the balance paid.
Two days out, numbers drop to twenty-eight. On the day, twenty-six turn up, three want to pay for buggies, and two more stay for dinner who were not booked for it. Afterwards someone works out the invoice from a notepad, the till and the kitchen's tally.
Why the details arrive late
The organiser is waiting on their own members, so they do not know the numbers until late. Asking them once, early, gets a guess. Asking repeatedly by email gets ignored. Without a clear deadline and an easy way to update, the numbers arrive by phone the day before.
Inside the club, the information does not travel. The office has the booking, the kitchen has a printout from last month, the starter has a list someone emailed, and the till has the extras. Each is right at a different moment.
And the terms around numbers, such as when a drop in numbers is charged, are often agreed but not applied, because nobody has the booking and the actuals side by side.
Where it hurts
| Area | What goes wrong |
|---|---|
| Kitchen | Food ordered for numbers that have changed |
| Starter and tee sheet | Groups and names wrong on the morning |
| Office | Balance chased after the day |
| Invoice | Extras missed, or charged and disputed |
| Organiser | Confusing emails and a surprise bill |
Societies judge the day on how smooth it felt, and a lot of that is decided by admin they never see.
How we automate the countdown
- Every society booking gets a schedule, set by the club: for example a request for provisional numbers some weeks ahead, final numbers and menu choices nearer the day, and a last check shortly before.
- Each request is a short message with a link to the society's own page, where the organiser updates numbers, player names, menu choices, dietary notes and buggy requests. No login, no long email thread.
- Changes go straight to the right people: numbers and menus to the kitchen, names and groups to the starter's sheet and the tee sheet, buggies to whoever manages the fleet.
- Your club's terms are shown on the page and applied to the booking, so the organiser sees how a change affects the balance before they confirm it.
- The balance is requested online before the day, through Stripe or a similar provider, using the club's own payment terms.
- After the day, extras from the till and the buggy log are added to a draft invoice, which the office checks and sends, or passes to your accounts system such as Xero.
Where your club management or EPOS system already stores society bookings, we connect to it rather than holding a separate copy.
On the day
The starter has names in groups on the tee sheet by the evening before. The kitchen is cooking for the confirmed number with the dietary notes printed on the order. The office knows the balance is paid. At the end of the day, the invoice for extras goes out while the organiser still remembers who had the buggies.
- Numbers and menus confirmed in good time
- Everyone working from the same details
- Balances collected before the day
- Invoices that match what happened
Signs your society countdown needs help
- Final numbers usually arrive by phone the day before.
- The kitchen and the starter have different lists.
- Balances are chased after the society has gone home.
- Extras are missed off invoices or disputed.
- Your numbers terms exist on paper but are rarely applied.