Collecting membership fees at a sports club: direct debit, payment link or bank transfer

The fee has been set, the budget is approved and everybody agrees. Then it turns out the real work starts there: the money has to come in as well, from hundreds of people at once, and for some of them it will not happen by itself. This article is about that second half — the way you take the money, the rhythm in which you chase it, and the conversation with the people who do not pay.

Collecting is a decision, not a chore

At most clubs nobody ever decided how the fees would be collected. It grew: the treasurer of ten years ago did it one way, and every successor took it over. That is a pity, because the method decides the rest — how many evenings the treasurer loses to it, how quickly the budget is covered, and how it feels for the family that gets the bill.

No method scores well on all three; they simply push work and certainty back and forth between the club and the member. Which split fits you comes down to three honest questions. How much manual work can your treasurer handle in the time they genuinely have? How sure do you want to be that the money is in the account on a particular date? And how much control do you leave with the member? What the amount itself should be is not this article's subject — that is in working out the fee: per team or per member.

Three ways to take the money

A standing direct debit mandate. The member gives the club permission once to take the amount from their account, and after that it happens on the agreed date without anyone doing a thing. Almost all the work sits up front: getting that permission from every member and keeping the details tidy. After that each round costs little, and the money is in on the day itself. The weak spot is changes. If a member fails to pass on a new account number the payment bounces, and you only find out after the date. And if somebody leaves halfway through the season you have to actively stop collecting — otherwise you are taking money from someone who is no longer a member, and that is one of the few mistakes that genuinely makes people angry. For the member this method is restful if they would otherwise forget, and uncomfortable if money is tight: the amount disappears at a moment they did not choose themselves. So announce the date in advance.

A payment request or payment link per round. The club sends a link with every collection round and the member pays in a couple of taps. There is nothing to arrange beforehand — you hold no bank details, so there is no account number that can go stale, and if somebody leaves halfway through you simply stop sending them a link. Against that, the work comes back every single round: sending, keeping track of who has paid, fishing out the stragglers. Most of the money lands within a few days, with a tail that runs for weeks. For the member this is the pleasantest form — they keep control — but it also hands them a task, and a task can be put off.

A bank transfer the member makes themselves. The club states the amount, the account number and the final date, and the member transfers the money. There is nothing to arrange in advance and nothing to hold on to — that is the whole appeal. The bill comes afterwards: you have to match payments to names, and part of it arrives with no usable reference or from an uncle's account. This is by far the slowest method: it is non-committal, so it sinks to the bottom of the pile. At a small club it works fine; from a few hundred members on, the matching alone becomes a job.

Plenty of clubs combine the two: the mandate as standard, a payment request for anyone who would rather not sign one. That is fine, on one condition: there is still a single set of records with both groups in it. Two methods with two lists is exactly how you end up chasing somebody twice.

One round or instalments?

At almost every club the collection round coincides with the start of the season. That is understandable — the hall and the league entry have to be paid up front — but for a family it is the most expensive moment of the year: those same weeks bring shoes, knee pads, a team kitty and a tournament contribution. The whole bill is set out in what volleyball costs per month.

Instalments flatten that peak, and that is worth something. What they do not do is lower the total. And they cost the club work, because every collection moment multiplies everything — two instalments mean sending twice, chasing twice and matching twice. The rule of thumb: instalments are manageable when the money is taken automatically, and heavy the moment the member has to do something each time. Four instalments by bank transfer is not an arrangement, it is a second job. The middle way therefore works best: one round as standard, spread payment on request. That way only the people who need it carry the extra admin.

Decide deliberately where in the year you collect, too. Collecting before the first match puts taking part and paying in the same movement; collecting when the season has been running for months takes that ground away — you are then asking for money for something somebody has long since been doing.

What you settle in advance, you never have to discuss later

Every exception you invent on the spot is next season's precedent. So the committee decides four things once, and the treasurer repeats those four word for word in every announcement:

• The amount and what it covers. Which period, which age group, and whether a lower rate exists. Not: "the usual amount".
• One final date. A real date, not "over the coming weeks". Without a date nobody can be late, and so nobody is late.
• What happens if it is not paid. When does the first reminder go out, when does somebody phone, and is there a final consequence — yes or no.
• Who decides. One role, not "the committee". The treasurer decides on deferrals and payment plans; the committee only decides on the policy behind them.

That last point saves the most: as soon as it is clear who decides, nobody has to lobby the committee member they happen to know, and the treasurer does not negotiate — they refer.

The reminder rhythm: four points of contact

Most clubs chase too often and too vaguely: five emails in the same tone, to everybody. That backfires — the people who have paid get annoyed, and the people who have not stopped reading after the second one. Four points of contact are enough, each one in a more personal tone and to a smaller group. The fourth is a phone call.

• The announcement, well before the date — two weeks is a good distance. Amount, final date, how to pay, and the sentence about the arrangement described below. To everybody.
• The first reminder, shortly after the final date. Businesslike and neutral, only to those still outstanding. Assume it has been forgotten, because it almost always has. No "we regret to note".
• The second reminder, two to three weeks later. More personal, with the name in it, and mentioning that the treasurer is available if something is going on. Still no threat.
• The phone call. Not a third email.

That switch is the most important part of the rhythm. Anyone who has not responded after two written rounds will not respond to a third either — something else is going on. Money worries, a divorce, a house move, or irritation about something else entirely. That only surfaces in a conversation. One phone call therefore usually achieves more than a third email — and it is also the only way to hear whether an arrangement is needed.

Two hard rules around it. First: it is always the same person who writes and phones, and that is the treasurer or somebody explicitly given that role. Never the coach. A coach who starts talking about money is no longer the person a player discusses their game with, and a youth player should certainly not learn that things have gone unpaid at home. Second: never send a reminder to a group that also contains people who have paid — after one such slip you will get replies at the next round from everybody except the people you were looking for. That sets a requirement for your records: you have to know at any moment who is still outstanding. Who may see that list and how long you keep it is not a free choice either — see which member data you keep.

Offer the arrangement, do not wait for it

Almost every club has something: spread payment, a deferral, sometimes a small fund or a scheme from outside. And almost every club mentions it nowhere. The result is predictable — only those who dare to ask get it. The people who need it most often do not ask at all, and quietly disappear at the end of the season.

Turn it round and put it in the announcement itself, in plain words: that spreading payment or a deferral can be discussed, who to go to, and that it stays confidential. Two sentences. Three conditions decide whether they actually work:

• One contact with a name and a direct address. Not the general club address that nobody knows who reads.
• Confidential, and say so. No committee decision that ends up in a set of minutes, no enquiries in the team group chat.
• No proof required. Anyone who has to demonstrate that they cannot pay will not come.

What such an arrangement can consist of — spread payment, a lower rate, a fund from outside the club — is in the bill for a season. What matters here is the attitude, and it stands up commercially too: a member who quietly stops costs you the whole fee, a member who pays in instalments costs you two extra actions.

Where software helps, and where it does not

No system collects for you. The method, the rhythm and the phone call are policy. There is exactly one place where software makes a difference: the outstanding amounts hang off the member list itself instead of a separate file. That sounds small and it is the entire gain: no two systems side by side, and no reminder to a family whose child stopped playing six months ago.

In Koach that lives in the Contributions tab of the club dashboard: an item with an amount, a final date and your own payment link, with the names underneath and a status per name. How to set such an item up and tick it off is in tracking membership fees without an accounting package. No money runs through Koach — the payment link is the club's own. The club dashboard sits in the Club subscription of 9.99 euros a month for the whole club; see managing your volleyball club.

If your club does it in a spreadsheet, everything above works just as well — on one condition: there is a single file, and it is updated after every change to the membership list. In the end the method you choose matters less than whether it is the same one every year.

Frequently asked questions

Further reading

Tracking membership fees at a volleyball club, without accounting software Club membership software: five questions that make the choice for you Club registration form: from a completed form to a place in a team

Browse 200 volleyball drills with animations Download a complete practice plan of 8 to 28 weeks