How to Build a Club Using FencR: Onboarding, Members, Plans, Stripe, and Scheduling
A step-by-step guide for coaches and club admins: create your club on FencR, finish club setup, invite your members, connect Stripe if you want to charge, design subscription plans, and publish a bookable schedule. Billing is optional, and FencR is completely free, so the only thing between you and a running club is this checklist.
Setting up a fencing club on FencR takes six steps: create the club in the onboarding wizard, finish setup in Club Settings, invite your members, connect Stripe if you want to charge members, build your subscription plans, and publish your schedule. Most clubs go from zero to taking bookings in under an hour, and because FencR is completely free, with no tiers and no caps, there is no pricing decision to make first.
Two of those steps are optional. Stripe and plans (Steps 4 and 5) only matter if you want to charge members through FencR. If you just want FencR for communication, member management, and scheduling, do Steps 1 through 3 and jump straight to Step 6. Everything works, and everything stays free.
This guide walks a coach or club admin through each step in order, using the exact screens and field names you will see in the app.
FencR is free for every club and every member. No account tiers, no feature gating, no member or location caps. Everything described in this guide is available to your club from day one.
Step 1: Create your club
One thing to know before you start: creating and configuring a club is a club admin job. Whoever runs the creation wizard automatically becomes the club's admin, which is the role that unlocks everything in this guide, including club settings, plans, billing, and integrations. Coaches can run the floor once the club exists, but they cannot create the club or change its setup. So make sure the person doing this step is the person who should own the club going forward (you can always promote additional admins later from the Members page).
Sign up at fencr.app with email, Google, or Apple, then start the club creation wizard. It has two steps.
Club basics. Enter your club name, and FencR auto-generates your club URL as you type. This is your public address on FencR, in the form fencr.app/club/your-club, and you can edit the slug before saving. Then toggle the weapons your club offers: Foil, Épée, Sabre, or any combination. Weapon choices flow through the whole app, from plan coverage to session filters, so pick what you actually teach.
Location. Add your primary training venue: street address, city, state, ZIP, and country. This becomes your club's primary location. If you run out of multiple venues, you can add more later; FencR supports unlimited locations.
Click Create club and you land on your dashboard as the club admin. Behind the scenes FencR has created your organization, your primary location, and your admin membership.
Roles on FencR are per club, not per account. If you coach at one club and run another, the same login handles both, with a club switcher in the dashboard.
Step 2: Finish club setup
Head to Club Settings in the sidebar. Fifteen minutes here saves confusion for every member who joins later.
- Club identity. Upload your logo (PNG, JPG, SVG, or WebP), write a short description, and add your website. These appear on your public club page.
- Timezone. Set your club timezone. Every schedule time in FencR is entered and displayed in this timezone, so get it right before you create sessions.
- Locations. Add any additional venues and mark one as primary. Members can be assigned to the locations where they train, which scopes what they see on the schedule.
- Member self-enrollment. This toggle decides whether athletes and parents can sign themselves up for group practices and open fencing. Turn it on for a self-service club; leave it off if coaches manage all enrollment.
- Lesson lengths. Configure the lesson lengths you offer (for example 20, 40, and 60 minutes). The shortest length is the base: one lesson credit pays for one base-length lesson, and a lesson twice the base costs two credits. You can also set a gap between lessons for resets and notes.
- Public page visibility. Your club page at
fencr.app/club/your-clubcan be live or hidden. When live, anyone with the link can view your club and request to join. Club Settings also gives you embed snippets so you can drop your schedule and join form into your own website.
If your club requires a signed liability waiver, go to the Waivers page, upload your waiver PDF, and require it for membership. New members are then gated as pending until they sign in the app (there is a paper-upload fallback for signatures collected at the front desk).
Step 3: Invite your members
Open the Members page. You have two ways to build a roster, and they solve different problems.
Invite Member is for one person at a time. Enter their email, pick a role (Athlete, Coach, Parent, or Admin), and send. If the email already belongs to a FencR account, the app shows a match badge and the invite attaches to their existing account, so families with fencers at multiple clubs never end up with duplicates. Invite links are valid for seven days, and you can resend from the Invites tab.
Add Member is for building the whole roster at once. Paste a list of emails, add names inline, or upload a CSV with email, full_name, and an optional role column. Everyone you add sits in the roster as pending, with an "Invite pending" chip, and here is the important part: nobody is emailed until you choose to send their invite. You can stage your entire membership, assign plans and locations, and then invite people when the club is actually ready for them.
Roles determine what each person can do:
| Role | What they get |
|---|---|
| Athlete | Books sessions, tracks plan credits, signs waivers, pays own invoices |
| Parent | Manages child accounts under a COPPA-compliant flow, books and pays for their children |
| Coach | Runs the schedule, rosters, attendance, and messaging |
| Admin | Everything a coach gets, plus plans, billing, integrations, and club settings |
Use the bulk actions on the members table to assign groups (for example "Beginner Foil" or "Competitive Squad"), training locations, and plans to many members at once.
Not charging members through FencR? Skip Steps 4 and 5 and go straight to Step 6. FencR works as a complete free platform for communication, member management, and scheduling with no plans and no payment setup. You can always come back and add billing later.
Step 4: Connect Stripe
If you are looking to charge members through FencR, this is where that starts, and it is worth doing before you create your plans: with Stripe connected first, every paid plan you build in the next step can auto-bill from day one instead of needing manual invoices.
Go to Integrations and click Connect Stripe. FencR uses Stripe Connect with an OAuth flow, which means you sign in to your own Stripe account, or create one on the spot, and attach it to your club. If your club already takes cards through Stripe, you keep your existing account, balance, and history.
Once connected, the card shows "Charges enabled" and "Payouts enabled", and your billing goes on autopilot:
- Recurring plans bill automatically each cycle by card or ACH bank transfer.
- Members and parents pay invoices online through Stripe Checkout.
- Payments settle to your club bank account directly. FencR never touches the money and takes no cut.
- Card processing costs are added to the payer's invoice as a processing fee line item, so the club receives the full plan price.
- Refunds you issue in your Stripe dashboard are mirrored back into FencR's invoices and analytics automatically.
Prefer not to use Stripe? Plenty of clubs run entirely on manual payments. Connect Zelle on the same page by saving your club's Zelle email or phone and display name; invoices then go out with Zelle payment instructions, and a coach or admin marks them paid when the money arrives. Cash and check work the same way. You can mix methods per invoice, and per plan.
Step 5: Set up subscription plans
With your payment method in place, the Plans page is where your club's pricing lives. Click into the create-plan modal and work top to bottom.
- Billing model. Choose between a recurring subscription that renews every cycle and a one-time pack of credits (for example a 10-lesson pack).
- Price and cycle. Set the price in USD and, for recurring plans, a monthly, quarterly, or annual cycle. A $0 price is allowed: free plans grant credits with no billing at all, useful for trial groups or staff.
- Plan type. A lesson plan covers private lessons; a practice plan covers group practices and open fencing. This keeps a member's lesson credits separate from their practice access.
- Quota. Choose unlimited access or a set per-cycle quota. Credits are length-aware: a lesson at twice your base length costs two credits, so the ledger always reflects real training time.
- Weapons covered. If your club offers multiple weapons, choose which ones the plan covers.
- Cancellation cutoff. Set how many hours before a session a member can cancel and get their credit back automatically (0 to 168 hours). Inside the window, the credit is kept.
Once plans exist, you can assign them to members from the roster (including members who have not accepted their invite yet), or let members enroll themselves if self-enrollment is on. An assigned paid plan shows up for the member as a "Set up payment" card until they complete checkout through the Stripe account you connected in Step 4.
Start with fewer plans than you think you need. One group membership, one private lesson pack, and one unlimited option cover most clubs. You can add, deactivate, or restructure plans at any time, and deactivating a plan gives you options for existing subscribers rather than cutting them off.
Step 6: Build your schedule
The Schedule page is where your club comes to life, and it works whether or not you set up billing. If you skipped Steps 4 and 5, everything here still applies: a club with no active plans books sessions at no charge, with no credits involved, so you can run your entire calendar, roster, and messaging on FencR for free, forever. FencR supports four session types:
- Group practice. Recurring classes with a participant cap, a weapon, a location, and a category (for example "Youth Foil" or "Advanced Epee"). Set a weekly recurrence once and the whole series is on the calendar; you can edit or cancel a single date or the whole series.
- Private lessons. Publish bookable lesson blocks: pick a coach, a time range, and FencR tiles the block into slots based on your configured lesson lengths. Athletes book a slot and the right number of credits is drawn from their plan. Blocks are drag-movable, and each slot can carry its own coach.
- Open fencing. Drop-in floor time with optional capacity and pricing.
- Tournaments. Open sign-up events with a custom invoice flow for entry fees.
Times are entered in your club timezone from Step 2. Sessions can be scoped to a location, so members assigned to one venue only see the sessions that concern them. Members with a Google Calendar or iCal connection get sessions synced to their own calendars, and your public schedule can be embedded on your club website with the snippet from Club Settings.
When a member books, everything you configured earlier does the work: the waiver gate, and, if you set up plans, the plan check, the credit draw, and the cutoff-aware refund on cancellation. Coaches take attendance from the roster view, and the analytics dashboard tracks participation, cancellations, and revenue from day one.
Launch checklist
Run down this list before you announce the club to your members:
| Done | Item |
|---|---|
| ☐ | Club created with the right URL, weapons, and primary location |
| ☐ | Logo, description, and timezone set in Club Settings |
| ☐ | Waiver uploaded and required (if your club uses one) |
| ☐ | Lesson lengths configured and self-enrollment decided |
| ☐ | Roster staged via Add Member, roles and groups assigned |
| ☐ | If charging members: Stripe connected (or Zelle configured for manual billing) |
| ☐ | If charging members: plans created, at least one membership and one lesson pack |
| ☐ | First month of schedule published with recurrence |
| ☐ | Invites sent, and the club page link shared |
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to be a club admin to create and set up a club? Yes. Whoever runs the creation wizard becomes the club's admin, and only admins can change club settings, plans, billing, and integrations. You can promote additional admins later from the Members page.
How long does it take to set up a fencing club on FencR? Most clubs are fully running in under an hour. The onboarding wizard takes about two minutes; the rest is inviting members, connecting Stripe and creating plans if you charge members, and publishing the schedule.
Can I use FencR just for scheduling, communication, and member management? Yes. Plans and Stripe are entirely optional. Run your full schedule, roster, messaging, waivers, and attendance without creating a single plan or connecting any payment method, all completely free. Clubs with no active plans book sessions at no charge, with no credits involved.
Does FencR cost anything for clubs or coaches? No. FencR is completely free for clubs and members, with no tiers, no feature gating, and no member or location caps.
Do I need a Stripe account to use FencR? No. Clubs can bill entirely through Zelle, cash, or check and mark invoices paid manually. Stripe adds automatic card and ACH billing and self-serve checkout.
Can athletes and parents sign up for sessions themselves? Yes, when member self-enrollment is on in Club Settings. Athletes book against their credits and parents book for their children. With it off, coaches manage all enrollment.
Can I import my existing members? Yes. Add Member accepts CSV upload or a pasted list, matches existing FencR accounts by email, and holds everyone as pending until you send invites.
What about young fencers? FencR is built for families. Parents create and manage child accounts under a COPPA-compliant consent flow, book on their behalf, sign their waivers, and pay their invoices.
Ready to build your club? Create it free at fencr.app, and if you want a deeper look at what each role in your club can do once you are set up, read How Can I Use FencR?, our full guide for athletes, parents, coaches, and admins.