The below questions have been collated from the Clubspark & FA 2023 Webinar series.
Financial
What are the costs associated with online payments?
The current fees are 3% + 20p charged for every transaction made within the platform.
Are there any costs for refunds?
When a refund is processed the participant will receive the full amount they originally paid. The provider will refund the amount they received from the original transaction (session cost minus transaction fees) and Clubspark will refund the transaction fees.
We offer our sessions free of charge to all participants, do we need to set up Stripe?
Yes you can still provide sessions for free but you would still need to set up the stripe account to allow a parent the opportunity to purchase the Weetabix Wildcats kit.
Do people have to use the payments engine? Some people don't like doing this.
Ideally you would use this to allow a parent to pay for a kit. It provides them with the opportunity to pay for a booking and or kit online. It also then provides you with key information about who is attending your session.
Is it possible to link an existing stripe account?
No it is not possible to link to an existing account.
Can we exclude the pay as you go option?
Parents / Guardians have the option to block book (pay up front) or pay for single sessions weekly.
When you add booking by a walk on, how does it take payment?
You can make bookings in the admin area on behalf of parents. When doing so you can create them as a new contact, or if they’ve booked before select from existing contacts. Offline payments can be recorded, or you can send payment requests for the parent to pay online.
Would clubs get commission for merchandise sales through our portal?
Not at this stage for the pilot.
Can you split the programme so some participants would pay but some would be free? Would you have to set up two programmes and keep one hidden?
To allow for online bookings you would need to create two programmes, one free and one paid for. The free option could be setup as ‘direct link only’ so it doesn’t appear in the search results and only those with the link can book.
Alternatively, you could use one programme and make admin bookings for those who get access for free.
Will this remain free to providers or will there be a charge to use the platform after the pilot?
There is no charge to Providers to use the platform.
Can clubs buy the merchandise (in bulk) themselves?
Not for the pilot but if this is something that Providers want in the future, this is the feedback we want to capture.
Is the use of Stripe payments compulsory?
Yes you will need to set up a Stripe account for pilot.
Can cost be set as £0?
Yes.
There is currently a disconnect between what the FA allow a club to charge participants ie £3 to £4 versus the increasing costs of 3G hire ie £40 to £50 per hour. Thus if you have only a few attendees the exercise ends up as a loss financially.
Providers can charge more than the recommended £3, by confirming with your local CFA.
Our parents all pay cash on the day or pay on card in our clubhouse. Can we still do it like that?
You would need to set the cost to £0 on the platform and this would then allow you to take payment offline. We are investigating other functionality that would be introduced post pilot to allow you to take / manage offline payments. In the meantime, please add in your ‘additional information’ section when creating your sessions, information on cost and how parents pay.
Re the merchandising - so the parent has to generate a Stripe Account as well?
No, parents will just use the checkout to book a session or pay for kit using their card details.
Does the price per session always come up and a final cost?
Parents can book multiple sessions at once, once at the checkout it totals up the cost for them.
Is payment online a mandatory requirement of the system?
No but you will still need to set up a Stripe account but you can still take payments offline.
If we add the club's bank account then we receive the money for the merchandise?
This would go directly to the FA to cover the cost of kit. Cost of sessions go direct to the clubs Stripe account and payouts from that are made to the clubs connected bank account.
Will it show what funds have been taken overtime in the reports section?
The Programming reports show information on revenue from bookings and can be viewed across customisable time periods. All online transactions are also available in Stripe dashboard which can be accessed from the system.
If this is successful will all providers use this? I'm concerned about increasing prices to cover the admin fee in today's financial world.or can this be used without linking a bank account and continue to have BACS and cash payments
If the pilot is successful then we would look to roll out across all providers. Providers can still take payments offline with no cost to the club.
Platform related Questions
Is the system now auto checking FANs for DBS, safeguarding, first aid and playmaker + ?
Yes - this is a new feature added, it is now auto checking FANs for DBS and Safeguarding and suspensions. FA will do manual checks on EA and qualifications.
What if FAN isn't found?
Contact Customer Support via playenglandfootball@thefa.com
If the system checks the FAN can that be entered without having to add name, number etc?
This is certainly a feature we want to include for full integration.
Is there a mobile app that can be used to take attendance and enter walk-ups?
There isn't an app as part of pilot, however we have already started to look at this for post pilot. You can see registers though, of all participants at a session on your phone.
Can you mark all participants at the same time. instead of one at a time as it is at the minute.
You must mark each registrant "attended" individually but bulk attendance will be considered as an enhancement.
Is it easy to use from a mobile phone, we had issues with the FA events not being mobile friendly. Just thinking for walk ins
The platform is mobile optimised for key functions like marking attendance, however some of the reports are best viewed on desktop.
The current Wildcats process does not allow clubs to delete attendees who have left i.e. you have to ask County who then ask FA Centre.Does this new process allow clubs to delete ex-attendees?
Attendees can be removed from sessions by administrators. You also have the ability to delete Contacts if required
Can you provide a direct link to the booking session as you do now rather than going through find football?
Yes - you will have direct links for your sessions
Will you be able to print the register to have emergency contacts?
Yes. You can print your register, you also have the option to export to a csv file
Can you see the DOB of participants as in the current events system the age updates incorrectly so we can manage our sessions effectively.
Yes. The DOB will be linked to a players record
Can the programme page display age groups? We would have two age groups training under different coaches at the same venue and time slot. How could it be differentiated?
We would recommend setting up two programmes in this instance
Does the age range have to be named in the title of the programme because there were no column headings for age range.
Yes you could edit the name of each programme by age range. It's also a good way to ensure registers are split by age group and coach.
Does it allow guardians to add any medical conditions?
Yes - at the point of booking
Will there be a QR code to provide parents, I send weekly messages to parents with a link to book on, will this be available with this please?
There will be a link to your sessions that you can share with parents. The system at the moment does not generate QR codes, but you can develop one from the booking link.
Can you transfer contacts emails from the old system to transfer contacts over?
You can manually add contacts into the system but there isn’t an import function at present. This can be considered post pilot.
Can you remove the wildcats merchandise from the process of booking?
Not for the Pilot
FA / Programme specific Questions
How soon after the Pilot (if successful) do you think it will be before it is rolled out to all providers?
We would like to do this as soon as possible, but it depends on the feedback received and the developments we would need to make prior to onboarding all providers.
Do providers still need to take registers each week or does it go off bookings?
All your bookings will form your register, you will tick off each player when they arrive.
Does this mean that Wildcats sessions will no longer come up on Find Football?
The pilot sessions won't show on find football, but their contact details will still show. All other Wildcats Providers will still show on Find Football. Future would include integration with Find Football
Will CFA staff have any access to providers sessions or be able to see beyond what someone booking on to a session could see?
No for the Pilot, but a dashboard will be available in Power BI so you will be able to see the number of sessions /participant numbers.
Each girl that joins our session gets a free football shirt that is branded with the wildcats logo, that we as a club purchase. Will this still be allowed or will it be running counterintuitive to the offer for new girls via the clubspark portal?
Yes this is still allowed. The merchandise is completely optional on the site.
Will this be rolled out to Squad girls too?
The Pilot is just for Wildcats and a disability programme called Comets at the moment, but if successful we would like to roll out to all participation programmes including Squad and Just Play in the future.
Can you just confirm that if we are a current Wildcats FA events user that we will need to create our own Clubspark sessions (they won't automatically transfer over) while the FA event space is not used?
Yes. You will be required to create your sessions using Clubspark
What size are the Wildcats balls which are for sale?
Size 3
Will the girls/families have to create a FAN?
No, during the pilot parents /participants won't create a FAN.
Any sample merchandise for pilot clubs to promote?
Not at the moment for the pilot stage.
Does the 10 week programme need to be continuous? The venue we use is occasionally not available due to tournaments etc
10 weeks is just for the Pilot so we can capture lots of information of how it's running for you, if it's a couple of weeks less, don't worry - please just create sessions for the dates you have available.