FAQS

Q: WHAT DOES IT COST?

A: We break even on credit card processing and other banking expenses, and work hard to drive costs down by building volume. We pass the savings on to you. Currently, we charge 3% for these services. You have no management requirement. Quarterly, we charge you $1 per player per registration. This charge covers everything: your website, unlimited access, training and help.

Q: HOW DO WE GET OUR FEES?

A: For paid (non-scholarship) registrations, we collect your fees then forward the net amount (gross minus 3%) semi-monthly to your bank account by ACH (Automated Clearing House). We post a downloadable summary report in your admin area shortly after the end of the period.

Q: WHAT PAYMENT METHODS DO YOU OFFER?

A: Credit cards: Visa, MasterCard, and Discover. We do not offer American Express because it is too expensive. We also offer "Direct Withdrawal"; funds are withdrawn electronically from the user's bank account. You may activate Scholarships Requests.

Q: WHAT IF WE HAVE OUR OWN MERCHANT ACCOUNT & GATEWAY?

A: No problem. Our system can use your credit card arrangement. If you do not have "Direct Withdrawal", you may still use ours, which is inexpensive.

Q: TELL ME MORE ABOUT ONLINE REGISTRATION.

A: SportsOffice will reduce your paper administrative overhead by 90% first cycle and 99% thereafter.

Step One (first cycle only): Guardians (parents) in your organization establish and fill out their Family Accounts. They permanently store parent, Emergency Contact and Player information in a secure area. Accounts can be updated any time and used over and over at any SportsOffice organization, which is a great convenience. SportsOffice is a community-wide solution. Parents can now use one account to register three players in two minutes at midnight in their PJs.

Step Two: a SportAdmin spends a few minutes tailoring Registration items to fit their sport-season requirements. Bingo! The season is launched and the registration process shows up online.

Step Three: Parents go to your site, log in, go to the sport season, and "click Here to register". They fill out a short series of forms, and pay at the end. Multiple players? No tedium! Very easy. Very fast. SportAdmins watch registrations and money flow in through their Admin interface.

Q: WHAT ABOUT PEOPLE WITHOUT A COMPUTER?

A: Obviously, Admins need to be online to use our system. For parents/players who are not online, someone has to do it for them: a neighbor or friend or at the office. Or, you can suggest they go to the library and get a free gmail account. We have found very, very few problems with access.

Q: TELL ME ABOUT YOUR LINGO. WHAT'S AN "ADMIN"?

A: SportsOffice uses sports jargon as a metaphor to run any sort of group activity. The notion of "season", "league", "team", "coach", etc. are clearly understood for any organization ("Org"). Click on "Glossary" below to become familiar with some of our terms. Administrators ("Admins") can have multiple roles and change hats effortlessly.

Q: HOW DO YOU HANDLE VOLUNTEERS?

A: During the launch of a new season, SportAdmins activate both a Volunteer Policy (ranging from Non-Urgent to Mandatory) and choose from a comprehensive number of volunteer job categories. These are presented to parents during registration. Sport, League and TeamAdmins can study the number and type of volunteers associated with any player population and communicate appropriately in order to manage volunteers. If there are not enough, or too many volunteers of a certain type in a potential league, perhaps the league structure should be modified. This is a powerful tool to get the number of volunteers needed to run a sport/league/team and distribute them effectively in your groupings.

Q: HOW DO YOU HANDLE SPECIAL REQUESTS?

A: You're going to get them; we help you manage them. At the launch of a new season, SportAdmins may activate a number of special request categories which will appear during registration, including a open category, "Your Space". Admins can view the number and type of special requests in any population and act on them as they wish.

Q: IS THERE A CHANCE OF LOSING OUR INFORMATION?

A: We understand it feels a little risky to have your information living on someone else's computer far away. We hope you'll soon relax. Your information is constantly being backed up and we are always looking for better ways to insure reliability and security. Our servers are 100% owned and not on some giant "server farm". We have an extremely low % of down time and have lost no data since we began business in 2004.

Q: WHAT ABOUT TRAINING AND HELP?

A: We train Admins (Coaches) and parent-users (Guardians) alike, at no charge. We have made our tools VERY easy to use. Your Admin login page gives you a manual for each feature, and each feature gives you instructions on it's page. Further help is an email away or a phone call away. We answer promptly and, in most cases, will call you right up to solve your problem. We need happy campers out there to be in business.

Q: WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR OTHER FEATURES?

• Hire/fire subAdmins in real time
• Manage scholarship requests
• Set up Leagues & Teams with Admins, players and their own sub-sites
• Uniform Purchasing and Distribution reports
• Superior player emergency management system
• Broadcast email to sortable populations
• Download customizable reports with choice of 45 fields
• Sell uniforms or other merchandise
• Set up Special Charges - outside a particular player registration
• Delayed Withdrawals: schedule future withdrawals in up to 6 increments
• Custom banners at all levels
• AND MUCH MORE! for a personal demo