Requirements checklist
What to ask for when choosing software for football academies.
A checklist built from how football academies work, to print or save as a PDF and bring to any supplier meeting.
What the software should cover
Tick each one that matters to your business.
- Trials and registration
- Squads and age bands
- Training register and ground bookings
- Fixtures and match day
- Assessments and progress
- Fees and instalments
- Kit and equipment store
Roles that need their own access
Who logs in, and what each person may see or change.
- Academy director
- Head of youth
- Coaches on the touchline
- Office and accounts
- Families
Reports to ask for
Ask to see each one with your own sample data.
- Players by squad and birth year, with consent forms pending
- Training attendance by squad and by player
- Minutes played and appearances by player across the season
- Assessment marks by player and term
- Instalments due, received and overdue, by squad
- Kit issued and outstanding by player
- Coach sessions covered and match fees payable
Systems it may need to connect to
Note which ones you already run.
- WhatsApp or other messaging
- SMS
- Card and payment gateway
- Accounting export
- Calendar feed for fixtures
Questions for any vendor
Put these to every supplier you are comparing.
- Can a player train with an older squad and still stay in their own?
- Where do the medical and consent forms live?
- Can parents see their own child only?
- How are minutes played recorded?
- Can it run fees for siblings and scholarship players?
- What about holiday camps and trial days?
- Does it track coach pay?
- How long is the set-up and what do we see first?
- Are our records ours to take if we part ways?
Where the work usually breaks today
Circle the ones you recognise. They set the order of the project.
- Squad lists live in several notebooks
- Attendance and fee status are never read together
- Consent and medical forms go missing
- Selection has no memory
- Kit goes out and does not return
Prefer to talk it through? See the football academies page.