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GullySystem
Community · Software for trade associations

Keep members, dues, committees and events in one register your secretariat trusts.

A trade association speaks for the firms in one sector. The software holds member firms and their contacts, dues by class, committee seats, events, training and published position papers. The secretariat answers a member’s question from one record, whether it concerns an invoice, a committee seat or a conference place.

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At a glance

Your members are companies, not people. Each has a primary contact, a billing contact, several delegates and a membership class that sets its dues. Staff at the secretariat run committees, a yearly conference, training days and submissions to government. Lists for these usually sit in separate spreadsheets. Nobody trusts them.

Trade association software starts with the member firm. It links contacts, dues, committee seats, event bookings and sponsorship to one record. A renewal run, a ballot or a conference invitation then reaches exactly the people it should. No one is missed.

How the work runs today

In the first quarter the secretariat issues dues notices by class: large firm, small firm, associate and affiliate. Payments arrive by transfer, card or cheque. Each is matched to its invoice, and the receipt goes to the billing contact named on the member firm’s record. A firm that lapses loses access to the members’ area and the directory listing, and the membership officer sees this the same day. New applicants wait for the membership committee. Nobody is admitted early.

Policy staff run working groups on topics such as standards, trade rules and labour. Each group has a chair and a secretary. Minutes sit beside a list of firm representatives. When a consultation opens, staff gather member comments, draft a submission and circulate it for approval. The annual general meeting needs a voter roll that matches the register, one vote per firm or weighted by class.

Where it breaks

What goes wrong for trade associations without a proper system.

Contacts are held per person, not per firm

A firm changes its representative and the old one keeps receiving mail. Nobody can list every delegate from one company, or tell which of them holds a committee seat.

Dues follow class rules by hand

Fees depend on turnover band, employee count or membership class. Staff apply them from a sheet each January, and mid-year joiners are prorated by guesswork when a firm later disputes the figure on its invoice.

Committee membership is scattered

Working group lists, minutes and action items sit in separate files. When a chair steps down, the secretary has to rebuild who is on the group from old meeting notes. It takes days.

Event registrations do not reconcile

A conference has member rates, non-member rates and sponsor passes. Registrations are paid on several routes. The badge list and the finance list disagree, and the catering count is a third figure that nobody can reconcile before the doors open.

Voting rolls are built the week before

The register decides who may vote at the annual meeting and how many votes a firm holds. Arrears and lapsed members must be removed. The check is done by hand.

What the software does

What we would build for trade associations.

Named the way your team already talks about the work. We start with whichever part the audit shows is costing you most.

Member firm register

Hold each firm with its class, sector tags, delegates, billing contact and join date, so a change of representative is made once and reaches every list.

Dues and renewal runs

Issue dues by class and band, prorate mid-year joiners, match payments to invoices and list firms in arrears before the renewal date passes.

Applications and admission

Take membership applications, collect references and supporting papers, and record the committee’s decision before a firm is admitted.

Committees and working groups

Keep each group’s chair, secretary and firm seats, with meeting dates, minutes and action items, so a seat passes cleanly when a representative changes.

Events, conferences and sponsors

Run registrations with member, non-member and sponsor rates, issue badges, and check sponsor packages against what each sponsor was promised.

Consultations and position papers

Log each public consultation, collect member comments by topic, track drafts through approval and keep the submitted paper with its date.

Voting and annual meeting

Build the voter roll from the register, apply class weighting, remove firms in arrears and record proxies and results for the annual meeting.

Before you talk to a supplier

A requirements checklist for trade associations.

What to cover, which reports to ask for and what to put to every vendor, ready to print or save as a PDF.

Open the checklist
Ready product

A product already built for trade associations.

It is adapted to how your business works before it goes live, and anything your trade needs that it lacks is added then.

Trade Association Management Software

Member firms, dues by class, applications, committees, events, sponsors, consultations, training and annual meeting ballots for trade associations.

See the product
More products

Other products in the same sector as trade associations.

Solutions inside

The business modules trade associations use most.

Each one is also available on its own, or inside a system built for you.

All solutions by area

AI by department

Where AI can help trade associations.

Each one reads records you already keep, and a person approves every decision.

Services

The services behind it.

Business Process Automation

Approvals, reminders, follow-ups and reports that run on their own instead of on someone remembering.

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Web and Mobile Application Development

Web and mobile apps for customers, field staff and dealers, built to work on ordinary phones.

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Data Migration and Moving Off Spreadsheets

Data migration and spreadsheet replacement covers auditing existing files, cleaning and deduplicating records, loading them into a new system and reconciling the loaded result against known totals. Both systems then run side by side before cutover. Originals stay untouched.

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WhatsApp Business API and Chatbots

WhatsApp Business API work covers number onboarding, template approval, opt-in records and a chatbot with human handover, all set up under the client’s own Meta account. It connects WhatsApp to a CRM, billing or booking system, so every message is sent from an existing record and every reply is written back. It suits businesses that already take orders, payments or bookings in chat.

Learn more

All our other services

How it works

How the work runs from Bengaluru for your city.

  1. 1

    The audit, by call

    A screen-share and a look at the sheets, accounting reports and WhatsApp groups your team uses. No travel needed.

  2. 2

    A written proposal

    Scope, what we build first and the cost, agreed in writing before anything starts.

  3. 3

    Build in short rounds

    Working screens shared every few weeks. Your team tests them from your own office.

  4. 4

    Go-live, in person when it helps

    For data migration and training we can come to your city. Travel is agreed in advance.

  5. 5

    Support online

    Fixes, changes and hosting handled remotely by the same team that built it.

Published case studies

The work we have published.

We only name clients whose work is published. None of them is in this trade; they show how the team works, not that it has built for this trade.

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PG management software where allocation, rates and invoices are derived from bed-level occupancy and not maintained in parallel spreadsheets.

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Registration, fee collection, routing and finance write to the same records, closing the gap between journeys run and fees collected.

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Vikasa RDO: making SHG loan recovery auditable

Loan proposals, recoveries and commissions sit on one record, with a person attached to every state change, so a business handling a bank’s money can show where each rupee went.

Read the case study
Common questions

Questions trade associations ask before they call.

Do individuals or companies hold the membership?

Companies, in most trade bodies. The firm is the record, and people attach to it as delegates. If you also admit individual members, they sit in a separate class.

Can dues change by size band?

Yes. Class, turnover band or headcount band each carry a fee schedule. Mid-year joiners and upgrades are prorated by the rule you set during the first workshop.

Can members log in to see their own record?

Yes. A delegate updates contact details, downloads invoices, books events and reads papers for the groups they sit in. Access follows the class and the committee seat.

What does it cost?

No price is shown. Cost follows member count, number of staff users and the event and voting functions chosen. You first see a walk-through built on invented member firms. After that you receive a costed document to approve.

What should a secretariat have ready for the first session?

Assemble the member firm list, the dues schedule by class, the application form, committee rosters and the last event registration list. A membership officer, a finance person and an events lead will be asked questions and shown screens. Name them before the first session.

When the association moves on, who keeps member records?

The association does, and the software with them. Members, dues, committees and votes leave as ordinary spreadsheets. Its developers support it. GullySystem hosts unless the association wants otherwise.

What happens after I share my requirements?

An engineer reads what you send and replies within one business day. We then look at the software, spreadsheets and WhatsApp groups your business runs on today and write down what works, what slows your team down and what is missing. A demo login, a screen-share or a few screenshots are enough. You get a short written summary ordered by priority, with no obligation to hire us afterwards.

How much will the software cost?

We don’t publish a price, because it depends on what the system has to do. That first review settles the scope, and the cost goes into a written proposal before any work starts.

Related

Related industries.

Category

Part of a wider group.

Talk to us

Tell us how your business runs today.

A few lines on your spreadsheets, software and WhatsApp groups is enough. We reply the same working day.

What happens after you share your requirements

  1. A senior engineer reads your answers. Nobody phones first.
  2. Within one business day you get a written note: what we understood, what we would start with, and the questions we still have.
  3. If it fits, a proposal follows with the order of work, what we need from you and what you receive at each step.
  4. No call is booked and nothing is paid until you have read the note. Your details stay with us.

Start with your requirements

Seven short steps that tell us what you need. A senior engineer reads them before anyone gets in touch.

Share your requirements