How WLGC Automated 98% of Golf Club Membership Payments & Reconciliation

We were lucky to work with Graeme and his team in designing our new club website over the past few months.

The transformation is second to none and already we have seen more new member requests and interaction on the site within only a few days of launching.

Our biggest challenge as a club is streamlining admin tasks and reducing the time it takes for a new member to join. We now have a website where new members can join and pay online all within a few minutes.

It’s brought our club into the modern age and for the first time ever we have a device that can match our growth and expansion over the last 2 years.

Other problems such as booking tee times more easily, open competitions, visitor outings, golf lessons or even bar and catering functions were also slow and clumsy on our old website

We now have a platform which can take the customer or member on a much quicker, more efficient and aesthetically pleasing journey from start to finish.

The service from Graeme and his team was first class.

They were always available, passionate about the project and no task was too big or too small to fix. They were with us every step of the way My advice to other clubs is if you could only afford one investment this year in infrastructure then make Graeme and his design team it

You won’t regret it

Caimin Condren. PGA Director Of Golf. West Lothian Golf Club

Automated Golf Club Payment System

98.2% automatic reconciled payments

Six months after implementation, we have processed over £160k in payments. We have successfully processed £40k in one day.

The club can now process and reconcile automatically with Club v1, 98.2% of payments.

It is only some cash payment and certain cheques over £1000 or single cheques that cover multiple members (e.g one cheque for husband and wife’s annual subs) that we don’t currently automatically reconcile, but in next few weeks we will deploy fix to handle payments that cover multiple memberships & split payments.

Bank transfers and Standing Order payments are down 19% and the bulk of payments 59% being processed via card payments which are automatically reconciled in Club v1.

Quite a remarkable turn-around !

Benefits Delivered

Flipped the ratio from 8% to over 98% automated and reconciled.

Lower charges

Improve payment success rates & reduce payment error rates

Encourage more people to use more profitable, least admin payment routes

Radically reduce administration effort of reconciliation.

Removing significant manual data entry.

Reconciled payments automatically entered in Club v1

Automated reports on who has paid and not paid

Removal of overpriced IT services, especially DNS charges.

The best thing has been seeing the web-site live, the transformation and the testimonial from the club.

previous web site & club challenges

92% manually reconciled payments

In Dec 2021, we started working with West Lothian Golf Club to improve their web-site, improve online payments for memberships and improve automation as they wanted to modernise and reduce the manual effort running the club.

The club and ourselves were quite staggered once we analysed the current position. 

92% (by volume) of payments required manual reconciliation/posting into Club v1. This caused significant manual administration overhead to report on payments, reconcile payments & update Club v1 via manual data entry. Effectively only 8% of membership payments were being reconciled and processed automatically.

Direct Debit processing provider GoCardless & FairwayCredit was more expensive than nooQ Golf (approximately 50% higher on average for current transaction values, with a 100% higher cap).

New member “online” applications are via emailed PDF, followed by transcribing all the data manually into Club v1; this adds further effort and has the potential to introduce transcription errors, paper processing, welcome packs and badge access setup. Each new member also emailed instructions on how to pay via standing order, so even after joining, can be several weeks before member is setup and payment received.

Existing member billing processing is impersonal and inefficient, potentially leading to tardy payments and reconciliation is mostly manual.

Web site design based on Club v1 template & hosting has a look and feel that is limited and dated, with poor social media integration.

project goals​

Automated New Member Applications
  • New application processing would be fully online via applicant input, with automated insert to Clubv1 after club approval
  • Online waiting list with limits on capacity
  • Email notification and one click approval button
  • Initial payment details would be automatically captured, with authorization prior to full acceptance into Clubv1 and allocation of membership card
  • Improving Existing Member Renewals
Existing Member Renewals
  • Extend payment options and a more personalized approach to billing
  • Make it easier, more prominent and encourage people to choose cheaper payment channels that makes settlement with easier billing reconciliation
Upgraded & New Design Web Site
  • Make it simpler for business to receive and manage booking and payments
  • Enhanced modern design and more responsive look and feel for desktop, laptops, tablet & mobile
  • Better social media integration to aggregate different sources to the club web-site
Automated Golf Club Payment System with Payment Reconciliation
  • Automated reconciliation can be substantially improved to additionally include Bank Transfers, Standing Orders & Direct Debits (based on bank data export) as well as all card processing (Debit/Credit card) that is brought in through new member applications or enhanced renewal processing
  • Improved interactive reconciliation and automated update can be used to clear all remaining unreconciled transactions (cash and electronic transactions lacking appropriate references)

Make it Easier for People to Give you Money

The key theme we focussed on is “Dont Make Me Think“.

As a visitor to the club web-site, not to make them think.

Everything should be obvious, have a clear purpose, cater for the customer, in the right logical place and make it simple for people to book services or give the club money in one or two clicks. 

Make it simple for people to book & pay for all clubs services.

Make it simple for back office staff to manage finances, reconcile payments without burden of paper-chasing, repetitive tasks and updating multiple systems

Automated New Member Applications

  • All data fields validated and matched to correct membership category for age and distance
  • Online waiting list with email notification to club secretary and captain for one click approval
  • Payment request sent to member for online in full, partial deposit or direct debit
  • After successful payment capture, all data synchronised into Clubv1, allocation of membership card and email confirmation

Existing Member Renewals

  • Extend payment options for Apple Pay, Google Pay, Debit Card, Credit Card and customised Direct Debit
  • More personalized approach to billing including taking into account existing balance
  • Change payment options to include deposit, direct debit option over 9 months to smooth cashflow over financial year.
  • Custom branding on payment pages, including new logo, colours, bank statement reference descriptor
  • Daily payouts, reports and emails on funds received.

Upgraded & New Design Web Site

  • Completely new web-site design for westlothiangc.com
  • Updated logo design & colour scheme to remain in touch with current badge but sharper image and more modern colour palate.
  • Completely new web site structure for pages, focussed on action button that let people pay, book, order without thinking
  • Individually designed membership cards for each category
  • Custom google map with club logo, colours and styling to suit club website
  • Pro-Shop had great trackman facility but under advertised. Use more video and better images to make simple online diary bookings & payments
  • New video showcase for course fly-over videos, course guide information simplified and online scorecards to replace grainy pictures.
  • Easier booking for visitors (tee times and open competitions), existing members (Club v1 tee time and app downloads
  • New catering forms and group booking offers
  • integrated Facebook Pages from Club, pro and twitter feeds for greenkeeper, club, junior section and pro.
  • Facebook chat for quick questions and pro shop enquiries
  • Revamp of Catering page to make simpler to contact, book, see menu and book social events online.
  • Automatic publishing of blogs posts to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter
  • Automatic publishing of Course Status and Greenkeeper notes from Club v1 course status to front page of web site

Automated Payment Reconciliation

  • Existing members will continue to have Standing Orders, so we devised a few strategies to match standing orders and bank transfers, so that they can be matched from the bank statement, then once approved matches automatically update the membership system each month with the payment transaction.
  • Monthly Reporting on successful payments, outstanding payments by membership category
  • Automatic email reminders for members that have not paid, increasing in frequency if no action taken.
  • Automatic block of members who have overdue accounts so they cannot book the tee until payment received. 
  • Automatic unlocking membership record to allow tee-booking once payment is received, which takes place in under 1 minute after successful payment.