This quick start is for club administrators preparing Gymkhana Tools for normal club operation and event day. For full detail, see the Gymkhana Tools User Guide.

Role Purpose

Club administrators maintain the club setup, memberships, users, seasons, gymkhanas, event configuration, and post-event review. Administrators can also help with registration and scribe work, but routine setup should be finished before volunteers are busy at the arena.

Sign In and Confirm Club Identity

  1. Sign in to Gymkhana Tools.
  2. Confirm the club name beneath the logo is your club.
  3. On a narrow screen, open the Control Center offcanvas menu if the sidebar is not visible. The section containing the current page opens automatically; select another section heading when you need to browse its destinations.
  4. If the club name is wrong, sign out and stop before changing data.

See Getting Started.

Use Operations → Registration for event-day competitor entry and Operations → Announcer/Scribe for run queues and result entry. These open full-width event-day workspaces. The Control Center keeps the same actions beside the current/next Gymkhana, along with Review Gymkhana, a compact active Member/Rider/Registration summary, and a small Records quick action. Use the sidebar for setup, people, and system navigation rather than looking for duplicate dashboard cards.

Club and People pages share one compact Administrator workspace pattern. The page title and primary action appear together at the top; section headings divide related settings without unnecessary cards; configuration forms stay at a readable left-aligned width; and management lists use wider, compact tables. Related fields may appear side by side on desktop and stack on a phone. Duplicate-Rider warnings and explicit canonical/conflict choices remain more prominent because they protect identity and history.

Use System → Release Notes to review Administrator-facing changes from formal releases. Use System → Build Information when you need the version, commit, and build timestamp currently running. See Release Notes and Build Information.

  1. Open Club Profile and confirm Club Name, contact details, Run Position Terminology, Points Configuration, Active, Public Live Scoreboard settings, and Club Time Zone. Then open Club → Registration Settings and confirm the Online Registration policies.
  2. Create Rider Classes.
  3. Create Event Types.
  4. Create Seasons.
  5. Configure Membership Types, Membership Classifications, Membership Statuses, Payment Statuses, and Committees.
  6. Create Club Users for administrators, registration volunteers, and announcer/scribe users.
  7. Enter Members. Use the concise Members list for status checks and View for full read-only contact, membership, family, emergency, committee, notes, and top-level Membership Code details.
  8. Use Riders and Horses for off-event rider maintenance, including optional Preferred Name and the compatibility-only Legacy / Default Rider Class. First/Last Name remains authoritative; Registration entry class defines participation, while the list shows First Last (Preferred) and event-day/public screens use Preferred Last.

Use Possible Duplicates only for confirmed historical duplicates: open a candidate group, select Review Records to compare the exact Riders on that card, explicitly choose the canonical Rider and conflicting profile values, and cancel when identity is uncertain. Candidate cards always contain at least two distinct Rider records; there is no list-page selection step. Membership and same-gymkhana/same-class conflicts block reconciliation. See Reconciling Historical Duplicate Riders.

  1. Create Gymkhanas, assign each one to the correct Season, and configure an online-registration window only when needed.
  2. Use Configure Gymkhana Events to select events, set Run Order, and create Event Groups if needed. Group event order controls default row presentation; it does not require officials to complete a rider's constituent events in that order.
  3. Verify the public live link or QR page before sharing.

See Initial Club Setup.

The Registration Token is separate from the Public Live token. Regenerating one does not change the other. Use the generic Online Registration URL from Club → Registration Settings for general publication. For direct member communication, open View Member and copy Online Registration Link; it prefills the member's Membership Code but does not authenticate them. Secondary family members share the primary Family link. Regenerating a Membership Code invalidates previously distributed personalized links without changing the generic club URL. Before sharing registration links, confirm the intended gymkhana is active, enabled for online registration, and inside its configured online-registration window. See Online Registration Settings and Public Link and Member Records.

When creating or editing an Event Type, enter Description as plain text. Use the Pattern Rules and Penalty Rules formatting toolbars for basic headings, emphasis, lists, and links. Select Preview Rules to review those two unsaved rule fields, then Save Event Type when ready. See Maintaining Event Rules.

Create Volunteer Accounts

  1. Open People, then Users.
  2. Select Add User.
  3. Enter Display Name and Email/Login.
  4. Select Role: Administrator, Registration, or Announcer/Scribe.
  5. Enter Initial Password and Confirm Password.
  6. Leave Active checked unless the account should be disabled.
  7. Select Save User.

Use at least 16 characters. Long passphrases and spaces are allowed; no uppercase, number, or symbol formula is required. Common or easily guessed complete passwords are rejected. See Password Requirements.

Email/Login is not editable after account creation. Use Reset Password when a volunteer needs a new password. Use Deactivate instead of deleting accounts. Gymkhana Tools does not send invitation emails or self-service reset links.

If an Administrator's Email/Login must be corrected or the club has lost normal Administrator access, an authorized Platform Administrator can manage ordinary Administrator accounts from Platform Administration Club Detail. That support workflow can add an Administrator, edit Administrator Display Name or Email/Login, reset a password, and activate or deactivate the account while preserving at least one active Administrator. It cannot manage Registration or Announcer/Scribe users and does not let the Platform Administrator impersonate a club user.

See Managing Club Users.

Before Event Day

  1. Confirm Rider Classes and Event Types are correct.
  2. Confirm the Season date range includes the gymkhana date.
  3. Confirm the Gymkhana has the correct Season, Event Date, Status, Location, event-day Registration Opens/Closes, online-registration window if enabled, and Event Director information.
  4. Open Configure Gymkhana Events and confirm selected events, Run Order, and Event Groups.
  5. Confirm Membership Configuration options are ready.
  6. Confirm Members needed for lookup are Active or Pending, and confirm season-points members are Active and linked where appropriate.
  7. Confirm registration and announcer/scribe accounts can sign in.
  8. Confirm Public Live URL or Generate QR Code works before printing or sharing.

See Preparing a Gymkhana and Public Live Scoreboard.

Event-Day Administrator Checklist

  1. Confirm the club name after sign-in on every shared device.
  2. Confirm registration volunteers are using Gymkhana Registration for the correct gymkhana.
  3. Confirm financial status through Record Payment and Reconciliation. On Reconciliation, confirm the Gymkhana name/date selection (the current club's most recent Gymkhana is selected by default) before reviewing totals or combining Status, Pricing basis, Method, and Source filters. Handle Checked In on Add Competitor or Edit Competitor.
  4. Monitor Rider Match decisions, duplicate competitor warnings, and late scratches. If Add Competitor shows an inactive Rider or Membership Conflict, use Manage Riders to reactivate the Rider or deliberately correct the Rider/member link before Registration retries. See Adding a Competitor.
  5. Confirm scribe is on the correct gymkhana, Event, Class, and Run Type.
  6. When the event director approves a manual change, use Run Order Adjustment in Registration or Adjust Run Order in the Scribe Filters toolbar actions. Choose This Event (default), This and Remaining Events, or All Uncompleted Events in Class; multi-event scopes protect completed Events and warn before replacing differing targeted orders. A selected Event Group moves the rider's whole applicable group block for that class and run type; Primary and Additional Horse remain separate. Administrator and Announcer/Scribe users may use the Scribe action; this does not grant Announcer/Scribe users unrelated Registration access. The panel keeps its selectors independent and preserves an active result editor; moving a Re-Ride does not change readiness or choose scope automatically. See the User Guide for confirmation guidance.
  7. Do not regenerate the public live token during an event unless you intend to invalidate the old public URL and QR code.

After the Event

  1. Review Entries for Paid, Checked In, and scratch accuracy.
  2. Open Results in Scribe and review each Primary event/class; review Additional Horse Runs separately.
  3. Correct approved DQ, No Time, Scratch, or timing mistakes.
  4. Check Season Standings.
  5. Check Current Records.
  6. If your club uses status tracking, update the gymkhana Status to Closed or Completed.
  7. Note any documentation or workflow mismatch for correction in the application repository.

For a historical timing question, open System → Audit, select the Gymkhana, set Activity to Scribe, select the Event and/or Class, and choose Apply Filters. Re-Ride Required, Re-Ride Returned to Queue, and Result Recorded preserve the full Re-Ride sequence. Result Reset to Pending preserves the prior result removed from current competition state. Use View details to inspect the sequence. Read timestamps as approximate persistence times, not official arena timestamps. Use Older/Newer for more history and Clear Filters when finished. See Administrator Audit Log.

Once Status is no longer Open, Scribe and Public Live display the configured Draft, Closed, Completed, or Cancelled label instead of predicting a finish time. See Closing or Finishing a Gymkhana.

Essential Security Cautions

  • Do not share administrator accounts.
  • Do not post public live token values in support notes or screenshots.
  • Use separate logins for volunteers who work with multiple clubs.
  • Keep at least one active administrator in the club.
  • Deactivate accounts that should no longer sign in.

Configure Registration Fees

Open Club → Registration Settings. Review Online Registration, connect/configure the club seller under Online Payments when the deployment has Square available, save Default Registration Fees, maintain once-per-registration Additional Fixed Fees, and choose the club-wide adjustment setting under Financial Permissions. New Gymkhanas preview and pin current active defaults. On Edit Gymkhana, change the Registration Fees panel and select Save Gymkhana once. Reset Fees to Current Club Defaults only changes displayed values until Save Gymkhana is selected. See Registration Fees for the full workflow and historical-pricing protections.

For Square, select Connect Square, authorize the intended seller, choose an eligible active location, and save before enabling. Use Reconnect Square for Needs attention and Disconnect Square to disable and clear the local authorization. When Online Payments is enabled and usable, a positive public-registration quote opens Square-hosted checkout; verified Square payment confirmation then follows the configured automatic-acceptance or staff-review policy. Zero-dollar quotes and disabled or unconfigured payments retain direct submission. Returning from Square does not prove payment or complete registration. See Connect Square for Online Payments.

At the Registration desk, Administrator and Registration users record routine money received through Record Payment on the rider's Entries row. Use the page-level Reconciliation action to review one selected Gymkhana's totals and immutable history. It normally defaults to the current club's most recent Gymkhana; confirm the Gymkhana name/date selector before acting. Refunds and pricing-basis corrections remain Administrator-only; adjustment access follows Financial Permissions. See Payment Status and Checked In.