Starting BoosterHub for a New Club

Watch the full workshop recording above, then use this guide as your written recap and setup checklist. In about an hour, you can have a brand new club configured and ready to go.

Start Your Free Trial

If you are a brand new club, chances are you will start with a free trial at BoosterHub.com. To begin, you will answer a few questions:

• Your club name
• Your club email address
• Your name and personal email address (this is what you will use to log in)

Once you complete the trial signup, BoosterHub creates your club and pulls that information into your settings.

Step 1: Club Settings

Settings are the best place to start. Much of this will already be filled in from your trial signup, but take a moment to complete:

• Basic information: Address, activity type, website, and club email (your club email is separate from the personal email you log in with)
• Social media links: These appear at the top of your website when you publish it
• Logo: Upload your club logo to personalize your account
• Colors: BoosterHub starts you with basic colors, but you can set your exact club colors here

Save your changes and your club now carries your branding throughout the system.

Step 2: Accounting Settings

These settings matter because you will want to apply for a merchant account right away so you can accept payments through BoosterHub. At minimum, complete:

• EIN: Your club's federal tax ID
• Fiscal year start and end months: BoosterHub uses this to calculate your tax return due date
• Organization type: Most booster clubs are nonprofit corporations
• Tax rate: If you know your state and local tax rate, enter it here. You can then mark store items as taxable and BoosterHub will collect the right amount of tax on your behalf.

You will also see two areas worth returning to once your store and admins are set up:

• Alerts: Notify someone any time an online transaction occurs, or set alerts by category so the right person gets a message when a spirit wear item or sponsorship sells
• Accounting permissions: Set up check approvers and expense approvers (you can have one or two) and choose how they receive notifications. You will need those people added as users first.

Step 3: Foundational Documents

This is where you upload the documents your club will need from now until forever, so they are never lost on someone's Google Drive or in a binder:

• Foundational documents: Articles of incorporation and bylaws
• Federally required documents: Your most recent tax return and meeting minutes
• Recommended documents: Budget, insurance policy, and audit letter

If your club does not have insurance, you can request an insurance quote directly from this screen.

Step 4: BoosterHub Settings and Your USIO Merchant Account

In BoosterHub settings, you will see the plan you purchased and a receipts button for your subscription payments. At the bottom is the most important item for a new club: activating your USIO merchant account.

Do this right away. You will need:

• Your bank account number and routing number
• Your EIN
• Your basic business information

Approval typically takes one day, and up to two days at most. Once approved, you can open your store and accept payments through BoosterHub. A detailed tutorial with a video is available in the Help Center under BoosterHub Academy, Settings, USIO Merchant Account Setup. You can also ask Champ, "How do I set up my USIO account?"

Step 5: People, Custom Fields, and Tags

The People section is the heart of everything. Before adding anyone, think about what you want to know about your people.

Custom Fields

BoosterHub starts with basic demographics. Add custom fields for anything else you want to gather. Common examples include:

• Student graduation year (a drop-down list works best so people choose rather than type)
• T-shirt size
• Volunteer interests
• JV versus varsity, jersey number, instrument, or ensemble
• Emergency contact (leave this as a free-type text field)

General advice: whenever possible, make fields a drop-down or checkbox list rather than free text.

Tags

Tags let you categorize and communicate with groups of people. Create tags that match your custom fields, such as Class of 2027 and Class of 2028.

BoosterHub starts you with default tags you should understand:

• Members have a login. These are the people currently working in your booster club, and they will likely have the app on their phone.
• Non-members are your database. These are people you keep information on but who do not log in, such as vendors, donors, sponsors, community members, and alumni.

You can edit the default tags to fit your club. Many sports clubs change Player to Athlete or Student, and bands often change Coach to Director.

Bulk Tagging

Custom fields and tags work together. Filter your people list by a field (everyone with Class of 2027, for example), select all, and apply a tag to the whole group at once instead of tagging one by one.

Step 6: Add Your Admins

Once you have added at least one other person in People and invited them as a member, return to Settings to assign admins.

• You can make someone a master admin or choose permissions based on their role, so it does not have to be all or nothing
• We recommend at least two master admins

Admin settings also include toggles for how you want your BoosterHub system to work. Two important ones under Store let you pass credit card fees or ACH fees to the purchaser. Leave them off and your club pays the transaction fees, or turn them on and the fees are added to each purchase.

Step 7: Add Your People

You have three ways to get people into your system:

1. Add Contact: Add individuals one at a time
2. Add People Wizard: Upload a spreadsheet of people, whether they will have logins or just live in your database. Create custom fields to match your column headers and the wizard will map the data into the right places.
3. Registration: Build a registration page so people answer their own questions and you do not have to gather the information yourself

Step 8: Build Your Website

The webmaster is intentionally simple for people who do not build websites for a living.

Domain

Set up your free BoosterHub subdomain (yourclub.boosterhub.com). If you have a custom domain, you can point it here or transfer its management, or you can purchase a custom domain through BoosterHub.

Theme, Fonts, and Colors

Choose a theme in site settings. Your primary colors from club settings pull in automatically, and you can select fonts. You can change themes at any time. You can also add Google or Meta tags if your club uses them.

Pages and Blocks

Your homepage starts with a hero image, a call to action, a news section, and upcoming events. Use the layout tool to add, remove, and reorder blocks, then edit each block for both appearance and content.

Hero options include a single photo, a slider, a four-photo layout, a six-photo layout, and a photo collage. Every block works the same way: choose how it looks, then choose what it says and where its buttons link.

News items are added outside the page editor because adding news is a separate permission. You can allow someone to post news without giving them any other access.

When you are ready, publish your site to make it live.

Registration Pages

Create a registration page (for example, "Join Us") as a new page in the webmaster. At minimum, people provide first name, last name, email, and phone number. From there you can:

• Pull in your custom fields and mark them required or optional
• Automatically tag registrants (for example, as Parent)
• Add a second person, such as another parent or a student, and BoosterHub links them together as a family
• Keep registration free, or require payment of a membership or registration fee

New registrants go into a pending list for your approval, which keeps random people and bots out of your system. Once approved, they receive an email invitation to set up their login.

For paid registration, the page pulls from memberships you have built in your store, so build those first.

Step 9: Set Up Your Store

Your store starts empty. Begin by thinking about the categories of things you sell.

Category and Program Tags

Create category tags such as Donations, Sponsorships, and Spirit Items. Pro subscribers can also create program tags, such as Marching Band and Color Guard, or a tag for each sport. Both tag types route your sales dollars into the accounting system automatically.

Products

When you add a product, you will answer a few key questions:

• Where should the money be accounted for? Choose the accounting line (such as Merchandise), the program, and the category. BoosterHub routes every sale to the right place automatically.
• Price and tax: Set the price and mark the item taxable if needed
• Inventory: If you have a box of items in front of you, enter how many you have and BoosterHub will not oversell. If you are taking orders, leave quantity unlimited.
• Sizes: Use the size picker for apparel, with different prices for larger sizes if needed and inventory counts per size
• Options and add-ons: Add custom questions to any item, such as "Who is picking up this shirt?" as a required text question, or a yes or no add-on like "Name on the back" for an additional charge. You can also ask buyers to upload files, such as a permission slip or a sponsor logo.

You can also combine products into packages, such as a hoodie and hat bundle.

Memberships

Build memberships in the store for use on paid registration pages. Each membership can include products (a family membership that comes with a hoodie, for example), route money to a line such as Membership Dues, and carry its own price.

Merchandise System

Beyond selling items you already own, you can create spirit wear and other merchandise directly in BoosterHub. There are no minimum orders and no design upload fees. You see the base price of each item and set your own profit margin. If nothing sells, it costs you nothing. The system will warn you if your uploaded image quality is too low.

Every subscription year also includes two free custom designs from our designer. Send a contact form through the Help Center with your logo and inspiration to get started.

Step 10: Set Up Your Accounting

You do not need to master everything on day one, but a few steps will get you started well.

Chart of Accounts

BoosterHub starts you with a chart of accounts suitable for a nonprofit. Add lines specific to your club:

• Income: What do you expect to bring money in on? A common early addition is a Sponsorships line as a sub of Contributions.
• Programs: Fees tied to the essential purpose of your club, such as player fees or uniform fees, as opposed to membership dues
• Expenses: What do you expect to spend money on?

Bank Accounts and Starting Balance

Edit the default bank account name to match your real account (Chase Checking, for example) and add any additional accounts such as savings.

Then enter your starting balance. Set your fiscal year first, then add a Starting Balance transaction dated the first of the month you are beginning your accounting in BoosterHub. From that point forward, income and expenses add and subtract from that balance in your ledger.

Income and Expenses

• Income through BoosterHub flows in automatically. Every store sale routes to the line you chose when you built the item.
• Outside income and expenses can be entered two ways. Add transactions manually (a deposited donation check, a debit card purchase, or a written check), or sync your bank account. Bank sync sends transactions to your Transaction Hub, where you categorize them instead of typing them in. Many banks are supported through the network we use.

Either way, getting everything into BoosterHub means you can run a 990 report at the end of your fiscal year that pulls in all income and expenses, so you are ready for your taxes.

Submitted Expenses and Prepaid Debit Cards

Your people can submit reimbursement requests and invoices with receipts attached, which route to your check approver. As a perk of the USIO merchant account, you can also issue reusable prepaid debit cards, such as one for your concessions manager or a coach with team meal money loaded. Those card transactions flow into the Transaction Hub automatically and match to submitted receipts.

Reconcile Every Month

Your goal is to be clear, be transparent, and reconcile every month. Enter the ending balance from your bank statement, check off each transaction that appears on the statement, and work to a zero difference. Upload the bank statement with your reconciliation and everything stays clear and transparent for the people who come after you.

Step 11: Calendar and Volunteering

Add events one at a time or import a calendar (Google Calendars import best). Your people can also subscribe to the calendar.

When you create an event, build the volunteer opportunities directly on it. Add as many shifts as you need, such as setup, concessions, and cleanup, each with times, headcounts, and instructions like which door to use and what to bring. Published events and volunteer signups appear on the app and on your website calendar.

Step 12: Email and Communication

Create as many email templates as you want. Templates pull in your colors and logo automatically, and you can add text boxes and images to build things like a weekly newsletter template, or separate templates for baseball, football, band, or color guard.

When you send an email, choose a template, add your content, and send to individual people or by tag. You can require multiple tags (volunteer parents, for example, must have both tags to receive it), and BoosterHub blind copies recipients for you.

A Note on Card Readers and Terminals

You cannot connect a card reader you already own. Merchant account systems are proprietary and do not work with each other. BoosterHub offers two terminals that work with USIO, available for purchase at the bottom of BoosterHub settings:

• P8: A standalone terminal that runs the concession screen directly on the device
• P12: Pairs with your phone, tablet, or laptop. You run the concession screen on your device and process cards on the P12.

The benefit of running concessions through BoosterHub is the same as everything else in the store: sales route automatically into your accounting under Concessions, and inventory counts down as you sell, so your treasurer never has to enter those transactions by hand.

Where to Get Help

• Champ: Ask Champ questions like "How do I set up my USIO account?" and she will pull answers from the Help Center and send you the relevant videos.
• Help Center and BoosterHub Academy: Bite-size setup videos on specific tasks, plus full workshop recordings (including this one) posted under Workshops.
• Contact us: The support desk is watched in shifts, including evenings and weekends. If you have a question, cannot find an answer, or something is not working, send a contact form. If it is not something we can answer directly, we will send you a link to set up a call.

There are no universal best practices for booster clubs because every club is different and we are all volunteer parents doing the best we can. If your question is "here is how we do this thing, how would we do it in BoosterHub," send it in and we will brainstorm a creative way to get it done.

You are building infrastructure that the boosters who come after you will inherit and thank you for. Take it one step at a time, and reach out whenever you need us.