- Your Fitness Business Management (FBM) software should have a payment processing option that can make running and managing your fitness business much easier.
- These all-in-one software options should also have a variety of other features that are useful to manage your fitness business.
- It’s important to choose an FBM software that has payment processing plus the other features you, your staff, and employees need, like workout creation and delivery, administrative options and reports, customization, performance health assessments, and e-commerce.
Gym payment processing software is a necessity for any fitness business that collects payments, collects membership fees, or sells packages (online or in-person). Most fitness business management (FBM) software options include payment processing, so it’s important to consider what other features you will need and use to manage your business. That way you only need one software to run your business, instead of multiple options.
Ready to see how Exercise.com can help you manage your fitness business with payment processing options plus many additional features that are useful? Schedule a free demo today.
Why Do You Need Gym Payment Processing Software?
All fitness businesses need some type of payment processing software. Gym payment processing software allows you to accept payments safely and easily, including cash, checks, debit cards, or credit cards. These payment options can be accepted online or in-person.
There are some FBM software options, like ABC Financial (DataTrek), EZFacility, and PaySimple, that focus on payment processing and have some other limited features as well. If you use one of these options, you will need additional software to effectively manage your fitness businesses because these are not all-in-one options. This means staff and employees will have to be trained and have to understand how to use more than one software at your facility.
The following table has a list of many of the FBM software options, payment processing options included with the software, and some other key fitness business management features listed.
Of the many FBM software options, Exercise.com is the only software that allows for full customization, numerous workout creation and delivery options, customer support, e-commerce options, and performance health assessments.
Of course, with so many FBS options, you should also consider the other features that will be useful. Those features should include fitness business management, customization, mobile apps, workout creation and delivery, e-commerce, and performance assessments.
Fitness Business Management Features
Key FBM software features include calendars and booking for classes or packages, safe and secure payments, and increasing business efficiency and revenue. These features allow you to run your business with ease and ensure your time and the time of your employees is spent with clients and/or members or marketing your business, not wasting time on business processes.
– Calendars and Booking
Your gym software should make it easy to set up calendars for classes and appointments and allow clients and members to seamlessly book these from the calendar.
Exercise.com allows you to set a trainer’s availability, track visits, book classes or appointments, provide recurring appointment reminders via email and text, and offer calendar integration with Google and Apple for easy management.
– Accepting Payments Securely and Easily
Exercise.com makes it easy to set up packages for your personal training where clients can pay a one-time or recurring fee or membership with cash, check, or credit card. You can also allow online purchasing of packages and run business and sales reports from your dashboard.
– Increase Business Efficiency and Revenue
Exercise.com’s Fitness Business Management (FBM) software makes reports easy with sales, business, appointments, class, and payroll reports all in one place. There are endless marketing integrations available to help develop relationships with new clients and connect with current clients.
Custom-Branded Web and Smartphone Apps
An all-in-one software should have options for customized web dashboards and smartphone apps, automation, security features, and the ability to add integrations. The features are important for keeping you competitive, engaging members and clients, and ensuring that all sensitive data is safe and secure.
– Automation
Automation allows you to make the software work for you, instead of the other way around. You can set up automatic notifications via text or email reminders.
Exercise.com not only offers automated reminders, but also offers automated workout delivery options, automated performance assessment options, automated payment options, and automated reporting.
– Security Features
Your sensitive data, as well as the data of your clients and members, should be safe and secure. With so many recent issues of compromised bank account information, credit card information, and social security numbers, you should be able to ensure the safety of your data.
Exercise.com uses the following features to ensure the safety of members and facility data, including SSL Secure, Privacy Shield Framework, and Google Cloud.
– Fully Customized
Some FBM software options allow basic customization of the mobile app and dashboard, like logos or colors. This is usually offered with an additional fee.
Exercise.com offers a variety of features with its mobile apps, including automation, security, and integrations. In addition, mobile app customization is available for all customers, so there is no need to pay an additional monthly fee for that benefit.
– Integrations and Add-ons
Exercise.com also has endless integrations and continues to add more regularly. Power your business by connecting to Zapier, Stripe, YouTube, Vimeo, MailChimp, ConvertKit, ConstantContact, Refersion, Intercom, and more.
Workout Creation and Delivery
Personal trainers and group fitness instructors can use their FMB software to develop and deliver workouts for their clients, access an exercise library, and have the ability to automate the delivery of workout and nutrition plans.
With Exercise.com, personal trainers can deliver workouts to clients near and far using a customizable workout creator and exercise library and automated delivery to clients. Imagine designing workouts for clients in another state, planning a program specific to their fitness goals, and having that automatically delivered to them based on their workout routine and schedule.
Clients and trainers can track and log workouts for easy viewing of progress toward goals and to see short-term and long-term results.
– Deliver Workouts for Any Scenario
Wouldn’t it be great to develop and deliver workouts for clients that travel or those who want to do a quick workout at home before the kids wake up in the morning?
Exercise.com allows you to create and send workouts to anyone, anywhere, anytime.
– Customized Workout Design and Library
Personal trainers and clients or members would benefit from an exercise library built into their FBM software. Exercise.com has a large exercise library with videos, instructions, and muscles worked, with the option to add additional exercises that may not be in the library.
– Automated Delivery
A few FBM software systems have automated delivery options, allowing trainers and fitness professionals to set up automatic reminders or deliver workout or nutrition plans to their clients.
Exercise.com offers numerous automation options. Personal trainers can send workouts and performance assessment data to clients automatically. For example, if a fitness enthusiast wants to work out two times a week from their office gym, the trainer can set up those workouts to send automatically to the client.
– Workout Challenges
One really cool feature that a few FBM software options offer is workout challenges. Exercise.com client, Madeline Moves, offers workout challenges through her website and mobile app. Her last challenge was 30 days; participants did the same workout schedule, had similar nutrition plans, and built a community through a Facebook page.
Workout challenges are a great way to build loyalty, motivate clients, create a new source of revenue, and drive new clients to your membership or workout e-commerce options.
Grow and manage your fitness business better with Exercise.com
E-Commerce and Point-of-Sale
E-commerce and point-of-sale allow for an additional revenue stream for your fitness business. You can sell retail items, supplements, or other goods and services. It’s easy to sell membership plans and packages for members to purchase right from their mobile app or web dashboard.
Exercise.com has numerous e-commerce features built into our all-in-one software including features to sell memberships or training packages to clients in your facility as well as virtual clients that may be from across the nation. Payments can also be automatic or recurring, as well as in-person or online.
Another great feature of Exercise.com is the option to sell specialized or customized workout plans to anyone, anywhere. Let’s say you are a personal trainer and you have had excellent results with a golf strengthening and conditioning program that you developed locally, but you are ready to take it to the next level. Exercise.com has the option for you to sell this specialized program to anyone in the world so they can view and complete the program on their own if they desire.
Personal trainers can also deliver customized training programs to their clients, set up recurring workouts to be delivered as the client chooses, and set up workout challenges for current or new clients.
Performance Assessments
Performance health assessments give fitness professionals baseline data from their clients that will help build an effective workout program and keep them on track to meet their health and fitness goals. Exercise enthusiasts can use assessments to understand their current level of fitness and then improve upon that level to reach their various fitness objectives.
– The Value of Assessments
Assessments are a great tool to gather baseline information about a client, which can then be used to create a customized workout plan for them. There are many performance and fitness assessments and the ones chosen can be based on the client’s goals and abilities.
Performance assessments also help cultivate a relationship between trainer and client and enhance client loyalty. Personal trainers and fitness professionals can also share assessment data with clients to help increase motivation and track improvement over time.
– Complete Assessments for Clients
There are many performance and fitness assessments in the fitness arena for use with clients. Some focus on strength, some on endurance, and some on sports-specific skills. Choosing the right assessment is important and depends on the overall fitness goals of your client.
Exercise.com offers options for performing assessments and recording assessment results easily and sharing them effortlessly with clients. This baseline information can help you create a proper workout plan for your clients and can help them stay on track to meet their individual fitness goals.
– Automate Client Engagement With Assessments
From a baseline assessment, personal trainers can create a customized workout program tailored to their clients, which can be automated. The great thing is that you can set up automatic delivery of the assessment data to re-assess clients, keep them engaged, and keep them motivated to reach their fitness goals.
The Bottom Line
To stay competitive in the fitness industry, you need a gym payment processing option for memberships, packages, or sessions. There are standalone software options that focus solely on payment processing and may have a few other limited features, like ABC Financial or Pay Simple. If you choose one of those options, you will need additional software for membership management, scheduling, administrative functions, and workout software for personal trainers.
Most of the fitness business software options that tout being an all-in-one solution have payment processing functions as part of their software package. Because it is a common inclusion, you will want to choose the best software for your business that has the features you need and will use.
When you review the most popular software options available, Exercise.com stands out as the best bet as a true all-in-one software option because of it’s numerous features and customization options.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
– What about safety and security issues that come along with collecting payments?
You want to ensure that the gym payment processing software that you are using has the top security and privacy settings. SSL Secure, Google Framework, and Privacy Shield are features that you should look for in a payment processing software.
– Would it be cheaper to purchase a stand-alone gym payment processing software?
Yes, it would, but you would also need to purchase additional software for scheduling and administrative reports and processes. Then, you would need another for personal trainers and fitness professionals to use to develop and deliver workout and nutrition plans and another for performance assessments. An all-in-one FBM software will cost more but you will have everything you need in one place.
– Is gym payment processing software hard to set up?
It depends on the software you choose, but most have customer service to assist with set up. With Exercise.com, all you need to do is follow our success team’s proven process. We will deliver your custom-branded, all-in-one fitness business software, and you can do what you do best!
– What if I don’t have the budget?
Exercise.com is an all-in-one fitness business software that allows you to grow your business as much as you’d like. You should strike while the iron is hot by investing in a workout platform that will help you scale your business, earn more revenue, retain and engage your clients, and save you time running your business.
Ready to schedule a free demo with Exercise.com to see how we can help you generate more revenue and manage your fitness business efficiently? Fill out this form to get started!