Gym chain management: rules, roles and branch reports

Gym chain management means applying the same rule the same way at every branch and being able to see each branch's figures separately. In GamGym rules are written once for the whole business, branch exceptions are entered on top, staff are tied to branches, and reports filter branch by branch.

This post is for businesses with five, ten or more branches. We covered the difference between a branch and a sub-dealer, and how sub-dealers work, in multi-branch gyms and sub-dealers; here we look at day-to-day operation at chain scale.

The difference between two branches and eight

With two branches the owner knows both front desks and sorts out problems by phone. With eight, that job falls to rules rather than people. If a member in debt is let in at one branch and stopped at the door of another, the problem isn't the staff; it's that the rule isn't written down.

At chain scale there are four things to settle early: which rules are the same everywhere, who can do what at which branch, how figures are compared, and how a new branch is brought onto the system. The sections below follow that order.

Rules: business-wide, with branch exceptions

The Settings › Rules screen in the panel collects the business's policies in one place: the class cancellation window, the no-show penalty, what happens at the door to a member in debt, whether hitting capacity warns or blocks. A setting made without choosing a branch applies across the business.

Some rules can also be set per branch. When you pick a branch on the screen, only the rules that can vary by branch are listed, and only a value that differs from the business-wide one is saved for that branch. For example, you can keep the grace period for members in debt at 7 days across the business and cut it to 3 days at a branch full of students. Everything else comes from the business level.

Membership plans work the same way. When you define a plan you choose whether it's valid at all branches or selected ones. The "all branches" plan becomes the chain's main product; a member with a single-branch plan who scans at another branch's door is refused with the reason "not valid at this branch", and the desk sees why on screen.

Workout program templates belong to the business too. A starter program written by the head trainer at headquarters reaches the trainers at every branch as the same template.

Staff: tied to branches, permissions by role

You assign each staff member to one or more branches, or to all of them. Restricted staff can only pick their own branches in the panel and see those branches' classes, till and lists. Because the member record belongs to the business, they can still open the record of a member visiting from another branch.

Roles set the permissions. The built-in roles are Company Manager, Branch Manager, Reception, Accounting, Trainer (PT), Dietitian and Staff. Reception registers members, sells, takes payments, runs the till and lets people through the door manually. A Branch Manager can also issue refunds, apply manual discounts, extend memberships and see reports. The Accounting role looks at payments, the till and the accounting screens without registering members. On the Professional and Chain plans you can define your own roles as well, for instance a café role that only sells from the shop.

Staff scan in at the door with QR too. On the Professional and Chain plans those scans become a timesheet, so you don't collect eight branches' attendance from separate books.

Gym chain management by the numbers: branch by branch

The branch switcher at the top of the panel filters lists and dashboard numbers by the branch you pick; with "All branches" selected you see the chain's total. The collections report breaks down by payment method and branch and puts the same month's branches side by side. Membership reports show renewals and 30, 60 and 90-day retention, which is where you see member churn starting.

The till belongs to a branch. Each branch opens and closes its own day, and any gap between counted and expected cash is recorded against that branch. Which branch's till was off at last night's close is clear at headquarters the next morning.

During the day the live access screen works per branch: how many people are inside right now, how many entries and denials there have been today. With the hourly heatmap on the Professional and Chain plans you can see at what hour each branch's occupancy peaks. That's how you decide which branch needs an extra trainer, and when.

Shop: one catalog, prices and stock per branch

The shop is part of the Professional and Chain plans. There's one product catalog, but prices and stock are kept per branch. Water can sell for more at a branch inside a shopping mall. If protein powder runs out at one branch while it sits on the shelf at another, a transfer moves it, and stock counts are done branch by branch.

On the Chain plan members can order shop products in advance in the portal and pick them up at the branch they choose. Payment is taken at pickup, at the gym; online card payment isn't live yet.

A rollout plan for your branches

Moving eight branches on the same day is an unnecessary risk. The order we suggest:

1. Pick a pilot branch: a mid-sized membership and a team open to change.
2. Before the pilot, write the business-wide rules, plans and roles. Add the branch-specific ones afterwards.
3. Select the pilot branch in the panel and import that branch's member list as CSV; imported members are linked to the selected branch. Each file can be up to 5 MB and 5,000 rows, so save Excel files as CSV first.
4. Pair a tablet at the door, assign staff to the branch, and leave the door rules on their defaults for the first week.
5. After two weeks, check the denial report and the collections report and adjust the rules.
6. Move the remaining branches two or three at a time, using the same checklist for every wave.

Picture a chain with 8 branches and 6,000 members in total. The pilot branch runs for two weeks, the other seven branches move in three waves, and the whole thing is done in six or seven weeks. Leaving a week between waves keeps the questions from one wave out of the next.

The details of moving data are in moving from Excel to gym software, and hardware choice for branches with turnstiles is in gym turnstile systems. Tablet QR entry is in every plan, and because tablets don't count toward the access point limit, adding branches doesn't add a per-door charge.

Franchises and sub-dealers

If other owners run some of your locations, they're set up in GamGym as sub-dealers rather than branches: a separate business, separate member data, shared limits across the network. Sub-dealers come with the Chain plan. How they work is covered in multi-branch gyms and sub-dealers.

What doesn't exist yet

A report that adds up all sub-dealers' figures on one screen at headquarters, headquarters logging into a sub-dealer's panel for oversight, and locking sub-dealer prices aren't available today. Each sub-dealer sees its own reports in its own panel. The member import doesn't read Excel files directly; it needs CSV. Online card payment and SMS sending aren't live yet either.

More than 10 branches: the enterprise offer

There's a separate enterprise page for chains with more than ten branches, public facilities and residential projects. The software is the same; the difference is the service. The offer includes a dedicated contact during business hours, opening training at headquarters plus one on-site visit per region, data migration that keeps card numbers, a monthly usage report, a read-only copy of your data whenever you ask, and your logo and colour in the panel. The price is fixed for the contract year, and any increase at renewal stays within CPI. 99.5% monthly uptime and a response within 2 business hours to critical issues during business hours are a written commitment.

What's excluded is stated plainly on the page too: 24/7 support, single sign-on (SSO), installation on your own servers and custom development. The minimum contract is 12 months. There's no published price; when you fill in the form the team calls you to set up a half-hour introductory call, and the written offer follows that call.

Which plan fits

Chains of up to ten branches run on the standard plans. The tool below shows which gym plan's limits fit your member and branch counts; extra branches and other add-ons are in the pricing table.

Common mistakes

Opening a separate business for each branch. A location with the same till and the same owner is a branch. Open separate businesses and the member record splits, so a member of one branch is a stranger at another's door.

Giving everyone access to all branches. Tie each receptionist to the branch they work at and each branch manager to their own branch. Keep all-branch access for the headquarters team.

Piling up branch exceptions. If every branch has a different debt tolerance and a different cancellation window, members won't see the chain as one brand. Keep exceptions for branches that really are different.

Rolling out without a pilot. You end up solving the first branch's questions at eight branches at once.

Getting started

Apply on the for gyms page. Our team opens your account, the 14-day trial starts, and you can set up your pilot branch during the trial. Compare plans in the pricing table; if you have more than 10 branches, go straight to the enterprise quote form.