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How-to guide

Meet Entries and Fees

Declare your athletes, pick their events, calculate per-family fees, and export a meet-ready SDIF file — all in one session. Here's the full workflow.

About 15 minutes

For: Coaches, Club admins

Why this matters

Meet entries are the single most painful part of running a team. Spreadsheets, group texts, parent approvals, missed deadlines, incorrect seed times, surprise fees — all of that goes away when you declare entries in Beyond the Blocks. Seed times pull from personal bests automatically, fees calculate from the entry count, parents approve in-app, and the final SDIF (HY3/SD3) file downloads with one tap.

Step-by-step

  1. 1

    Add the meet to your calendar

    Go to Meets → Add Meet. Enter the meet name, date, location, course (SCY/SCM/LCM), entry fee per event (usually $5–$10), and any flat meet fees (like a facility fee). Tap Save. The meet is now on every athlete and parent's schedule.

    Add meet form

  2. 2

    Open the meet's Entries tab

    Tap the meet, then tap Entries. You'll see your whole roster with checkboxes for each event in the meet's event list.

  3. 3

    Declare events for each athlete

    Check the events you want each athlete to swim. Seed times auto-populate from their personal bests in the correct course. You can override any seed time by tapping it. Most coaches declare 4–6 events per athlete for a standard weekend meet.

    You'll know it worked when

    Each athlete's row shows their selected events with seed times filled in.

  4. 4

    Review the per-family fee breakdown

    Tap the Fees tab. BTB calculates fees per family based on the number of entries — if the entry fee is $7 and an athlete has 5 events, that family owes $35 plus any flat meet fees. Review the breakdown, make adjustments if needed (some clubs exempt first-year families from facility fees, for example).

  5. 5

    Send parents their approvals

    Tap Send Approvals. Every parent on your roster gets a push notification and email showing the events you entered their swimmer in and the total fee. Parents have until the entry deadline to approve or request changes. Until they approve, the entry is marked 'Pending parent'.

  6. 6

    Charge the approved families

    Once parents approve, tap Charge Families. If you have Stripe Connect set up, this runs the cards and posts the meet fee to every family's invoice portal. Refusals and declined cards show up in a clear list so you can follow up.

    Need to connect Stripe first?

    You'll know it worked when

    The Fees tab shows every family marked 'Paid' or 'Pending'. Your Stripe dashboard shows the incoming charges.

  7. 7

    Export the SDIF file for the meet director

    Tap Export → SDIF/HY3/SD3. Download the file and email it to the meet director. That's it — you're done.

Troubleshooting

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