Common tasks
Register a new member
Registering a member and getting a signed contract are the same job. A member you have entered into Omoplata is not yet a member of your club -- they become one the moment the contract is signed. This guide covers how to create the record, how the member signs, and what each signing method means for you.
The rule behind everything
Almost every way of adding a member follows the same shape:
- You (or the member) enter the member's details and pick a plan.
- The membership is created with the status New. It is not active yet.
- The member signs the contract.
- The membership flips to Active and the welcome email goes out.
Between steps 2 and 3 the member exists in your member list, but nothing is billed and no welcome email is sent. The signature is what activates the membership.
The only exception is a contract that was already signed on paper -- see Already signed on paper.
Step 1: Open the creation wizard
The creation wizard is the way to register a member, whether they are standing in front of you or not. It is available from two places, and both follow the same steps:
| Location | Description |
|---|---|
| Admin dashboard | Navigate to Members and click Add Member. |
| Tablet station | Use the new member registration on the station interface at your front desk. |
Converting a lead
If the person already exists as a lead, convert them instead of starting from scratch -- their details are pre-filled and the rest of this guide applies unchanged. See Manage leads.
Step 2: Enter personal details
- Enter the member's first name and last name.
- Enter their email address. This is used for portal login, notifications, and invoices.
- Enter their date of birth (optional but recommended -- it determines the correct demographic and age group for pricing).
- Enter their phone number (optional).
Email is optional in some configurations
If your club has the "email required" setting disabled, members can be created without an email address. They can add it later during onboarding. This is useful for walk-in registrations where you do not want to slow down the process.
“Email is already taken”
If this message appears, the address is already stored in the system -- usually for a responsible (parent) who has already registered a child at the club. In that case, do not create a new member. Instead, search for the person using the left-hand search bar, open the Membership tab and add a membership there. The existing details and the payment method already in use are carried over, so all that is left is the contract signature.
Step 3: Select a membership plan
- The wizard shows the available plans filtered by the member's demographic and age group.
- Select the plan (for example, "Jiu-Jitsu Adults").
- Select the plan price based on the contract duration and billing frequency the member prefers (for example, "12 months, monthly, 89.00").
- If only one option exists for a given selection (one contract duration, one frequency, one age group), it is selected automatically.
Step 4: Configure billing
- Set the start date for the membership. This can be today, a past date, or a future date.
- Select the payment day from the options your club has configured (for example, the 1st or 15th of the month). The first billing date is calculated automatically as the first occurrence of the chosen day after the start date.
- Review the pro-rated charge: if the start date falls before the first billing date, a pro-rated charge is listed covering the partial period.
- Review sign-up fees: if the plan has sign-up fees, they are listed with their names and amounts. A checkbox allows you to skip the sign-up fees if needed (for example, during a promotion).
Step 5: Set up the payment method
- Select the member's payment method from the types your club has enabled (SEPA direct debit, bank transfer, cash, etc.).
- For SEPA direct debit, enter the IBAN and account holder name. Omoplata attempts to look up the BIC automatically. A mandate is created with the current date.
- For other methods, follow the on-screen prompts.
Step 6: Choose how the contract gets signed, and finish
Review the summary showing the member's details, selected plan, billing configuration, and payment method. Before you can save, Omoplata asks you how the contract will be handled. This is the most important choice in the whole flow -- see the three contract options below.
Click Create member to complete the registration. The system creates the member, membership, initial transactions (including any pro-rated or sign-up fee charges), and the payment method.
Membership can be optional
If your club has the "skip membership" option enabled, the wizard allows skipping the membership step. The member is created without a plan and can be assigned one later -- and with no plan there is no membership and therefore no contract to sign. When this setting is disabled, selecting a membership is mandatory.
The three contract options
On their own device
The member gets an email with a link and signs at home, in their own time.
Already signed on paper
The contract exists on paper already. The membership goes active immediately.
At a glance:
| On the tablet | On their own device | Already signed on paper | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Membership status after you save | New | New | Active |
| Contract PDF generated | Yes | Yes | No |
| Email sent to the member | No -- they are standing in front of you | Yes -- an invitation with the signing link | No |
| When it becomes active | When they sign, usually within minutes | When they sign, in their own time | Immediately |
| Withdrawal period applies | Normally no | Yes -- 14 days | Depends on how it was signed |
Option A: Sign on the tablet
Use this when the member is physically at your club -- a walk-in, or a trial member who has decided to join. It is the fastest route and the one with the fewest loose ends: the member never leaves without an active membership.
Once you save, the tablet shows a hand over screen. Pass it to the member and they complete the onboarding flow themselves. No email is sent -- they are right there.
For children, hand the tablet to the parent
Where the member is a minor or their demographic requires a payer, the tablet is handed to the responsible adult, never the child -- a child cannot enter payment details or sign a contract. The guardian's name appears on the signature line and the contract is signed by them.
Option B: Sign on their own device
Use this when the member is not with you -- they enquired by phone, they want to think it over, or they need to fetch their IBAN from home. This saves you data entry and gives them app access from day one.
Omoplata emails them a personal signing link, and also shows it on screen for you to copy. If the member is a minor, the email goes to the guardian, since they are the one who has to sign. They then complete the onboarding flow themselves.
The link is single-use
Sending a new invitation invalidates any previous link for that member, and the link stops working once onboarding is complete. If a member says their link is dead, just send a new invitation.
Follow up on members who have not signed yet
The membership stays at New until the member signs, so billing only starts once they have agreed to the contract. Filter your member list by the New status now and again to see who still needs a nudge -- a quick reminder is usually all it takes.
Option C: Already signed on paper
Use this for members who signed a paper contract, or who are moving over from your previous system with their payment details already in place. Picking this means:
- The membership is active immediately -- no signing step.
- No contract PDF is generated and no signature is captured. Your paper original is the contract of record. You can upload a scan to the member's profile to keep everything together.
- No invitation or welcome email is sent.
Only for contracts that already exist
Pick this option only when a signed contract genuinely exists on paper. If the member has not signed yet, use one of the two signing options above -- that way the membership is backed by a contract you can produce later.
What the member does during onboarding
Both signing methods lead to the same self-service flow -- the only difference is whose device it runs on:
- Welcome -- they confirm their basic information.
- Membership selection -- they choose a plan and pricing, if you did not already select one.
- Terms and contract -- they read the contract and sign with their finger or mouse. A PDF is generated with their signature and your club's logo.
- Medical questions -- optional health questionnaire, if enabled.
- Payment setup -- they configure their payment method and accept the payment terms.
- Profile picture -- optional photo upload.
- Completion -- the membership goes active and they land on the portal dashboard.
The 14-day withdrawal period
This is the real difference between the two signing methods, and it is a legal one rather than a technical one.
When a member signs on their own device, the contract is concluded without both parties being physically present. Under German law that makes it a distance contract (Fernabsatzvertrag, § 312c BGB), and a consumer signing a distance contract generally has a statutory 14-day right of withdrawal (Widerrufsrecht, § 355 BGB). Within those 14 days they can walk away from the contract without giving a reason and without penalty.
When a member signs on the tablet at your club, you are both present on your business premises. That is neither a distance contract nor an off-premises contract, so the statutory withdrawal right normally does not apply at all.
This is why the tablet is the safer option when the member is already standing in front of you.
What you have to do about it
You must inform the member of their withdrawal right (Widerrufsbelehrung). This matters more than it sounds: if you do not inform them properly, the 14-day period does not simply run out -- it can extend to up to 12 months and 14 days (§ 356 (3) BGB), leaving the contract cancellable for the better part of a year.
Put your withdrawal notice in your contract text
Your contract template is what delivers the withdrawal notice to the member, so it needs to contain one. Add it in Settings > Legal, and since you keep a separate template per demographic, check each template you use for remote signing.
Omoplata stores the signing date on the membership and generates the signed PDF, which is what you need to evidence when the period began. Tracking the deadline itself is up to you.
Not legal advice
The above is a general description of the German rules and is not legal advice. Requirements differ by country, and the details of your own contracts are your responsibility. Have your contract templates -- and particularly your withdrawal notice -- reviewed by a lawyer.
Where the contract text comes from
Your contract text lives in Settings > Legal. You store one contract template per member demographic, so adults and children can be given different terms.
The template is written in Markdown and supports three placeholders, filled in when the contract is generated:
| Placeholder | Replaced with |
|---|---|
{{ member }} | The member's full name |
{{ plan }} | The name of the selected plan |
{{ club }} | Your club's name |
You do not need to write the header yourself. Omoplata builds it automatically from your legal details and the member's record: your club's legal name, address, contact details and tax numbers, the member's name, date of birth and address, the guardian's details where applicable, and a membership block listing the plan, start date, contract duration, price, billing interval and any fees.
What the member sees is what they get
The signing screen renders the contract from the exact same template as the final PDF, so the preview the member reads and the document they end up with are always identical.
Registering a child member
The process for registering a child follows the same wizard, with additional steps for the guardian.
- Start the wizard as normal and enter the child's details.
- When the system detects the member is a minor (based on age or demographic), it prompts for the primary responsible (parent or guardian).
- Enter the guardian's name and email. The guardian's email must differ from the child's email to avoid duplicate login issues. If the guardian already exists in the system, they are linked automatically.
- The guardian becomes the payer for the membership, signs the contract, and receives all billing-related notifications.
- Both the guardian and the child (if they have an email) get access to the mobile app and portal. The guardian sees a centralized family dashboard with their own membership and all their children's information in one place.
One responsible, several children
Each child is a member in their own right, and you register each one through the wizard above, entering the same guardian's details each time. Omoplata links them to the same responsible automatically, and the guardian pays for and manages all of them from one family dashboard.
Adding secondary responsibles
After the child member is created, you can add additional guardians (for example, a second parent, grandparent, or nanny):
- Go to the child's member profile.
- Find the responsibles section.
- Add a secondary responsible by entering their name and email.
- Secondary responsibles get access to view the child's profile, classes, and attendance through the mobile app and the portal, but they are not the payer.
For more on how primary and secondary responsibles work, see Dependents.
Other ways members reach your club
Not everyone arrives through the wizard:
- From your club website. The trial form on your website creates a lead, capturing the person's interest so you can follow up. Once they decide to join, convert the lead and pick a contract option exactly as above. See Manage leads.
- From an import. Members brought over from your previous system arrive as active members with their existing history intact. They keep the contract they already signed with you, so no new signature, sign-up fee, or welcome email is applied -- their membership simply continues.
- From your own website via the API. If you have built sign-up directly into your site, it collects the signature and sends it with the registration, and the contract PDF is generated just as it would be here. Because that is a distance sale, the withdrawal period applies. See Integrate with your website.
Renewing an expiring contract
Contracts do not renew silently. Omoplata raises a contract expiring alert ahead of the end date -- 30 days by default, configurable under membership settings -- and you decide what happens:
- Keep as is -- nothing changes, no new signature.
- Change terms -- adjust the membership without a new contract.
- New contract -- a fresh contract that the member must sign.
Only the last option involves signing, and it offers the same choice you already know: send it by email, or have them sign on the tablet next time they train. Each signed contract is kept against the membership it belongs to, so renewals do not overwrite the original.
After registration
Once a member is registered and the contract is signed:
- The contract PDF is generated and stored against that membership, with the signature rendered into the document. You can download it from the member's profile at any time; the member (and their payer) can download their own copy from the portal.
- Transactions are created based on the membership's billing schedule. If the membership starts in the past, historical charges are generated.
- Invoices are generated for each transaction.
- The welcome email is sent -- to the guardian where there is one, and to the member if they have an email address.
- The member can log in to the portal to view their schedule, billing history, and profile.
Verify the new member
- Go to Members and search for the new member.
- Click their name to open their profile.
- Check the Memberships tab to verify the correct plan, price, and dates -- and that the status is Active rather than New.
- Check the Payment Methods tab to verify the payment method is configured.
- Check for any warning icons (such as a missing payment method indicator).
What to do next
- Manage memberships -- learn how to pause, cancel, or change a member's plan.
- Legal settings -- edit your contract templates and legal details.
- Generate invoices -- understand how billing works after registration.
- Track attendance -- set up check-in so the new member can record their attendance.
For the full reference on the members list and member profiles, see Members and Member profile.