Choosing a booking system: a checklist for PTs and small studios

1. Book a class yourself, on your phone

• Can a new client book and pay without creating an account or password?
• Does Apple Pay or Google Pay work?
• How many taps from your link to 'You're booked'? Fewer than ten is good.
• Does it look like your business (logo, colours), or like the software company?

2. Buy a pack and use it

• Can a client buy a pack and book a class in the same step?
• Do packs expire, and are clients reminded before they do?
• Can you run memberships with a monthly cap, pauses and a free trial?
• Can you sell gift cards and run an intro offer for first-timers only?

3. Cancel, refund and fill the space

• Is your cancellation window applied automatically, with credits returned or used?
• Can you refund part of a payment, with a reason, in one or two clicks?
• Does the waitlist fill a freed space automatically?
• If a staff member cancels by mistake, can they undo it?

4. For 1:1 personal training

• Can you book a client in yourself, including repeating weekly sessions?
• Can clients self-book from your working hours, without clashing with your own calendar?
• Can you record cash or bank-transfer payments and see who owes what?
• Do sessions appear in your Google Calendar?
• Can you keep private session notes?

5. Your website and your data

• Can you embed the timetable on your own site so clients never leave it?
• Can you export clients, bookings and payments as CSV whenever you like, for free?
• Can you import clients and their remaining credits when you switch?
• Does the company market other businesses to your clients? (Marketplaces often do.)

6. The real cost

Add up the monthly fee, any per-booking or percentage fee, card processing, and paid add-ons like text reminders. Then do it again at twice your current bookings. A system that's cheap at 50 bookings a month can be expensive at 300. Check for contracts and cancellation terms too.

Run your next month side by side: keep your old system live while you move your regulars, so nobody misses a class.

Quick answers

What should I look for in booking software for personal training?

Easy booking and payment for clients on a phone, packs and memberships, automatic cancellation rules, 1:1 scheduling with calendar sync, recording cash or bank payments, and free data export.

How do I switch booking systems without losing clients?

Export your clients and their remaining credits, import them into the new system, and run both side by side for a few weeks while you share the new booking link.