The Best Way to Set Up Accounts...?

[dbg8490]

Okay so through trial-and-error as a new SEA, I have come to see that there are different ways for users (Parents/Guardians and Athletes) to set up accounts and account relationships and that those different setups have different effects and/or outcomes.

For instance: Athletes creating their own PG accounts using their own email and phone numbers and registering themselves - again using their own email address and phone numbers.  This means that when I send any communication, even if it is for the parents, they don't get it.  And this includes invoices - which can be a serious issue.  It also means that when I print a "Contact Sheet" for the roster, none of the PG information is there...

I also have parents who *seem* to have a PG account, but I have no information beyond their name.  Not sure what that's all about.

Finally, I have users who create (or created) multiple accounts.  This applies to either PGs or Athletes.  My favorite is a PG setting up multiple accounts and in each one they create a new instance of their Athlete.  This year, as a new club, we have had tryouts, three training events, and if they made a team, they filled out a "Team Registration" to make it easier for me to roster - so five total registrations.  I have one or ore users who created between two and five different PG accounts with Athletes (all with the same name and information) registered for different things. You can only imagine the frustration at dealing with this.

Ideally, I want a way to go back and fix all of this, but that's something I have to figure out.  If I'd known it would be an issue, I would have tried to guard against it somehow but whatever.  

So here is the question:  What is the *best* way to set up accounts?  And when I say "best" I mean from the standpoint of being able to accomplish everything that's necessary to keep my customers (PGs) happy and make my life easier.

Everything I want and need as an SEA:

1. Communication with coaches
2. Invoicing
3. Rostering
4. Member management
5. Website management

Everything the parents want:

1. Access to all of their Athlete's (multiple if necessary) schedules in one place
2. Communication with the SEA
3. Communication with their own coaches
4. Communication with other parents on their team
5. Access to all features of the website like uploading pictures/videos, scoring...etc

Everything the Coaches want:

1. Access to all of their schedules - some coach on multiple teams
2. Access to their roster
3. Communication with the SEA
4. Communication with other coaches on their roster
5. Communication with PGs (both with and without the athletes)
6. Communication with Athletes (both with and without the parents)
7. Website features

Everything the Athletes want:

1. Access to *only* their schedule
2. Communication with their teammates (without parents or coaches)
3. Communication with their coaches (with an without parents)

My theory is that if I know the *best* way to accomplish this, I can write up a how-to so the parents can follow it and make sure they're set.  And once we have that in place, over the next year or so I can make sure my current parents are steeped in it so when we expand beyond six teams next year, I will have plenty of veterans here to help me guide the newbies.

Any assistance is appreciated!

Thanks ?

[SportsEngine Staffer]

Hello dbg8490,

 

This is a great thread and appreciate your post. Across the SportsEngine world, you'll see "Account" and "Profile". An account is created with a login username and password, and includes at least one, often times several, profiles. If you're familiar with Netflix, it's pretty similar. Generally, an Account is a parent and a Profile is a child. Note, every account also has a "self" profile which is a profile for the account owner for when the parent needs to register themselves for something.

 

In my family, I have myself (Jim), spouse (Beth) and kids (Hailey) and (Trey). Jim has an account with a profile for himself, and profiles for each of his kids. When going through registration, you are logging in with an account, and then selecting a profile to register. 

 

So, when I'm going through my background screen and coaching registrations, I login and select my "self" profile. 

 

When I register Trey for his hockey club, I login with my account and select his profile.

 

Now, we recently released a feature called "Guardians" where you can connect additional accounts to profiles. In my case, Beth has created an account and is attached as a guardian for Trey. This allows her to login to the mobile app and get schedules, receive all messages, respond to RSVPs. 

 

====With all that said, let's jump to your example====

 

If an athlete is creating their own account, and registering themselves, when you send a communication, they will receive it. For their parents to also receive it in that example, their parents would need to either be set up as a guardian (preferred) OR the athlete would need to add their parents email addresses as additional emails on their account. The invoices go to the primary account (athlete in this example). The contact sheet will show the athletes contact info as well as any guardians who are set up to the profile they registered.

 

[sAFETY SIDE NOTE] While possible, I caution against minors (assuming your athletes are minors) creating their own accounts to register themselves which could keep parents out of communications. It's my opinion that any communication sent from a coach to a minor athlete should include the parents. Parents can always add an athletes email to their profile or even have the athlete create an account to add them as a guardian to themselves. 

 

====

 

I'm sure you'll have some follow up questions, but this should get you started. 

[SportsEngine Staffer]

Forgot to add a link to the help article How to Add Guardians https://help.sportsengine.com/en/articles/6304039-how-to-add-guardians