The Dojo Manager

Often times when we get together, we discuss martial arts, fitness, food, family and general life encounters. Most of us do not delve deeply into our day-to-day work lives. For example, did you know that KSMA member Dan Williams is an information technology wizard? A while back, Dan designed the code for this cool tool - The Dojo Manager. I have been using it to track student progress and potential leads for a couple months now and have found it very helpful. Please check in with Dan on the full capabilities of the program. I know I have just skimmed the surface, but this is how it is helping me with the day-to-day bookkeeping for my school.
 
Starting with the Basics
What’s a school without students? When students are added, the default setting for them is “active.” There is an “inactive” status you can choose as well if someone goes on a hiatus from your school. If they don’t return after a certain amount of time, you can delete their profile (as long as they are marked inactive). Under each student’s profile, you can input a variety of information. There are fields for the obvious stuff: name, address. You can also add personal information like birthday, class attendance, images and more. A catch-all note section is also provided for whatever you may need outside of the standard sections.



The system includes an option to have multiple locations, and you can indicate where the student trains. You can also input the ranking of your system then apply that system to students’ profiles to track their progress. This is super easy once you assign the system to the student, you can click a plus button next to the hours earned, and it adds your default length of class.
 
Tracking the Benjamins
Critical to keeping any school rolling is money. The Dojo Manager makes payment schedules and transactions a breeze. You are able to add transactions which generate a printable invoice for each student. The invoice can also indicate when their dues expire if you work on a dues basis.
 
Marketing
Another section which I find very useful is for visitors and leads. I have the option of tracking everyone who has contacted me about the school and do a follow up if they provide that information. This is the perfect place to track how the student heard about your school: web, friend, advertisement, etc. This is an excellent way to track return on investment (ROI) to know you are spending your advertising/marketing dollars wisely.
 
Beyond Regular Classes
If you host seminars there is an Events page. This page also doubles as a place to track testing schedules.
 
That wraps up the pages I have had a chance to explore, but you may have a purpose for the other pages which include: Expenses (track that money), Bulk Actions and Reports. The My Account page is for your pertinent information such as standard class duration (this is linked to the plus button to track time on the mat for each student). There is another tab on the Account page that allows you to set up standard transactions. This is handy as well if you have several payment options.
 
All in all, I can recommend this system as an economical way to get a handle on part of the management side of your school’s activities. Oh, and by the way, it is donation based. Help the brother out and kick him some greenbacks if you find the Dojo Manager as cool as I do!