How to stop chasing late payments at your kids’ club
Cash, bank transfers and awkward chats at the door. How we stopped chasing parents for money, and the polite message to send when a payment fails.
Kane Foster, founder of Kanvas One and owner of Kanvas Academy in Newcastle
5 min read · Updated 19 October 2026
Chasing money is the part of running a club nobody enjoys. Working out who has paid, sending reminders, then having an awkward word at the door, sometimes in front of the child.
Most late payments aren’t anyone being difficult. A card expired, there wasn’t quite enough in the account that day, or a standing order was never set up. Fix the system and most of the chasing goes away.
1. Take payments automatically
Cash, bank transfers and standing orders all rely on the parent remembering, and on you checking. Card payments taken automatically on the same date every month don’t.
The parent adds their card once when they join, by card or Apple Pay. From then on it just happens, and you can see at a glance who has paid.
2. Let the reminders do the chasing
When a payment fails, send a reminder straight away, with a link to pay or update the card. Keep it friendly and assume it’s a mistake, because it nearly always is.
No “overdue”, no “final notice”, no guilt. Just what happened and the quickest way to fix it.
Members lost to payments that never got sorted have a name: involuntary churn. They didn’t want to leave. Nobody chased the card.
Members you lose because a payment failed, not because they wanted to leave. An expired card that nobody chases quietly becomes a lost member.
All the business words ›3. Show it at the door, without saying a word
This is the one that has helped us most. Every member at our club has a QR pass in the app that they scan when they arrive.
If a payment has been missed, two things happen:
- The member’s own pass turns bright red, with a Pay now button. It stays there until it’s paid.
- The coach’s phone shows an alert when they scan, with an important note to show the parent.
Parents open their pass while they wait in the queue. When they see red, their first thought is to tap Pay now before they reach the coach. Most of the time it’s sorted before anyone has to have the conversation.
The best reminder is the one a parent sees at the exact moment they can fix it.
4. Let people pause instead of cancel
Some missed payments are really people who meant to stop for a while: exams, an injury, a long holiday. Give them an easy way to pause, and they won’t simply let a payment fail. Most come back when the pause ends.
5. Agree it all when they join
Put it in your terms, and have families accept them when they sign up: when payments are taken, what happens if one fails, and how to pause or cancel. It saves arguments later, and it means you never have to make up a rule on the spot.
A quick checklist
- Move every family to automatic card payments.
- Send a friendly reminder the moment a payment fails, with a link to fix it.
- Make a missed payment visible on their pass, at the door.
- Offer pause instead of cancel.
- Have families accept your payment terms when they join.
Questions
How do I get parents to pay on time?
Take payments automatically by card on the same date each month, so nobody has to remember. When one fails, send a friendly reminder straight away with a link to pay, and show it on their pass when they arrive.
What should I say when a payment is late?
Keep it short and kind, and assume it is a mistake: tell them the payment didn’t go through, that it’s usually an old card, and give them a link to fix it in a minute.
Should a child still train if a payment is missed?
That is your call. What helps most is making the missed payment visible before you get to that point. At our club the member’s pass turns red with a Pay now button, so most parents pay in the queue.