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FAQ

Getting Started​

What does GRADR do, and who is it for?​

GRADR is a gym management platform built for Brazilian jiu-jitsu academy owners. It handles your student roster, class schedule, billing, instructor payroll, leads pipeline, and curriculum — all in one place. The owner portal gives you full control; instructors get a separate, read-only view of their schedule and pay.

How do I set up my gym profile?​

Go to Settings → Gym Profile and fill in your gym's name, location, phone number, logo, and timezone. Getting the timezone right matters — it affects how class times display and when automated emails go out.

What's the difference between the owner portal and the instructor portal?​

The owner portal is what you use to run the gym: roster, billing, schedule, payroll, reports, and settings. Instructors get a separate login that shows only their schedule and payroll records. They cannot see student billing, other instructors' pay, or any settings.

Students and Billing​

How do I add a new student to the roster?​

Go to Students and click Add Student. Enter the student's name, contact details, date of birth, and belt rank, then assign a membership tier and billing method. See the Onboarding a New Student tutorial for a full walkthrough.

How do I assign a membership tier and billing method?​

When adding or editing a student, choose a membership tier from the dropdown — tiers are set up in Settings → Membership Tiers. Then select how the student pays: Stripe (card on file), cash, or no billing. Stripe billing is automated; cash payments are tracked manually.

How do billing tiers work, and where do I create them?​

Tiers define the plan name, price, and billing cycle. Recurring tiers support weekly, every 2 weeks, monthly, every 3 months, every 6 months, or yearly cycles — and you can also create fixed-duration passes (a one-time charge for a set number of days), session-capped tiers, and minimum-commitment contract tiers. Go to Settings → Membership Tiers (under the Payments tab) to create and edit tiers. Once a tier exists, you can assign it to any student from their profile.

Yes. When editing a student's profile, you can designate another student as the billing account holder under Family Billing. The primary student is billed for both; the linked student's billing method shows as covered by the family account. This is useful for siblings or parent-child enrollments.

What happens to a student's record if I remove them?​

You should archive rather than delete. Archiving removes the student from your active roster without deleting their attendance history, belt record, or billing history. Permanently deleting a student removes their record entirely — only do this if you're certain the data is no longer needed.

Schedule and Classes​

What's the difference between Template view and Week view?​

Template view is your master schedule — the recurring class structure with no specific dates. Use it to add, edit, or remove permanent classes. Week view shows a specific calendar week with real instructor assignments. Use it for day-to-day operations: staffing classes, cancelling individual sessions, and closing the gym for holidays. See Building a Class Schedule for setup guidance.

How do I cancel a single class without removing it from the schedule permanently?​

In Schedule, switch to Week view and click the class you want to cancel. Click Cancel This Instance, then Confirm Cancel. That one occurrence is marked as cancelled; the class continues to appear in future weeks. To permanently remove a class, delete it from Template view instead.

Can students book classes themselves, and how do I control that?​

Yes, if self-booking is enabled. Go to Settings → Bookings to turn on Enable class bookings and set the booking window, cutoff, and max-simultaneous limits. Which classes leads can book a trial into is controlled per-class on the Schedule editor, not here.

What do the yellow and red alerts on the schedule mean?​

Yellow means a class has no instructor assigned. Red means a class within the next 48 hours has no instructor assigned — it's urgent. Both alert types also appear in the Uncovered Shifts widget on your Dashboard. Assign an instructor in Week view to clear the alert.

Leads and Trials​

What is a lead, and how do I add one?​

A lead is anyone who has expressed interest in your gym but hasn't enrolled yet — a trial prospect. Go to Leads and click Add Lead. Choose the track (Adult or Kids), enter their contact details and referral source, and optionally book them into an upcoming trial class right away.

How does GRADR book a trial class automatically when I add a lead?​

When adding a lead, check Book into next available class before you create them. GRADR shows available trial and intro class slots from your upcoming schedule. Select a slot and confirm — the lead is booked and receives a confirmation email if you've entered their email address. Their status changes from New to Booked.

How do I convert a lead into a full student?​

Once a lead has attended their trial (status: Attended), open their record and click Convert to Student. GRADR copies their contact information into a new student profile. You then assign their membership tier and billing method to complete enrollment. See Onboarding a New Student for the full flow.

Instructors and Payroll​

How do I add an instructor and set their pay rate?​

Go to Instructors and click Add Instructor. Enter their name, email, belt rank, and qualification — Coach & Assist or Assist Only. Optionally set a Custom Coach Rate and/or Custom Assist Rate to override the gym's default rates (set in Settings → General); these per-class rates drive weekly payroll. Click Add as Instructor — GRADR emails them a setup link.

Can I be listed as an instructor and still keep owner access?​

Yes. On the Instructors page, click Add Instructor and tick the This is me checkbox — that links the instructor record to your owner account. Your owner access is unaffected, and you'll appear in the Coach and assistant pickers on the Schedule page.

How do I run payroll for a given week?​

Go to Payroll and navigate to the week you want to pay. Click Generate Payroll — GRADR calculates each instructor's total based on their class assignments and pay rates for that week. Review the totals, add any adjustments, then pay out via PayPal or mark as paid manually. See Running Payroll for a step-by-step walkthrough.

Can I pay instructors directly through GRADR?​

Yes, if you connect PayPal in Settings → Billing & Payments. Once connected, you can initiate a batch payout to all instructors for a given week, or pay them individually. GRADR tracks the payout status (Processing, Paid, Failed) and lets you retry failed payouts. If you pay by cash or bank transfer, use Mark Paid (or Mark All Paid) to record it manually.

Curriculum — Blocks, Areas, and Lessons​

How is the curriculum organized in GRADR?​

The curriculum uses a four-level hierarchy: Systems (e.g., Gi, No-Gi, Kids) contain Areas (e.g., Guard, Mount, Back), which contain Lessons (individual techniques). Blocks are rotating sequences of Areas that you assign to classes — GRADR maps the content to each week automatically once a block goes live. See Blocks, Areas, Lessons, and Systems for details on each level.

What's the difference between a block and a lesson?​

A lesson is a single technique or topic — the smallest unit of curriculum. A block is a rotating schedule of Areas (groups of lessons) that runs across multiple weeks. You assign blocks to classes; the block determines what content is on deck each week. Think of a lesson as a card and a block as the deck order.

How does the intro program fit into the curriculum structure?​

The intro program is a separate lesson sequence for brand-new students, managed on its own surface — Curriculum → Intro Programs, not as a block type inside Blocks. You build an Intro Program from an ordered list of lessons, assign it to your intro classes, and activate it. GRADR tracks each intro student's progress through the sequence independently, so you always know where a new student is in their foundational curriculum.

Reports and Data​

What reports does GRADR generate, and what date ranges can I use?​

The Reports page has three tabs. Growth tracks member trends (paying members, net new, growth and churn rates) and lead sources. Attendance shows the roster-health cards, top students, daily check-in trends, most popular classes, instructor popularity, and belt distribution. Financial covers revenue by source, revenue by membership tier, and payroll-to-revenue margin. The date-range filter (Last 30 days, 60, 90, 6 months, or a year) lives on the Attendance tab.

Where do I see revenue broken down by membership tier?​

Go to Reports and open the Financial tab. The Revenue by Membership Tier chart shows how much each plan is generating over your selected period. This is the fastest way to see which tiers your members are actually on and whether your pricing mix is working.

Settings​

How do I customize the emails GRADR sends to leads and students?​

Go to Settings → Email Templates. Each transactional email — booking confirmation, trial class reminder, no-show follow-up, waiver reminder, and the shift/schedule notices — has its own template. You can enable or disable each one and edit the subject line and body. Merge tags (like the student's first name or class time) are inserted automatically and shown in the editor so you don't accidentally break them.

What are retention alerts and how do I set them up?​

Retention alerts surface at-risk students on your Dashboard — they don't send any email. Go to Settings → Retention to set the inactivity threshold (e.g. 14 days) and your membership-milestone reminders. When a student crosses a threshold, they appear in the Retention Alerts card on the Dashboard, where you can reach out personally and mark them as contacted.