Charging by subscription as a trainer and avoiding unpaid fees

To charge personal training clients by subscription without unpaid fees eating into your month, you need three pieces: a well-defined fee (what it includes, how often it is paid and on what day), a written payment policy that the client knows before starting, and a single record where you can check every week who has paid and who has not. No tool prevents non-payment on its own: what prevents it is having clear rules and reviewing them in time.

What a fee needs to make clear

A subscription changes the conversation with the client: instead of selling a session pack again every time one runs out, the service continues until someone decides to stop it. To avoid misunderstandings, before setting a price write down these five things:

• What it includes. In-person sessions per month, an online plan, a review of the check-in, replies to messages within a timeframe you can genuinely meet.
• What it does not include. Extra sessions, plan changes outside the agreed date or services you do not provide.
• How often it is paid. Monthly is easy for both of you to follow, but you can offer quarterly blocks or a single payment for a fixed-scope service.
• What happens to what is not used. Whether a cancelled session is made up or lost, and how much notice is needed.
• Pauses and departures. Whether it can be paused for holidays, with how much notice, and how a departure is communicated.

Every point left hanging is a possible argument on the day you have to collect payment. The more specific the fee, the less is left to each person's interpretation.

Your payment policy, in writing

The payment policy is the short, practical version of the above, focused on money. It fits on one page and should be handed over at the start, before the first session:

1. Payment day. A fixed day for everyone (or two, if you prefer to spread it out) makes the review simpler. Decide whether payment is made at the start or the end of the period, and write it that way.
2. Payment methods you accept. The ones you will genuinely manage, not every possible one.
3. What happens if it is late. For example: a reminder after a few days and, if it is still unpaid, the plan is paused until they catch up. Include only what you are going to enforce.
4. Pauses and holidays. How many, how long and with how much notice.
5. Leaving. How to give notice and from when charging stops.

Write it in plain language, with no small print. Its purpose is not to win an argument but to avoid one: when a client is late, being able to point them to something they have already read turns the reminder into a formality rather than a reproach.

Ways to get paid and what to watch for in each

There is no perfect method. Choose a few, put them in your policy and record every payment in the same place, however it arrives.

Method	Convenient because	What to watch for
Bank transfer	The client makes it from their bank, with no intermediaries	It depends on them remembering; ask them to put their name in the reference
Standing order	The client sets it up once and it repeats	If you change the fee, they have to change it themselves
Direct debit	The charge arrives without the client having to do anything	You need to arrange it with your bank or a provider and know their terms
Card or payment link	Quick for the client	The provider applies its own fee: check its charges first
Bizum (a Spanish instant mobile payment service)	Instant from the phone	Ask your bank what conditions it applies to payments for your business activity
Cash	No intermediaries when you meet in person	It is easy to forget to note it down

The payment method matters less than the discipline of recording it. A payment that is not recorded ends up as “I thought I'd already paid you” two months later, and then neither of you is sure.

A weekly review against non-payment

Non-payment gets complicated when weeks go by without anyone looking at it. A short routine, on the same day each week, stops it piling up:

1. Look at the list of who owes. The fees whose payment date has passed and that are not recorded as paid.
2. Write that same day. Short, in private and without reproach: “I don't have this month's fee on record, has there been a problem?”.
3. Record what comes in at the time. If you log payments in bulk at the end of the month, the list of who owes stops being useful.
4. Look at what is due soon. Knowing who renews in the next few days lets you prepare the conversation if something is going wrong with that client.
5. Review the policy when it fails. If the same problem repeats with several clients, the fault probably lies in the rule and not in them.

What to do when someone does not pay

First, find out the cause: an oversight, a change of account, a difficult month or a decision to leave that the client has not dared to mention. Each calls for a different response, and only the conversation will clarify it.

Then apply what your policy says, without improvising. If the service is paused until they catch up, say so, with a date. If the client wants to stop, say goodbye properly and record their departure; if they want to continue but cannot pay the same amount, consider whether a different service would work for you. And do not delete anything: their history is still useful if they come back.

Sometimes a late payment is the first sign that someone is drifting away. In how to retain clients as a personal trainer you will find how to spot those signs earlier.

How Entrenify handles it (and what it does not do)

Entrenify (in Spanish) keeps the record and follow-up of what your clients pay you, not the collection itself:

• Fee per client. Each client can have their own fee, with an amount and a frequency: monthly, quarterly, six-monthly, annual or a single payment. If you do not specify the next payment date, it is calculated automatically.
• Payment records. Fees and client payments are recorded by hand, with their payment method: cash, bank transfer, Bizum, card, direct debit or other. When you record the payment of their fee, the fee moves its next payment date forward; a separate payment does not move it.
• Who owes. You see the active fees whose next payment date has already passed. If a client leaves the service, you can deactivate their fee without deleting it: it stops counting as a debt and their past payments remain.
• The reminder, when you decide. From the conversation with the client you remind them of the outstanding fee, and it reaches them as an alert in their app and by email, with the amount. In the chat you also have a suggested message template for the outstanding fee.
• Business dashboard. Recurring income, collected this month, who owes and whose renewal is due. The end-of-month forecast is calculated without AI and shows you the rule it is based on; anything already overdue and unpaid is not counted as money that will come in. If there is not yet enough history to project, it gives no figure and tells you so.
• Profit and target. If you record your fixed costs, it shows you your profit; if you set yourself a monthly target, it compares it with what has been collected.
• Daily alert. Clients who have not paid appear in the single alert you receive each day with everything you need to look at.

What it does not do: Entrenify is not a payment gateway and does not charge your clients for you, the payment reminder does not go out by itself (you send it whenever you want) and it does not issue tax invoices. If you need an invoice, you issue it with the tool you already use.

There are two plans: Esencial (Essential), €22 a month + VAT, to look after up to 20 active clients; and Pro, €32 a month + VAT, with no client limit, with your own public website and automations. If you are thinking about how many clients fit into your week before setting the fee, you will find it in how many clients a personal trainer can handle.