Payment methods for personal trainers

The payment methods for a personal trainer (cash, bank transfer, Bizum (the Spanish mobile payment service), card or direct debit) differ in three things that matter more than convenience: who moves the money, when you find out it has arrived and how much effort it takes afterwards to know who has paid. Choose a few, put them in writing and record every payment in the same place however it arrives. Here is how to compare each method, how to combine them and how to keep control without chasing anyone.

Four questions to compare payment methods

Before deciding what you accept, look at each payment method with these four questions. The answers tell you how much work each one will give you every month:

1. Who moves the money? If it depends on the client remembering, there will be slips. If you initiate the charge, the work lies in preparing the charge and dealing with the ones that fail.
2. When do you find out they have paid? At the time, when you check the account or when the client tells you. The later you know, the later you spot a missed payment.
3. What do you need to have or sign up for? Nothing, a bank account, a card terminal or a service with your bank or a provider, each with its own conditions.
4. How will you know afterwards whose payment is whose? A deposit with no name on the statement is a small investigation every time.

Each payment method, through those questions

Cash

The client moves it and you know at the time, with no intermediaries. Its weak point is the trail: if you do not note it when you receive it, there is no record anywhere, and at the end of the month nobody remembers whether it was in this session or the previous one. If you accept it, note it before the client leaves.

Bank transfer

The client makes it from their bank. You find out when you see it in your account, so you need to check it on a fixed schedule. Ask them to put their name and the period they are paying in the reference: it saves you guessing whose deposit is whose. If the client sets it up as a recurring transfer, it does not depend on their memory, but they will have to change it if you change the fee.

Bizum

The client sends it from their phone, and for in-person training they can do it at the end of the session, in front of you. As with transfers, it is worth having them put their name in the reference. Before using it to charge for your business activity, ask your bank what conditions apply.

Card

With your own card terminal or a provider's payment link, the client pays on the spot and you know on the spot. In return, you sign up for the service and the provider applies its fee: check its conditions before offering it.

Direct debit

Here you initiate the charge, so it does not depend on the client remembering. You have to arrange it with your bank or a provider, who will explain what they need from the client and what conditions apply. The work shifts: it is no longer reminding anyone to pay, but preparing the charges and dealing with the ones that fail.

Few methods, chosen to suit the service

Accepting every possible method seems more convenient for the client, but it multiplies the places you have to check. Choose two or three depending on how you work:

• Recurring fee. Suits what does not depend on the client's memory: direct debit or a recurring transfer, and an alternative for whoever does not want it.
• Session pack or one-off payment. Paid once: transfer, Bizum or card at the time of purchase.
• In person. Bizum or card at the end of the session, or cash if you note it on the spot.
• Online. Whatever does not require being present: transfer, direct debit or a payment link.

If you are still deciding whether to charge by fee or by session pack, see monthly fee or session pack.

How to keep control: one record and one review

The payment method matters less than the discipline of recording. It does not matter where the money comes in: if every payment is recorded in the same place, with date, amount and payment method, you will know at any moment who is up to date.

1. Record it at the time. Cash and Bizum when you receive them; transfers and direct debits when you see them in the account.
2. Reconcile once a week. Compare your record with the statement: an unrecorded deposit or a recorded payment that has not arrived shows up straight away.
3. Fix mistakes. A wrongly recorded payment leaves a client “up to date” without having paid. Delete it and record it properly.
4. See who owes. With everything recorded, the list of overdue fees with no payment is reliable, and the conversation with whoever is late can happen the same day. What to say and when is in charging by subscription and avoiding missed payments.

With payments up to date, the rest of the figures can be trusted too: what to look at every week and every month is in the numbers of a personal trainer's business.

What to put in writing about payment methods

Your payment policy should say, in plain language:

• Which payment methods you accept, and only those.
• Which day or at what point payment is due.
• What to put in the reference of a transfer or a Bizum.
• What happens if a direct debit fails or a payment arrives late.
• How to change payment method and how much notice you need.

Hand it over at the start, before the first session. When someone is late, being able to point them to something they have already read turns the reminder into a formality.

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 payment itself:

• Each payment, with its payment method. You record the amount, the date, the payment method (cash, transfer, Bizum, card, direct debit or other) and, if you want, a reference. When you record it as the payment of their fee, if the fee is recurring, its next due date moves forward; a separate payment does not move it.
• How you get paid. The business dashboard breaks down payments from the last six months by payment method. The method is stored on each payment, so it is data, not an estimate.
• The month, day by day. A calendar shows what was collected, what falls due and what is overdue for each day.
• Fixing a mistake. You can remove a wrongly recorded payment; if it was the last one for that fee, the advance of its next due date is undone.
• Who owes and the reminder. You see the active fees whose next due date has passed, and from the conversation with the client you remind them of the pending fee: it reaches them as a notification in their app and by email, with the amount.

What it does not do: Entrenify is not a payment gateway and does not charge your clients for you. “Domiciliado” (direct debit) or “tarjeta” (card) are the way they paid you, not a charge made by Entrenify. The payment reminder does not go out by itself (you send it when you want) and it does not issue tax invoices.

There are two plans: Esencial, €22 a month + VAT (Spanish IVA), to manage up to 20 active clients; and Pro, €32 a month + VAT, with no client limit, with your own public website and automations.