Many swim schools get so bogged down in admin and day-to-day operations that there’s little time left for growth, innovation, or even proper rest for management and staff. Burnout becomes inevitable.
The root cause? Inefficient systems.
A swim school operates through multiple moving parts—each of which has the potential to either drain time and energy or help the business run seamlessly. When even a few of these systems are clunky or outdated, they compound to add 10–20 unnecessary admin hours every week. That’s time that could be reinvested into delivering a better customer experience, training staff, or simply planning ahead.
Let’s break down the 7 common areas where swim schools lose the most time—and how smart process improvements (often driven by software solutions) can make a massive difference.
1. Enquiry Handling
The Problem: Enquiries often come in via email, phone, social media, or walk-ins. Without a centralised system, it’s easy for leads to slip through the cracks or receive delayed responses.
There is often a double handling where an enquiry comes in via a form or email, then if that customer wants to organise a trial, that customers details need to be added into a scheduler to book a trial.
Of course, you can copy and paste most of this information from the form into your booking system; however, this process still takes from one to two minutes.
Multiply this by ALL the new enquiries you get in a month, and there is a significant amount of time.
The Fix: Our clients have an enquiry form that is integrated with our swim school management software, First Class. When an enquiry comes in, all the details are already in the system, and the student is ready to be booked for their trial.
This simple workflow enhancement is easily implemented and can be a big time saver.
2. Enrolment Process
The Problem: If your staff must manually book each student into a class, this can become a huge time suck. Your staff are new to exploring available times on the schedule, selecting the client, and processing the booking.
To make matters worse, we have seen swim schools that re-do enrolments like this every term. Talk about inefficient.
The Fix: If you run term-based and want customers to re-enrol each term, online bookings are a must. This allows you to hand over the responsibility to the customer for booking.
Alternatively, a rollover for term-based lessons can be an easier way to make this more efficient. In a rollover, all people from the previous term are copied across to the next term unless they have already processed a cancelation.
The third option is having a perpetual model where customers are billed monthly but are enrolled until they have cancelled.
3. Invoicing
The Problem: Creating and sending invoices manually, especially with changes in enrolments or class schedules, is tedious and error-prone. Many swim schools offer discounts for multiple lessons or siblings. If you have to manage this process manually, it’s a real headache.
The Fix: Automatic invoicing aligned with enrolment data ensures parents are billed accurately and on time. First Class Software, for example, automates invoice generation and adjusts for changes automatically, factoring things like discounts and holidays, saving valuable admin time and reducing billing mistakes.
4. Payments
The Problem: Chasing payments, manually reconciling accounts, and following up on failed transactions is one of the most draining tasks in swim school admin.
The Fix:
We recommend going digital for payments.
Manually reconciling payments would be the most tedious job in a swim school.
Here you have a couple of options
- Online credit/debit card payments- Ideal for term-based full payments.
- Direct debit from credit card or bank accounts. This saves on following up on overdue payments because the billing is done automatically. This can be done for both perpetual and term-based models in First Class.
5. Class Moves
The Problem: Families often request to change classes. When these moves are handled via email or phone, it ties up your staff and can really add up over the month.
The Fix: First Class has a move feature in the customer portal and app. This allows a customer to move their booking day or time within a set of restrictions. (Note: the customer can only move within their current level.)
When a student has progressed, they can then move to the next level in your program, also via the portal.
A system like First Class makes this simple and intuitive for families and can be a huge time saver.
6. Make-Up Lessons
The Problem: Tracking missed lessons and make-up eligibility manually is a nightmare. Without a robust system, it’s nearly impossible to manage fairly and efficiently.
We have seen large swim schools that employ someone full-time just to tackle and manage make-up bookings, as this was done via phone, emai,l and in person.
The Fix: First Class lets you hand this off to the customer. The customer can report an absence via the app or portal and will receive a “make-up token” if it meets the timing requirements set up. The customer can then use this token to book a makeup lesson themselves via the app or portal. This can potentially save hours and hours every week.
7. Assessments
The Problem: Skill assessments are often done on paper or in spreadsheets, making it hard to track student progress or communicate clearly with parents. Just communicating progress with parents can be ridiculously time-consuming. Some also write out certificates for each student who has progressed, adding to the burden.
The Fix: Digital assessments updated by instructors in real-time via a tablet or smartphone offer greater visibility for staff and provide parents with valuable progress updates. First Class Software supports automated progress tracking, ensuring your instructors stay focused on teaching, not paperwork. Parents get automatically notified when their child has been assessed and can view the progress report on their app or portal.
Final Thoughts
If your swim school feels like it’s always “on the back foot,” it’s worth evaluating these seven systems. The right tools can strip out hours of admin per week, giving you more time to focus on staff development, student success, and business growth.
Software doesn’t have to be complicated—but it does need to be purpose-built for swim schools. That’s where platforms like First Class offer a subtle but significant edge.
For more information go to First Class Swim School Software.