Running a small martial arts gym — curious how others handle students, belt tracking, attendance and billing

I run a small martial arts gym (my background is mainly BJJ), and I’ve always struggled with keeping student info, memberships, attendance, and payments organised in a way that actually fits how martial arts gyms operate.

I’ve tried spreadsheets and a few generic gym systems, but they never quite matched real gym workflows — things like belt progression, casual or family memberships, pauses/freezes, and the mix of automated and manual payments.

Out of frustration, I ended up building a system for my own gym. It started as a BJJ-focused solution, but my goal is to understand how this could help the wider gym owner (not only martial arts) community, not just one discipline.

Before taking it any further, I’d really like to learn from other gym owners:

• What do you currently use to manage students and payments?
• Which features are non-negotiable for you?
• What do you feel most gym software gets wrong for martial arts gyms?

I’m not here to sell anything — genuinely looking to learn from other owners’ experiences.