Annual planning checklist for your school

Once a year, run through your Rosterra account end to end. Most schools do this in early winter when things slow down, ahead of the new year.

Pricing

• Open /settings/programs.
• For each program, ask: is the price still right? Most schools raise tuition 3 to 7 percent per year to keep up with rent, labor, and insurance.
• Decide how to handle existing members. Common path: grandfathered current rates, new rates for new enrollments. Communicate this transparently.

Schedule

• Open /schedule.
• Drop classes that consistently have under 5 students.
• Add classes for waitlisted programs.
• Confirm every class has an instructor assigned for the coming year.

Ranks and curriculum

• Open /settings/ranks.
• Confirm the rank ladder still matches your curriculum.
• If you added new techniques or removed any, update the curriculum at /settings/ranks/curriculum.

Waivers

• Open /waivers.
• Read your current waiver template. Is it still accurate?
• If you moved buildings, changed disciplines, or had a legal review suggest changes, update the waiver. The new version goes out automatically to all families to re-sign.

Family discounts and promotions

• Open /settings/programs.
• Review the family discount tiers. Still working for you?
• Decide on any seasonal promotions for the year (back-to-school week, summer camp early-bird, etc.).

Branding

• Open /settings/branding.
• Refresh your photo, your logo if you updated it, your color if you rebranded.
• If you do the white-label mobile app, push an updated icon if needed.

Communications

• Open /communications/templates.
• Read every templated email. Are they still accurate? Any phone numbers, addresses, or staff names that have changed?
• Audit your journeys at /journeys for the same.

Staff

• Open /settings/staff.
• Confirm every active staff member should still have access. Remove anyone who left during the year.
• Confirm roles are right. New head instructor? Promote them.
• Confirm 2FA is enabled for owners and admins.

Reporting checkpoint

• Open /reports/cohort-retention.
• Look at last year's enrollment cohorts. What share is still active a year later? This is your retention rate.
• Look at /reports/revenue and compare year over year.
• Look at /reports/lifecycle to see where leads are converting (or not).

These three numbers tell you everything you need to know about the health of your school.

Planning ahead

• Block off the year's events: belt tests, parties, tournaments, holidays.
• Update the published school calendar at /settings/schedule so families can plan.
• Mark all your closures in advance at /schedule/closures.

Setting goals

Pick 3 things to focus on in the new year. Common ones:

• Grow active membership by X percent.
• Improve trial-to-member conversion by X percent.
• Reduce dispute rate to under X percent.
• Improve CSAT score (from the post-event survey).

Write them down. Revisit each quarter.