Martial arts software
that gets the money right
The mom trains Tuesday nights, both kids test in March, and the ten-year-old needs a bigger gi by Saturday. Cadence adds that up as three memberships, two testing fees, and a gi off the rack, all on one bill, and nobody retypes a number.
Last night at your school
A dad watched his son's 7:40 class, then signed up for the adult program
His dues joined the bill he already pays for his son
Imani broke her first board at 6:10
The stripe posted to her record, and her mom read it from the parking lot
A chest guard split open in sparring
The replacement went on their invoice and the shelf count dropped with it
Deshawn, fifteen, tried to clock in at 8:05
The clock turned him down and said which rule stopped it
Membership is monthly. The belt test fee is not.
Taking one monthly payment is easy. Agreements, freezes, family plans, and testing fees are where it falls apart, and those are the four things a school lives on. Cadence started there.
One family, one bill, however they pay
Most systems attach the money to one household account. Cadence attaches it to each child's enrollment instead, so the adults who pay for her can be billed separately. Each parent gets their own invoice for their own share, pays with their own card, and does not need the other one’s login.
- ✓A family on one plan gets one bill, not a separate one per student
- ✓Divorced parents each get their own invoice for their own share
- ✓Grandma can put money toward testing fees, and it cannot drift into tuition
- ✓An adult student is their own payer, and that needs no workaround
A declined card does not become a lost student
When a payment fails overnight, Cadence tries the backup card on file. If the other parent has agreed to cover a missed payment, their card is next in line. Everyone is told what happened before the doors open.
- ✓The backup card runs before anyone notices, and the payer is told
- ✓A failed bank draft gets caught and flagged, not quietly marked as paid
- ✓Nobody trains for three months on an agreement that stopped paying in week two
Every month sits next to the same month last year, so the holiday dip reads as the holiday dip and not as students walking out.
Is the school growing?
Answered on the screen, not rebuilt in a spreadsheet every quarter.
- ✓This month against the same month last year, so seasonality doesn’t fool you
- ✓Which instructor turns intro classes into enrollments, as a rate rather than a raw count
- ✓“Email me revenue every Monday at 8 a.m.” and it just shows up
- ✓Ask in plain English: “who dropped after their first month this year?”
Where the tuition comes from, Little Dragons to black belts
Tuition only. Testing fees, pro shop sales and seminar money each sit on their own line, so a strong month of gi sales cannot flatter the tuition figure.
Demo figures, not a real school.
Getting them from the intro class onto the mat
The waitlist works while you do not
Somebody finishes the beginner cycle and the intermediate class is full. The next eligible student is offered the spot automatically with a window to claim it, and rank decides eligibility rather than whoever called first.
- ✓Students see where they actually stand in line, so they stop asking at the desk
- ✓A yellow belt cannot end up in the advanced class by accident
- ✓Intro offers can be free or paid, whichever fills your mat better
- ✓Moving up a rank moves them into the right class without re-enrolling them
Two stripes from testing, and Dad knows it
Every stripe an instructor awards on the mat lands in the family app the same night. Parents see the belt, the stripes earned, and exactly what stands between their kid and the next belt test. When the invitation goes out, it is not a surprise, and neither is the testing fee.
- ✓Stripes awarded on the mat show at home the same night
- ✓The path to the next belt test is spelled out, skill by skill
- ✓Testing invitations go only to students who are ready
- ✓A belt-up gets its moment in the app
Testing and events, without the clipboard
Belt tests, board fees, seminars, and camps are all events with money attached. Cadence keeps each one organized and billed so nothing falls through before promotion day.
Belt testing, start to finish
Create a testing event, set eligibility by rank and attendance, add the board fee, and families sign up and pay through the portal. On test day the evaluator works from the phone. When a student passes, their rank updates and the parent gets the notification automatically.
- ✓Eligibility checked automatically by rank and attendance history
- ✓Board fees collected at registration, not chased after
- ✓Evaluators score from a phone on the mat, not a clipboard
- ✓Passing updates the rank and notifies the family in one step
Camps and seminars run themselves
A weekend self-defense seminar, a summer camp week, and a guest instructor workshop are one setup screen apart: pick the dates, cap the room, set the price, attach the waiver, and students register and pay while the desk does other work. A one-time seminar attendee counts nothing against active enrollment.
- ✓Students register and pay online without a phone call
- ✓Each event carries its own waiver, collected before checkout
- ✓A full event opens a waitlist automatically
- ✓Drop-in visitors and one-time attendees do not raise your pricing tier
One instructor out, five classes covered
Your head instructor teaches the whole evening run, so a call off at 3:40 costs you five classes, not one. Cadence flags all five at once, in front of the person who has to rebuild the night.
Sensei Marks is out, and the mat is booked to 8:45
Cadence lists instructors with the rank each class needs, a current first aid card, and hours left. One black belt can take the whole run. When none is free, the fix climbs the ladder: Okonkwo leaves Tigers for sparring, Sandhu takes Tigers at brown behind her, and Cadence draws the pair rather than leaving you on a legal pad at 3:45.
- ✓An instructor taps call off once and the whole evening run lands in front of you
- ✓Instructors who hold the rank that class needs and have hours left are the ones you see
- ✓Sandhu covers Tigers at brown belt so Okonkwo, your black belt, is free for sparring
- ✓Instructors who moved hear it from the staff app the moment you tap Send Request
Deshawn is fifteen and assists Tigers four nights a week
Martial arts schools hire the kids they raised: the teenager on Tigers at 5:00 earned his black belt on this mat and wants the hours. Your state says how late a fifteen-year-old works on a school night and how many hours he gets in a week, and Cadence holds him to both at the time clock.
- ✓A teenager punching in is measured against your state's school-night and weekly caps
- ✓A teen sees the rule that stopped his punch, so the answer is not his manager's to give
- ✓A teen assistant headed for the cap is on Monday's board, while a swap still fixes it
- ✓A teen who stays to train is a student on the mat, not a shift on the clock
Rank sign-offs on the mat, invoices from the couch
Parents, students, and instructors need different things, so they see different screens. It is the same download, not three separate apps to talk anyone into installing.
Parents and students
Everything a family calls the front desk about, without the call.
- ✓Schedule, invoices, and payment methods
- ✓Rank progress and what is left before the next test
- ✓Absence and makeup requests
- ✓Waivers and forms signed on the phone
- ✓An adult student sees their rank and their bill in one place
Taking roll on the mat
Instructors and front desk
Take attendance on the mat instead of walking a clipboard back to the office.
- ✓Attendance from the mat, offline if the wifi drops
- ✓Clock in and out, or scan a QR code at the door
- ✓Her schedule and any coverage she has been offered
- ✓Rank sign-offs recorded at the moment, not from memory
Gis, waivers, and who just walked in
A new gi rings up to the family account
Sparring gear, a fresh gi, the patch for the new rank: one scan at the desk and it rides the next invoice with tuition. Grandparents buying at a testing day can pay by card with no account at all. Inventory counts itself down either way.
- ✓Charge to the family account with one scan
- ✓Card at the counter for walk-ins, no account needed
- ✓Gear lands on the same invoice as tuition
- ✓Inventory updates itself with every sale
The waiver reads in the language the family reads
A school writes its own Korean or Portuguese or Spanish version of every form, and each family signs the one they actually understand. Machine translation does not touch legal text. The desk sees one signed waiver either way, attached to the student.
- ✓Each language version written by the school, not auto-translated
- ✓Families sign the form they can actually read
- ✓One signed record per student, whatever the language
- ✓New forms go out in every language at once
The family who needs Arabic gets Arabic
Not a translate button on the website. The actual product, in the language each person reads, one family at a time.
A waiver she can actually read
Cadence translates its own screens and buttons, but not your waivers and forms. That is why Cadence has a multi-lingual form generator, so you can create your waivers in any language you need, because a parent who signs a document she couldn’t read is a document you may not be able to enforce.
- ✓She signs the Arabic waiver you created, not one a computer produced
- ✓Medical forms and photo permissions work the same way
- ✓Your terms of service stay in English, which is how they stay enforceable
Set per person, not per school
One mom reads her invoice in Arabic. The dad behind her reads his in English. The instructor runs the admin screens in Japanese. Same school, same evening, nobody compromises. Invoices, reminders, and the app all follow whatever each person picked.
- ✓Every notice you send arrives in the reader’s language, from one message you wrote once
- ✓Right to left languages are laid out properly, not bolted on
- ✓Your front desk sees which language a family reads before they pick up the phone
Cadence has the languages schools actually need. Nineteen and counting at launch.
Paid trials, and who turns them into students
Most schools end up paying for an email service on the side. This is the part that makes that unnecessary.
Unsubscribing does not break billing
A student who opts out of your newsletter still gets invoices, closure notices, and testing announcements. Marketing and business messages are kept separate.
Worth checking: if one unsubscribe kills every message, you end up buying a second tool to work around it.Write it how you would say it
Drag and drop your own emails with your colors and logo already in them, and edit any automatic message so it sounds like your school instead of a template.
Lists that keep themselves current
The parent who booked a birthday party for his six year old is a lead. The one whose daughter aged out is not. Cadence works that out from what it already knows.
Paid trials that filter
Charge a small intro fee and credit it toward the first month when they enroll. Free for a real prospect, and enough to put off the family collecting free classes around town.
Push and email cost nothing
Notices through your own app and by email are included. Text and WhatsApp are there when you need them, and not charged to the family.
Know which trials turn into students
Conversion as a rate by instructor or by class time, worked out from who was actually on the floor, not from a guess about who taught it.
Coming from Zen Planner or Kicksite
Your families, enrollments, balances, and history come with you. Do it yourself with our tools, or hand it to us and we’ll do it for you.
Do it yourself, or let us
There is a step-by-step importer with plain instructions if you would rather keep your hands on it. If you would rather not, hand us the export and we will do the whole thing at no charge. Either way you check it over before anyone goes live.
Trial students do not raise your bill
We count students actively enrolled, not every name that ever passed through. Intro-class visitors and one-time seminar attendees do not cost you anything.
Worth checking: some systems price on total records, so one-timers can move you into a higher tier.No fee ever reaches a family
We make our money in the processing, not by adding a line to your families’ checkout. Nothing extra shows up on their end.
Worth checking: some free tiers pass a percentage straight to the person paying.You will not need Mailchimp
Build and send your own emails from inside Cadence, and change any automatic message to say what you would actually say.
Nothing gets written over
“Who promoted Kayla to brown in 2024?” is a question you can answer. Every change is kept as a dated record instead of replacing what was there.
One login, not four
Memberships, schedules, waivers, testing, seminars, and email in the same place. No exporting to a spreadsheet to run a belt test.
Answers, not a sales pitch
Watch it run a month of your memberships
A real walkthrough using your ranks, your class schedule, and your testing cycle, not a canned tour.