Welcome to CourtReserve: New Admin Guide
This comprehensive guide is designed specifically for new CourtReserve admins to walk you through feature configuration, key settings, and provide quick access to the most helpful resources—including articles, videos, and access to ongoing support that will help you run your club with confidence.
Whether you're setting up courts, adding members, or fine-tuning your event settings, we've got you covered every step of the way. This guide assumes that some of your basic setup may have been completed during your trial with CourtReserve, but it’s a helpful resource whether you’re starting fresh or continuing from where you left off.
Getting Started: Steps for New Admins
Review Your CourtReserve basics
Review key system components and take a look at the basic settings of your existing account to see what’s already in place and what may need adjusting.
Dive deeper into how each area of CourtReserve works. The resources below include how-to articles and videos to help you configure features and settings that best fit your organization’s needs.
Get Additional Support
Reach out to our Customer Success Team via live chat (click the green chat bubble icon at the top-right of the admin panel) or email us at support@courtreserve.com.
CourtReserve Support Hours
Our team is committed to providing responsive and reliable support throughout the week:
Monday–Friday: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM (ET)
Fully staffed for prompt assistance and comprehensive support.Monday–Friday: 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM (ET)
Evening support is offered with a smaller team presence.Saturday–Sunday: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM (ET)
Weekend support is offered with a smaller team presence.
Quick Links
Use the links below to jump to a specific section of the article:
CourtReserve Essential Terms Glossary
It is very helpful to get familiar with the most commonly used terminology in CourtReserve. Whether you're a new admin or need a refresher, this guide will help you understand key terms with confidence.
📖 View CourtReserve Glossary article here.
Organization Settings
Start by reviewing the core details of your organization to ensure everything is accurate.
General: Set up the basics like name, currency, and time zone.
📖 View General Settings article here.System Users: Configure settings for your system users.
📖 View System Users article here.Hours of Operation: Set up your Hours of Operation.
📖 View Hours of Operation article here.Kiosks: Consider how to set up a self check-in kiosk using a tablet, iPad, or desktop, allowing players to easily check in for their activities.
📖 View Self Check-In & Kiosks article here.
▶️ View Self Check-In & Kiosks & Attendance Tracker video tutorial
here.▶️ View Creating a Guest Waiver Kiosk video tutorial here.
Email Settings: Set up high level defaults for your organization’s emails.
Calendar Feed: Create custom calendar feeds for your members.
📖 View Calendar Feed article here.
Global Announcements: Display news on the member portal.
📖 View Global Announcements article here.Check-In Statuses: Create custom check-in statuses for your members.
📖 View Check-In Statuses article here.Two-Factor Authentication: Require two-factor authentication for all system users to enhance security by adding an extra verification step during login.
📖 View Two-Factor Authentication article here.Setup Guide: Utilize the built-in, step-by-step walkthrough to configure essential settings for a successful setup.
📖 View Setup Guide article here.
Court & Ball Machine Settings
In the Court and Ball Machine Settings row of the admin panel, you can set up your courts, create visual schedulers, and define whether your organization offers any bookable resources—such as ball machines, racquet or paddle rentals, etc.—that members can reserve or add to their bookings. Navigate to SETTINGS > COURT & BALL MACHINE SETTINGS.
Courts
Verify that all courts at your facility are properly set up.
Court Types: CourtReserve includes default court types, but system users can add, remove, or hide custom court types to better fit their facility.
📖 View Court Type article here.
Ball Machines
You will need to create Ball Machine Categories to label any type of equipment members can book. This label is flexible and can be used for various items (ball machines, rental paddles, outdoor speakers, etc.).
These categories help organize equipment and make them easier to find. Just creating a category won’t make the equipment show up in CourtReserve—you’ll also need to add the actual equipment and assign it the right category tag.
📖 View Create Ball Machine Categories article here.
📖 View Manage Ball Machines article here.
📖 View Require Ball Machine article here.
▶️ View Ball Machine video tutorial here.
Custom Schedulers
🔔Schedulers: Visual calendars that display courts, events, lessons, and reservations. They’re used to create, manage, and organize bookings. Custom schedulers are fully customizable using various filters and can be made visible to players and/or system users as needed. For example, you can create a custom scheduler that shows pickleball players only the pickleball courts.
Custom Schedulers let you create different visual calendar views for your facility. They're especially useful when certain reservation types are limited to specific courts, helping you organize and manage bookings more efficiently.
📖 View Custom Schedulers article here.
Additional Court Settings
Closures: Court closures allow system users to temporarily block bookings and cancel existing reservations on specific courts. These tools simplify closure management by notifying affected members and offering options to reschedule bookings or issue refunds directly from the admin side.
📖 View How to Close Courts article here.
📖 View Issue Refunds for Closures article here.
▶️ View Court Closure video tutorial here.
Court Waitlisting: Display a customizable, automated court waitlist on the member portal to keep courts full and notify players when openings arise.
📖 View Court Waitlisting article here.
▶️ View CourtWaitlisting video tutorial here.
Billing Settings
Integrated Payments
To confirm whether your organization is set up to process payments, go to Settings > BILLING SETTINGS > Integrated Payments.
If you're already connected to a payment provider, you'll see the integration details there.
If you're not yet integrated and would like to accept payments through CourtReserve, see the Integrated Payments article below to explore the payment providers supported and start next steps.
📖 View Integrated Payments article here.
Additionally, check to see whether your organization charges a convenience fee by scrolling to the bottom of the Integrated Payments page and checking if “Enable Convenience Fee” is turned on.
📖 View Convenience Fee article here.
Revenue Categories
Review, add, or update your Revenue Categories. Go to Settings > BILLING SETTINGS > Revenue Categories. A Revenue Category is a tag used to organize and track different types of income within your club, making financial reporting easier and more efficient. It's important to set these up early, as they are used in the settings and configuration of many other features within CourtReserve.
📖 View Revenue Categories article here.
Additional Billing Settings
Misc. Fees: Create miscellaneous fee categories to categorize fees.
📖 View Applying Miscellaneous Fees article here.Invoice Settings: Configure settings for your invoices(s).
📖 View Billing Settings article here.Taxes: Create a sales tax to apply specific tax rates across POS items, memberships, reservations, lessons, events, and/or packages.
📖 View Tax Rates article here.Recurring Fees: Use Post Recurring Fees to schedule ongoing or time-bound charges to members’ accounts at the family or individual level for add-ons like locker rentals, ball machine fees, or club maintenance dues.
📖 View Recurring Fees article here.Package Categories / Packages: See information on packages in Additional Features below.
Auto-Refund: Configure settings to auto-issue refunds and, optionally, establish thresholds to require manual approval.
📖 View Auto Refund article here.▶️ View Auto Refund setup video tutorial here.
Member Settings
Memberships
Review the memberships currently set up in your system. Navigate to SETTINGS > MEMBER SETTINGS > Memberships. Every player must have an active membership on their profile in order to reserve courts, sign up for events, and access other member-only features. Be sure your membership setup aligns with how your club operates.
📖 View Memberships Overview article here. A general overview of how
memberships work in CourtReserve.
📖 View Memberships Settings article here. It provides details on the various
settings available for each membership type. Use the What’s Next? links at the
end of the article to learn more about membership setup.
📖 View Family Membership article here. It explains the difference between
Individual and Family memberships, helping you choose the right structure for your
facility.
▶️ View Memberships video tutorial here.
▶️ View Pre-Selling Memberships video tutorial here.
Members
Understanding how members are added to your CourtReserve system is a key part of managing your organization effectively. There are three main ways to add members:
Member Import CourtReserve offers one free member import per organization. This allows you to bring in your existing member list all at once. Additional imports beyond the first will include a service fee. If you're a new admin at an existing facility, your organization may have already completed the initial import.
📖 View Member Import article here.Manual Entry: You can add members individually by navigating to: MEMBERS > ADD MEMBER. This is useful for one-off additions or smaller member lists.
Online Member Self-Registration: You can allow players to create their own accounts from the Member Portal / mobile app. Go to SETTINGS > PORTAL SETTINGS > Setup and ensure the option “Allow members to create their account online” is turned on.
📖 View Member Portal Settings article here.Review your Sign Up Form. Navigate to PORTAL SETTINGS > Sign Up Form. Make sure it includes all the fields you need new members to complete when creating their accounts.
📖 View Sign Up Form article here.▶️ View Sign Up Form video tutorial here.
You should also review your Welcome Email. Navigate to PORTAL SETTINGS > Welcome Email. The Welcome Email helps new members get started by providing a direct link to your Member Portal login page. You can fully customize the email’s text and include images, links, or other helpful content to guide new users.
📖 View Welcome Email article here.
▶️ View Welcome Email video tutorial here.
Additional Member Settings
There are many additional settings where you can customize information, requirements, and visibility for your members. These settings can be found under the Member Settings row in the Admin Panel under Settings > MEMBER SETTINGS.
If your organization uses player ratings—or if you’d like to restrict certain events to players within a specific rating category—Custom Ratings allow you to define rating levels that can be used to control access and organize players by skill.
📖 View Custom Ratings article here.📖 View Custom Ratings Use Case Examples article here.
Member Groups help you organize players who share similar characteristics, such as rating levels, preferred sports, or program types. These groups can be used to: simplify member organization, restrict access to specific events, or filter email communication. There are two types of member groups:
Static Groups: Manually created and managed.Dynamic Groups: Automatically populated based on set criteria.
📖 View Member Groups article here.
▶️ View Member Groups Video Tutorial here.
Custom fields are a way for you to gather additional information from your members as they are filling out your sign up form, signing up for an event, and more. They are used to collect information that isn’t covered by the default options available in CourtReserve.
📖 View Custom Fields article here.Watch this video to explore the essentials of member management in CourtReserve—from handling Families and Memberships to setting up Custom Fields, Ratings, and Member Groups.
▶️ View Member Management Video Tutorial here.
Portal Settings
Member Portal
There are two ways to access CourtReserve and its many features: through the CourtReserve Mobile App or Member Portal. The Member Portal is the web version of CourtReserve your members use through a browser on their computer or tablet. Your Member Portal can be customized to reflect your organization’s branding and preferences. You also have control over which features are visible to members.
Use the View Member Portal link in the upper left of your admin view to toggle between the admin view and the member view. This allows you to see exactly what your members will experience when accessing the portal.
To return to the Admin Panel from the Member Portal, click your name in the upper-right corner, then select Admin Panel from the dropdown menu.
To customize your Member Portal, go to SETTINGS > PORTAL SETTINGS > Website. Here, you can adjust settings such as colors, headers and footers, menu link visibility, and more to match your organization’s branding and preferences.
📖 View How to Build a Member Portal article here.
📖 View Member Portal General Tab article here.
📖 View Adding a Logo article here.
📖 View Creating Header Links article here.
📖 View Navigation Settings article here.
▶️ View Member Portal Mastery webinar here.
Reservations, Lessons, & Events
You can use the CourtReserve system to let your members book courts for reservations, lessons, and events. Whether you offer just one of these activities or all three, the system is flexible to fit your organization’s needs.
Reservation Settings
Reservations
🔔 Reservations: Bookings made by system users and members, based on your settings. Reservations typically involve securing a court, facility, or equipment (like a ball machine) for a specific time slot—where the date, time, and court or resource are selected. For example, a player books / reserves Tennis Court #2 on a specific date at their chosen time slot.
Navigate to SETTINGS > RESERVATION SETTINGS. Take a look at your organization’s reservation settings row in the admin panel—the following article will guide you through each option:
📖 View Reservation Settings article here.
Make sure to review your Reservation Type setup—these are the specific activities your players can book on your reservable spaces.
📖 View Reservation Types article here.It’s important to understand how to reschedule a court reservation from the admin side. See helpful information here:
📖 View Court Reschedule article here.Booking Reservations (admin side): It’s helpful to understand how to book reservations from the admin panel. Check out the article below:
📖 View Booking Reservations article here.
It’s also helpful to understand what your members see when booking reservations through the mobile app. Check out the video here:
▶️ View Booking Reservations from the Mobile App here.
Booking Settings
The Booking Settings row in the admin is where you set up the rules, regulations, and costs that are associated with your reservations. In the admin panel, navigate to SETTINGS > BOOKING SETTINGS.
General: Set who can book courts online, how far in advance they can book, whether they can cancel reservations, and more.
📖 View Booking Settings: General article here.Restrictions: Define how frequently players can book reservations.
📖 View Booking Settings: Restrictions article here.
Bookable Items: Control which membership types can book specific reservation types, court types, and resources.
📖 View Booking Settings: Bookable Items article here.Costs: Configure court costs for your reservations.
📖 View Booking Settings: Costs article here.
Discounts: If your organization allows a certain number of free activities per time frame, set those up here.
📖 View Booking Settings: Discounts article here.
Booking Windows: Limit court access for specific membership types based on time of day.
📖 View Booking Settings: Booking Windows article here.
Prime Times: Define your organization’s peak hours or high-demand time blocks.
📖 View Booking Settings: Prime Times article here.
Instructor Settings
Lessons
🔔Lessons or Book a Pro:
Typically created by system users on the admin side, lessons involve an instructor working with one or more players to help improve their game. If you’d like members to book their own lessons, enable the Book a Pro feature to allow self-scheduling through the Member Portal or mobile app.
Take a look at your Instructor Settings row on the admin panel to manage everything related to lessons and pros. Navigate to SETTINGS > INSTRUCTOR SETTINGS.
Follow the setup steps to configure Lesson Types, Instructor Types, Scheduling Restrictions, and Instructor Pricing.
📖 View Instructor Settings article here.
▶️ View Lessons & Instructors Video Tutorial here.
▶️ View Instructor Essentials webinar here.
Lesson Types: Lesson Types define the different kinds of lessons your club offers (e.g., private lessons, group lessons). These must be created first before you can begin booking lessons in the system.
📖View Lesson Types article here.Instructors: This section defines all your club’s instructors—the team members involved in teaching at your facility.
📖 View Instructors article here.Instructor Types: Instructor Types categorize your instructors (e.g., Head Pro, Assistant Coach) to help assign them appropriately to lessons. Similar to Lesson Types, Instructor Types provide structure for managing who teaches what.
📖 View Instructor Types article here.Scheduling Restrictions: Scheduling Restrictions allow you to control which Lesson Types or Event Categories each instructor can be assigned to. This ensures instructors are only scheduled for the activities they’re qualified or available for.
📖 View Instructor Restrictions and Pricing article here.Instructor Pricing: Instructor Pricing lets you set different lesson costs based on the Instructor and Membership Type. You can also create Custom Costs for more flexibility in pricing specific scenarios.
📖 View Instructor Pricing article here.
Enable Book a Pro if you want players to schedule their own lessons.
📖 View Book a Pro article here.Learn how to book a lesson from the admin side and see what it looks like for your instructors.
📖 View Booking Lessons article here.
Event Settings
Events
🔔Events: Structured activities such as clinics, camps, or socials where system users define the courts, times, and instructors. Events allow members to register for specific time slots set by the organization, rather than selecting their own date, time, or court as they would with a standard reservation. For example, the system user creates a Pickleball Open Play every week on Monday from 5-8pm on Courts 1, 2, and 3 with a max registration of 15.
Review your Events Settings row on the admin panel to manage everything related to events. Navigate to SETTINGS > EVENT SETTINGS.
📖 View Events Overview article here.
Start by setting up your Event Categories properly. These serve as the highest level of organization for your events, making it easy for members to find and navigate them. Examples include Adult Clinic, Adult Social, or Teen Camp.
📖 View Set up Event Categories article here.
Next, learn how to create an event. Navigate to EVENTS > CREATE EVENT.
a. Create an Event: Create your events, configuring key details like schedules,
fees, and registrant limits.
📖 View Create an Event article here.
b. Event Setup: Configure core event settings such as pricing and visibility.
📖 View Event Setup article here.
c. Event Tags: Add tags to events to make it easier for system users and members
to search, filter, and find events based on themes, topics, or other important
criteria—helping keep events organized and accessible. For example, Women,
DUPR 4.0+, or Social.
📖 View Event Tags article here.
d. Event Description: Add a clear description to share important event details and
attract participants.
📖 View Event: Description article here.
e. Event Registration Restrictions: Set rules for who can register, such as gender,
age, or skill levels.
📖 View Event: Registration Restrictions article here.
f. Event Waivers: Understand waivers related to events.
📖 View Event: Waivers article here.
g. Event Guest Setup: Define whether participants can bring guests and set any
guest-related restrictions or fees.
📖 View Event: Guest Setup article here.
h. Event Additional Setup: Configure extra options to tailor the event experience
such as visibility and notifications.
📖 View Event: Additional Setup article here.
As an admin, you can manage events through the Event List and Event Calendar views on your admin panel.
📖 View Event Calendar article here.
📖 View Event List article here.
Using these Event views, you can:
- View registrants for any event.
- Reschedule players as needed.
📖 View Reschedule an Event article here.
- Manually register players directly from the admin side.
📖 View Register Participants article here.
Watch these videos for overviews of Event Management:
▶️ View the Events video tutorial here.
▶️ View Events and Programming webinar here.
Widgets
Widgets: A widget in CourtReserve is a customizable tool you can embed on your website to give members quick access to specific features—like booking courts, viewing events, or registering for programs.
📖 View Widgets article here.
▶️ View Widgets video tutorial here.
▶️ View Widgets - Lobby View video tutorial here.
Notifications
Player: Player Notifications are automated emails triggered by member actions—like booking confirmations or cancellations. While these messages are pre-built, system users can often add custom text to include important organization-specific details (for example, refund or cancellation policies). Navigate to SETTINGS > NOTIFICATIONS > Player.
📖 View Player Notifications article here
System User: System users can manage email notification settings for themselves and others, including sub-admins, instructors, and coordinators. These settings can be adjusted globally for all users or customized at the individual level to ensure the right people get the right updates. Navigate to SETTINGS > NOTIFICATIONS > System User.
📖 View System User Notifications article here.
Other - Email Players: System users can send custom, one-time bulk emails to members—separate from automated system notifications. Using filters, users can narrow down recipients based on specific criteria, making it easy to target the right group with announcements, updates, or reminders. Navigate to SETTINGS > MEMBERS > EMAIL PLAYERS.
📖 View Player Email article here.
▶️ View Communication video tutorial here.
Additional Features
Review CourtReserve’s helpful Additional Features by navigating to SETTINGS> ADDITIONAL FEATURES.
Financial Features
Batch Billing & Invoicing: Batch Billing allows system users to generate multiple invoices at once from a single dashboard, streamlining the billing process and saving time.
📖 View Batch Billing article here.
Premium Features
Waivers & Membership Agreements: CourtReserve’s waivers and agreements feature allows clubs to collect signed waivers or membership agreements from members and players.
📖 View Waivers & Agreements article here.Stringing: The Stringing feature provides a complete work order system for managing racquet stringing, including assigning stringers, tracking inventory, saving preferences, creating work orders, and processing payments.
📖 View Stringing article here.Text and Push Notifications: Send text alerts and push notifications to members, instructors, and staff with this premium add-on, creating multiple channels to share updates, important news, and promotions.
📖 View Text and Push Notifications article here.
▶️ View Communication video tutorial here.
Branded Domains: Provides a seamless, professional player experience by replacing the standard CourtReserve link with a custom branded domain. This reinforces your club’s brand identity, improves visibility in Google search, and creates a more secure, trustworthy portal for members.
📖View Branded Domains article here.
Essential Features
Attendance Tracker: The Attendance Tracker add-on helps organizations monitor daily foot traffic by marking players as attended, providing insights into attendance trends, peak times, and member participation. Note: This feature tracks attendance, not check-ins.
📖 View Attendance Tracker article here.Member Waitlist: Waitlists allow system users to manage membership limits by enabling players to join a waitlist when a membership type is full, with customizable enrollment and notification settings for offering spots as they open.
📖 View Member Waitlist article here.Profile Picture: Easily identify members of your organization at a glance with pictures displayed in their profile, on schedulers, and check-in lists.
📖 View Profile Picture article here.File Repository: Store and manage your organization’s documents, images, and videos in one secure location. This free add-on (disabled by default) allows system users to upload content and control who has access.
📖 View File Repository article here.
Enhanced Play
Organized Play: Organized Play creates system-generated matchups based on player ratings, ensuring fair and competitive games across available courts.
📖 View Organized Play article here.
Leagues: The Leagues add-on allows system users to manage multiple sessions or tournaments under one league, organizing players, payments, and matches efficiently across different sports or divisions.
📖 View Leagues article here.
Integrations
📖 Read a summary of all CourtReserve integration partners here.
Access Control: Integrate an access control system with CourtReserve to manage member entry to courts, doors, and restricted areas. Members receive unique PIN codes linked to their accounts, granting access based on their reservation or event times—ensuring secure, timely, and efficient facility access.
📖 View Access Control overview article here.
📖View RemoteLock article here.
📖 View Brivo article here.▶️ View Brivo integration video tutorial here.
GoTab: Integrate the GoTab Food & Beverage POS with CourtReserve to streamline food and beverage transactions, providing a seamless payment experience for both members and administrators.
📖 View GoTab Integration article here.▶️ View GoTab webinar here.
Save My Play: Integrate with Save My Play’s AI-powered sports cameras to allow players to effortlessly capture their sessions.
📖 View Save My Play Integration article here.▶️ View Save My Play webinar here.
Swish: The CourtReserve and Swish integration simplifies event management by seamlessly transferring registrants and events into Swish, which handles scheduling, score tracking, and player engagement for leagues, tournaments, and open play.
📖 View Swish Integration article here.
▶️View Swish webinar here.Patch Retention: Patch Retention is a marketing automation and retention platform that helps clubs boost participation, improve loyalty, and personalize communication. Once connected, Patch automatically syncs your CourtReserve data — including player profiles, reservations, memberships, and check-ins — so you can trigger targeted campaigns at exactly the right time.
📖 View Patch Retention Integration article here.Clubessential: Clubessential is another platform that CourtReserve integrates with to provide a streamlined login experience. With single sign-on (SSO), players can access CourtReserve directly from their Clubessential portal using the same credentials — making it easier to book courts and manage their schedules without juggling multiple logins.
📖 View Clubessential Integration article here.API Access: API Access allows clubs to securely connect CourtReserve to external systems — making it easier to share data across platforms and streamline day-to-day workflows. API access gives you the flexibility to build custom connections that enhance how your club operates.
📖 View API Access article here.StackEleven: StackEleven is a marketing and lead management platform built specifically for pickleball clubs. Through its integration with CourtReserve, it automatically syncs user data — making it easier to track leads, automate communication, and understand the return on your marketing efforts.
MembersFirst: MembersFirst is a website and player login platform that integrates with CourtReserve to provide an easy login experience for players. With single sign-on (SSO), players can log into CourtReserve from a MembersFirst club website using the same credentials.
📖 View MembersFirst Integration article here.
Additional Resources
Front Desk Training
Utilize these videos to assist in training your front desk staff on CourtReserve:
▶️ View Front Desk training video tutorial here.
▶️ View Front Desk Excellence webinar here.
Reports
CourtReserve offers a variety of reports to give you the key insights you need to run your business smoothly. Take some time to explore the different options and learn how to filter each one to get the data you're looking for.
📖 View Reports articles here (Members, Events, etc.)
📖 View Financial Reports article here.
📖 View POS Reports article here.
▶️ View Reports Overview video tutorial here.
▶️ View Transaction Reports video tutorial here.
▶️ View Sales Summary Report video tutorial here.
▶️ View Point of Sale Report video tutorial here.
Player Resources
CourtReserve offers a variety of helpful articles you can use as resources for your players/members—covering everything from logging in and booking a court to adding family members.
These articles can also be useful for system users to review, as they provide insight into how CourtReserve works from a player perspective.
All articles are linked from the Player Packet resource below. Feel free to copy and paste the content to include in your own internal emails or how-to guides for your members.
📖 View Player Packet article here.
Ongoing Support
💬 Live Chat Support
Our team is available Monday–Friday, 9am–5pm ET via the green chat bubble on the top-right of your CourtReserve admin panel. We also have a smaller after-hours team that covers West Coast hours and weekends, so you can still get assistance outside of standard business hours when needed. You can also email our Customer Success Team at support@courtreserve.com.
📖 Knowledge Base
Our 24/7 Knowledge Base is full of searchable, step-by-step guides that walk you through features, setup processes, and troubleshooting solutions. It’s a great resource to have on hand whenever you need quick answers. Access from the open book icon on the top-right of your CourtReserve admin panel.
▶️ YouTube Channel
Our YouTube channel offers video tutorials and recorded training sessions that visually guide you through features like event creation, member management, and more.