Index
What is this integration?
The Mailchimp integration lets you export your Golfmanager customers to a Mailchimp audience (list), the email marketing platform. This way you can send them newsletters and campaigns from Mailchimp with their details always up to date, without manually exporting and importing files.
Mailchimp is a tool for creating and sending email campaigns. An audience (also called a list) is the set of contacts you send those campaigns to. An API key is like a technical password that lets Golfmanager communicate securely with your Mailchimp account.
What problem does it solve?
Brings your customers into Mailchimp with a couple of clicks, with no intermediate files or copy-pasting.
Keeps the audience up to date: if you re-export a customer, their details are updated instead of duplicated.
Makes marketing campaigns easy (promotions, news, events, season reminders).
Avoids duplicates: contacts that already exist are not repeated, they are identified by their email.
Which systems does it connect and in which direction does the data flow?
It connects Golfmanager with Mailchimp in a single direction:
You select customers in Golfmanager and send them to a Mailchimp audience.
The contacts end up in Mailchimp as subscribed, ready to receive campaigns.
Mailchimp does not send data back to Golfmanager. Anything that happens afterwards in Mailchimp (unsubscribes, bounces, opens) does not flow back to Golfmanager: it is an export, not a two-way sync.
What information is exported?
Only two pieces of data are sent for each customer. No phone, no address, no booking history: only what is needed to be able to send them an email.
Data in Golfmanager | Where it goes in Mailchimp |
Customer email | Contact identifier (email_address) |
Customer name | Name field (FNAME) |
Important notes about what is exported:
Customers without an email are automatically skipped (you cannot send an email to someone with no email address).
The customer's full name goes entirely into Mailchimp's FNAME (first name) field. It is not split into first name and surname.
The email is also used as the contact's unique identifier, which is why duplicates are never created.
Prerequisites (before activating the integration)
Have a Mailchimp account (the free plan is enough to get started).
Have the Mailchimp module installed in your Golfmanager. If you don't see it, contact support to have it enabled.
A Mailchimp API key, which you generate inside your Mailchimp account.
Have at least one audience (list) created in Mailchimp. New accounts usually come with one by default.
Administrator permissions in Golfmanager to access the settings.
How to set it up (step by step)
Part A — Get your API key in Mailchimp
Log in to your Mailchimp account.
Click your name/avatar (top of the screen) and go to Profile.
Select the Extras > API keys tab.
Click Create A Key.
Copy the key that appears. It has a format similar to
a1b2c3d4e5f6...-us21: a long string, a hyphen and a short code at the end (for exampleus21) that indicates your account's data center.
⚠️ Save the key somewhere safe as soon as you copy it. For security reasons, Mailchimp only shows it to you in full once.
Part B — Enter the key in Golfmanager
Log in to Golfmanager with an administrator user.
Go to Settings > Mailchimp.
Paste the API key into the API Key field.
Save the changes. The key is stored encrypted, so no one can read it afterwards.
Check that you have at least one audience created in Mailchimp.
⚠️ Without the API key saved and without at least one audience in Mailchimp, the system will not let you export.
Explanation of each field
Below is a description of each field you interact with in this integration: where it appears, what it is for, what effect it has on the system, and a usage example.
1. API Key
Field name: API Key.
Where it is: Settings > Mailchimp.
Description: it is the credential that connects your Golfmanager with your Mailchimp account. It works like a technical password: it identifies your account and authorizes sending contacts.
Impact on the system: it is required. From it the system automatically extracts the data center (the final code, e.g.
us21) to know which Mailchimp server to send the information to. It is stored encrypted. Without it, the export button does not work and audiences cannot be loaded.Usage example: you paste the key
a1b2...-us21and save.What happens when it is used: Golfmanager becomes linked to your Mailchimp account and can now read your audiences and send them contacts.
System behavior: on each export, the system decrypts the key, detects the data center and uses it to authenticate with Mailchimp. If the key is missing, incorrect or has been revoked, it will show an error message (see Frequently asked questions) and will not export anything.
2. Destination List / Audience
Field name: List — the destination audience.
Where it is: in the window that appears when you click Export to Mailchimp from the customer list.
Description: a dropdown menu where you choose which Mailchimp audience the selected customers will be added to. The dropdown is filled automatically with the audiences that exist in your Mailchimp account.
Impact on the system: it determines the destination of the export. Choosing one is mandatory. If your account has several audiences (for example, "Members" and "Visitors"), here you decide which one the contacts go into.
Usage example: you select 50 customers, click Export to Mailchimp and choose the "Members Newsletter" audience.
What happens when it is used: the selected customers (those who have an email) are added to that specific audience.
System behavior: the first audience in the list is selected by default. If you don't choose one, the system warns you that you must select a list. If your account has no audiences at all, the system will warn you and you must create one in Mailchimp before continuing.
3. Customer email (source field)
Field name: Email (from the customer record in Golfmanager).
Description: the customer's email address. It is not entered during the export; it is taken from the customer record.
Impact on the system: it is the essential piece of data. It is used both as the sending address and as the contact's unique identifier in Mailchimp (which is why contacts are never duplicated).
Usage example: the customer "Ana López" has the email
ana@email.comin her record.What happens when it is used: Ana is added (or updated if she already existed) in the chosen audience, identified by her email.
System behavior: if a customer has no email, they are automatically skipped and you are told how many were left out for that reason. The email is handled in lowercase so the same contact is recognized even if it is written with capital letters.
4. Customer name (source field → FNAME)
Field name: Name (from the customer record), which in Mailchimp is stored in the FNAME field.
Description: the customer's name, which travels to Mailchimp so you can personalize campaigns (for example, "Hello *|FNAME|*").
Impact on the system: it is informational, it does not prevent the export if it is empty. It is placed in full into the FNAME field; it is not split into first name and surname.
Usage example: the customer is named "Ana López" in Golfmanager.
What happens when it is used: in Mailchimp, the contact's FNAME field now contains "Ana López".
System behavior: when you use
*|FNAME|*in a campaign, Mailchimp will show the customer's name. If you want to split first name and surname, you will need to adjust it inside Mailchimp.
How to use it day to day (step by step)
Go to Golfmanager and open the Customers list.
Filter if you need to (by customer type, registration date, etc.) to find who you want to export.
Select the customers you want to export by ticking their checkboxes.
Open the actions menu (the "more" menu) and click Export to Mailchimp.
Wait a moment: the system queries your Mailchimp audiences and shows them in a dropdown.
Choose the destination audience (list) in the dropdown.
Click Export.
Review the summary: the system tells you how many customers were exported and, if any, how many were left out because they had no email.
Continue in Mailchimp: log in to your account and create/send the campaign to that audience.
Campaigns (design, subject, sending, statistics) are always managed inside Mailchimp. Golfmanager only takes care of moving the contacts.
Messages the system may show
During the process these notices may appear. They are normal and informational:
"Exported X of Y customers": confirms the export went well. X is the number of customers with an email that were sent, and Y the total you had selected.
"X not exported because they have no email": a notice of how many selected customers were skipped because they had no email address. It is not an error: they simply cannot be emailed.
The messages that indicate a problem (key not configured, no lists, error loading or exporting) are explained in detail in the Frequently asked questions.
Privacy and consent
🔒 When you export contacts to Mailchimp, you add them as subscribed directly, without a confirmation email (there is no double opt-in). Make sure you have those customers' consent to send them marketing communications and that you comply with data protection regulations (GDPR or any other that applies to you). Only export to those who have agreed to receive marketing.
Remember as well that the responsibility for managing unsubscribes lies with Mailchimp: when a customer unsubscribes from a campaign, they become "unsubscribed" in Mailchimp, but that change does not flow back to Golfmanager.
Limitations to keep in mind
It is export only (one direction): Golfmanager sends contacts to Mailchimp; it does not bring data back (no unsubscribes, no opens, no statistics).
Only email and name are exported; customers without an email are not exported.
It is an on-demand export: you select and export whenever you want; it does not sync on its own and there are no scheduled sends.
The name is not split into first name and surname: it goes in full into the FNAME field.
Campaigns are created and sent in Mailchimp, not in Golfmanager.
For large volumes it is best to export in reasonable batches (see Frequently asked questions) to avoid the operation taking too long.
It involves consent and privacy regulations (see the previous section).
Frequently asked questions
The system says "Mailchimp API key not configured". What does it mean?
It means you have not yet saved the API key in Golfmanager, or the field was left empty. Go to Settings > Mailchimp, paste the key from your Mailchimp account and save. Then try the export again.
It shows "No lists found in Mailchimp" (or "Create a list from Mailchimp first"). Why?
Your Mailchimp account has no audience created. Go into Mailchimp, create an audience and export again. The destination dropdown can only show audiences that already exist.
I get "Error loading Mailchimp lists". How do I fix it?
This notice appears when Golfmanager cannot communicate with your Mailchimp account to fetch the audiences. The most common causes are: the API key is incorrect or was pasted wrong (with spaces), the key has been revoked or regenerated in Mailchimp, or there is a temporary connection issue. Check that the key is correct and save it again; if it persists, generate a new key in Mailchimp and enter it again.
It asks me to "Select at least one customer". What do I do?
You clicked Export to Mailchimp without ticking any customer. Tick the checkboxes of the customers you want to export and click the button again.
It asks me to "Select a list". Why?
In the export window you did not choose the destination audience. Open the dropdown, select an audience and click Export.
It shows "Error exporting". What happened?
The export could not be completed. It may be due to a temporary connection issue with Mailchimp, to the chosen audience no longer existing, or to a very large number of customers that makes the operation take too long. Try again; if there are many customers, try exporting them in smaller batches.
I selected 100 customers but the summary says fewer were exported. Is it an error?
No. Customers without an email are automatically skipped because they cannot be emailed. The summary itself tells you how many were left out for that reason. If you want to include them, fill in their email in the customer record and export again.
If I export the same customer twice, are they duplicated in Mailchimp?
No. The email acts as a unique identifier, so a contact that already exists is not duplicated: they are matched again by their email and a single entry is kept.
If I re-export a customer who was already there, are their details updated?
Yes. If the contact already exists in the audience, their details (such as the name) are updated with whatever is now in Golfmanager. What is not changed is their subscription status: if they were already unsubscribed, they stay unsubscribed (see next question).
What status do new contacts get? Do they receive a confirmation email?
New contacts are added directly as subscribed, without double opt-in, meaning without a confirmation email. That is why it is so important to export only to customers who have given their consent to receive communications.
A customer unsubscribed in Mailchimp. If I re-export them, are they subscribed again?
No. The export does not reactivate someone who unsubscribed: the status of a contact that already exists is not changed. Re-subscribing someone who asked to unsubscribe must be done while respecting their consent, and is managed from Mailchimp.
Does the integration sync on its own every so often?
No. It is a manual, on-demand export: contacts are only sent when you select customers and click Export. There is no automatic or scheduled synchronization.
Does Mailchimp send information back to Golfmanager (opens, clicks, unsubscribes)?
No. The flow is one-way. Campaign statistics, opens, clicks and unsubscribes are checked inside Mailchimp and are not reflected in Golfmanager.
What exact data does Mailchimp see about my customers?
Only the email and the name (in the FNAME field). No phone, address, booking data or any other detail from the record is sent.
Can I export many customers at once?
Yes, all selected customers are sent in a single operation. Even so, with very large volumes the operation may take a while; if you see timeout errors, split them into smaller batches.
Where do I find my API key and is it safe to store it in Golfmanager?
You generate it in Mailchimp under Profile > Extras > API keys. In Golfmanager it is stored encrypted, so it is not visible to anyone. Even so, treat it like a password: do not share it and revoke it in Mailchimp if you think it has been leaked.
Can I choose which audience I export to?
Yes. When exporting you choose the destination audience in a dropdown. If you have several (for example, "Members" and "Visitors"), you select the right one for each export.
Can I undo an export from Golfmanager?
No. Once exported, the contacts are in Mailchimp. To remove or unsubscribe them you must do it from your Mailchimp account.
Where are campaigns designed and sent?
Always in Mailchimp. Golfmanager only moves the contacts into the audience; the email design, subject, send scheduling and statistics are all managed in Mailchimp.
Recommended best practices
Only export to customers with marketing consent, since they are added as subscribed without confirmation.
Keep emails up to date in customer records so you don't lose contacts during the export.
Use audiences or segments in Mailchimp to organize your sends (members, visitors, events, etc.).
Export in reasonable batches if you have thousands of customers, to avoid waits or timeout errors.
Keep your API key safe and do not share it; it is stored encrypted, but treat it like a password.
Re-run the export when you add new customers: existing ones are updated and new ones are added, with no duplicates.