Frequently asked questions

Most coordinators are up and running within five minutes. Create your school account, import your student roll via CSV, add your events (or import them from a CSV template), and you're ready to take nominations. There's no training course required — the platform is designed to guide you step by step.

No. SportsOrganised is entirely web-based. It works in any modern browser on any device — laptop, tablet, or phone. Marshals and recorders can use their own phones on the day without needing to install anything.

Yes. Every school gets a 7-day free trial with full access to the platform — no credit card required. You can import your student roll, build a real carnival, and run through the entire workflow before committing to anything. After the trial you choose a plan that fits, or contact us to extend your trial if you need more time to evaluate.

Yes — all three carnival types are fully supported. Athletics carnivals use track and field event types with time and distance recording. Swimming carnivals use swim event types with heat and lane management. Sports Day carnivals support team events, house point tables, and round-robin rotations. Every plan includes full access to all three.

Absolutely — CSV import is one of the core features. For students, the three-step import wizard lets you upload your roll, preview how each row maps to a student record (with smart DOB-to-age-group conversion), detect duplicates by name, and confirm the import. A CSV template is available to download so your data is in the right format from the start. Events can also be imported the same way — upload a CSV of event names, types, age groups, and genders, preview the result, then confirm.

No. Your student database persists from year to year. At the start of a new year, export your current roll from your school MIS and re-import it with "Update existing students" turned on — matched students have their year levels and age groups updated in bulk, and genuinely new students are added. Turn on "Deactivate students not in this file" and anyone who has left is deactivated in one pass: their historical results are preserved, they stop counting toward your plan limit, and their nominations in carnivals that have not yet run are removed. Returning students are reactivated automatically when they reappear in the file. Do the roster re-import before you copy last year's carnival, so nominations are built from the new roll.

The import wizard has three handling modes: exact matches are flagged for update-or-skip; single near-matches are presented for you to confirm; and ambiguous cases (multiple possible matches) are deferred to a manual review list. No data is silently overwritten.

SportsOrganised supports two schemes per carnival. Age-based: the student's date of birth is used to calculate which age group they fall into (e.g. "10 Girls", "11 Boys"). Year-based: the student's school year level drives the group (e.g. "Year 7 Boys", "Year 8 Girls"). You pick which scheme applies to each carnival when you create it.

Yes. SportsOrganised has a dedicated Standards event type designed for field events like shot put, discus, javelin, and long jump where you want to award achievement levels (e.g. Gold, Silver, Bronze) rather than just a place. You define the zone names and distance thresholds per event. When results are entered, the system automatically assigns the correct zone. Students can attempt the event multiple times — up to 5 attempts — and the best result is used for zone assignment and ranking.

There are six event types: Track (time-based, supports heats and finals), Field (distance-based, up to 5 attempts, best auto-selected), Swim (time-based, same structure as Track), Relay (team time-based), Team (house-based scoring — used for sports day rotations), and Standards (distance + achievement zones). Each type has its own results entry interface optimised for that format.

For track and swim events, you can create heats under each event. Athletes are assigned to heats with lane numbers. After heat results are recorded, the top N finishers from each heat are automatically promoted to the final. The finals event is the same event record — no separate setup needed. Heat configuration (number of heats, lanes, promotion count) is set per event.

Yes. The carnival clone function copies the complete structure — all events, schedule time modules, locations, points table configuration, and staffing templates — into a new carnival. You then adjust dates and make any changes before activating it. This saves hours of re-setup for recurring annual carnivals.

Yes. Each event stores a record value, record holder name, and record date. During results entry, if a result beats the stored record, the platform highlights the record break in real time — showing the old and new values and the student's name. The new record is saved automatically and appears in the Record Breakers report.

Yes. SportsOrganised includes a public self-nomination portal that requires no login. You generate a unique link for each carnival and share it with students via email or your school's learning management system. Students enter their first and last name, the system matches them against your student database, and they're shown only the events they're eligible for based on their age group. You can set an open and close date for the portal so nominations automatically block outside that window. Students receive a confirmation page listing their selected events, and you can download a self-nomination summary report at any time.

Yes — and the system enforces them automatically. You set a maximum number of self-nomination events per student per carnival. When a student reaches that cap via the self-nomination portal, they cannot add more events. The same cap applies in the staff nomination manager, where administrators and house coordinators are warned when a student is approaching their event limit.

Yes. The Team Manager role gives house staff access to the nomination manager scoped to their specific house only — they cannot view or edit other houses' nominations. They can add and remove students from event slots within the per-house quota for each event. The system prevents them from nominating students who are not in the correct age group or who have reached their event cap.

Duplicate nominations are prevented at the database level. Each event slot is unique per student per event — the system will not create two nominations for the same student in the same event. If a student submits via the self-nomination portal a second time, their existing nominations are updated rather than duplicated.

Yes. You can generate a public results link (a unique token URL) that requires no login. Parents and students can open it on their phones to see the live house leaderboard, event-by-event results, record breakers, and the day's schedule. The page polls for updates automatically every 30 seconds — no page refresh needed.

You define a points table per carnival — how many points each finishing place earns. You can set different points for positions 1 through 10 (any finish beyond 10th scores 1 point by default). When results are saved, places are auto-assigned from the result values and points are looked up from the table instantly. Multi-division support lets you score individual events and relay events separately if needed.

The age champion leaderboard sums each student's individual event points within their age group. You can configure a "champion cap" — only a student's best N events count toward their champion score. This prevents a student who enters many events from dominating purely on volume. The leaderboard updates live as results are entered and is displayed on the carnival dashboard. You can also set separate champion divisions (e.g. "Individual" vs "Relay") so relay points don't inflate individual champion rankings.

Yes. The age champion view on the carnival dashboard ranks all students within each age group in real time. As each event result is saved, points are recalculated and the leaderboard updates instantly. This means coordinators — and the big screen display — can call out a champion contender narrative as the carnival unfolds, rather than only announcing at the end.

Each event can store a carnival record — the record value, the holder's name, and the date it was set. During results entry, if any result beats the stored record, the platform immediately flags the record break on screen — showing the old value, the new value, and the student's name and house. The record is then updated automatically. At any point you can view the Record Breakers report, which lists every record broken during the carnival grouped by event type. This report is also visible on the public results portal so parents can see it in real time.

Yes. Records are stored per event, and events persist across carnival years when you clone a carnival. If a student breaks the record at this year's carnival, it is stored with their name and date and will be shown as the record to beat at next year's carnival. This gives you a long-term record history without any manual data entry.

Yes. SportsOrganised has a full suite of print-ready documents: blank score sheets (A4, optimised for @media print), student event programs (4 cut-cards per A4 sheet), house nomination rosters, selection sheets, staff briefing sheets, and a schedule matrix. All are generated live from your current data and can be printed in seconds.

SportsOrganised has a complete volunteer and staff management module. First, you build your staff list with names, roles, contact details, and house assignments. Then you create named time modules for the day (e.g. "Track Heats 9:00–10:30", "Field Events 10:30–12:00") and use an availability grid to mark who is free during each module. From there, you create colour-coded teams (e.g. "Finish Line Crew"), assign staff to teams, and link teams to the time modules and locations they cover. Finally, you print briefing sheets — one per team — showing each person's role, location, timing, and contact details.

Yes. The Team Manager role is designed exactly for this. When you create a user account with the Team Manager role, you assign them to a specific house. They then have access to the nomination manager filtered to their house only — they can nominate and remove students from events for their house within the defined per-event quotas. They cannot see nominations for other houses, cannot access admin settings, and cannot enter results.

No. You can create reusable Role Templates at the school level — named sets of roles and quantities (e.g. "Standard Athletics Pack: Start Line ×2, Finish Line ×2, Timekeeper ×4, Field Marshal ×6"). Apply a template to any new carnival and the role slots are pre-populated instantly. You then fill the slots from your staff list or adjust as needed.

Yes. The marshal and recorder views are purpose-built for people who are not administrators. Marshals see their event, the student list, and lane assignments. Recorders see the same event and enter times or places in a simple form. Both views are mobile-optimised and do not expose any other part of the system. No training course is needed — most volunteers can operate their view within two minutes of opening it.

SportsOrganised manages full term-based house sports seasons beyond just carnival day. You create a Competition (e.g. "Term 2 Netball"), enrol the school's houses, and click "Generate Fixtures" — the system produces a balanced round-robin draw automatically, including bye rounds if you have an odd number of houses. Results are entered directly in the fixture list and the live ladder (W/D/L, Goals For/Against, Goal Difference, Points) recalculates the moment you save. If house enrolment changes, you can regenerate the fixture list safely — only unscored matches are replaced, all existing results are preserved.

Yes. Each Competition can have multiple Divisions — for example "Senior Girls", "Junior Boys", and "Mixed Open" under the same netball competition. Each division has its own enrolled houses, independent fixture list, and separate ladder. Houses can participate in some divisions but not others.

Yes. Once regular-season matches are complete, you generate semi-finals with one click — the system draws 1st vs 4th and 2nd vs 3rd from the ladder automatically. After semi-final results are entered, you generate the Grand Final the same way. All finals appear in a separate Finals tab within the division page and use the same results entry interface as regular matches.

Yes. The Annual House Results Board lets you aggregate points from any source — carnivals, house sport seasons, PE trials, swimming events, even custom one-off activities. You create a named board for the year, add custom row labels (e.g. "Athletics Carnival", "Term 2 Netball", "Swimming"), enter house points per row, and the board displays running totals per house automatically. Multiple boards are supported if you run different competitions at different year levels.

The PE Trials module is a pre-carnival assessment tool built into SportsOrganised. PE teachers run sprint, jump, and throw trial sessions with their classes during regular PE lessons — weeks before the carnival — and record results in a live spreadsheet grid inside the platform. Those results can then be used to pre-select students for carnival events, so your nominations are based on actual measured performance rather than teacher guesswork or student self-reporting. No other Australian carnival management product includes this workflow.

You create PE Classes (e.g. "Year 9 PE", "Year 10 PE") and assign students and teachers to each class. Teachers can only see and enter results for the classes they are assigned to. Within a class, you create Sessions — each with a date, time, location, and the specific PE events being trialled that day (e.g. 100m Sprint, Long Jump). Results are entered in a spreadsheet-style grid: students down the left, events across the top. Multiple attempts are supported per event and the best result is calculated automatically. All results save atomically — no partial saves.

PE events are either timed (e.g. 40m sprint, 100m) or distance-based (e.g. long jump, shot put, discus). You define the event list yourself so it can match exactly what your PE curriculum and carnival require. Each event has a configurable number of attempts and a sort order for how it appears on the results grid.

Yes. The PE results export lets you filter by year level, gender, house, and PE event, then download a CSV of each student's best result per event. This file is structured to map directly to carnival events, so you can see at a glance which students performed well enough to nominate. There is also a dedicated "Export for Carnival" function that maps PE trial results to your carnival's equivalent events for direct use in pre-selection.

Yes. The Teacher role in SportsOrganised is scoped entirely to PE Trials. Teachers can log in, see their assigned classes, enter session results, and export trial data — but they cannot access carnivals, nominations, student profiles, or any admin functions. This makes it safe to give login access to PE staff without worrying about them inadvertently changing carnival data.

Yes. SportsOrganised uses multi-tenant architecture where every school's data is completely isolated at the database level. A global query scope enforces a tenant_id filter on every query — it is architecturally impossible for one school to see another school's student records, carnivals, or results. Your data is never shared, blended, or accessible to other tenants.

Access is controlled by role. Admins have full access within your school's account. Marshals and recorders can view nominations and enter results but cannot access student profiles. Team managers can only see their own house's nominations. Teachers in the PE Trials module can only see results for the classes they are assigned to. No staff member can see data from another school.

Yes. Every plan includes Microsoft Azure AD (Entra ID) SSO integration. Staff log in with their existing school Microsoft account — no separate password required. You can also enforce SSO-only mode to block password logins entirely for your school, ensuring all access goes through your identity provider.

Yes. Any user can enrol in TOTP two-factor authentication (compatible with Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, and any standard TOTP app). After enrolment, a 6-digit code is required on login. Users can mark a device as trusted so it won't prompt again. Administrators can reset a user's 2FA if they lose access without deleting their account.

No. Pricing is per school per year — flat fee, no per-student charges, no per-event limits. All three plans include unlimited carnivals and every feature; they differ only by student capacity and support level. Basic ($495/year) covers up to 500 students. School ($795/year) covers up to 750 students. Pro ($995/year) covers unlimited students.

Every plan — Basic, School and Pro — includes the full platform: all core carnival features, the PE Trials module, staffing, house sport competitions and round robins, the year-round house results board, self-nomination, and Azure AD SSO. The only differences are student capacity (500 / 750 / unlimited) and support level: Basic gets email support, School gets priority email support, and Pro adds priority phone support plus a dedicated onboarding session.

Yes — the Pro plan includes a dedicated onboarding session where we walk through your school setup, import your student data, configure your first carnival, and answer any workflow questions. Basic and School subscribers can access written guides and email support. You can also book a demo at any time before purchasing by emailing support@sportsorganised.com.

Your data remains accessible for 30 days after cancellation so you can export results, student lists, and records. After 30 days, your account is deactivated. We do not sell or share your data under any circumstances. Full details are in our privacy policy at /policies.

Yes. We understand that Australian schools typically need a tax invoice for finance approval. Email support@sportsorganised.com with your school name and ABN and we'll issue an invoice. Accounts can be activated as soon as payment is received.