Bookkeeper for CrossFit Gyms

Where does the money come in from?

Memberships are the whole ordinary business. A typical member pays about $150 a month for unlimited training, and consultants put group training at around 95 percent of a box's revenue. On top of that, there is a smaller tier of drop-in fees, retail sales, and occasional personal training, and none of it should be lumped together.

Here is the month flow. Members pay a card through your gym management platform, the platform deposits the money into your bank a few days later, and the processor takes its cut out of that deposit before it lands. Cash from a drop in or a t shirt sale never touches the card reader, so it never lands without being notated. A good set of books for a box tracks both: what every member was billed and what actually landed in the bank. They may not match at first glance, and that gap is where the real work happens.

Which costs are the sustainable ones on the way out?

The lines that decide whether a box survives are coach wages, rent, the CrossFit affiliation fee, and the card processor's cut. They also cover utilities, insurance, and chalk, but the four are what make or break the month.

Coach pay is the biggest single expense in most boxes. Many owners report staff wages running a third to a half of everything the box spends, which makes the coaching calendar a spending decision as well as a marketing decision. Rent is the other big one, and it is what has closed boxes in high rent markets. CrossFit publishes its yearly fee, and it is due every single year, so it belongs in the plan and not in a surprise.

The card processor fee is often forgotten. The processor takes a percentage off every deposit, so the deposit is less than the total billed. It is not a mystery loss. A set of books keeps it as its own line and compares it to the dues it came from.

How should the books treat a member who pays for the whole year?

A year long membership is cash today and income spread over twelve months. If a member pays $1,000 a month, the money sits in your bank today, but the box still owes that member eleven more months of training. Good accounting holds that payment in a deferred revenue bucket and releases a share into income each month.

If you record the whole $1,000 to the month you receive it, you show a great January and then eleven thin months with no income to match the rent. Same thing gets messy at smaller scale: a member who prepays for three drop in sessions has not earned that money until the sessions happen. Deferred revenue is the single most useful habit for a billing business.

What mistakes usually happen at month end?

The standard errors in a box all come back to billing, and they are all catchable with a real month month end routine.

Which numbers should you check every month?

Three numbers, reliably: what members have paid, what coach and rent and the affiliation fee cost, and what is left. Everything else supports one of those.

If you never read anything else, read the fourth and the last one. The rest tells how you got there.

What decisions should the books answer?

Good books help on three decisions: hiring a coach, renewing a lease, and setting membership price.

Hiring is about whether the new coach brings enough dues to cover themselves. If the times are full and new people arrive, the math works. If the coach replaces an existing one at a higher rate, the books stop you. Lease renewal is the same logic: what can the location produce per member rent climb and dues go up, the books show the squeeze in one line. Pricing is the same question: dues cover the cost of the month plus a margin.