Most camp registration software is built for American camps: priced in US dollars, billed every month, and silent on Canadian tax receipts. If you run a camp, clinic or class in Canada, here is what to check before you choose one, and what “free” usually means.
What “free” usually means
Registration software makes its money in one of three ways, and many tools combine them:
- A monthly or yearly subscription, sometimes free up to a number of registrations and paid after that.
- A fee on each registration or payment, charged to you, or added on top of your price for the family.
- Card processing, which every tool passes on in some form, because the card networks charge it.
So the useful question isn't whether a tool is free. It's what a $300 registration costs you once everything is counted, and whether families see an extra charge when they pay.
What to check before you choose
Canadian dollars and a Canadian bank
Prices should be in Canadian dollars and payouts should go to your Canadian bank account, without a currency conversion on every payment.
Your province's time
A 9 a.m. start has to read as 9 a.m. where your camp is: on the registration page, in the confirmation email and in the reminder. Check that every time a family sees is in your province's time, not the software's.
Waivers and medical information
You need each family's waiver signed before the first day, and a record of who signed which version and when. Allergies, medications and emergency contacts need to reach the staff running the session, and nobody else. More in online waivers and medical forms.
Child care tax receipts
Many Canadian parents can claim day camp fees as child care expenses on line 21400 of their tax return, and they will ask you for a receipt for each child. Software that builds those receipts from what was actually paid saves you a January of spreadsheets. More in child care tax receipts for camps.
Refunds, waitlists and discounts
Look at what happens when a family cancels, when a session fills up, and when two siblings register together. If the software doesn't handle them, each is a job by hand: a refund sent from your bank, a waitlist kept in an email thread, a discount worked out on a calculator.
What families see
Parents register on their phones, often with a child in the other arm. A short form, card payment on the same page and an emailed confirmation matter more than a long feature list.
What Kineo costs
Kineo is free to start and has no monthly fee.
| You pay | |
|---|---|
| Monthly fee | $0 |
| Free sessions | $0 |
| Card payments through your booking link | 1% to Kineo |
| Card processing, charged by Stripe | about 2.9% + 30¢ |
On a $300 registration, Kineo's share is $3.00 and Stripe's about $9.00, so about $288.00 reaches your bank. Families pay the price you set; nothing is added when they check out.
What Kineo does
- One booking link for every camp and session, with places counted so a session can't oversell.
- Day camps, week-long camps and weekly classes, all shown in your province's time.
- Waivers signed during registration, with the signer, the time and the exact text they agreed to on record.
- Allergies, medications and emergency contacts, shown to your coaches in the Kineo coach app on the day.
- Card payments, refunds in a couple of clicks, and child care tax receipts at the end of the year.
- Waitlists that can offer a freed place to the next family automatically.
- Early-bird, sibling and promo-code discounts.
- Reminder emails before each session, and a page where families see their bookings, receipts and waivers.
- Your schedule imported by pasting it from your current website, or from a spreadsheet.
Getting started
- Open your business at kineo.ca/signup. It takes a few minutes.
- Paste your schedule from your current website, or add your first camp by hand.
- Set up payments, so Stripe can pay you.
- Share your booking link.
Questions camp owners ask
Is Kineo really free?
There is no monthly fee and nothing to pay on free sessions. On paid registrations, Kineo takes 1% of each card payment and Stripe charges its card processing fee.
Who holds the money?
Each camp gets its own payment account with Stripe, and families' payments go into it directly. Kineo never holds your money.
Is families' information safe?
Card numbers go to Stripe and never touch Kineo's servers. A child's medical details are shown only to their family and your own staff.