Plenty of camps take registrations with a Google Form and Interac e-Transfer. It costs nothing and every parent knows how it works. Here is where that holds up, where it starts costing you evenings, and what changes with registration software.
Where a form and e-transfer work
For one session with a dozen kids you already know, a form is fine. You can read every response, match a handful of e-transfers by name, and send one group email the week before.
Where it starts to break
Matching payments to children
An e-transfer arrives from “J SMITH” for $480 with the message “goalie camp”. You have two Smiths, in two different weeks. With sixty families, matching payments becomes a weekly chore, and an unpaid spot is easy to miss.
Full sessions and waitlists
A form doesn't know a session is full. It keeps taking responses after the last spot is gone, and the waitlist lives in your inbox, in whatever order you remember.
Waivers
A required checkbox doesn't record what the waiver said when the parent ticked it, and a separate PDF waiver means chasing signatures before the first day.
Medical details in a spreadsheet
Form responses land in a spreadsheet that anyone with access can open, usually including people who don't need to see a child's medication list.
Refunds, changes and reminders
Each cancellation is an e-transfer you send by hand and a row you edit. Each family that wants to switch weeks is a back-and-forth. Each reminder is an email you write.
Tax receipts
In January, every child care receipt is a document you build from your bank statements. More in child care tax receipts for camps.
What registration software changes
- Families pick a session that still has room, sign the waiver and pay by card in one go, so every payment is already matched to a child.
- Full sessions stop taking registrations, and the waitlist stays in order.
- Each waiver is signed and kept with its exact text.
- Medical details reach the coaches who need them, and only them.
- Refunds, reminders and tax receipts come from the same records.
What it costs
Google Forms is free, and many Canadian bank accounts include e-transfers. Kineo has no monthly fee: it takes 1% of each card payment, and Stripe charges about 2.9% + 30¢ to process the card. On a $300 registration, that's $3.00 to Kineo and about $9.00 to Stripe. Free sessions cost nothing.
Whether that's worth it comes down to the hours you spend matching payments, chasing waivers and writing receipts.
Moving over without starting again
You don't have to rebuild your schedule. In Kineo, paste the schedule from your current website and Kineo reads it into sessions for you to check, or upload a spreadsheet. Then send families your new booking link.