How Clubland Playscheme Automated Admin & Cut Debt with MagicBooking

Back to Stories

Use case

Wraparound Care Trips Extra Curricular Club E-Shop

Organisation size

2600+ children

Location

Surrey

Experience admin automation for yourself

Schedule a free demo and get started in seconds

Get started now or request more info

Customer Stories

It really helped us grow as a business. I think I'd be really quite lost without it, actually. I think MagicBooking has brought so much positive change to our organisation. - Emily, Director, Clubland Playscheme

4 min read

Clubland Playscheme is a holiday club and after-school playscheme provider based in Surrey, giving children a safe, fun place to play outside of school hours while supporting working families.

Before MagicBooking, the entire operation - bookings, registers, payments - ran on paper. As demand grew, that paper-based system became unsustainable, and Clubland went looking for playscheme booking software that could take the strain off their team.

Children playing at Clubland Playscheme holiday club in Surrey

Clubland's booking process relied entirely on paper forms, manual data entry, and printed registers - a system that was both time-consuming and, as Emily points out, hard on the environment too.

“It was full of paper. Not only were we being very harmful to the environment... it was very, very time consuming. We would be sending out paper booking forms to parents. We would then be manually going through all of those to work out how many children were signed up for holiday clubs or after-school clubs, and then creating paper registers, which we'd end up printing, and then manually amending any changes, booking cancellations, new parents joining - very, very time consuming.” – Emily, Director, Clubland Playscheme

Paper booking forms sent out and manually processed for every session
Manual calculation of how many children were booked onto holiday clubs and after-school clubs
Printed paper registers that had to be manually amended for cancellations and new bookings
Heavy admin workload spread across multiple staff
Time-consuming, error-prone processes with no central system of record

Clubland knew they needed to change, and turned to their peer network to find the right holiday club booking system.

“We knew we needed to change, so we first had a shout on a Facebook group that we're part of for wraparound care provisions, just asking for any recommendations on what booking platforms other people use. MagicBooking was a name that came up quite a few times.” – Emily, Director, Clubland Playscheme

“We had a look into it, booked a demo, and thought that what we were seeing was absolutely fantastic.” – Emily, Director, Clubland Playscheme

Automated bookings and registrations, replacing manual paper processing
Automated, digital registers that update instantly with cancellations and new joiners
Pay-as-you-book payment processing, removing the need to chase parents
Dedicated account management for ongoing wraparound care and playscheme support
A scalable system that has freed up staff time across the whole business

Key features illustration in Clubland Playscheme's branded colour

Since implementing MagicBooking, Clubland Playscheme has automated the bulk of its admin, dramatically cut down on chasing payments, and freed up enough staff time to reshape their whole team.

Dedicated, Ongoing Support

Clubland's onboarding was backed by a dedicated account manager who supported the team well beyond go-live.

“We had a dedicated account manager, and he helped us get on board and supported us throughout our journey. Any questions we have, we know we can always go to him.” – Emily, Director, Clubland Playscheme

An Entire Role's Worth of Time Saved

The change in admin workload has been the single biggest shift for Clubland - to the point that it directly changed a family member's career.

“The amount of admin that we are doing has changed the most. It actually allowed my mum to take a step back and retire, because we were spending so much time manually booking children on and doing registrations - and now that's all automated through MagicBooking.” – Emily, Director, Clubland Playscheme

“It's saved us so many hours across so many different areas of the business - maybe four to five days a week. We've effectively lost an entire person's workload through managing to automate so many of the tasks that they were doing.” – Emily, Director, Clubland Playscheme

Reduced Debt & Faster Payments

Chasing parents for payment used to take up significant staff time. With payments now taken at the point of booking, that burden has largely disappeared.

“Before MagicBooking, we spent quite a lot of time chasing parents to pay their bills. But now with the automated process, and the fact that they can pay as they book, we're no longer having to chase parents. Our debtors list is much smaller than it was beforehand.” – Emily, Director, Clubland Playscheme

Business Growth

With admin automated and debt under control, Clubland has been able to focus on expanding the business itself.

“It really helped us grow as a business.” – Emily, Director, Clubland Playscheme

Emily is clear about the impact MagicBooking has had on Clubland Playscheme - and isn't shy about recommending it on.

“I think I'd be really quite lost without it, actually. I think MagicBooking has brought so much positive change to our organisation. I've actually recommended you guys to other provisions already - you're definitely a company that I think is fantastic, and the team behind the programme are fantastic as well.” – Emily, Director, Clubland Playscheme

If paper registers, manual bookings, and chasing parents for payment are eating into your week, it doesn't have to stay that way.

Book a demo and see how our holiday club booking system could free up days of admin time, reduce your debtors list, and help your playscheme or holiday club grow with confidence.

No pressure. No obligation. Just see how much time you could get back.