Memberships, classes and treatments in the ledger

How the Fitness pack posts memberships, classes, personal training and spa treatments to their own revenue accounts, from accepted quote to invoice.

By Achekam · 11 October 2026 · 4 min read · For Fitness businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya

Launching soon. The Industry CRM add-on described in this article is launching soon. This article describes it as it will work at launch.

A club's accountant usually asks the same question at year-end: how much of this came from memberships, and how much from training? If every invoice posted to one sales account, the honest answer is "we'd have to go through the invoices". That costs time, and it means the owner spent the year without seeing which part of the business was actually growing.

Membership income and training income behave differently. Memberships are steady and recurring; personal training and classes depend on trainers' diaries and members' enthusiasm. Spa treatments have their own rhythm again. Seeing them apart is the first step to managing them. The Fitness, wellness & spas pack in Achekam's Industry CRM sets up that split when you switch it on.

What the starter catalogue holds

Switching the Fitness pack on adds a starter catalogue of items to sell:

• joining fees;
• monthly memberships;
• annual memberships;
• personal training;
• session packages;
• spa treatments.

None of them carries a price. That is true of every starter item in every industry pack: Achekam does not suggest what your club should charge. Before the first invoice, the owner or manager sets each price, and decides which items the club actually sells.

Two revenue accounts for the club

The same switch adds the pack's revenue accounts to your chart of accounts. For fitness, there are two:

The starter items post to these two accounts. Before invoicing, check which account each item points to, particularly spa treatments, so you know where that income will be reported. If your accountant would like treatments shown on their own, agree the approach before the first month closes rather than reclassifying later.

If your chart already uses 4500 or 4550 for a different type of account, the pack will not switch on, and it names the clashing account. Clear that up with your accountant first.

Joining fees deserve a separate word with your accountant. Some businesses treat a joining fee as earned when the member joins; others spread it over the membership it relates to. The choice is one of revenue recognition, and the IFRS Foundation's summary of IFRS 15 Revenue from Contracts with Customers sets out the standard's five-step model for contracts with customers. Whichever approach your accountant recommends, apply it the same way to every member, so the Membership fees account means the same thing from month to month.

Invoiced, not debited

In the Fitness pack, memberships are invoiced. The pack runs no debit orders, and it reads no access-control, turnstile or class-booking system: visits are recorded by staff. That matters for the ledger in two ways.

First, every membership fee in the books comes from an invoice someone issued, so income and amounts owed by members line up. Second, nothing in the revenue figures depends on a turnstile feed being correct. If attendance matters for a charge, such as a class, staff record it.

From accepted quote to drafted invoice

Many club sales begin with a quote: an annual membership with a training block, a corporate offer for a local employer, a bridal spa package. In the Industry CRM, the customer accepts the quote on a link, by typing their name and ticking a box. Their acceptance drafts the invoice in receivables, ready for the club to check and issue.

A few details keep this tidy:

• Once sent, a quote is frozen. If something changes, the club issues a revision rather than editing what the customer already saw.
• The acceptance records the customer's IP address and browser, which helps if anyone later asks who accepted.
• Issuing the invoice immediately on acceptance needs an administrator's recorded authority. Otherwise the draft waits for a person to issue it.

Each invoice line names its account

When the invoice is issued, each line names the product it sells and the revenue account it belongs to. Revenue posts per account, and where a line sells a stocked item, its cost of sales posts in the same journal.

Here is how that looks in words. A new member accepts a quote for an annual membership, the joining fee and a block of personal training sessions. The acceptance drafts an invoice with three lines. When the club issues it, each line posts to the account its item names: in a typical set-up, the joining fee and the annual membership to Membership fees, and the training block to Classes and personal training. If the member also buys a branded water bottle on the same invoice, its cost of sales is recorded alongside. The year-end question now answers itself.

Pricing is the club's job

Because starter items arrive unpriced, the first hour after switching the pack on is a pricing session. Work through it with whoever sets fees:

1. Price each item the club sells.
2. Check each item's revenue account with your accountant.
3. Confirm the VAT treatment of each item, since it may differ between membership fees, treatments and goods, and between South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya.
4. Decide how joining fees are discounted, if at all, and who may do it.
5. Tell the front desk which item to use for each common sale.

Reading your figures differently

After a few months, compare the two accounts side by side. Membership fees show whether the base of the business is growing; classes and personal training show how well trainers are filling their diaries. Pair that with what trainers cost, especially if you pay instructors per class, and you can see which part of the club pays for itself. The collection side stays as it is: membership fees without debit orders and QR payments at the front desk.

General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.