Managing entries
The entry list is where a tournament is made or lost. Here is what the statuses mean, how the waiting list behaves, and what to do when somebody drops out at the last minute.
The list it comes down to
What your entry list looks like as the entries arrive, with the two statuses side by side.
Status, payment and amount on every line
The entry status and the payment status sit on the same line, with the amount beside them. One look is enough to spot who is confirmed but has not paid, and that is exactly the case you want to find before you draw.
- Entry status and payment status, independent of each other
- The amount per entry
- Filtering on what is still outstanding
Reading the list
Every row carries two independent facts: where the entry stands, and where the money stands. They move separately.
Entry status
- Draft: a form started but never submitted
- Pending: submitted, waiting on you or on a payment
- Confirmed: holds a place in the category and goes into the draw
- Waitlisted: accepted, but the category was full
- Withdrawn: pulled out by the entrant themselves
- Cancelled: called off by the organisers, or the category did not run
- Rejected: refused by the organisers, usually on the category conditions
Payment status
- Not required: a free entry with no extras
- Due: money is owed and nothing is in flight
- In progress: a payment has been opened but not finished
- Paid: everything owed has come in
- Refunded: money has gone back, so the entry owes again
- You never set this yourself: it follows from the payments against the entry
What counts against capacity
- Only "pending" and "confirmed" take up a place
- A squad or a pair counts as one place, not as eleven or two
- Only "confirmed" goes into the draw
- You set a maximum number of places per category, and optionally a maximum waiting list
- With both of those full, nobody can enter any more
An unpaid entry never lapses by itself. There is no sweep that deletes unpaid entries after a week, so a confirmed entry that has not been paid for keeps its place until you decide something about it. Filter your list on what is due now and then, and cancel or chase it yourself.
Everything by subject
Deciding, and the waiting list
How do I confirm an entry?+
Through the decision on the entry. You choose confirmed, waiting list, rejected or cancelled, and you may add a reason of up to 500 characters. The entrant is told, and the decision goes into the log with your name on it.
Do I have to confirm every entry by hand?+
No. If the category has room, an entry arrives confirmed. If it is full, it arrives on the waiting list. You only step in when something is wrong.
Can I put an entry back?+
Not always. Withdrawn, cancelled and rejected are the end of the line for that row. Waiting list to confirmed is always possible. If somebody who was cancelled should play after all, create a new entry.
Who moves up when a place comes free?+
The first person waiting, automatically, the moment a withdrawal or a cancellation frees a place. There is no button for it: it happens in the same act. For a pair or a squad the whole side moves up together.
Can I give somebody priority on the waiting list?+
Not by reordering the queue. You can set that entry to confirmed yourself if there is room. That is visibly your decision and is recorded as one.
What if both the category and the waiting list are full?+
Nobody can enter, and the entrant is told so. If you want more room, raise the maximum on the category or on the waiting list.
Letting somebody else play
What is the difference between replacing and transferring?+
You replace, as the organisers: you put a different person onto an existing entry. The entrant transfers: they hand their place to somebody they know. The outcome is the same, but it is not the same decision and so not the same button.
What survives a replacement?+
Everything except the person. The same entry, the same amount, the same extras, every payment already made against it, the same seeding and the same slot in the playing schedule. The new player does not pay again.
How do I replace one player in a squad?+
You replace the holder of that one entry. The squad itself survives, with its seeding and its place in the playing schedule. You give a first name and a surname, and optionally an email address, date of birth and gender. A replacement without an account joins your list as a guest.
When is a replacement refused?+
When the entry is still a draft or has already ended, when the player is already standing in a match that has begun or been played, when the replacement is already entered in the same category, or when the team would no longer meet the category conditions. That last one is why you cannot swap a woman for a man in a mixed pair.
May an entrant give their place away themselves?+
Only if you allow it on that tournament, and only from a confirmed entry. If even one person is on the waiting list it is refused: that place belongs to the first in the queue rather than to a friend.
Is the new entrant told?+
Yes. Whoever receives the place is notified, because they are not expecting it and may not be following your tournament at all.
Withdrawals and refunds
Who can withdraw an entry?+
The entrant themselves, or you on their behalf when they ring up. Either way you can record a reason of up to 500 characters. The freed place goes straight to the first person waiting.
Is money refunded automatically?+
No, and this matters. A withdrawal does not touch the money. There is no refund policy in the platform and no cut-off date after which withdrawing gets you nothing back. Whatever you agree about that belongs in your own terms.
So how do I refund?+
By hand, against the payment on that entry. You can refund the whole amount or part of it, with a reason. The payment status of the entry follows by itself afterwards.
Can a withdrawn entrant still pay?+
No. Once an entry has ended, no new payment can be opened against it. What was already paid stays paid, and can still be refunded.
Is the entry deleted?+
Never. A withdrawn entry stays on your list with the reason and the time. Money may still be involved, and if the draw was made there is a match hanging off it.
And if somebody withdraws once the playing schedule is up?+
The side that has nobody left on it is pulled out, and the matches that hung off it are settled. If somebody else is still on that same side, the side simply stands.
Building the list
Can I import a file of entries?+
No. There is no import from a spreadsheet or a CSV file. That is more honest than half an import: a list of names says nothing about categories, ages and payments, and an import that has to guess produces a list you then check line by line anyway.
So how do I get a squad off a paper form into the system?+
You enter the squad on that club’s behalf. You type the members over and the entry lands on your list as an ordinary squad, seeding and all. Members without an account appear as guests.
Can I enter somebody who rings up?+
Yes. You create the entry on their behalf, with the same details they would fill in themselves. It then sits on your list like any other entry: if the category has room it is confirmed straight away, and if it is full it lands on the waiting list.
What is a guest on my list?+
An entrant you typed in yourself who has no PlayTour account. They count in the category and in the playing schedule as normal, but they cannot sign in and an announcement does not reach them. For them you use the contact details on the entry.
Two players entered separately but they are a pair+
You can join those two entries into one side. It exists for exactly this case, because the alternative was cancelling both and typing the pair in again, which loses the payment history with it.
Can I move an entry to another category?+
Yes. You can change the category of a live entry and correct the amount if you need to. The entrant is told, and the change goes into the log.
Handing out competitor numbers
For a road race, a swimming gala, a chess congress, or anything where an entrant carries a number.
- 1
Choose the order
In the order entries arrived, by lot, or by seeding. For a draw by lot the shuffle is recorded, so you can repeat the numbering exactly if anybody questions it.
- 2
Choose where the numbers start
At 1 by default. You can start higher, for example at 500 for a second wave. It is a floor and not a position: lower numbers already handed out stay where they are.
- 3
Hand them out
Only entrants with a confirmed entry get a number. Anybody who already has one is skipped, so you can run this again after each new batch of entries. Numbers are issued and not recycled: if number 12 withdraws, 12 stays theirs and the next entrant gets the next free number. That gap is not a mistake, it is the readable record that somebody did not start.
- 4
Correct what is wrong
A single number can be set or cleared by hand. If the number is already taken you are told who has it, so you know whose to clear first. You can renumber from scratch, but not once results have been recorded against those numbers.
What stays in the log
Your club log records what happened and who did it. Rows can only be added; nothing can be edited or erased, not even by an administrator.
What an entry leaves behind
- Every status change, with the old and new value and the reason you gave
- Moving up off the waiting list, with the old position in the queue
- A replacement or a transfer, naming who left and who arrived
- A change of category or of amount
- Joining two entries into one side
- Handing out competitor numbers, and every correction by hand
- A payment changing status, and every refund
What is recorded, and what is not
- Who did it, with the name kept even if that account later disappears
- When it happened, to the second
- From which IP address and with which browser
- Only the fields that changed, never the whole row
- Creating an entry is not in there: the entry already carries its own date
- Looking at something is not in there, only changing it
- The log is readable by club administrators and owners, not by everybody with a role
Next in the guide
With the list settled, the draw can be made. And everything you want to tell your entrants is in the communication guide.