From Zero to Week 1: The Complete Setup Guide

This is the long version. Every screen, every setting, every feature — written for someone who has never opened Spareable before. Read it top-to-bottom for first-time setup, or jump to a section for reference any time during the season.

1. Create your account

Go to app.spareable.org/signup. Enter your email and pick a password. No credit card required to try. Managers are free through September 1, 2026.

Pick a tier

Right after signup you'll see the tier picker. Pick what fits — you can switch any time.

• Tier 1 ($7/mo) — Manual Tracking T1. No card payments. You record cash dues yourself, the app handles scores, schedule, standings, handicap, announcements. Good for casual / hobby leagues.
• Tier 2 ($15/mo) — Payments + Tracking T2. Bowlers can pay dues by card; dues flow to your Stripe Connect account (or directly to your bowling center if you enable Center banking); choose if the 3.5%+$0.30 fee is league-absorbed or bowler-paid. Includes side pots and sweeper events — winners are calculated automatically; you hand out winnings off-platform and record each payout for your books.

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2. Create your first league

From the home screen click Create your first league, or visit Leagues → + New League. The wizard walks you through name, season, schedule, rules, and dues in about 5 minutes.

What you'll be asked

• League name (e.g. "Tuesday Night Mixed"). Visible to bowlers.
• Season label (e.g. "Fall 2026"). Used for season-history archiving.
• Bowling center — search the directory. If your center isn't listed yet, paste the name and address; it gets added.
• Team format — 3-Person, 4-Person, 5-Person, Singles, Doubles. Drives roster size and schedule generation.
• Default entering average — used for new bowlers without an established average. Common values: 135 women's, 150 mixed, 180 men's.
• Dues amount — what each bowler pays per session.

You can edit any of these later via Leagues → Edit Current League.

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3. League rules & format

From Admin → 📋 Rules you configure how the league actually plays.

Scoring system

• Points — points per game won, plus bonus for total pins.
• Win/Loss — straight up team wins.
• Win % / Match Play — head-to-head match-play scoring.
• Total Pins — pure pinfall comparison.
• Baker — frame-rotating team format.

Handicap

Set the handicap formula: percentage (e.g. 90% of 210), basis, optional max cap. Or pick Scratch for no handicap. The presets cover USBC standard and most common formats.

Team handicap calculation — choose how the per-bowler handicap rolls up to the team total:

• Sum of individual handicaps (default) — each bowler's handicap is added to their game; team total = sum of bowler handicap totals.
• Team-vs-team (head-to-head) — at each matchup, lower-average team gets floor((team_avg_higher − team_avg_lower) × percentage%) pins per game; higher team gets 0. Reuses the league's percentage. Set per league in Leagues → Edit → Step 2 or Admin → Rules → Handicap.

Substitutes & vacancy

Allow substitutes lets teams field a sub when a regular is out. Vacant score (default 120/game) is what an empty roster slot scores. Absent policy controls absent bowler scoring (average minus N, fixed score, beat-average).

Bye policy

How a bye-week team scores points. Common: Beat-Average (the bye team plays itself + must beat its own average to take the points), full points, half points, or no points.

Captain verification

If on (default), every score must be verified by both the bowler's captain and the opposing captain before it locks. Off = scores auto-approve and you finalize manually.

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4. Adding teams

Open Admin → 👥 Members. Click + Team. Each team auto-numbers (1, 2, 3…). Set the team name and you're done.

Teams have:

• Team number — 1-based, used for USBC schedule mapping. Editable.
• Team name — display name (e.g. "Pin Crushers").
• Captain — the bowler with the 👑 badge, set per team.
• Roster — drag-and-drop bowlers into it, or pick the team when you add a new bowler.

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5. Adding bowlers

Manually, one at a time

From Admin → 👥 Members click + Bowler. Required: full name, gender. Optional: email (lets them get an invite), phone, USBC ID, entering average, team. Toggle No established average for brand-new bowlers.

The Members toolbar at a glance

The toolbar above your roster has five entry-points, in the order you'll typically use them. There's also a "💡 How do these options work together?" disclosure right above the buttons that summarizes the same flow in the app.

• + Team — create the teams bowlers will join.
• + Bowler — add one bowler manually (see above).
• ⬇ Import — bulk-import a roster from CSV (described below).
• 📋 From your roster — pull in bowlers from your other leagues with one click; reuses their averages and contact info.
• 🎳 Night 1 QR — the final step, once your roster is set up; bowlers scan it, pick their name, and self-claim their profile.

Bulk import via CSV

Click ⬇ Import in the Members tab. Drop a CSV with at minimum these headers:

• name (or fullname)
• email
• team (team name; created automatically if missing)
• average (optional — entering average)
• usbcId (optional)
• gender (optional — M / F / O)

The importer previews matches before committing. New teams get auto-numbered.

Substitutes

Toggle Substitute bowler when adding. Subs don't fill roster slots, can be team-specific or pool subs (any team can use them). Activate a sub for a specific week from the score-entry screen.

Reordering the lineup

Each bowler row in Admin → Members has ▲▼ buttons to move them up/down within the team. The order persists to scoring — bowlers appear in your set lineup order on the score-entry screen.

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6. Captains & roles

Captains can verify scores for their team. The first active bowler added to a team auto-becomes captain. Click the 👑 icon next to any bowler in Members to reassign.

Other roles

Visit Admin → 💼 Roles:

• Treasurer — sees the Payments / Treasury tabs even though they're not the league manager.
• Game Master — can set scores and verify on behalf of any team.
• Officers (USBC) — President, VP, Secretary, Treasurer, Sergeant-at-Arms (Tier-2/3 USBC mode). Contact info visible to all members.

The same screen has the invite link — copy and share it with bowlers; they auto-join your league when they sign up using it.

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7. Generating the schedule

Open Schedule → Generate Schedule. Pick:

• Start date + session days (e.g. Tuesday).
• Total weeks.
• Schedule type:
  • USBC Standard — official USBC published cards for any even team count from 4 to 48. Includes Position Round dates where the card has them. (Recommended for sanctioned leagues.)
  • Round Robin — every team plays every other team once, then repeats.
  • Sequential — fixed pairing (1v2, 3v4, …) every week.
  • Manual — no auto matchups; you fill each week in by hand.
• Randomize lanes — shuffle lane assignments each week so the same team doesn't always start on lanes 1-2.

After generating

Each week is a row you can edit individually — change date, swap matchups, mark cancelled, or convert to a Position Round. Position Rounds pair teams by current standings (1v2, 3v4 by points) — set them with one click on any week.

Regenerating mid-season

If your roster or weeks change, click Generate Schedule again. By default it preserves any week with finalized scores; future weeks regenerate.

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8. Stripe Connect setup T2

Go to Payments → Set Up. Click Connect with Stripe — you'll be redirected to Stripe's onboarding (legal name, EIN/SSN for tax reporting, bank routing). Five to ten minutes, then back to Spareable.

When the green ✓ Connect ready appears on Payments, bowler card payments can flow.

One Connect account per league

Every league you manage gets its own Stripe Connect account, with its own bank routing. Dues for League A land in League A's bank; dues for League B land in League B's bank — even when both are run by the same person. This keeps each league's money cleanly separated and makes reconciliation, taxes, and treasury reports straightforward.

The first time you open Payments → Set Up on a new league, the setup button creates a fresh Stripe Connect account scoped to that league only. Onboarding for the second (or fifth) league reuses your verified identity from Stripe's side but provisions a separate destination bank, so you don't re-enter your SSN every time but you do get the chance to point each league at a different account.

Manager Wallet, scoped to the current league

The Manager Wallet card on Payments → Manager Wallet shows the Stripe balance for the currently viewed league — pending dues that haven't settled yet plus the available balance you can withdraw to your bank. Switch leagues from the top-bar selector and the wallet re-scopes; you never see League A's pending funds mixed in with League B's. Withdrawals (standard payout or instant-to-debit) likewise pull from the league you're viewing.

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9. Dues breakdown & fee handling T2

Fee breakdown

Each weekly dues amount can split into categories: lineage (lane fees you owe the center), prize pool (end-of-season prize money), and any number of custom categories (banquet fund, trophy fund, BLS, etc). Set these in Payments → Lineage tab → Fee Breakdown.

The split must add up to the weekly dues amount. As bowlers pay, money is automatically routed by category — everything (lineage, custom categories, and prize pool) flows to your Stripe Connect account immediately. See the Prize Pool & payouts section for how to configure end-of-season payouts.

Fee responsibility

Card payments cost 3.5% + $0.30 per transaction. Pick who pays:

• League absorbs — bowler is charged exactly the posted dues ($20). The fee is netted from the bowler's payment automatically; the league's account receives the post-fee amount ($19) and the Treasury page shows "$20 collected · $1 fee · $19 net" inline.
• Bowler pays — bowler is charged the dues PLUS the fee at checkout (e.g. $21.04 to deliver $20 to the league). The league's books show the round number, the bowler sees the fee added.

Per-league setting; change any time.

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10. Banking modes T2

Configured on Payments → Lineage tab.

• Manager banking (default) — dues land in your Stripe Connect account; you pay the center yourself.
• Center banking — every dollar of dues (lineage + custom categories, except prize pool) routes directly to the bowling center's Connect account. The center handles disbursement back to you for non-lineage categories.

Center banking requires the center to be enrolled with Spareable (they sign up at /center-signup, complete Stripe Connect, you accept the enrollment).

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11. Score entry & verification

Open Manager Scores. Pick the week. Each matchup expands to show both teams.

Score-entry methods

• Manual entry — type each game directly into the bowler's row.
• Photo capture — snap the scoreboard, AI reads the games. Review and edit if needed.
• Bowler self-entry — bowlers enter their own from the lane on their phone.

Captain verification

If captain verification is on, every matchup gets a single matchup verification card on the Scores screen that shows both teams' scores in one view. Two actions only:

• ✓ Verify Matchup — signs off the captain's own team AND the opposing team in one click. Once both captains sign off, the matchup auto-finalizes and standings update.
• ⚠ Report an Error — opens row selection so the captain can flag specific scores (one or both teams in a single pass). Flagged rows display an inline ✏️ Fix button.

Fixing a flagged score

The ✏️ Fix button on any flagged row lets any matchup participant — either captain, the flagged bowler, or any teammate — re-enter the corrected games inline. Saving clears the flag and resets verification so both captains re-sign on the next pass. Managers can also fix scores from Admin Scores → 🚩 Flagged Scores using the same inline editor.

Special states

• Absent — toggle on the row. Score is calculated from your absent policy (avg-minus, fixed, beat-average).
• Pre-bowl — manager records ahead of time; a special verification flow applies.
• Post-bowl — bowler bowled the week's games on a different date; placeholder until actual scores entered.
• Sub assignment — pick "Assign Sub" on the absent bowler's row, choose the sub, sub's scores count for that week.

Calculate Results

Once all scores are entered & verified, Calculate Results finalizes the week and updates standings. If recaps are set to auto-release, the week's recap drops as an announcement at the same time.

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12. Mid-season changes

Adding a bowler late

Add them via Members → + Bowler. They start owing dues from the date they were added (the auto-vacant rebalance handles their slot).

Deactivating a bowler

Click ⏸ on their row → choose the deactivation week. Their score history stays but they no longer appear in active rosters or owe future dues.

Reactivating

Click ↩ on a deactivated bowler's row.

Subs in for a specific week

From Manager Scores → that week → bowler row, pick "Assign Sub." Sub's score replaces the absent regular's. Sub owes that week's dues; the regular doesn't.

Merging duplicate bowlers

If a bowler signed up but you'd already created a profile for them, you can merge: Members → bowler row → merge into…. Score history, payments, and side-pot entries transfer to the keeper profile.

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13. Side pots & sweepers T2

Side pots

From Admin → 🎲 Side Pots, create a pot. Pick a type:

• High game — highest single-game score wins.
• High series — highest 3-game total wins.
• Mystery score — manager picks a target score; closest wins.
• Eliminator — bracket-style elimination.
• 50/50 raffle — random winner from entrants.
• Custom — manual winner selection.

Bowlers enter the pot from Payments → Side Pots. The app calculates winners and amounts owed; you distribute winnings manually (cash, Venmo, etc.) and flip the result to ✓ Paid in Treasury → Payouts for your records.

Sweepers

Standalone tournament events with their own entry fee. Manager creates one in Admin → Side Pots → New Sweeper. Auto-detects winners by tournament format.

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14. Prize pool & payouts T2

The "prize pool" is whatever fraction of weekly dues you've earmarked for end-of-season prizes (set in Payments → Lineage → Fee Breakdown). Spareable doesn't disburse prize money to bowlers — you do, off-platform. Money flows in to your Stripe Connect account (or your bowling center's, if you use Center banking); at season end the app tells you exactly what each bowler is owed and you hand it out in whatever form your league prefers (cash, Venmo, Zelle, check).

Configuring the payout structure

From Admin → 🏆 Prizes, build the season payouts list. Each entry is one of:

• Fixed $ to a place — e.g. "1st Place Team — $200".
• % of pool to a place — e.g. "1st Place Team — 30% of pool". Computed against the total prize pool (dues-collected + any external contributions you've logged).
• Proportional payout — split a pool across every team in proportion to their season totals. Pick a basis (Pins, Wins, or Points — what's offered depends on your scoring system) and a pool size (fixed dollar amount or % of total pool). Common uses: "Pin Money — $200 split by team pins" or "Point Money — 25% of pool split by team points". Each team's share = pool ÷ league total × that team's total.

External contributions (50/50 raffles, fundraisers) T2

Money added to the prize pool from outside the app (50/50 raffles, sponsor donations, banquet leftovers) gets logged in Admin → 🏆 Prizes → External Prize Fund Contributions: source label, amount, date, optional notes. The total counts toward your end-of-season payouts so percentages and proportional pools are computed against the right number. The platform doesn't transfer this money — it's already with you — but the math is correct so you know exactly what each place / proportional category should pay.

Per-bowler proration (USBC Rule 121a) T2

Toggle Prorate per-bowler payouts by weeks paid in Admin → 🏆 Prizes to enable the USBC rule for bowlers who properly withdrew mid-season. Each bowler's share = (team prize ÷ playing strength) ÷ total weeks × the number of weeks that bowler paid into the prize fund. Bowlers who paid the full season get a full share; partial-season bowlers get a prorated share. The Admin tab shows a live "Weeks Paid Per Bowler" preview so you can sanity-check before season end.

Running the season-end payout

The app does the math; you do the distribution. On Treasury → Payouts you'll see every bowler with the exact amount they're owed (based on your configured payout structure + current standings + the proration toggle). Hand each bowler their winnings off-platform — cash at the banquet, Venmo, Zelle, check, whatever your league prefers — and tap Mark Paid next to each entry so your books stay clean. Side-pot and sweeper results show up in the same list so a single place handles everything.

Stuck or have questions?

Email support@spareable.org any time.

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15. Recaps & announcements

Weekly recaps auto-generate the moment all matchups in a week finalize. They include team standings, full matchup boxscores (every bowler's per-game scratch + handicap), Top-3 leaderboards for team and individual scores, game-over-average and series-over-average leaders, season-high tracking, and complete team rosters with each bowler's pins-to-raise/lower analysis.

Tie-aware ranking

When two or more bowlers tie for a place, they share that rank — both get the same medal (e.g. two bowlers tied for 2nd both show 🥈) and the next-best score still appears as 🥉. This applies everywhere a Top-N list shows up: top team scores, top individual scores by gender, game-over-average, series-over-average, season highs.

"My Team Only" filter

The bowler-facing recap modal AND the print view both have a ✓ My Team Only toggle that narrows matchups, rosters, and individual leaderboards to just the viewer's team. Standings and season highs stay full so the bowler still sees their team's rank in context. Tapping the toggle inside the modal carries through to the print pop-out, so a per-team handout is one click away.

Auto-release vs review

Default: recaps auto-post as a "📊 Week N Recap" card on every bowler's home screen. Toggle in Admin → 📰 Recaps → Settings to "manual review" if you'd rather preview before posting.

Refinalize republishes automatically

If you unfinalize a week to correct scores and refinalize, the recap regenerates and a fresh announcement card posts to the home screen — you don't need to manually click Release. Because the home card is keyed by announcement ID, bowlers who dismissed the previous recap still see the new one.

Print recap (compact layout)

Each recap card has a 🖨 Print button that opens a clean, print-only window with the full structured recap — standings, every matchup boxscore, all the leaderboards, season highs, and team rosters sorted by team number with per-bowler stats. The layout flows sections together without forced page breaks, so a small league (4–6 teams) usually prints on a single page instead of burning a fresh sheet per section. Bowlers can pop out the same printable view from inside the recap modal.

Announcements

Admin → 📢 Posts lets you push messages to all bowlers. Schedule changes, banquet info, prize-pool updates — pinned to the home screen for everyone.

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16. USBC compliance

Flip on USBC Mode in Leagues → Edit Current League. The Rules tab adds a USBC Compliance Checklist with auto-checking items (prize-list-posted, average-establishment, fee-arrearage, honor-scores, etc.) and manual items the secretary marks done.

Honor score detection

300 games and 800+ series flag automatically when scores save. Tracked in your compliance checklist within the 20-day reporting window.

Exports

The Checklist hosts buttons to download the Member Dues Worksheet CSV and the League Application Worksheet CSV — pre-filled with officers, rosters, member IDs, and handicap settings, ready to attach to your association paperwork.

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17. CSV exports & reports

The app exports basically everything to CSV. Look for the ⬇ button on each screen:

• Standings — current standings with averages, handicap, win/loss splits.
• Payments — every payment with date, method, amount, fee, net.
• Roster — bowler list with contact info, USBC IDs, current averages.
• Season summary — end-of-season high scores, attendance, awards.
• Member Dues Worksheet / League Application Worksheet — pre-filled with everything your association needs (USBC-compatible). See the USBC section.
• Bowler Stats Export — per-bowler season stats CSV (averages, high game, total pins, prize eligibility) for tournaments or any external scoring system.
• Export for Scoring System — WinLABS-format .txt file for your bowling center. See the section below.

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18. Export for scoring system Beta

Bowling centers run your league's roster and averages through their own scoring system — Conqueror, Qubica AMF, BLS, or similar — so bowlers see their name and handicap on the lane monitors each week. Normally the desk staff types all of that in by hand. The Export for Scoring System feature generates a WinLABS-format file your center can import directly, eliminating the manual re-entry.

What it exports

• Every active bowler's name, USBC member ID, date of birth, and gender
• Team assignments (all four bowlers per team, plus sub pool)
• Current season average for each bowler (total pins ÷ games bowled; falls back to entering average for new bowlers)
• League info: name, season dates, format, day and time

How to use it

1. Go to Admin → Rules and scroll to Export Current Data.
2. Click 🎳 Export for Scoring System. A .txt file downloads immediately.
3. Bring the file (or email it) to your center's front desk and ask them to import it into their scoring software.
4. Re-export at the start of each session if averages or team changes need to stay current — the center just re-imports to refresh.

Tips & caveats

• USBC leagues: Add every bowler's USBC member ID in Admin → Members before exporting. The file will still work without them, but the center may need the IDs for their own records.
• Test first: Under the export button there's a "Try it first" toggle with a downloadable sample file and a checklist. Hand the sample to your desk staff before the season starts to confirm it imports correctly on their system.
• Beta notice: This feature is in Beta. If anything is off — wrong averages, missing bowlers, import errors — email support@spareable.org with your center's software name and what went wrong.

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19. Common issues

"My bowler signed up but isn't on the roster"

Their account isn't linked yet. Two paths: send them the invite link from Admin → Roles, or merge their just-created profile into the one you'd already added (Members → bowler → merge).

"Card payments aren't going through"

Check Payments → Setup — Stripe Connect onboarding has to be complete (green ✓) for this league. If you switched to "league absorbs the fee," nothing else is required — fees are netted from each payment, no batch billing.

"I run two leagues and the dues are landing in the same bank — how do I separate them?"

Each league gets its own Stripe Connect account. If you onboarded a long time ago, your leagues may still share one account from the older model. Open Payments → Manager Wallet on the league you want to split off — when the wallet is using the shared fallback you'll see a banner that says "This wallet is shared across your leagues" with a one-click button to set up a dedicated bank for the current league. Existing leagues that still share the original account keep working; nothing breaks.

"The wallet on League B is empty — but I see funds in League A"

That's working as intended: each league's Manager Wallet is scoped to that league's Stripe Connect account. Switch leagues from the top-bar selector to see the other league's wallet. If both leagues genuinely share one bank (legacy setup), the same balance shows on both — same Stripe account behind the scenes.

"I finished Stripe onboarding but the green ✓ won't appear"

Stripe takes anywhere from a few seconds to a couple of business days to flip the transfers capability to active — for brand-new accounts in production they sometimes run a short risk review. The Payments setup banner spells out the live Stripe state ("transfers pending" vs. "needs action"). Any dues collected during the wait queue safely to Held — needs attention and release automatically the moment Stripe flips the switch.

"I expected a rerate-needed warning but don't see one"

Rerate alerts are opt-in. Most leagues use entering averages from a prior book and never mid-season rerate, so the banner stays off by default. To turn it on, go to Admin → Rules → League Format → Rerate Alerts. When enabled, a warning surfaces on the Members tab whenever any bowler's running average is 15+ pins above their entering average; clicking the bowler's name opens their profile so you can update the entering average inline.

"Standings look wrong"

Hit Recalculate Standings on the Schedule page. Most often: a week marked finalized that needs un-finalizing, or a verification state that's still pending.

"I deleted a bowler by mistake"

Deactivation is reversible (↩ on their row). Permanent delete is reversible only via support — email support@spareable.org with the league name + bowler name.

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