Getting started with your Huddle Horizon portal

Welcome! Your portal is already online, secure and backed up, with your logo, colors and words, and your current sign-ups already brought in by the Huddle Horizon team. This guide takes you from your first sign-in to a fully running portal in about an hour. No technical skills needed.

Filled in your setup quiz? Then your locations, class times, team, schedule, days off and pay rules are already in, and your team's logins are ready to hand out. Sign in, skim Steps 2 to 5 to check everything looks right, and jump to Step 7 to send your team their logins. Most owners are done in 15 minutes.

In this guide, "coaches" and "schools" mean whatever words your company uses. You'll choose those in Step 1.

You'll need:

• your portal address, email and temporary password (from your welcome email)
• a list of your schools: name, address, class day, start and end time, first class date and sign-up link
• a list of your coaches: name, email, phone and usual pay
• your school calendar (holidays and breaks)

Spreadsheets work best. Blank templates are at the end of this guide.

Prefer to be shown? Your portal has a guided demo built in. It moves through the real screens, points an arrow at exactly what to click, and explains each step in plain words. It offers itself the first time you sign in. You can replay any part from Help & guided demo, or press Show me how at the top of any page. Your coaches get their own short walk-through in their app.

Step 1 · Sign in and make it yours (10 min)

1. Open your portal address and sign in with the email and temporary password from your welcome email.
2. A short welcome walks you through three screens:
   • Your company: name, initials for the app icon, tagline, time zone.
   • Logo & colors: upload your logo and pick your colors. The preview shows exactly how the manager portal and the coach app will look.
   • Words & basics: choose what you call things, for example Coach or Instructor, School or Site, Session or Term. These are labels, not names; you'll add your actual coaches and schools next. Then pick the days you run classes and your usual starting pay.
3. Click Save and open the portal. The portal offers a guided demo that shows you how everything works. Replay it anytime from Help & guided demo at the bottom of the left menu.
4. Change your password: click Password at the bottom of the left menu.

Everything here can be changed later in Settings → Company & look, as often as you like:

• Colors: tap one of the color sets, or pick your own main and accent colors.
• Design: the lettering (Modern, Friendly, Clean or Classic), how round the corners are, a side menu in your main color, and light or dark.
• Changes show right away so you can try things. Press Save settings to keep them, or leave the page to put the old look back. Go back to the look Huddle Horizon set up undoes everything in one click.

Step 2 · Add your schools (10 min)

Each school needs one class day, its times and its first class date. Sessions, weeks and lesson numbers are then worked out for the whole year.

• One at a time: Schools → Add school.
• All at once: Settings → Import a spreadsheet → Schools, then upload your spreadsheet.

Also add each school's sign-up link (where parents register). It's used in your re-enrollment messages.

Step 3 · Add holidays and days off (5 min)

Schools → Days off → Add day off. Add school holidays, breaks and any day you won't run classes. Sessions skip these days automatically and finish a week later.

Step 4 · Add your team (10 min)

• One at a time: Coaches → Add coach.
• All at once: Settings → Import a spreadsheet → Coaches.

Include each person's email: they'll need it to sign in. Add their phone number too so it shows in your contact lists.

Step 5 · Put people on the schedule (10 min)

Coaches → Weekly schedule → click a school → choose a head and, if needed, an assistant.

• Each spot starts on the date you choose, so past weeks and payroll stay correct when people change.
• For an open spot, the portal ranks the best people by availability, distance and how many families they keep coming back.

Step 6 · Connect your sign-ups (5–10 min, once)

Every new sign-up should land in your portal on its own, so nobody types names in. Open Settings → Sign-ups and pick where families sign up today. The portal shows the exact steps for your system:

• Jackrabbit, Sawyer, Amilia, Enrollsy, Pike13, Square, Eventbrite: a free Zapier "Zap" copies each new registration into a Google Sheet that your portal checks every hour. About 10 minutes, once.
• ActivityHero, Jotform, Wix: paste your portal's sign-up address into that app's settings. About 3–5 minutes, once. Sign-ups arrive the moment they happen.
• Google Forms, Squarespace or any spreadsheet: share the sheet ("Anyone with the link") and paste the link. About 2 minutes.
• HubSpot: paste a HubSpot access token. About 3 minutes.
• iClassPro, Homeroom, CampMinder and others with no automatic option: export your roster and drop it in Upload a list when sign-ups open. About 3 minutes each time.
• Paper forms, email or phone (no system): nothing to set up. Turn on Your own sign-up page: it already has your logo, schools and class times. Put its link or QR code on flyers and newsletters. Anyone who still signs up on paper, add in seconds (or paste a list), and coaches flag any child who shows up but isn't on the list as a walk-in.

Not sure, or stuck? We'll do it with you on a short call. Children already in the portal are updated, never added twice.

• Schools → Rosters: pick a school and session to see who's signed up.
• A school that arrived from your sign-ups shows Add class day. Click it and fill in the day, times and first class date (Settings → Getting started lists any that still need it).
• Settings → Sign-ups → What's connected shows each connection and when it last checked. Check now looks for new sign-ups right away.

This powers attendance, retention and your list of families to call back.

Step 7 · Give your team logins (5 min)

Settings → Logins:

• Coaches: click Create login next to each person.
• Other managers: click Add a manager.

Each new login shows a temporary password once. Click Copy login details and send it to that person.

Training day: click Coach quick-start sheet (on the Logins page, or under Help & guided demo). It's a printable page with your logo, a QR code to your portal, and the six things a coach needs to know. When a coach signs in for the first time, they also get a short welcome and a step-by-step walk-through of their app.

Coaches see a simple, phone-friendly portal with:

• their next class
• the roster and attendance
• their pre-filled timesheet
• time-off requests
• giving away a class they can't make, and picking up open classes
• chat with you and your managers
• updates from you

Step 8 · Put the portal on your phone (1 min)

Open the portal address on your phone:

• iPhone: Safari → Share → Add to Home Screen
• Android: Chrome → ⋮ → Add to Home screen

It installs like an app, with your logo. Ask your coaches to do the same.

Your first week

• Don't need something? Settings → Pages turns optional pages on or off, like whether your coaches see their own retention and the leaderboard, the retention bonus, chat, updates and class swaps. Turning one off hides it for everyone; nothing is deleted.
• Home shows today's classes, who's teaching, open spots and anything that needs attention.
• Home shows today's classes with whether attendance has been taken, and your To do today list you can tick off right there. Until setup is done, a Finish setting up card at the top shows your next steps, with a button for each. Press Hide if you'd rather not see it.
• Find anything fast: press Ctrl+K (or ⌘K on a Mac, or /) on any page, or click Find at the top of the left menu (the magnifying glass on a phone). Type part of a name, a phone number or a page. It finds coaches, schools, students and parents, and opens the right place.
• Paper sign-in sheet: Schools → Students (rosters) → pick a school and session → Print sign-in sheet. One row per student with their parent's phone and notes, and a box for every class date. Handy for a sub, a coach without a phone, or the front office.
• To-do fills itself in: sessions ending, timesheets to review, subs to find, families to call back, and walk-ins to contact (also listed under Families & updates → Families to contact). Add your own to-dos too. Any of them can repeat: daily, weekly, monthly or on a custom schedule.
• Payroll: coaches submit timesheets already filled in from the schedule. Anything unusual is flagged. You approve, then download a spreadsheet for your payroll provider.
  • Approve all that look right approves every timesheet with nothing flagged in one go. Flagged ones stay for you to open.
  • After a pay period ends, Fill in from the schedule for everyone missing fills in and approves a timesheet from the schedule for each coach who didn't send one. A class someone covered as a sub says who they covered.
  • Anyone who taught in a pay period is listed there, even if they've left since, so their final pay can be approved.
  • Every past pay period not yet marked paid gets its own Run payroll to-do.
  • Taking pay back: paid someone ahead for a class and then they missed it (time off, a sub, a cancelled class)? Payroll lists it under Paid for, but not taught and adds a to-do. Press Take it off next pay (or Change… for a different amount or pay period), or Not needed. To take money off for anything else: Payroll → More → Take money off someone's pay. It comes off their approved pay for that period, shows in its own column and in the spreadsheet, and the coach sees the amount and your reason on their timesheet. Turn it off in Settings → Pages.
• Different pay for different people: each coach's pay is set per class, so someone can earn more at one school than another. To change it, open Coaches → their name → Schedule, pick the date the new pay starts and click Pay on that class (or use Pay in Schools → Who's teaching). Earlier classes keep their old pay, so past timesheets don't change.
  • Usual pay on a coach's profile is what they get when you put them on a new class. Leave it blank to use your pay rules (head and assistant rates, pay levels, drive time). When you change it, the portal offers to use the new amount on their current classes too, from a date you pick.
  • Raises: when a new coach finishes their first full session, a to-do reminds you. It opens their Schedule so you can change the pay on each class.
  • Pay more for experience? Add pay levels in Settings → Pay & schedule → Pay (like Senior coach $55), then pick each coach's level on their profile. New spots then start at their level's pay.
• Lesson plan: put what you teach each week in Schools → Lesson plan (one row per session). Coaches see the week's lesson on their next class. A class that's ahead or behind? Coaches tap Ahead? Change lesson on their class card and pick the lesson they're on; every class after it follows on from there (for their group only, if they teach one group). You see each change, who made it and when, under Schools → Lesson plan → Changes in place, and can undo it or make your own. Only want managers to change lessons? Settings → Pages → turn off Coaches can change their lesson.
• Class swaps: when a coach can't make a class, they press Can't make it? in their app and give it away, once or for good. Other coaches see it under Classes you can pick up and press I can take it. Nothing changes until you approve it: Coaches → Time off & swaps (it's also on Home and To-do). You can also hand an open class to someone yourself with Give it to….
• Chat: message any coach one-on-one, or start a group chat with New group (quick picks for all coaches, all managers, or everyone at a school). Coaches reply from their own app, and nobody has to share a personal number. Coaches can message managers; only managers can start or change groups. A coach's profile (Coaches → their name) also has a Message button. Running behind on the way to a class? Coaches tap Running late on today's class card, pick about how late, and you get a chat message with the school and times, so you can let the school know.
• Changing how often you pay: Settings → Pay & schedule → Pay → Change pay schedule. Pick every week, every 2 weeks, twice a month (1st–15th and 16th–end), once a month or any number of days, and the date the new schedule starts. You see your next pay periods before you save. Past pay periods, timesheets and paid runs keep their dates.
• Changing classes per session: Settings → Pay & schedule (for everyone) or a school's details (just that school). The new number applies to sessions that start from today; sessions already running and past ones keep their length, so retention and history don't move.
• Retention bonuses are added to Payroll on their own, in the pay period the class's number became final. They show in their own column and in the spreadsheet download. Coaches see theirs on their timesheet.
• Morning email: every morning each manager gets a short email of what needs them today (timesheets, time off, open classes, families to call), only when there's something to do. Turn it off or pick the time in Settings → Pages.
• Everything can be edited later: updates, links, days off, time off (dates and sub), a coach's role and room on a class, managers' names, roles and areas (Settings → Logins), where sign-ups go and which columns they use (Settings → Sign-ups). If two managers change different settings at the same time, both changes are kept.
• Families & updates → Families to contact: near the end of every session, this lists every family who hasn't signed up for the next one, by school, with phone and email.
  • Call or email them, then tick Contacted. Brothers and sisters count as one family, so one call covers them all.
  • Email these families opens your email with every family still on the list for that school, then offers to mark them contacted.
  • Families drop off the list once they sign up. New sign-ups are checked each time you open the list.
  • Walk-ins to follow up (same page): kids who came to a class without being signed up. Each one gets one to-do; it's done when they sign up or someone marks them contacted.
• Families & updates → Updates for coaches: post news your coaches see at the top of their portal.

Your plan and billing

• Settings → Your plan (owner only) shows this month's price and exactly how it's worked out.
• You pay for the coaches who taught at least one class in the past 30 days. Hire for fall and it goes up; slow summer and it goes down, on its own. Managers and office staff are always free.
• Update card and see invoices opens a secure Stripe page for your card and receipts.

Getting help

• Questions or something not working: email Huddle Horizon support. We can sign in to help.
• Your data: export rosters, payroll, contact lists and your team list (Coaches → Download list) to spreadsheets at any time. It's yours.
• No internet? The portal says so at the top. You can still look around, but changes save only once you're back online.
• Updates: new features appear automatically. There's nothing to install.

Spreadsheet templates

Schools: name, address, day, start, end, arrival, first_day, signup_link, contact, contact_email, contact_phone

Staff: name, email, phone, role, status, start_date, pay, notes

Students: name, grade, parent, email, phone

Dates can be written as 2026-09-08 or 9/8/2026. Times can be written as 3:00 PM or 15:00.