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The Member Portal: Your Members' Own App

In one line: Your members get their own Kazafit — they sign in on their phone with a text-message code and see their plan, their days left, their visits and their receipts, without ringing your front desk.

Why this matters

Count the questions your desk answers in a day that are not really questions for a person. "When does my plan end?" "How much do I still owe?" "Did my payment go through?" "Can I get in today, or has it run out?" Every one of them is an interruption for your staff and a wait for the member — and after hours there is nobody to ask at all.

The member portal answers those questions on the member's own phone. It is a separate app from the one you and your staff use: a member signs in with their phone number and a code sent by text — no password to forget, no reset link — and sees only their own membership at your gym. Nothing of yours: no member list, no takings, no other members' names.

You stay in control at every step. The portal is switched on for your gym by Kazafit, you decide which of its screens members may see, you approve who gets in, and you can shut any of it off again. A gym that never touches it loses nothing — everything in the portal starts switched off.

What you can do

  • Give members their own sign-in with no passwords to manage. A member enters their phone number, receives a code by text, types it in, and they are in. There is nothing for your desk to set up, reset or remember. The code expires quickly, has a limited number of tries, and repeated requests are refused — so someone hammering the button cannot burn through your SMS credit.
  • Let members see their plan without ringing you. The portal shows their current package, whether it is running, its start and end dates, and any balance still owing on it — the same figures your own screens show, so there is never a "but the app said" argument. Past plans show underneath, so a member renewing yearly can see what they had before.
  • Show members whether they can get in today — if you want to. A card answers the question a member asks before leaving the house: allowed in, or not, and if not, why — expired on this date, balance owing, no plan. It is a read-out only: looking at it never records a visit. It starts switched off; turn it on in Portal Settings when you are ready for members to see a door verdict.
  • Let members read their own visit history — if you want to. Also a Portal Settings switch, also off until you turn it on.
  • Give members their receipts without printing. Every invoice you have raised for a member is readable in their portal. That is the receipt mechanism — no text message is sent for each payment, so it costs you nothing per receipt.
  • Invite your existing members in, one by one, when you choose. From a member's record, send an invite: a single-use link, sent to the phone number on their record, that signs them in first time without a second code. If the number on file was typed wrong, the stranger who receives it lands in a waiting state that shows nothing until you approve — a mistyped digit becomes a queued request on your screen, not a stranger inside a member's account.
  • Let walk-ins sign themselves up through your QR — if you want to. Self-signup is a Portal Settings switch. Pair it with the approval switch and every self-signed member waits, seeing nothing, until you say yes.
  • Print one poster for members, one for the door. Your gym profile now shows two cards: the Member Portal link and QR for members to use at home, and the Gym Check-In link for the tablet at reception. Each has its own copy, download and print buttons.
  • Kill every printed code if one leaks. Posters get photographed and flyers walk out of the building. A rotate button issues your gym a fresh link — see Good to know for what that does to your existing posters before you press it.
  • Serve members who train at more than one Kazafit gym. One phone number can hold memberships at several gyms; the member picks a gym after signing in and can switch. Each gym sees only its own member. A member already signed up somewhere can even sign in without your link — the portal finds their memberships from their phone number, and those codes are funded by Kazafit, not your SMS credit.

How to get started

The portal is switched on per gym by Kazafit — it is a plan feature, like messaging. If you do not see Portal Settings, call or email us and we switch it on.

  1. Open your gym profile and find the two link cards. The Member Portal card is the one for members — copy the link or print the QR poster.
  2. Open Portal Settings and set the switches. Everything starts off. Most gyms start with: self-signup off, approval on, attendance off, access status off — then open things up once the first invited members are in and happy.
  3. Pick five regulars and invite them from their member records. Check the phone number on each record first — the invite goes to that number, and the approval step is your safety net, not a substitute for checking.
  4. When an invited or self-signed member appears as pending, approve them. Until you do, they can sign in but see nothing.
  5. Ask one of the five to walk you through what they see on their phone. What they can see is exactly what your switches allow — nothing more.
  6. When it works, put the portal poster where members wait, not just at the door.

Good to know

  • Members never see your side. The portal runs on its own address and its sign-ins cannot reach any staff or owner screen — this is enforced by Kazafit itself, not by hiding menus. A member sees their own record at your gym, nothing else.
  • Codes are sent by text, and texts cost you credit. Member sign-in codes come out of your gym's SMS balance. If the balance runs out, members cannot sign in — they see a message telling them to contact the gym, and you are alerted in the app and by email (never by a text you would have to pay for). Top up and sign-ins resume.
  • A member needs a phone that can receive texts. The phone number is the identity. No number on record, no portal.
  • The rotate button invalidates both posters at once. The member portal QR and the check-in QR carry the same code, so rotating for a leaked portal poster also kills every check-in poster in the building. Print and distribute the new ones straight away. Members already signed in stay signed in — rotation stops new entries through old codes, it does not throw anyone out.
  • Approval protects the phone number, not just the member. Your staff vouched for the person when they created the record; the invite goes to the number they typed. Approval is the human check that those are the same person. Leave it on unless you have a reason not to.
  • A pending member sees a waiting screen, nothing more. They can sign in — blocking sign-in entirely would just make them request more codes at your expense — but no plan, no invoices, no access verdict shows until you approve.
  • The access-status card never records a visit. Checking "can I get in" from the sofa is not a check-in. Staff check-in at reception is still how visits get recorded, and your attendance numbers stay yours.
  • A member's sign-in sticks to their device for up to a year of regular use, so they are not typing codes every week. Members can see their signed-in devices in the portal and sign any of them out — for a lost phone, that is the remedy.
  • Switching the portal off again is clean. If the capability is turned off for your gym, members simply cannot get in — no data needs unwinding. Members at more than one gym keep seeing their other gyms.
  • The portal installs to a phone's home screen like the staff app does, works in English and Kiswahili, and carries the Kazafit look. It needs a connection — it always shows live facts, never yesterday's saved answer, because a stale "you can get in" is worse than none.
  • Invite links are single-use and short-lived. A used or expired link shows the member why it failed and your gym's phone number to sort it out. It deliberately does not offer a sign-in button on a used link — if someone else opened it, signing in is the wrong move; ringing you is the right one.