One Platform for Your League and Its Officials: Save Hours Every Week and Pay Referees Without Spreadsheets

Ask any league organizer where their week goes and you'll hear the same answer: not on the schedule, but on everything around it. Messaging referees. Re-messaging referees. Updating a spreadsheet when a game moves. Working out who is owed what at the end of the month. With the new Officials Scheduling add-on, Schedule Guru becomes one platform to create and run your leagues and the officials who make them happen.

The hidden cost of two systems

When the schedule lives in one place and the officials live in another, every change happens twice. A rescheduled game means updating the schedule, then telling three officials, then hoping all three see the message. A no-show means a scramble, then a correction to the pay sheet, then an awkward conversation at payout time. These small gaps add up to hours every week, and they're where mistakes creep in.

Benefit 1: Every change happens once

Because officials are assigned directly to your Schedule Guru games, there is a single source of truth. Move a game and every assignment updates, reminders shift to the new time, and officials are asked to reconfirm automatically. Cancel a game and the crew is notified. No copy-pasting, no "did you get my message?"

Benefit 2: Fewer last-minute scrambles

Live availability, double-booking warnings and travel-time checks catch problems while you're assigning, not on game day. One-tap email confirmations and automatic reminders mean you know who is coming. When someone declines, you're told immediately, with a button to assign a replacement.

Benefit 3: Pay officials accurately, without spreadsheets

Officials pay is where spreadsheets hurt the most. Schedule Guru's payment tracking follows every fee from assignment to payout:

1. Set fees once. Rates can be set per role for your whole organization, a sport, a league or tournament, or even a single official. The most specific rate wins. Save a league's setup as a rate template and apply it to next season in seconds.
2. Fees calculate themselves. Every assignment carries its fee, and every game shows its total officiating cost.
3. Verify who worked. After each game, mark officials as Worked, Did not attend or Replaced. Only verified work becomes payable.
4. Approve and pay. Approve with a click, then record payments by bank transfer, cash or cheque. Partial payments are fine, and nothing can be paid twice.
5. Pay a whole period at once. Payment batches collect everything due in a date range. Review it, approve it in one step, record every payment together, and export it for your bank or treasurer.

Travel allowances, bonuses and deductions are added as adjustments, so approved amounts are never silently edited and the history always adds up. Cancelled games pay nothing by default, or you can turn on a short-notice cancellation fee.

Benefit 4: Transparency officials appreciate

Officials see their own earnings in the free Officials Portal: upcoming fees, completed games awaiting approval, what's been paid and what's still owed, plus a downloadable statement. They can get an email when earnings are approved and when a payment is recorded. Fewer "have I been paid?" messages for you, more trust for them.

Benefit 5: Budgets and reports your board will love

• Budgets per league, with warnings as officiating spend gets close to the limit.
• Reports: payment summary, outstanding balances, cost per game, league expenses vs. budget, and individual official statements, exported to PDF, Excel or CSV.
• A full audit trail of every rate change, approval, payment and adjustment, with who did it and when.

Benefit 6: Share the load safely

Add schedulers to help with assigning, and decide exactly what they can do with money. Six separate permissions (view payments, manage rates, verify games, approve payments, record payments and export reports) start switched off, so nobody sees pay information unless you allow it.

What it looks like in a real week

Monday: apply your "Youth rates 2026" template to the new spring league and send an availability request for the opening weekend. Wednesday: assign crews with live availability, bulk-assigning the morning games. Saturday: a game moves, and everyone is updated automatically. Monday after: verify the weekend's games, approve, and pay everyone in one batch. That's the whole job, in one place.

Getting started

The Officials Scheduling add-on is $299 per year, works with any Schedule Guru plan including Free, and includes payment tracking at no extra cost. Officials join free. Read the full feature tour, or jump straight in:

Get Officials Scheduling →