Before notice ends with your current golf booking system, export six things: your member list, your membership categories, each member's handicap ID, every booking made for a future date, your competition history and your payment records. Ask for them in writing, as spreadsheet (CSV) files, and agree the date they arrive before you send the notice letter.
Once your notice runs out, your access ends, and your contract should have the supplier delete or return what it holds for you. The time to find a missing column is while you can still sign in and ask for it again.
What member data should a club export from its booking system?
Six files cover almost every club. Members and future bookings matter most, because members need them on day one. The rest you'll want within the first month.
- Members. One row per member: first name, surname, email address, mobile number, member number, membership category, date joined and whether they're current, paused or have left. Include juniors and social members, and anyone whose membership lapsed in the last year.
- Membership categories. Each category's name, what it includes (seven-day golf, five-day, guest passes, included rounds) and this year's price. Your new supplier needs this to set categories up the same way.
- Handicap IDs. Each member's England Golf CDH ID, if your current booking system holds it. The Handicap Index itself lives with England Golf, so the ID is the part worth carrying across.
- Future bookings. Every booking dated after your first day on the new tee sheet: date, tee time, course, each golfer in the group, and whether it's paid, part paid or still owed.
- Competition history. Results for past competitions, entry lists for any already open, and knockout draws still in progress, with who has played whom.
- Payment records. Every payment and refund taken through the booking system, with date, golfer, amount and what it was for, plus any balances members still owe.
Check the members file hardest. A member with an old email address or a missing member number is the one who can't find their record on the first morning and rings the office.
What format should the exports be in?
Ask for CSV, one file per list, with a header row naming each column. CSV opens in any spreadsheet, so you can check each file yourself before passing it on.
It's also the standard the regulator expects in a similar case. When a member asks for their own data, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) says it must come "in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format", and names CSV, XML and JSON as open formats. That right belongs to the individual member, so it doesn't cover your club's whole list. It's still a fair bar to set for your supplier.
A few details save days of tidying later:
- One member number throughout. The bookings, results and payments files should all use the same member number as the members file, so each row can be matched to a person.
- Dates and times written out. Ask for dates as day, month and year, and tee times in the 24-hour clock (07:30, 13:20), in UK time.
- Money in pounds and pence. One column for the amount, with refunds shown as their own rows.
- Nothing left in a PDF. A PDF is fine for printing the honours board, but your new supplier can't import it.
When should you ask your current supplier for your data?
Three times: once before notice, once with it, and once at the end. Leave it all to the last week and a missing file stays missing.
Before you give notice. Ask for a sample of the members and bookings files. You'll see what your current booking system can produce while you still have time to ask for more, and your new supplier can check it imports cleanly.
With your notice letter. Ask for the full set in the same letter, and agree a date the files will arrive. Put the request in writing, so the committee has a record of when you asked.
After your last day on the old tee sheet. Members keep booking until you switch, so ask for a final copy of future bookings and payments once every new booking goes on the new tee sheet. Before your access ends, download anything your treasurer still needs for the accounts.
Your notice period and your switching date decide how much room you have. How to change your golf club booking system sets out the eight weeks from committee vote to first Saturday, with this request in week 1.
Thinking about a move? Book a 30-minute demo
Who owns the member data, the club or the supplier?
In most cases the club does, and the supplier holds it for you. Your contract and its data protection terms say exactly how.
The ICO calls the organisation that decides why and how personal data is used the controller. A processor "processes personal data on behalf of the controller" and should only do so "in line with a controller's instructions", unless the law says otherwise. The controller is "ultimately in charge of and responsible for the processing". Where your booking supplier holds members' details only to run your tee sheet, your club is usually the controller and the supplier the processor.
That matters at the end of a contract. The ICO's checklist for controller and processor contracts says the processor "must delete or return all personal data to the controller (at the controller's choice) at the end of the contract". So ask for both, in this order: return the data to you as CSV files, then delete it and confirm in writing.
The ICO notes that this guidance is under review after the Data (Use and Access) Act, so check the current wording on its website before you quote it to a supplier. If your contract is unclear on any of this, ask whoever advises the club on data protection.
How long should a club keep payment records?
Long enough for your accounts, which for a club that's a limited company means at least six years. GOV.UK says a limited company must keep records "for 6 years from the end of the last company financial year they relate to", and longer in some cases. If your club isn't a limited company, ask your treasurer what applies.
So the payments file is one to keep somewhere safe, even after the new tee sheet is running. A member who queries a refund from two summers ago will expect you to find it.
What should the letter to your supplier say?
Short and specific, with a date. This wording works whoever your supplier is:
Our club data before notice ends on [notice end date]
Please send us the following as CSV files, each with a header row and the same member number in every file, by [date you need them]:
- Our members, with name, email, mobile, member number, membership category and status.
- Our membership categories and what each includes.
- Every booking dated after [your first day on the new tee sheet], with each golfer and whether it is paid.
- Every payment and refund taken through your booking system.
When our notice ends, please delete our data and confirm in writing that you have done so.
Add if your club offers it:
- Each member's England Golf CDH ID.
- Competition results, open entry lists and knockout draws in progress.
- Guest passes and included rounds each member has left.
- Society bookings and the organiser for each.
- Balances members still owe.
How does Tuvabook take your data in?
We import your members from your export and set up your prices and tee sheet with you. We plan bookings already made with you, and agree which future tee times and competitions come across. Nothing goes live until you have seen it.
Members then find their own record. In your club's app they enter their membership number and surname, and confirm with a code sent to the email you hold for them. That's why a clean email column in the members file matters so much.
Your data stays the club's afterwards too. You can export members and bookings whenever you ask, and when a single member asks for their own data, you download it from their record under Data and privacy.
Common questions
What data should we export before switching golf booking software?
Your member list, membership categories, each member's England Golf CDH ID, every future booking, competition results and payment records. Ask for each as a CSV file with a header row and the same member number throughout.
When should we ask our supplier for an export?
Ask for a sample before you give notice, the full set with your notice letter, and a final copy of future bookings and payments after your last day on the old tee sheet. Agree a date for each in writing.
Does the supplier have to give our data back?
The ICO's checklist says a processor's contract must have it delete or return the personal data at the end of the contract, at the controller's choice. Check your own contract's data protection terms, and ask for the files back before you ask for deletion.
What's the next step?
Find your notice period, then send the request above with your notice letter. For the questions a committee asks any new supplier before it votes, read switching golf club software: 20 questions, browse our switching guides, or see how we move a club across.