Awards and accreditation let you recognise member achievements and track progression over time. They are how you manage belt grading in ClubRight: you create an award for each belt, issue it to a student when they pass their grading, and ClubRight flags each student when they are due to be assessed for the next belt. The same feature works for any milestone, such as a loyalty award, an attendance award, or dance and gymnastics gradings, but belt grading is the most common use for martial arts clubs.
When you issue an award, the member is emailed to congratulate them and the award appears in their member app. For a martial arts student, their latest belt shows on their app home screen, and tapping through to Your Awards shows every belt they have earned with the date and a congratulations message, so they feel their progress through the ranks.
How to manage belt grading
To manage belt grading in ClubRight, you use Awards & Accreditation. There are three parts, each covered in detail below:
Set up an award for each belt (for example Yellow Belt, Orange Belt, Blue Belt), with a review trigger that matches your grading schedule.
Issue the belt to a student from their profile when they pass their grading.
Track who is due to grade using the Awards list.
The same steps apply to any other award you want to run, such as attendance or loyalty awards.
Why use awards and accreditation
Manage belt grading: record each belt a student reaches and know exactly when they are due to be assessed for the next one.
Track any progression: the same approach works for dance and gymnastics gradings, or any staged achievement.
Recognise achievement: celebrate milestones such as a number of visits, class attendance, or loyalty.
Prompt reviews automatically: ClubRight flags members for review based on days passed or visits made, so no student is overlooked for their next grading.
Engage members: each award is emailed to the member and shown in their member app, with their full award history.
How to set up a belt (or other award)
Set up each belt as its own award before you can issue it. A martial arts club typically creates one award per belt: Yellow Belt, Orange Belt, Blue Belt, Red Belt, and so on.
Go to Settings, and under Your Offerings click Awards & Accreditation.
Click New Award in the top right corner.
The award editor has two sections, shown in the left-hand menu.
What is this award?
Name: what the award is called, for example "Blue Belt".
Award email content: the message sent to the student when they receive the belt. Write something that congratulates them on passing their grading.
Image (optional): upload an image to represent the award, such as a photo of the belt.
What size should my award image be?
Use a square image of about 600 x 600 pixels (no smaller than 400 x 400), saved as a JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP or BMP file. Keep the badge or design centred, with a bit of space round the edge.
Which file type: JPG is best for a photo, such as a photo of a belt. PNG is best for a badge or logo on a transparent background. An animated GIF only keeps its first frame.
File size: there's no file size limit as such. Anything bigger than 1024 pixels on its longest side is shrunk automatically when you upload it, keeping its shape. Keep files under about 5MB so the upload is quick.
On the member's awards page, their latest award shows in a panel up to about 180 pixels tall, and older awards show in a grid up to 100 pixels tall. The member app opens the same page, so it looks the same there. The whole image always shows without being cropped, but a small image is never enlarged, so anything under a few hundred pixels can look small or blurry.
On the staff side, each award's card in your list of awards crops the image to a wide strip, which is why it's best to keep the design centred. The "You have a new award!" email shows the image at the size it was saved, centred.
When is it reviewed?
After a student is issued with a belt, ClubRight can flag them when they are due to be assessed for the next one. There are two independent triggers, and you can use either or both.
Review by Days: choose No Day Review or Review After Days, then set the number in Days before next review. For example, flag a student for their next grading 90 days after they earned their current belt.
Review by Visits: choose No Visit Review or Review After Visits, then set the number in Visits before next review. Under Visits apply to, choose All Visits (any visit counts) or Specific Activity and select the activity, so only visits to that activity count. For example, flag a student for their next belt review after they attend 12 classes of your martial arts activity.
Click Save Changes when done. Repeat for each belt in your grading system.
How to issue a belt to a student
When a student passes their grading, issue the relevant belt from their profile.
Open the member's profile from Contacts.
Click the awards panel on the profile (it shows their latest award, or "No awards" if they have none yet) to open Training & Awards.
Click + Add Award.
In the Add an award window, select the belt from the list, then click Add.
The belt is recorded on the student's profile with the date issued, and they are emailed using the award email content you set up. The Training & Awards panel shows the belt along with the next review date and any visits remaining before their next grading. You can edit or remove an issued award from the same panel. The student sees the belt in their member app straight away, on their home screen and under Your Awards.
💡 Tip: Belts can also be issued automatically using Smart Workflows, so a student is recognised the moment they hit the milestone without anyone having to issue it by hand.
Can I add an award without the member being emailed?
No. Every award you issue sends the member its award email. The Add an award window only asks which award to give, and there's no setting on the award to turn the email off.
You choose what the email says in Award email content on each award, so if you're adding awards to lots of members at once, for example when you first set up belt grading, keep the message short and relevant, or let members know beforehand that they'll get one email per award.
How to see who is due to grade
To see all belts across your students and who is due for their next grading review, go to Contacts, open the Members dashboard, and under Member Data in the left-hand menu click Awards.
This shows each member with their current award, the date it was issued, and their review status, including the review date and how many more visits are needed before review. You can filter by plan. Use this to see at a glance which students are ready to be assessed for their next belt.
Belt grading worked example
Here is the full belt grading setup for a martial arts club, start to finish:
In Settings > Your Offerings > Awards & Accreditation, create one award for each belt: Yellow Belt, Orange Belt, Blue Belt, Red Belt.
On each belt, set a review trigger that matches your grading schedule. For example, set Review After Visits to 12 visits applied to your specific martial arts activity, so a student is flagged for their next grading once they have attended enough classes.
When a student passes their grading, open their profile and issue the relevant belt from the Training & Awards panel. They receive a congratulations email and see the belt in their member app.
Check the Awards list under Member Data to see which students are approaching their next grading review, and assess them when they are ready.
Need a hand setting up belt grading or other awards? Click the chat button at the bottom of your screen to speak to our team.