Getting started with Campfront

This guide walks you through setting up a brand-new camp in Campfront, in the order that works best. It's for admins opening Campfront for the first time. You don't have to finish everything in one sitting. Your dashboard tracks what's left, and each step points to a fuller article if you want the detail.

Campfront runs your whole camp from one place: enrollment, billing, forms, staff hiring, bunking, medical records, and photos. Most camps can work through the setup in an afternoon.

Follow your quick start guide

When you sign in to a new camp, your dashboard shows a quick start guide. It lists a card for each thing left to set up, in the order to tackle them. Select a card to jump straight to that step. As you finish each one, it drops off the list. Once the list is empty, the guide hides itself and your normal dashboard takes over.

You can hide the guide early with Hide quick start guide, and it won't come back. The guide only shows steps you have permission to do, so a team member without settings access won't be reminded about Stripe.

1. Set up your camp profile

Your profile is the camp's name, address, and contact details. Families and staff see this, and it appears on invoices, receipts, and emails. Add it under Camp settings > Profile. The profile counts as complete once you've filled in the camp name, street address, state, and phone number.

2. Create your camper groups

Camper groups organize campers into divisions by grade and gender, like "Junior Boys" or "Senior Girls." They decide which sessions each camper is eligible for during enrollment, so it's worth setting them up before your sessions. Add them from your season's Camper groups page. Our article on managing camper groups has the detail.

3. Add your sessions

Sessions are the dates families choose from when they enroll, each with its own price and capacity. Build them from your season's Sessions page. Our article on setting up your sessions walks through pricing tiers, capacity limits, and approval-required sessions.

4. Build your first form

Forms are how you gather everything from t-shirt sizes to medical details. Build your first one under Forms, then publish it so it appears in your family and staff portals. Our article on setting up your forms covers field types and assignment.

5. Set up your staff

This step takes you to your staffing board, where you organize your team into departments like Counselors, Kitchen, or Waterfront and start hiring. It's marked complete once you've added your first staff member. Our article on making a staff offer covers the hiring flow.

6. Connect your Stripe account

Campfront uses Stripe to move families' payments into your bank account. Connect your Stripe account under Camp settings > Billing. Our article on processing payments with Stripe walks through the connection.

7. Set up your Stripe subscription

The second Stripe step activates your Campfront subscription, which turns on your billing features. Set it up in the same place, under Camp settings > Billing. Our article on how our pricing works explains what you're billed for.

A few things worth doing early

These aren't in the quick start guide, but they're worth handling before families see anything.

• Payment settings - decide how families can pay, whether in full, by deposit, or in installments, and which methods you accept

• Enrollment agreement - write the terms families accept when they sign up

• Discounts and add-ons - reward early birds, siblings, and returning campers, and offer extras like t-shirts or trips

• Branding - add your logo and colors under Camp settings so your portal, emails, and sign-up pages match your camp

Open enrollment

When everything's ready, open your season for sign-ups. In your season settings, turn on camper enrollment, and staff applications too if you're hiring. Families can then find your sign-up page and enroll.

What happens next

With setup done, these are the natural next reads.

• Your dashboard, for a tour of your daily home screen

• Inviting a camper to enroll and the enrollment experience, for how families sign up

• Inside the parent portal and inside the staff portal, for what families and staff see once they're in