Overview
Two records describe the same person, and it helps to keep them apart:- The contact is your gym’s own copy - name, email, phone, memberships, invoices, signatures. You own it, and it exists whether or not the member has ever signed in.
- The account is the person’s login identity, shared across every gym on 1club. It holds their password, their social sign-ins, and their verified email and phone.
unregistered.
Choosing how members are identified
Go to Settings > Contacts and pick under How members are identified:
This is the one gym-wide switch. Everything else on this page follows from it.
Two things to know before you move off Email:
- The platform has to be able to send a code. If no WhatsApp or SMS route is set up, the options are disabled and the page tells you so. Nothing you choose here can take effect until a code can actually reach a member.
- Normalize your phone numbers first. Sign-in matches a member against the number on their contact. Numbers typed by staff or carried in from an import are often written inconsistently, and a member whose number does not match lands on a brand-new record instead of their own. Ask support to run the normalization script for your gym before switching phone sign-in on.
The ways a member can sign in
A member may collect several of these on one account. Any of them gets them in.Email and password
The default. Members type their email address, then their password. Passwords are theirs to set - staff never see or choose one.Social sign-in
Members can use Google, Apple, or Facebook where those are switched on for the platform. Google is available on 1club generally; Apple and Facebook are enabled per deployment, so if you do not see a button for one, it is not turned on rather than broken. What matters operationally is how a social sign-in is matched to an account:- It matches on the provider’s own account, not on the email address the provider reports. A member who renames their work Google mailbox, or whose Apple relay address rotates, still lands in the same account.
- The address the provider reports is recorded next to the sign-in for your reference. It is often not the same as the address on their account or on your contact record. A member invited at
name@company.comwho signs in with a personal Gmail has all three. - A social sign-in confirms the email address it carries, so a member who joins this way never has to click a confirmation link.
Phone number with a one-time code
Available once you pick Email or phone number or Phone number. The member types their number and gets a six-digit code by WhatsApp, or by text message if WhatsApp cannot reach them. Entering the code signs them in - and if the number is new to 1club, it creates their account at the same time. There is no password to choose. Only a verified number identifies a member. A number staff typed is not proof of anything, so it does not resolve an account until the member has proven it by entering a code.Phone number with a password
A member who has both a verified number and a password can use them together. This works only where you have allowed phone sign-in.Seeing how a member signs in
The member profile and the staff lists show Sign-in methods for the linked account: one mark per social sign-in, a key when they hold a password, and a phone when a verified number is a way in for them. When it shows None, hover it - the reason is the useful part, and there are three:
A verified phone only counts as a sign-in method when your gym actually accepts one, so this column tells you what will work today rather than what exists in theory.
Getting a member in for the first time
Invitations
Invite from the Member list and choose how the invitation travels - see choosing how an invitation reaches a member. How the member accepts follows how you sent it, and this is deliberate:- Sent by email - they open the link and set a password. Opening a link from their inbox is what proves the address, so accepting this way confirms it.
- Sent by WhatsApp or text - they open the link and enter a code sent to that number. The code is what proves the number is theirs. It is required even when their account also holds an email address, and accepting this way does not confirm that address.
Self sign-up
Members can also sign up themselves from your portal or website. What they are asked for follows your identifier setting - email and password under Email or Email or phone number, name and phone number under Phone number. Everything else you require of a member (date of birth, waivers, household) is collected right after they get in, not on the sign-up form.Verifying an email address and a phone number
Members verify both themselves, from My account > Profile in the portal:- Email address - they get a confirmation link. A member who joined by social sign-in or accepted an invitation from their inbox is already confirmed.
- Phone number - a check mark shows a verified number. Otherwise a send icon appears next to the field; tapping it texts or WhatsApps a code, and entering it verifies the number.
Passwords
Members set their own password when they accept an email invitation, when they sign up, or from their profile. Staff cannot set one for them. If a member is locked out, point them at Forgot password on the sign-in screen. It sends a reset link to their email address. A member with no email address on file has no reset path - they sign in with a code to their phone instead, which is the point of a phone-first gym.How long a member stays signed in
Members are not asked to sign in again during that window. Behind it, their session is refreshed every fifteen minutes without them noticing, so signing out on one device does not sign them out everywhere.
When someone comes back
Three situations look similar and behave very differently:Blocked email addresses
1club staff can block an email address platform-wide. A blocked address cannot sign in to or sign up for anything, including your gym. This is a platform-level safeguard, not something you control - contact support if you believe an address is blocked in error.Troubleshooting
Issue: The How members are identified options are greyed out. Solution: The platform cannot send a one-time code, so a phone could never be verified. Contact support to have a WhatsApp or SMS route configured for your deployment. Issue: A member signed in and landed on a brand-new record instead of their own. Solution: Their number on your contact record does not match the one they signed in with, usually because it was written in a local format. Ask support to normalize your contact phone numbers, then merge the duplicate record. Issue: An invitation you sent by WhatsApp was refused with a message about the number not being verified. Solution: That member already has an account, and the number on their contact has not been proven on it - so a link sent there could be used by whoever holds that number. Send the invitation by email instead, or have the member verify the number first. Issue: A member says the invitation link asks for a code, not a password. Solution: You sent it to their phone. The code proves the number is theirs. If they cannot receive it, resend the invitation by email and they will get a password form instead. Issue: The Sign-in methods column shows None for a member you know has signed in. Solution: The column describes the linked account. If the member accepted at a different gym, or the contact is not linked to their account, there is nothing to show - check the account link on the member profile. Issue: A member’s social sign-in shows an email address you do not recognise. Solution: That is the address their provider reports, which is often personal and different from the one you hold. It is recorded for reference only and is not used to match them.Related
- Member list - inviting members and choosing the channel
- Member profile - the per-contact view, including account links
- Member portal - what members can see and do once they are in
- Contact settings - the identifier setting and required contact fields
- WhatsApp - connecting your own number for codes and invitations