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Close a Current Season

Learn how to finalize administrative activity for the season that has just concluded

Updated over 2 months ago

Closing your current season is a required process once you have completed a camp season.

You can do this "rollup" process any time after your summer season is over, but its best to close ASAP.

💡Tip: If you wait until you have applicants filling out forms for the next season, CampInTouch will default to the previous season. This could result in applicants filling out the wrong forms.


1. Preparation

Before closing your season, make sure to complete key tasks like justifying discretionary accounts, running audit reports, confirming camper and staff status, among other important steps.

Video Tutorial

  1. Open your next season: Navigate to Admin > Camper Setup > Season Settings. Click the + sign to open a new season.

    📖 Related Help Materials:

  2. Justify your Discretionary Accounts: This transfers any remaining balance from your Discretionary Accounts (generally, a camp store/canteen account) to the family financial tab. If you do not justify your accounts before closing your season, the account balances will remain in the previous season's account.

    📖 Related Help Materials:

  3. Run an Audit Report and a Transaction Report: Running both of these reports in advance of closing your season ensures you have a historical record of exactly what your past seasons' financials looked like at the time of closing.

    📖 Related Help Materials:

  4. Ensure all Enrollment Management campers have grades: Since you'll be moving campers who are over grade to your Alumni or Staff partitions, all campers' records will need to have a grade to make this determination. Run a user report and include the "Camp Grade" and "School Grade" fields. Use the Edit Inline dropdown to add a grade to anyone missing it.

    Note: If you don't have camp and school grades, you'll get an error message when you try to start rollup.

  5. Confirm Staff Status: make note of the staff you would like to invite back, vs. staff who will not be returning.

  6. Confirm the status of all Campers: make note of the camper who will not be returning, any over age campers you would like to invite as CIT or staff next season.


2. Prerequisites

Don't close the current season until you've read the "Closing Season" document and made all necessary preparations.

💡Tip: You don't have to close the season all at once, but once a group is disposed of, it can't be undone. Each group will be marked with the completion date and user login.

Video Tutorial

Navigate to Admin > System Maintenance > Close Current Season. Click the blue "Current Season Closure Parameters (Start Here)" link under the Prerequisites section of the main page.

Note: A pop-up page will guide you through the decisions and verifications needed before closing your season. Click "Continue" at the bottom of the page.

  1. Select Disposition of Family Balances: Enter your choice for how you would like to proceed with family balances. There are four options to choose from:

    • Option 1: Do not roll balances forward. Family balances stay on the financial tab from the previous season. You can still add payments to the closed season, just ensure you're in the correct season when doing so!

      💡Tip: If you want to keep each season's financials 100% separate, this is the way to go.

    • Option 2: Roll ALL Credit and Debit balances Forward. Selecting this option zero's out the family balances in the current season. This closes and moves that balance to the financial tab in the upcoming season.

      💡Tip: rolling balanced forward may make it easier to collect those finds, since they will be lumped into any new charges the family is assessed.

      Note: The Balance Forward Report generates a list of all balances brought forth from the previous season.

    • Option 3: Roll ONLY CREDIT balances Forward or

      Option 4: Roll ONLY DEBIT balanced Forward. Like rolling all balances forward, this option closes the financial tab in the previous season, but, depending on your selection, only rolls forward either positive or negative balances.

      Example: maybe you’ll forgive any outstanding balance owed for next season, but want to ensure that credit balances are taken into account for next year’s financials - or vice versa.

      💡Tip: Be mindful of the season you're adding payments to. Depending on your selection between options 3 and 4, you might need to go back to the previous season.

  2. Maximum Grade For Campers and CITs. After deciding what to do with balances, you'll next set the maximum grade for campers and CITs. This tells the system the highest grade eligible for camp; campers above this grade are marked as over-grade.

  3. Determine Cut-Off Date For "New" Staff Applicants. Occasionally, counselor applications may come in after you've finalized hiring for the season.

    Example: An applicant submits on June 5th, past the April cutoff for this year, but still eligible for next season. Applications submitted after the cutoff are marked as "recent applicants," not "other applicants," and will appear in the appropriate section during the staff rollup.

    💡Tip: many camps choose a date that corresponded closely with the start date of their first session from the to-be-closed season.

  4. Clear Billing Memos At Completion of Current Season Closure. Before closing the season, decide if you want to delete any billing memos from the Financial Tab. To keep a record, run a user report with the "Financial Memo" field and export it to Excel.

  5. You've completed the prerequisites for closing the season. Return to the "Close Current Season" menu, where you'll see a "Completed" status under the heading.


3. Campers

Next, you'll begin rolling up your campers from one season to the next. Each row in the list represents a step in the season closing process.

For each step, you'll review a list of campers in that status and decide how to move them forward for the next season.

  • Camper Management: campers who had attended camp this past season.

  • Enrollment Management: campers who did not come to camp this past season (applied and didn't attend, or rolled up from a previous season and didn't attend)

💡Tip: Campminder will save your work as you move down this checklist. Because of this, you can take a break, but It's important to close your season in a timely manner.

Video Tutorial

The process for setting camper status is the same across all six camper group designations.

  1. Begin with "CAMPER MANAGEMENT: Over-Grade Campers" at the top and work your way down the list, adjusting individual camper statuses as needed.

  2. When you select a link from the list, you will be presented with a list of specific instructions for that designation. You will also have the opportunity to select how the list will be sorted.

  3. From the list of campers, select any that need a status change. Note: each designation will have a default status that you can override by selecting a different radio button status.

  4. If you come across records that have a yellow exclamation point icon next to a camper, this is alerting an outstanding balance. At least one sibling who is not a lead must remain in Enrollment Management until the balance is removed. This condition may prevent you from moving a camper to a different status, such as Alumni or Staff. Contact support if you need more info.

  5. When you are satisfied with the status of the list, click the green "save" button on the bottom.

  6. Continue working down the list until all six have been completed. If come across the message below, "No Records found. Click to mark as completed", simply click the link and you will be moved down the list.


The Six Camper Designations

  1. CAMPER MANAGEMENT: Over Grade. indicates that they are no longer eligible to come to camp next year. Based on the grade setting we made in our Prerequisites, these campers are too old to attend future seasons. The default setting for this list is "Alumni".

    If needed, select the radio button for "Staff" or "Remove" next to specific camper records.

    Tip: If you are not sure if the camper may be a staff member next year, keep them selected as Alumni—they can always be updated to Staff at a later time.

  2. CAMPER MANAGEMENT: Eligible this group of campers is eligible to return to camp as campers or CITs, as they have not aged out. The default selection for these campers is "Retain." This status gives them records in Enrollment Management for next season, and they will be eligible for your camp sessions.


    Tip: If you know the camper will not be returning, mark them as "Alumni" status. This ensures you don’t accidentally contact the parents with promotional materials for next season.

  3. ENROLLMENT MANAGEMENT: Over Grade In this section, we're deciding what to do with those campers who did not attend camp last year, and are not eligible to come back next year. If the camper has completed at least one year of camp, they will be marked "Alumni" by default in the system.

    Note: Campers who only ever applied to camp (without attending) will not be able to be placed in "Alumni". Also, removing a camper in this situation will not delete their record from the system, but rather ensures they do not receive a record for the next season.

  4. ENROLLMENT MANAGEMENT: Eligible This group of campers is eligible to return to camp as campers or CITs. These individuals may have attended camp in a past season (or maybe just applied) but were never enrolled for this year. Their disposition will default to "Retain"

  5. ENROLLMENT MANAGEMENT: Other Statuses This group of Enrollment Management campers are in other unique statuses. Generally, these statuses aren't used anymore, and may have resulted from a data import. It is common for this section to be blank, but If you do have campers to review, the link will provide necessary instructions.

  6. ENROLLMENT MANAGEMENT: Archived This last group of Enrollment Management campers has been 'archived.' Remember, archiving a camper is done so that they are not included in reports or communication in the future. Generally, it indicates that you do not plan on working with this camper in the future. If you've never archived any campers, this section will have no records.


4. Staff

The procedure for accessing and selecting status for staff is the same as for campers (which you just completed).

Starting at the top with "STAFF RECRUITMENT: Staff Leads", make your way down the list, editing individual staff status as needed.

Video Tutorial

  1. STAFF RECRUITMENT: Leads A Staff Lead is someone who has not worked for you in the past, and has bever filled out an application to work with your organization. They may have expressed interest in working at your organization, but never took the next step—they’re your staff in the inquiry or referral status. The default selection for these campers is "Retain" in Leads.

    Note: If you select delete, be aware this removes their record entirely for next year—they will not be retained as a contact.

  2. STAFF MANAGEMENT: Hired Staff This section contains staff records that were hired for this previous season. You'll decide whether to retain them, move them to Alumni, or remove them. The default selection for these campers is "Retain" in Hired Staff.

  3. STAFF RECRUITMENT: Veteran Staff Previously hired staff not employed in the current season will be displayed on this list. The default selection for these campers is "Retain" in Veteran Staff.

  4. STAFF RECRUITMENT: Recent Applicants In this section, you will process applicants whose Application Date is later than the 'cutoff' date you specified in the prerequisites section. By default, these applicants will be retained in Staff Recruitment for the next season with their current status. You could also choose to Delete these applicants.

  5. STAFF RECRUITMENT: Other Applicants In this section, you will process applicants whose Application Date is on or before the 'cutoff' date you specified earlier in the parameters section. Basically, all the other applicants you decided not to hire, for whatever reason.


    Tip: If you thought any applicants were right on the cusp of getting hired - maybe you even marked them as a “Next Year” status - you could retain them, and they’ll be given Staff Recruitment records for next season. =

  6. STAFF RECRUITMENT: Archived This group of Staff Recruitment has previously been 'archived'. Remember, archived individuals are excluded from communication and reports by default. It’s common to see a message stating that no records were found, so you can easily mark this as complete.


5. Scheduling

The final rollup step is to close the "SCHEDULING: Elective Availabilities" section. Elective availability sets can be carried over and edited for the next season as needed.

Note: If there are existing Activity Categories and Activity Definitions for the next season, you will not be able to do this.

  1. Uncheck any Elective Availability Sets you DO NOT want to be copied into the next season. Click "save" when completed.

  2. When finished, click "Save".


Congratulations, the current season is now closed! Now that this is complete, season dropdowns will default to the new season.

  1. Next, enable the necessary forms for the new season on your forms admin page.

    📖Related Help Materials:

  2. If you chose to move Balances and Credits forward into the new season, run the Balance/Credit Forward report.

    📖Related Help Materials:

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