Frequently Asked Questions

SwimFolio is made for swim schools, camps, and aquatics programs that want a clearer way to create and share swimmer progress reports.

• Use it with a small team or a larger program. There is no separate fee for each staff account.
• Keep your current levels and skills, or build a custom curriculum in SwimFolio.
• Assign swimmers to Instructors so each person sees the right reporting work.
• Let Directors and Administrators review, approve, and publish reports before families see them.
• Give families a private place to read current and past published reports.

If you want to talk through your program before signing up, send SwimFolio a question or request a walkthrough.

Ask about your program→

Paper reports take time to organize, are easy to lose, and make it harder for leaders to check work before it reaches families. SwimFolio keeps the full process together.

• Instructors work from assigned swimmer lists instead of sorting paper forms.
• Skill checklists and report messages stay consistent across the program.
• Directors and Administrators can see what is unfinished, review reports, and publish them from one place.
• Families can return to published report history instead of keeping every paper copy.
• Reports can still be printed when a family or program wants a paper version.

See an example report→

Yes. SwimFolio is designed to work on phones, tablets, and computers, so staff can use the device that makes sense for their role.

• Instructors can open assigned swimmers, mark skills, write comments, and save reports from a mobile device.
• Directors and Administrators can review progress and manage reports from a phone, tablet, or computer.
• Families can read published reports and print them from their own device.

Start on the Create organization page. Your organization is the swim school, camp, or swim program that will use SwimFolio. You can create the organization and its first Director account together.

1. Enter the organization name and type.
2. Enter the Director’s name and work email.
3. Create a password and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
4. Use the secure link in the SwimFolio email to verify the Director’s email address.
5. Sign in as the Director and add payment information through Stripe.

Creating the account and adding payment information do not create a report charge.

Create an organization→

Each staff member has a role that controls what they can see and do:

• Director: the main account owner. This person controls the plan, payment, logo, and staff access. A Director can also do all report tasks.
• Administrator: a staff leader who helps run the program. This person can manage swimmers, instructors, reports, and settings.
• Instructor: a staff member who teaches swimmers and writes their reports.

Directors and Administrators can see every report in their organization. Instructors have a simpler view focused on their assigned swimmers and reporting work.

The first sign-in only takes a few setup steps:

1. Add payment information through Stripe, the secure service that handles card details.
2. If the organization qualifies for the welcome offer, try the Gold tools for one full billing month at the Basic price.
3. Choose Basic, Plus, or Gold for the time after the welcome offer.

Adding payment information does not create a report charge.

Here is the full path. A report is published when it is ready for the family to see.

1. Create the organization, verify the Director’s email, and finish payment setup.
2. Add your logo, staff, levels, skills, and report messages.
3. Add swimmers one at a time or bring them in from a spreadsheet.
4. Assign swimmers to instructors.
5. Open a reporting batch. This is one named set of reports for your team to finish.
6. Instructors write their reports and send them in for review.
7. A Director or Administrator checks the reports, approves them, and publishes them for families.

Want to see the whole process? The How It Works page turns these steps into a visual guide.

See the step-by-step guide→

Use the importer that matches your spreadsheet. An importer is the upload tool for that type of spreadsheet.

1. Download the template shown with that importer.
2. Add the swimmer information without changing the column names.
3. Upload the file. SwimFolio accepts CSV files and certain Excel files. A CSV is a simple spreadsheet file. An Excel file ends in .xlsx.
4. Check the preview. It shows what will change before anything is saved.
5. Fix any rows that need attention, then approve the import.

Uploading a file does not change your roster right away. SwimFolio saves the changes only after a Director or Administrator approves the preview.

That is okay for optional information. SwimFolio shows it as “Not set” and gives staff a follow-up list for later.

• A new swimmer must have an ID, first name, and last name.
• Other fields can be left blank.
• An Instructor does not have to be assigned during a roster import.
• Blank fields do not erase saved information for an existing swimmer.

SwimFolio will never guess which swimmer you mean when two people share a name.

1. The upload pauses the matching row.
2. A staff member compares the swimmer IDs. A swimmer ID is the unique number saved for each swimmer.
3. The staff member chooses the correct saved profile before approving the upload.

Yes. The instructor assignment importer can update many assignments from one spreadsheet of swimmer and instructor names.

• It changes assignments for swimmers who are already in SwimFolio.
• It does not create staff accounts or change old reports.
• If a swimmer name matches more than one person, staff must choose the right swimmer.
• If an Instructor is blank or cannot be found, the assignment becomes “Not set.”

You will see a preview first. Nothing changes until a Director or Administrator approves it.

A session tells you when or with which group a swimmer attends. A reporting batch is one named set of reports your team completes together, such as “Summer Check-In.”

• Choose the sessions that belong in the reporting batch.
• Only swimmers in those sessions appear in that batch.
• You can add, rename, or stop using a session. Old published reports do not change.

Instructors get a focused list of the swimmers they are responsible for, so making a report stays simple.

1. Open an assigned swimmer.
2. Mark each skill as Not assessed, Developing, or Completed.
3. Write the instructor comment.
4. Save a draft or send the report in for review.

Directors and Administrators can open one shared list to check every report before families see it.

• Approve means the report is ready to share.
• Return means the Instructor needs to fix something. The reviewer can add a note that explains what to change.
• Publish means make the report visible to the family.

Approval and publishing are separate. Families cannot see an approved report until a Director or Administrator publishes it. If your program does not need formal approval, you can turn that step off.

Automated review is an optional computer check in the Gold plan. A Director or Administrator decides when to run it on submitted reports.

• If a report passes the chosen checks, it can be marked Approved.
• If a report has a clear problem, it can be Returned with a reason for the Instructor.
• If the check cannot finish, the report stays in the review list.
• Known swimmer names and ID numbers are removed from the comment before the check runs.

Automated review never publishes a report and never reads private Administrator notes. It helps your staff check reports; it does not replace their judgment.

Automated comment drafting is an optional tool in Plus and Gold. It helps an Instructor get started while leaving the final message in the Instructor’s control.

• The Instructor enters one skill the swimmer does well.
• The Instructor enters one skill the swimmer is still learning.
• The tool creates a draft for the Instructor to review, edit, and choose whether to use.
• The swimmer’s name and ID are not sent with the skill notes.
• If the tool does not work, the report comment already on the page stays safe.

Yes. A new skill is a skill marked Completed for the first time on the current report.

• An Administrator chooses the minimum number the automated reviewer should look for.
• Instructors can still send in the report when it is below that number.
• When automated review runs, it returns a report below the minimum with a clear note about what to fix.
• Reviewers can see which completed skills are new and which were completed on an older report.

Yes. A curriculum is the set of levels and skills your program teaches. Directors and Administrators can shape SwimFolio around the curriculum you already use.

• Choose which levels instructors can use.
• Rename a level.
• Change the skills in a level.
• Add a new level.
• Add one message for all reports. A report message is extra text shown at the bottom of a report.
• Add a different message when a swimmer finishes or does not finish a certain level.

Your changes apply to future work. Reports that were already published keep their original information.

Insights is a page with simple counts and percentages about swimmer progress. It helps Directors and Administrators spot trends, plan lessons, and support instructors.

• See how many active swimmers are at each level.
• See the percent of swimmers who have each skill checked.
• View swimmers and progress by Instructor.

Insights uses each active swimmer’s newest published report. It does not show report comments or private notes.

Families open the organization’s Family sign in page. They do not need a staff account.

• Enter the swimmer ID and last name. A camp may call the swimmer ID a Camp ID.
• Use the swimmer ID and last name exactly as the organization has them saved.
• The family sees only that swimmer’s published reports.

A Director can upload a PNG or JPEG logo up to 5 MB. These are common image file types. Your logo can appear in several places:

• The family page and sign-in page.
• Reports that families see online.
• Printed reports.

Inside the staff workspace, SwimFolio keeps the layout clear and leaves more room for day-to-day work.

Open a published report and choose Print report. The printed page includes:

• Your logo, the report date, level, status, and Instructor name.
• The Instructor’s comment.
• The full skill list with Not assessed, Developing, and Completed labels.
• Your organization’s report message.

Every plan includes the complete reporting system. Your plan only changes the price and which automated tools are included:

• Staff and swimmer lists.
• Sessions, reporting batches, and spreadsheet imports.
• Your own levels, skills, and report messages.
• Report review, publishing, printing, and logo branding.
• Private family access and the Insights page.

Basic includes the full manual workflow. Plus adds automated comment drafting. Gold adds comment drafting and automated review and is marked Best value. Visit the Plans page to compare them.

Compare plans→

SwimFolio bills monthly based on the reports your organization published for the first time during that billing period.

• A report is charged one time, when it is first published for a family.
• Changing or publishing the same report again does not make a second charge.
• There is no extra charge for each staff account.
• Writing, editing, checking, importing, and using automated tools do not make separate charges.
• The Director must add payment information in Stripe before the first report can be published.

Stripe handles the full card details. SwimFolio does not store them.

SwimFolio limits each person to the information they need for their role.

• Each organization has its own private work area.
• A staff member sees information based on their job role.
• A family must enter the swimmer ID and last name. They see only that swimmer’s published reports.
• Known swimmer names and IDs are removed before an automated tool reads a report comment.
• Private Administrator notes are not sent to automated tools.
• Stripe keeps the full payment details. SwimFolio does not store them.

You can read the Privacy Policy for more detail or contact SwimFolio with a question.

Read the Privacy Policy→Contact SwimFolio→

Use the Contact page if you are deciding whether SwimFolio fits your program or if your organization already uses SwimFolio and needs help.

• Ask a question about features, plans, setup, or your current workflow.
• Request a product walkthrough before creating an organization.
• Include the page you were using and what you were trying to do when reporting a problem.

Contact SwimFolio→