Setting up a new league is likely the first step you will take when you first start using this software. A lot of what is entered for a league determines what functions and features are available elsewhere in the software, so care should be taken to set Leagues up correctly.
Details Tab
The Details tab contains a mixture of information. The primary league contact can optionally be selected from the League Contacts entered from the Contacts Tab. Conferences are the Next key piece of information to be decided upon and entered. Many house leagues do not use conferences or divisions. If you are not using conferences then leave option button ‘0 – Divisions Only’ clicked. If you are using one or two Conferences, then click the appropriate option button and fields will be displayed for you to enter the name of the conference and a short form of the name.
There is also fee pertinent information. The league (likely an adult league) would have teams pay a seasonal fee to the league. Minor leagues tend to have players pay a seasonal fee. You can decide which. If and when you establish a seasonal fee, entering it on the League screen will default it on the team, player or advanced invoicing function.
There is also a game fee which can be used to track how many games a team plays and reports can be printed with totals. This fee is not used in conjunction with our Invoicing function.
The software contains an invoicing function. If the team pays the league fees, then on the teams screen, a fees owed and fees paid fields are available for you to enter amounts. Similar fields would appear on the players screen if players pay the fee. If players or teams do not pay the fee, the fee fields will not appear. If however, you decide to use the advanced invoicing function, then the fields on these screens will display read only information obtained from advanced invoicing fields. The advance invoicing function allows you to enter and print a full invoice with all amounts, taxes, etc, you can input multiple payments of any type and print payment receipts. Overdue invoice reports can also be run. Customized taxes can also be defined.
Official type fees can also be entered at the league level. The officiating fees grid that list the fees to be paid to each official type for each game officiated. These fees are defaulted from the maintenance tables on the Preferences screen. They can be overridden on the this screen, the Divisions screen and the Officials screen. The Reset fees to Default link will delete the fees at the league level and display those from the maintenance table level.
The last section on the League Detail tab is the option of specifying whether the league is an adult league, or minor league. For adult leagues, certain information required for most minor leagues are suppressed (like school, teacher, grade, skill level, etc.). Most adult leagues are concerned with players contact information. The software has functions designed to meet the needs of both types of leagues. Since it is up to you to run your league, there is very little else that is automatically defaulted in the system based on whether the league is for adults, this is your software and you make the decisions.
Divisions Tab
Before entering information into the divisions tab, ensure that the conferences have been set up appropriately. If you want to change how you structure divisions and conferences at a later time, you will have to unassign all teams, remove divisions, change conference settings, then add divisions and teams again. In general, the divisions tab is straight forward. The screen will display a list box for each conference and a listing of all possible division names. Below is a screen sample:
Highlight a division from the Available Divisions List Box. Click the right arrow to place the division within a conference. If you want to add a division that does not appear in the list box, enter it in the blank text box right above the ‘Add Division’ button. Once you finish entering the division name, click the Add Division button and the division will be added to the Available Divisions List Box. You can now add the division to either or both conferences (depending on how many conferences you specify). If you wish to delete or rename a division, you can go to the Preferences screen (File|Preferences) and update division names via the Maintenance Tables tab. The order that the divisions appear in each conference is the order they are presented when displaying the standings.
This tab also contains the ability to add a League Logo. This logo has no current functionality, but in time will be used on reports and other software functionality.
Contacts Tab
Please refer to the generic section on maintaining Contacts.
Standings Tab
This tab contains the information pertinent to how you display standings and calculate order within your standings. This tab also contains some miscellaneous information for statistical calculations. One of the main components is the selection of tie breakers.
We have build-in 10 different tie breakers. The order that the tie breakers appear are the order that they are applied. In the example above, Total Wins is the first tie breaker. If both teams have the same number of wins, then the win-loss-tie record in head to head games is examined. See our Tie Breaker Procedures for details on how ties are broken.
In order to determine if a tie breaker is required, you have to determine how you are going to score wins, losses, ties and potential overtime losses. In the Standings Ranking Type box, you select the number of points awarded for a win, loss, tie and overtime loss. There are also separate boxes for Forfeited wins and losses. We also provide the option to award points for Points scored. A Maximum number of points awarded for Points can also be entered. Zero means unlimited.
Shutouts can also be awarded additional points. Even with all these point categories, you may find that you wish to manually override the points awarded. This can be accomplished on the Games Screen. If the checkbox "Allow Override to Points" is checked, the points awarded for the game is editable. The final checkbox at the bottom is for allowing games to be excluded from the standings. This is usually only applicable when a team may move between divisions during a realignment. However, excluding games due to an ineligible player is another function of this feature. It is only when the total of these points are equal that the tie breaker system is invoked. If you use games behind or winning percentage, if the number of games behind are equal or the winning percentage is equal do the tie breaker procedures get invoked.
This screen also has an input field for the number of minutes in a half, period or quarter. This is used to calculate any statistic that is converted into a ‘per minute’ amount and is used for line scores if Game Detail information is being tracked. Also, for calculating statistics, you can enter the minimum number of games a player has to play to be qualify for certain statistical categories.
When deleting leagues, you will also delete other information tied to this league, but only for the current season. Division alignment of teams is deleted, but not players and teams. All statistics reports for that league are deleted. Schedule records are deleted, game locations playing slots and all games played by teams in that league for the current season are deleted.
From the File|Edit menu, you can select this function to remove (unassign) all players from all teams in the league. This does not delete players, but removes their assignment on their current team in this league. Be extremely careful as this function cannot be undone. It is further recommended that a database backup be taken prior to using this function. Refer to our Administration Section for more details on backing up your data.
On any tab, if you click the ‘Print’ button you will print out the League Profile of the currently displayed League.