Getting Started with Director
Tournament Sense Director runs your tournaments and leagues end-to-end — from creating events through scoring, standings, payouts, and bowler registrations. This guide takes you from sign-up to your first event.
Creating Your Account
Open the App
Launch Tournament Sense Director on your device of choice — phone, tablet, web, Mac, or Windows.
Sign In or Create Account
If you already have a Tournament Sense account from another app (Bowling, Coach, Pro Shop), sign in with the same email and password. Otherwise tap Create Account.
Enter Your Details
Provide your full name, choose a unique username, enter your email, and pick a password (at least 6 characters). Accept the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, then tap Sign Up.
Dashboard
After signing in, you land on the Dashboard. From the top down you will see:
- Quick Action Buttons — New Tournament and New League to start your first event.
- Stats Cards — active tournaments, upcoming events, total leagues, and pending registrations.
- Active Tournaments — currently running tournaments at the top.
- Leagues — your active and preseason leagues below.
Navigation
On phones, navigation lives at the bottom with four destinations:
- Home — your dashboard.
- Side Pots — manage side pots across all your tournaments in one place.
- Registrations — incoming bowler registrations to review and approve. A badge shows pending count.
- More — opens a drawer with Tournaments, Leagues, Series, Kiosk Mode, Organization, Profile, Settings, and Sign Out.
On tablets and desktop (web, Mac, Windows), a dark sidebar replaces the bottom nav with categorized sections — Events (Dashboard, Tournaments, Options, Leagues, Series), Tools (Side Pots, Registrations, Kiosk Mode, Explore), Organization (My Org, Invite Staff), and Account (Profile, Settings, Sign Out).
Create Your First Tournament
From the Dashboard, tap New Tournament. The wizard runs in 3 steps, validating each step before you continue:
Event Details
Tournament name, bowling center (autocomplete from the directory of 2,000+ centers), description, dates, sanctioning, event type (singles / doubles / mixed), and handicap setup.
Structure & Squads
Pick a tournament structure (simple sweeper, multi-squad, match play, or elimination). Configure squads (lane range, game count, optional scheduled time) and divisions (open / senior / etc with average bounds). For match play or elimination, set up the finals (advancing per squad, finals games, bracket size, byes).
Funding & Payouts
Entry fee, lineage, admin fee, added money, and payout ratio. Pick a payout template or build your own. Optional per-tag fees for parallel standings (scratch + handicap + senior, etc.), and optional side brackets. (All other side-pot types are added later from the tournament's Side Pots tab.)
When you tap Create Tournament, a confirmation summary shows what you're about to make — name, center, date, format, counts, fee, and publish state — so you can review or go back before creating.
Create Your First League
From the Dashboard, tap New League. The wizard runs in 3 steps:
League Basics
Name, bowling center, season name, start date, schedule (weekly / biweekly / monthly), scoring format (points per game / match points / team high series), total weeks, games per session, team size, position rounds, season halves, sanctioning, handicap, weekly fee, lineage, sub policy, and optional payout template.
Teams
Add teams with names. You can also add teams after creating the league as registrations come in.
Review & Create
Confirm the summary and tap Create League. The schedule auto-generates based on weeks and team count.
Accept Online Payments (optional)
To accept entry fees online via card, connect Stripe under Settings > Payments > Stripe Connect. The Connect button opens Stripe in your browser; once approved, your account links automatically and you can accept payments on registrations.
Tip — Bowlers can register from their app
When you publish a tournament, bowlers using Tournament Sense Bowling can find it under Discover, scan a QR code, or tap a public link to register and pay. Their entries appear in your Registrations tab for approval.
Tip — Multi-device, role-based access
Sign in on your phone for tournament-day scoring and your laptop for setup and reports. Invite scorers and assistant directors from Settings > Organization with role-based permissions.
Running Your Event
Open a tournament and the Overview tab guides you the rest of the way:
- Setup checklist — while you're still setting up, a checklist shows what's left (add an event, set up divisions, configure the entry fee, add entries, publish) and disappears once everything's ready.
- Today's workflow — on tournament day, a panel surfaces what needs attention — registrants to confirm, bowlers not checked in, events needing scores, side pots not finalized — each one tap away from the fix.
- Tournament Day Mode — flip it on (toolbar) for big Check-In, Enter Scores, Standings, and Registration buttons. Check-In and Enter Scores take you straight into the right event screen.
Check bowlers in and enter scores from inside each event (open the Events tab and tap an event). See the Entries & Check-in and Scoring guides.