Marathon Entry Payment Board

Post one link when entry opens, then watch a single list fill in with who has paid the fee and who has not.

Who this is for

Sandeep Bhosale runs a Sunday morning group in Nashik. About 140 people turn up on Gangapur Road at half past five. Once a year he puts on a 10K with a Rs 400 entry fee, and entry stays open for ten days. By the third day his phone holds eighty payment screenshots and he can no longer tell who has sent money twice and who has not sent any.

How the job is done today

He drops a form in the WhatsApp group and pastes his UPI ID under it. People fill the form, pay, and send a screenshot. Sandeep opens his bank statement on the phone, matches amounts against names, and ticks a printed sheet with a pen. The names never match. The form says Anjali Deshmukh, the bank says A M DESHMUKH. Some pay without filling the form. Some fill it twice and pay once. Two nights before the run he sits till midnight with the form on a laptop, the statement on the phone and the sheet on his knee, and still misses four people who paid on time.

The screens, in order

1. Set up the run — Sandeep types the run name, the date, the distances, the fee for each and his UPI ID, and walks away with two links.
2. Entry form — What a runner sees when they tap the link in the group, asking only for a name, a phone number and a distance.
3. Pay for your entry — Shows the runner exactly what they owe, where to send it, and a box for the reference number once they have sent it.
4. Your entry — The runner's own small page, which they can come back to and see whether Sandeep has confirmed their money.
5. Payment board — Sandeep's private list of everyone who has entered, unpaid names first, with what has come in and what is still outstanding.
6. One entry — Opens a single runner so Sandeep can tick the money as received, correct a spelling or remove a duplicate.

What it keeps track of

• The run — name of the run, the date, which distances, the fee for each distance, the UPI ID money should go to, the runner link, the organiser link
• Entries — who entered, their phone number, which distance, what they owe, the reference number they typed, paid or not, when it was ticked
• Money received — how much came in, on what date, by UPI or cash, which entry it belongs to, a short note if the bank name did not match

The one decision that matters

Everything turns on whether the board has one link or two. One link is easier to send, but then anybody in a group of 140 can see the whole list, edit a name, or tick themselves as paid. Two links means one for runners, which only ever shows the entry form and their own row, and one for Sandeep, which shows the money and holds the ticks. Go with two. The runner link is built to be forwarded until it reaches people Sandeep has never met. The organiser link is the only key to the board, so the setup screen should say so in plain words and tell him to send it to himself on WhatsApp before he does anything else.

What to leave out of the first version

Do not collect the money inside the site. A payment gateway means every running group that buys this has to open a merchant account, send papers and wait a week before they can take a single entry. Sandeep already has a UPI ID that works this morning. Show it, ask for the reference number, let him tick. Leave out refunds, t-shirt sizes and bib numbers as well. Those matter only after entry closes, and a printed list handles them well enough.

How you would know it worked

The night before the run Sandeep opens the board, sees 138 names ticked and six not, and makes six phone calls. Nobody in the group has asked him whether their payment came through.

Build it

Paste this in and let it run.

I run a Sunday running group in Nashik and once a year we hold a 10K with a Rs 400 entry fee. I want a page I can set up in five minutes with the run name, the date, the distances and the fee for each, and my UPI ID, which then gives me one link to paste in our WhatsApp group and a separate private link only for me. When someone taps the group link they fill in their name, phone number and distance, and then they see how much they owe, where to send it, and a box to type the reference number after paying. On my private link I want the full list with the unpaid ones at the top, a tick I press once I see the money in my bank, a running total of what has come in and what is pending, and a way to fix a spelling or remove a duplicate. No passwords anywhere.