You work in a community centre because you LOVE admin, right?

Do you remember why you took on a role at a community centre? At the start of your career you pictured yourself planning community events, creating health and wellbeing programmes, building relationships with local groups and making a tangible difference to the people in your area. However, the day‑to‑day reality often looks very different: booking requests crowd your inbox, invoices need chasing, and grant reports pile up. Instead of spending your days with people, you spend them with spreadsheets.

Technology might feel like part of the problem but the right online booking system can actually give you your time back. 

SpacetoCo is designed specifically for community centres, empowering you to reclaim your day and focus on your community.

The hidden time black holes in community management

Handling bookings by email, spreadsheets or online calendars like Outlook or Google often take around 30 minutes per request, and many centres end up accepting just 10‑15 % of those enquiries. Those hours quickly add up. Common pain points include:

• Endless back‑and‑forth messages: checking availability, answering questions and confirming details.
• Manual data entry: copying hirer details and event requirements from paper forms into spreadsheets or separate systems.
• Invoicing: creating and chasing invoices for one‑off and regular hirers.
• Reconciliation: balancing monthly payments, security bonds and refunds.
• Report compilation: digging through multiple systems to produce reports for committees, councils or grant providers.
• Document management: collecting insurance certificates, risk assessments or signed agreements.
  
  

These inefficiencies aren’t unique to community centres. In a recent UK public sector survey, 94 % of workers reported that their work suffers from inefficiencies, citing manual and repetitive tasks and multiple legacy systems. Workers estimate that they lose an extra five hours every week due to manual or inefficient processes. Most respondents (72 %) believe that automating repetitive tasks would simplify their jobs and improve outcomes.¹ When you consider that village halls and community hubs are often run by volunteers in their spare time, it’s clear that manual bookings are a drain on precious resources.

Friendly automation that liberates your team

SpacetoCo was designed with community centre managers and volunteers in mind. Our mission is to empower people to create thriving communities in local spaces. To do this we built a venue management system that automates the labour‑intensive tasks without sacrificing your control.

With SpacetoCo, these tasks take less than a minute. 

• Accepting or declining a booking
• Taking and returning security bonds
• Requesting or approving hirer documents
• Refunding or editing a booking
• Generating revenue, booking or social value reporting

Some processes become fully automated: invoices for regular hirers go out automatically, months of bookings are reconciled in seconds, and VAT and financial reports are generated without manual input. This isn’t just a website booking system – it’s a complete venue management software platform.

Research shows that implementing an online booking system drastically reduces the amount of administrative work involved in managing requests.² By choosing a system purpose‑built for community centres, you harness these benefits without the compromises of generic platforms.

Proof that it works: Ditch 80 % of your admin time

Centres that have switched to SpacetoCo report up to 80 % reduction in administration time. 

Kete Aronui

This rehearsal facility moved from Skedda to SpacetoCo. Administrator Connie Boston says:

“ It's cut down our operating time of dealing with bookings 80 %. Now I come in in the morning, I turn on my computer and I can immediately see how many bookings we’ve had overnight. I can manage those so quickly.”

St Heliers & Glendowie Community Centre

After migrating from spreadsheets to SpacetoCo, General Manager Jill Kayser notes that

“we used to be quite heavy on administration. Now we’re freed up from that, and that gives our minds more opportunity to activate and think about the people that live in this community and how we can respond.”

St Helier's Church is used by a local yoga group

When your team is freed from manual admin, they can focus on quality service and programme delivery instead of chasing paperwork.

More than admin: unlocking your centre’s potential

Reducing admin isn’t just about making life easier; it has a ripple effect across your organisation:

• Reinvested time – Staff and volunteers can spend more time on pastoral care, programme delivery, fundraising and collaboration instead of chasing invoices.
  
  
• Improved financial visibility – Organised records and real‑time data make it easy to produce grant reports, meet compliance requirements and plan budgets more effectively.
  
  
• Better service for hirers – An online system online booking allows hirers to see real‑time availability, book at any time and receive instant confirmation. Automating confirmations and notifications reduces no‑shows and scheduling conflicts.
  
  

When you adopt a community centre booking system like SpacetoCo, you enable your team to refocus on the centre’s purpose: building relationships and delivering programmes that matter. The technology becomes a silent partner that takes care of the administrative noise.

Get back to doing what matters

You probably didn’t choose this career because you love chasing invoices. You did it because you care about your community. Imagine logging in each morning to see bookings organised, invoices sent and reports ready. Imagine walking into the hall to greet hirers instead of juggling spreadsheets. 

If you want to reclaim your time and work on the projects you always dreamed of — from new arts initiatives to neighbourhood festivals — then it’s time to explore an online booking solution. Book a demo with SpacetoCo to see how our platform compares with systems like Hallmaster and Skedda. Let us show you how a centralised, automated venue management system can help you stop drowning in admin and start doing what you love.

References

1. TechUK: https://www.techuk.org/resource/6-lessons-from-the-2025-uk-public-sector-efficiency-survey.html#:~:text=1.%20Nearly%20all%20workers%20%2894,lack%20of%20training%20and%20support
2. CommonNinja: https://www.commoninja.com/blog/top-10-benefits-of-online-booking-systems-for-small-businesses#:~:text=Reduced%20Administrative%20Work