# Test systems, and how they behave differently

> A test system of Sports Club OS sends its emails to one inbox, lets an administrator use it as someone else, and is marked as a test. What differs, and why.

Who this is for: Anyone: no sign-in needed.
Last checked in release 2026.10.23, on 23 October 2026.
Source: https://sportsclubos.net/help/reference/test-systems/

A club may be given a test system: a separate copy of Sports Club OS for trying things out and training people before, or alongside, the club's real one. A test system works like the real one, with a few differences that keep it from emailing or texting real people by mistake. Nothing on this page happens on the club's real system.

## How to tell you are on a test system

- The foot of the side menu says **dev**.
- Pages that send things say so, for example **This is a test system. Emails go to you, whoever presses the button, instead of the staff member, and scheduled reminders are not sent.**

## Emails go to you, not to the people they are for

On a test system, an email is sent to whoever pressed the button that caused it, not to the person it is for, and its subject starts "[For" and the name and address of the person it was for. Some test systems send every email to one inbox instead, which the person who set the system up chooses. Addresses at test domains (such as example.com) are never sent to, here or anywhere.

Part by part:

- **Messages to members:** nobody on the list is emailed. The person who pressed **Send** gets one copy, and each person on the list is marked **Held (test system)**. The message's page says **Test system: one copy went to …**.
- **The roster:** the publish dialog says emails go to you. People's lines read **Not sent (test system)** or **sent to you (test system)**. Scheduled reminders are not emailed. Texts are not redirected, so a staff record on a test system should hold only a mobile its owner agrees to be texted on.
- **Membership applications:** the applicant still gets their own emails, and emails meant for a proposer go to the applicant's address. Where every email goes to one inbox, the join form says **This is the test system, so the message has gone to its test inbox**: confirm the application from that inbox, or it waits under **Not confirmed**.
- **Functions:** what the office sends goes to whoever pressed the button. What a hirer's link or the hourly check would send is held, and the function's messages say **Not emailed: this is a test system**.
- **Classes:** the first two emails for anyone else go to whoever pressed the button, marked with who they were for; the rest are held. The class messages list explains **Held**.
- **The till:** an emailed receipt, and the "racquet is ready" email, come to you, marked with the address they were meant for.
- **Logins:** where every email goes to one inbox, no invitation to a new login is sent to anyone else.

## Using Sports Club OS as someone else

On a test system an Administrator can see Sports Club OS exactly as another person does: **Switch user…** in the account menu, then a person. A banner then says **You are using Sports Club OS as** that person, with **Switch back**. What you do is done as them, and the audit log records you as the one who did it.

Some things are refused while using it as someone else, because they must be the person's own act: saving their Dashboard, changing a report page, setting the AI and Help limits, downloading all the club's data, approving the website, and changes in Finance and bank reconciliation, among others.

Switch user is not on a club's real system.

## Help and feedback on a test system

The Help and feedback button works the same, and may mention how the test system behaves where a page sends email.

## The data on a test system

A test system holds whatever its club put there. A demonstration system holds an invented club: its people, email addresses and phone numbers are made up, so nothing sent from it reaches a real member.