Football referee scheduling software
Assigning for youth football officials.
Put a full crew on every game, one position at a time: Referee, Umpire, Down Judge and Line Judge to start, with more where you need them. Send the week by text or email and see who has accepted each position.
- A 4-position crew by default
- Officials need no account
- A fee on each position
A worked example
One game, 5 positions
A 14U game at Lincoln Field, Saturday 9:00. New games start with Referee, Umpire, Down Judge and Line Judge, and Ref Grid suggests Back Judge, Field Judge and Side Judge when you add a position. This league adds a Back Judge on its older divisions. The fees are examples.
| Position | Official | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Referee | Dale Harmon | $60 |
| Umpire | Chris Okafor | $45 |
| Down Judge | Luis Romero | $45 |
| Line Judge | Pat Kelly | $45 |
| Back Judge | open | $45 |
Every position is assigned on its own. Ref Grid has no crew to save and reuse. If the same crew works together every week, you pick each official for their position on every game. For a smaller crew, remove the positions you don’t fill so the game doesn’t show as unfilled.
Enter end times for doubleheaders. Say Lincoln Field has games at 9:00 and 11:00 and the same crew works both. With a 10:45 end time on the first game, the second shows as “Also working”. Without one, Ref Grid assumes 180 minutes, so the first game looks as though it runs to 12:00 and every pick for the 11:00 shows an overlap, marked as assumed.
If the 9:00 game runs long on the day, Ref Grid won’t know. If you push the 11:00 kickoff back, change its start time and the officials who were sent it get the new time.
During the season
Full Saturdays, pay by position and weather
- The whole pool works the same day
When every youth game in a league is on Saturday, nearly every official you have is committed at once. The dashboard counts unfilled positions, and opening that count shows the board filtered to them.
When you pick someone, officials without a conflict are listed first. Anyone already on a game that day shows it under “Also working”, and a real clash shows “Overlaps”. Both are warnings, and the choice stays with you.
- A higher fee for the referee
Fees are set per position on each game, so the Referee can be paid more than the rest of the crew, and an older division more than a younger one. The pay report exports what each official is owed, as detail or summary CSV or QuickBooks Online bills. The summary lists games missing a fee. Ref Grid doesn’t pay anyone.
- Chain crew and clock
If you assign the chain crew or a clock operator, add them as positions on the game and they get the same messages and response links as the officials. If the home team supplies them, leave them off.
- Weather and lightning
Your league’s weather policy decides when a game is delayed, moved or called. When a kickoff moves to a new time or field, every official who was sent the game gets the old and new details. Cancel it and they get a cancellation notice.
A delay during a game changes nothing in Ref Grid. The pay report counts accepted games that weren’t cancelled once kickoff has passed, and can’t tell a full game from one called in the second quarter, so settle partial-game pay before you export.
- Assigning for an officials’ group
An account holds one organization. An assignor covering a youth league and a middle-school conference can run both in it, told apart by division and location, or keep separate accounts. Several administrators can share an organization, each with their own login.
For your officials
What each official receives
One message per assignment
No account or app
A calendar file per game
Reminders before kickoff
Limits
What Ref Grid doesn’t do
- No crews as a unit. You can’t assign a whole crew in one step or copy last week’s crew to this week’s game. Each position is a separate pick and a separate message.
- No association rules. Nothing checks registration, certification or experience against a position. Keep that in your notes on each official and in your association’s records.
- No view of other assignors’ games. Overlap warnings cover only games in your organization. An official who also works Friday nights for another assignor has to tell you.
- No automatic assigning or dated availability. You choose every official. Officials can share the days and times of day they prefer, and dates they’re away stay wherever you collect them now.
- No follow-up on silence. The dashboard counts assignments awaiting a reply. Chasing them is up to you.
Where to go next
- Avoiding double-booking
Doubleheaders, travel between fields and officials who work for several assignors.
- How to pay officials
Fees by position, a pay sheet and a pay run at the end of each period.
- Rainouts and schedule changes
Who to tell when weather moves a game, and whether officials are paid.
One plan, with a free trial: see the pricing.
Request a demo
See how Ref Grid would work for your league or club
Tell us about your organization and we’ll get back to you.
Prefer to look around yourself? You can set up your organization without talking to us: get started.
Set up this Saturday’s crews.
Import the games with their end times, add your officials, set the positions and fees on each game, and send when every position is filled.