Self-employed trainers who rent your floor
How a gym invoices self-employed trainers for floor rental, records contractor trainers' invoices as bills, and follows up trainers who fall behind.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Fitness businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Personal trainers in a gym rarely all have the same deal. One is on the payroll. One rents the floor for a monthly fee and keeps whatever her clients pay her. A third has no rental at all: the gym sells his sessions to members and he sends an invoice at month-end for the sessions he delivered.
Each of those arrangements moves money in a different direction, and mixing them up is how a gym ends up chasing a trainer for rent it already deducted, or paying a contractor twice. This article sets out the three flows and how to record each in Achekam.
Employee, renter or contractor
Start by naming each trainer's arrangement, in writing.
| Arrangement | Who pays whom | How it is recorded |
|---|---|---|
| Employee | Gym pays the trainer a wage | Payroll |
| Floor renter | Trainer pays the gym a rental | A customer invoice to the trainer |
| Contractor | Gym pays the trainer for sessions delivered | A supplier bill from the trainer |
Whether a trainer is genuinely self-employed or in substance an employee is a question of each country's labour and tax rules, and of what actually happens day to day, not just what the contract says. Settle it with your adviser before choosing the column. Employed instructors paid per class are covered in paying instructors per class; the rest of this article is about the other two.
Invoicing a trainer who rents the floor
A renting trainer is your customer. Each month, create an invoice for the rental. It starts as a draft you can change or delete; issuing it gives it the next number in your sequence and posts it to the ledger as debtors, sales and output VAT. Default terms are 30 days, and the number format is set in Settings.
Getting the VAT right depends on your country:
- South Africa. Each invoice line's VAT is set to 15% or 0%.
- Nigeria and Kenya. Each line takes a tax code (standard, zero-rated, exempt, out of scope or reverse charge), and only standard lines carry VAT at the approved rate. Use the invoice form under Accounting; the New invoice form under Billing & Finance offers only 15% or 0% and shows rand.
Send the invoice as a PDF on your letterhead from the invoice itself, with a pay link if the trainer prefers to pay online. A link lasts 14 days by default.
When the rent comes in pieces
Trainers' income is lumpy, and rent often arrives in instalments. Record each payment against the trainer's invoice; a part payment leaves the invoice part-paid, and any extra is held on the trainer's account rather than lost. If a payment is recorded against the wrong month, the receipt can be re-allocated.
Recording a contractor trainer's invoice as a bill
A contractor trainer is your supplier. Their month-end invoice is a supplier bill, recorded line by line with VAT. A bill without a purchase order waits for approval before it posts, which is a useful check: someone confirms the sessions on the invoice were actually delivered before the gym owes the money in its books.
A few practical points:
- Check the sessions. Compare the trainer's invoice with your own record of sessions sold to members before approving it.
- Check the VAT. If the trainer is not VAT-registered, their invoice carries no VAT, and your bill line must not either. In Nigeria and Kenya, take particular care: supplier bills offer only 15% or 0% and default to 15%, so the default must be changed for every bill that carries no VAT.
- Pay it in full or in parts from the bank account you choose. Paying a supplier only records the payment; no bank payment file is produced, so the transfer itself is made in your bank.
Keeping each trainer on the list once
A business keeps one supplier list, with duplicate checks by name or VAT number, and quotations, orders and bills pick suppliers from it. Add each contractor trainer once, in the name on their invoices, and use that record every month.
Some trainers sit in both columns: they rent space and also deliver sessions the gym sells. Keep them as a customer for the rent and a supplier for the sessions, with the same name in both places, and record both documents in full. Do not quietly knock the rent off what you pay them. A worked example in words: a trainer owes a month's rent and has invoiced the gym for sessions delivered. The gym issues the rent invoice and records the trainer's bill. Both appear in the books at their full amounts. If the two sides agree in writing to settle one against the other, the accountant records that settlement, so the trail shows both the income and the cost.
Following up trainers who fall behind on rent
Rent invoices are chased like any other. Credit control is on for new workspaces: once a day it e-mails overdue reminders, by default at 7, 14 and 30 days overdue with the invoice attached, and once a month a statement to every customer with a balance. It never charges anyone, and it records whether each e-mail went out.
The receivables ageing shows how long each trainer's balance has been outstanding, in 0-30, 31-60, 61-90, 91-120 and over 120 day groups. A trainer moving into the older groups needs a conversation, not just more reminders. Agree in the rental agreement what happens when rent falls a month behind, so that conversation has something to refer to.
Investopedia's overview of credit control explains how a business manages the credit it extends to customers so that it supports sales while limiting bad debts; trainers on monthly rent are exactly that kind of credit.
When a trainer pays the wrong month or too much, overpayments and wrong months shows how to put it right.
Each trainer should sit in one clear column. Name the arrangement, record it the same way every month, and let the invoices, bills and ageing do the remembering.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
