What ScoutForge is
ScoutForge describes itself as “trustee compliance made easy for Scout Groups”. It has four parts: a trustee register, meetings and decisions, policy acknowledgements, and risks and incidents. It exports a PDF evidence pack for the board.
Its FAQ says “the first tool focuses on trustee governance and evidence recording”, and that eligibility checks, training, DBS and membership records “remain in the central Scouting systems and are not duplicated in ScoutForge”. Its own FAQ calls the product an MVP, in “early launch and alpha”.
Choose ScoutForge if
- You want a tool for trustees only, and you are happy with your current system for everything else.
- You want to record which trustees have read and acknowledged each policy. Scoutworks does not have policy acknowledgements.
- Cost is the deciding factor: ScoutForge’s launch price is £10 a year.
Choose Scoutworks if
- You want trustees to see live figures — finance, membership, risks, incidents — from the same system the leaders and treasurer use, not from records typed in again.
- You want one system for the whole group: members, badges, events, payments, accounts and trustees.
- You want a supplier you can check: a named UK company on the ICO register, with Cyber Essentials and a public status page.
At a glance
Every ScoutForge fact links to the page it came from, with the date we checked it.
Capability
Alternative
ScoutForge
Recommended
Scoutworks
What it covers
Trustee governance: a trustee register, meetings and decisions, policy acknowledgements, and risks and incidentsScoutForge home page, verified 6 November 2026
The whole group: members, badges, programme, events, payments, accounts, equipment and trusteesTrustees see the same records the leaders and treasurer keep.
What’s included (10)
- The Board Pack PDF covers membership, finance, attendance and risk, for one of five preset periods.
- The Charity Commission record is checked weekly, and changes and financial distress are called out.
- A strategic risk register with a 5x5 heatmap, owners, mitigation and review dates.
- Conflict declarations cannot be edited; superseding one keeps the original.
- The premises audit turns every Partly or No answer into a trustee action.
- 29 ready-made compliance logbook templates based on The Scouts’ guidance.
- A failed check becomes a trustee action with an owner, due in two weeks.
- Trustee Insights opens with an Action Required panel of overdue reviews and duties.
- The reserves policy card shows free reserves against your target.
- Trustees see aggregate data only, never member names or medical details.
Price
£10 per group per year launch offer; £25 per group per year standard; no feature tiers; 30-day money-back guaranteeScoutForge home page, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge terms, verified 6 November 2026
£150 a year for the whole group, every feature included, six months freeOne price covers the trustee tools and everything else the group runs.
Trustee register
A register of roles and term dates; trustees can be recorded without their own loginScoutForge home page, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026
Trustee accounts with their own dashboard, and a Trustee Duties calendar with reminders and an iCal feedEach trustee signs in to a dashboard built for their role.
Risks
PartialA risks and incidents log; risk assessments are shown as “In Progress” on the public roadmapScoutForge home page, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge roadmap, verified 6 November 2026
A Strategic Risk Register on a 5×5 matrix, separate from the risk assessment for each eventStrategic risks and event risk assessments live in the same system.
Board papers
A PDF evidence pack of the records the group has entered, which “does not certify compliance”ScoutForge home page, verified 6 November 2026
A Board Pack PDF built from live group data: finance, membership, risks and incidentsBoard papers use the figures the group already keeps, with nothing typed in twice.
Charity governance
Not comparedWe could not find a public ScoutForge source on this, so we make no claim
A Conflict of Interest Register, a reserves policy check and a weekly check of the group’s own Charity Commission recordTrustees see a missed filing or a reserves shortfall before it becomes a problem.
Policy acknowledgements
Records who has acknowledged each key policyScoutForge home page, verified 6 November 2026
Not offeredNot availableScoutworks does not record policy acknowledgements.
District and county
PartialA District or County board can use it for its own records, but there are no linked views between groups, districts and counties; parent-organisation management is “Planned”ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge roadmap, verified 6 November 2026
A free District Portal with live census and waiting lists, and the trustees of every connected group by name and roleThe district sees live figures from each group, with no spreadsheets sent round.
What’s included (10)
- The district portal is free, and so are district-run units such as Explorer units.
- Needs you lists units without an admin, serious charity changes and incidents not reported to HQ.
- Invite groups to a district event with a number of places for each group.
- Remind groups that have not answered a district event invitation.
- Broadcasts filter by postcode, distance, section and role, with a live recipient count.
- Each waiting child is counted once across groups, to show true demand.
- One district waiting list link and QR code cover every connected group.
- The Charity Commission register is checked weekly for the district and every connected group.
- Email the families of a district event without seeing their addresses.
- Districts never see individual medical information or contact details.
Stage
Described in its FAQ as an MVP, in “early launch and alpha”ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026
Live and in use by groups and districts across the UK, with a public changelogYou can check what changed and when.
Member records
Not offeredIts FAQ says membership records stay in the central Scouting systems and are not duplicated in ScoutForge.ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge Privacy Policy, verified 6 November 2026
Eight-tab member records with care plans, parent verification campaigns that chase stale data, a Data Cleanup health score, duplicate merge, and cross-group share or transfer.Member records stay complete and current without leaders chasing each family.
What’s included (10)
- Verification campaigns ask parents to check contacts, medical, permissions, details and address, with reminders.
- A parent who RSVPs Yes is asked to check one stale area of their child’s record.
- Data Cleanup scores your records out of 100 and previews each fix before you apply it.
- Duplicate checks run on manual add, waiting list, transition plan and badge import.
- Structured care plans with review reminders; safeguarding plans are locked to admins.
- Share a member read-only with another group, or transfer them, with parent consent.
- Edit names, sections, roles, patrols and dates in place on the members table.
- UK address autocomplete fills street, town, county and postcode on every address field.
- Each member’s Events tab shows every event they were invited to and how they answered.
- Export a CSV that matches the current filter and search exactly.
Parent portal
Not offeredWe found no parent portal on its public pages. Its FAQ names Chairs, Group Scout Leaders, Treasurers and trustee secretaries as its main users.ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026
A free parent portal where families edit records, sign consent forms, RSVP and offer to help, pay by Direct Debit, submit badge evidence and use a private calendar feed.Families keep their own details current and reply without chasing.
What’s included (10)
- Parents edit medical, dietary, emergency contacts and consents; leaders see changes at once.
- Consent forms open from a secure link with no login, with a drawn signature.
- Parents submit badge evidence per requirement, and resubmit only what a leader returned.
- Per-parent calendar feeds for Apple, Google or Outlook stop working when a parent leaves.
- My Finances shows recurring payments, history, a yearly statement with CSV, and Gift Aid.
- A weekly badge email lists each child’s badges awarded or completed that week.
- A uniform diagram shows where each awarded badge goes, with a printable checklist.
- Parents tick an interactive kit list for each child as they pack.
- One parent account covers children in several Scout groups, and parents never pay for it.
- Parents are emailed as soon as their child comes off an event waiting list.
Youth portal (My Scouting)
Not offeredWe found no youth portal on its public pages. Its FAQ says it does not store personal data relating to young people.ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge Terms of Service, verified 6 November 2026
My Scouting gives Scouts and Explorers their own login to see badge progress and events, tick kit lists, and suggest and vote on ideas that leaders approve.Young people follow their own progress and have a say in the programme.
What’s included (9)
- Have Your Say: young people suggest ideas, and a leader approves each before the section votes.
- Votes show live counts; closed votes show results as bars with the winner marked.
- My Badges shows earned badges and the steps left on each one.
- Event pages show the schedule, menu and a kit list they tick, shared with parents.
- My Journey shows weeks attended, milestones and recognitions, with no comparison to others.
- A badge earned since the last visit gets a one-time reveal.
- Leaders survey young members inside My Scouting, and young people are never emailed.
- A parent sets the username and password, so no email address is needed.
- No messaging between young people, no leaderboards and no view of other children.
Young Leaders
Not offeredWe found no Young Leader features on its public pages. Its FAQ says it does not store personal data relating to young people.ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026
Young Leaders get a login scoped to the sections they help, draft programme events that a leader publishes, and full Young Leader Award tracking with helping hours.Young Leaders shape the programme while leaders keep control of what goes live.
What’s included (10)
- Young Leaders create draft programme events, and a leader publishes them, so leaders control what goes live.
- Young Leader Award tracks Modules A–K, Missions One–Four, helping hours and a reflective log.
- Marking a Young Leader present at a younger section’s event creates a helping-hours session.
- Invite only the Young Leaders who still need the modules an event teaches.
- Invite Young Leaders from other sections; they never take a young person’s place.
- Young Leaders do not count in an event’s adult ratios.
- Their login has no member lists, medical or contact details, or finance.
- Paid-event RSVPs go to the parent; free-event RSVPs go to the Young Leader.
- Weekly meetings carry their Young Leaders into every week, with RSVPs set from one tab.
- The district sees Young Leader progress per module and mission, by group.
Waiting list
Not offeredWe found no waiting list on its public pages. Its FAQ calls waiting lists a potential future area, with no dates or guarantees.ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026
A public waiting list form with automatic six-tier ranking, a three-column triage workspace, place offers with deadlines, a Transition Planner for move-ups, and parent self-withdraw and deferral.Fair, explainable offers, and a list that keeps itself current.
What’s included (10)
- Six priority tiers rank every applicant automatically; you set the order and record overrides.
- The Transition Planner suggests every move-up and intake from ages, capacities and priority tiers.
- Triage groups applicants into Needs you, Ready to accept and Done, with batch accept.
- Queue positions move up automatically when someone accepts, declines, withdraws or lets an offer expire.
- Section capacity limits close the waiting list when a section is full.
- Parents defer their place to a later date through a secure email link.
- Parents withdraw from any waiting list email, and the section leader is told.
- Local, Nearby or Far badges show how far each applicant lives from the meeting place.
- Embed the form on your website or share a link, with a Scout Pages integration.
- Create Member fills the record from the application; a mistaken enrolment rolls back safely.
Email and notifications
Not offeredWe found no email or messaging to families on its public pages. Its roadmap lists governance-task reminders as ’Planned’.ScoutForge Roadmap, verified 6 November 2026
A built-in email client with self-updating recipient groups, scheduling, shared templates, group branding, AI writing help, per-email delivery logs and a weekly leader digest.Every family gets the right message, and you can see it arrived.
What’s included (10)
- Section recipient groups for Everyone, Parents, Leaders and Young Leaders stay up to date themselves.
- Email Logs show each email as Delivered, Bounced, Complained or Failed, with a timeline.
- Scheduled emails go one message per recipient, so they work for more than 50 people.
- Scheduled emails interrupted by a restart carry on, and never send twice.
- A 7am weekly leader digest covers upcoming events, badge progress, attendance trends and actions.
- Merge fields show only what fits the recipients, such as a family’s queue position.
- Sent emails keep their full branding, with header, logo and signature bar, as recipients saw them.
- Email templates are shared across all leaders in your group.
- AI Check flags a missing reply date, payment route, kit list or contact before you send.
- Automatic RSVP, consent, payment and waiting list emails run for every workflow.
Events and attendance
Not offeredWe found no event, RSVP or attendance features on its public pages. Its roadmap lists calendar integrations under ’Ideas’.ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge Roadmap, verified 6 November 2026
Events with per-section capacity and event waiting lists, payment and consent requests raised by an RSVP, a full RSVP history, an offline register, and card, calendar and table views.Leaders see who is coming, who has consented and who has paid.
What’s included (10)
- A Yes RSVP creates the payment request from the event’s payment rule, with deposit and balance.
- Consent requests go out on a Yes RSVP, with reminders and one PDF per parent.
- Freed places go automatically to the longest-waiting child in the same section, with an email.
- Event insights flag near deadlines, low replies and missing risk assessors.
- Every RSVP keeps a full history of who answered, when, and every change.
- The offline register saves attendance on the device and syncs when back online.
- RSVP reminders go out 7, 4 and 2 days before the deadline.
- Embed the group calendar on your website, with event, hire or availability layers.
- Phased sign-up opens places in waves and enforces wave priority.
- The Events page has card, calendar, agenda and table views, with table columns you choose.
Event safety
PartialKeeps a board-level risks and incidents log ’without sensitive detail’. Risk assessments are ’In Progress’ on its roadmap. We found no ratio checks or medication log.ScoutForge home page, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge Roadmap, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge Roadmap, verified 6 November 2026
Live ratio checks against POR with short-staffing emails, risk assessments with AI hazard suggestions, incident reports with an HQ helper, a medication log and an In Touch view.Every trip is staffed, assessed and recorded to Scouts guidance.
What’s included (10)
- The ratio bar uses POR minimums and updates live as adults confirm.
- Short-staffing emails reach the Leader in Charge 3 days, 24 hours and 4 hours out.
- The risk assessment wizard scores before and after, with AI hazard suggestions grounded in POR.
- Show risk evidence three ways: build it, upload a document, or confirm it was done elsewhere.
- Serious incidents get an HQ reporting helper with copy-ready blocks and an HQ Reported badge.
- A nominated incident approver gets each report, with admins as backup.
- The Medication tab logs doses and first aid beside the child’s medical summary and consent.
- The In Touch home contact gets a phone view of roster, headcount, numbers and escalation steps.
- The leader-in-charge report shows member photos beside allergy and medical information.
- Import or export a whole risk library as CSV.
Hikes and camps
Not offeredWe found no hike, route or camp planning on its public pages.ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026
A route planner with OS grid references, Naismith times and true-scale printing, a to-scale campsite planner, live expedition tracking with alarms, and costed camp menus.Plan routes, camps and food in one place, with nothing typed twice.
What’s included (10)
- Route cards give grid references, bearing, distance, climb and Naismith times for each leg.
- Print routes at true 1:25,000 or 1:50,000 scale with OS grid lines, or export GPX.
- Teams check in by join code or QR card with no account, on a live map.
- A help request or a quiet team sounds an alarm until a leader acknowledges it.
- Overdue tracking teams show in an amber banner, most overdue first.
- The campsite planner draws tents and facilities to true size on a real map.
- Camp menus build a shopping list rounded to whole packs and priced from ONS averages.
- The dietary tab names the attendees each dish could affect.
- A menu linked to an event takes its headcounts from the event’s RSVPs.
- The camp budget calculator compares pricing presets side by side with the surplus.
Programme planning
Not offeredWe found no programme planning on its public pages.ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026
A planner that builds a term from a badge goal using about 2,000 activities, live requirement coverage, AI term drafts, event schedules with clash checks, and patrol scoreboards.Each term covers the badges you planned, with less evening prep.
What’s included (10)
- Pick a badge goal, and the planner spreads one meeting slot per requirement across the term.
- Each slot suggests activities from about 2,000 Scout activities, ranked by meeting length.
- A live coverage panel shows which requirements are covered and which are open.
- Publish the term as draft events with activities and badge links; republishing updates them.
- Plan with AI (beta) drafts titles, notes and activities tagged to requirements.
- Event schedules flag people who are double-booked and activities over capacity.
- The Requirement Finder lists the badge requirements an activity could count towards.
- Programme plans can invite the section’s leaders and Young Leaders to every event they generate.
- Auto-balance patrols with a preview and undo, and award points to a scoreboard.
- The Term Programme report gives a printable overview of events, filtered by section and date.
Badges and awards
Not offeredWe found no badge or award tracking on its public pages.ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026
Attendance does the counting: requirements, Nights Away and Hikes Away build up from events attended, a leader confirms each award, plus evidence review, Badge Forecast and stock.Progress counts itself, and nothing is awarded without a leader.
What’s included (10)
- Attendance does the counting: requirements linked to an event are offered for everyone marked present.
- Nights Away, Hikes Away and Time on Water add up and show Ready to award.
- A leader confirms each award, so nothing is awarded by mistake.
- The evidence queue lets you approve, return with a reason, or re-map each requirement.
- Badge Forecast names young people at risk and the requirements that finish the most badges.
- The forecast uses the same completion rules as awarding, so the two cannot disagree.
- Awarding a badge takes it out of stock at once.
- A weekly badge shopping-list email lists only the badges you need to buy.
- Import every OSM badge export at once with a full preview; re-runs are safe.
- When requirements change, old and new versions run side by side.
Parent payments
Not offeredWe found no parent payment collection on its public pages. Its roadmap ’Planned’ billing item covers organisations paying ScoutForge for several groups.ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge Roadmap, verified 6 November 2026
One-off Open Banking instant bank payments and recurring Direct Debit, both through GoCardless with no platform fee, plus automatic catch-up, pauses, refunds, bulk chasing and an audit log.Subs and trip money arrive on time, with no cash to handle.
What’s included (10)
- One-off payments by instant bank payment: parents approve in their banking app, and money is sent straight away.
- Recurring subs by Direct Debit, with one mandate per parent for all their children.
- Scoutworks charges no platform fee on payments; GoCardless charges its own processing fee.
- Catch-up collects missed payments automatically, after the parent accepts the exact amount.
- The payments grid shows every member against every collection, with a status in each cell.
- Bulk chase emails parents, resends Direct Debit links or sends approval reminders.
- Admins and treasurers are told at once when a Direct Debit payment fails.
- Pause a subscription for a set number of payments, and it resumes on its own.
- An Activity tab logs every pause, skip, resume, cancel and collection-day move, with who and when.
- Refund in full or in part; the dialog shows your GoCardless balance first.
Accounts and bookkeeping
Not offeredWe found no bookkeeping or accounts features on its public pages. Its FAQ lists Treasurers among its main users.ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026
Charity cash accounting with GoCardless collections and fees posted and categorised automatically, one-click payout matching, CSV statement import with duplicate checks, restricted funds and trustee-ready reports.Books that reconcile, and year-end reports ready for trustees.
What’s included (10)
- Each GoCardless collection and fee goes into the Ledger automatically, with a fixed category.
- Scoutworks suggests the GoCardless payout split, and the treasurer confirms it with one click.
- Import CSV statements from the main UK banks; duplicate lines are caught and skipped.
- Match suggestions are scored on reference, amount, date and payee.
- Restricted funds show allocated, spent and remaining, and flag an overspent fund.
- Financial Overview, Restricted Funds, Budget Variance and Receipts & Payments export as trustee-ready PDFs.
- Spending limits alert at 80% and 100%, and income targets warn when they fall behind.
- Closed accounting years refuse any transaction, settlement or import dated inside them.
- Every Ledger transaction has an Activity trail of who added, reconciled and changed it.
- Download a ZIP pack of every receipt for any date range.
Expense claims
Not offeredWe found no expense claims on its public pages.ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026
Multi-line claims that mix reimbursements, mileage and supplier invoices, with receipt scanning, per-line approval routed to each event’s approver, and Ledger posting on settlement.Volunteers are repaid quickly, and every claim has a receipt trail.
What’s included (10)
- One claim mixes reimbursements, mileage and supplier payments, each line with its own budget or fund.
- Receipt scanning fills shop, amount, date and the category last used for that shop.
- A duplicate receipt warning names the other claim that holds the same file.
- Mileage uses postcodes, passengers and the group rate, with a straight-line distance check.
- Each line goes to the event’s nominated approver, or to the group default.
- Claims under your threshold are approved automatically.
- Settling a line posts it to the Ledger with its category, section and event.
- Treasurers approve or reject claim lines by swiping on a phone.
- A weekly digest lists unpaid supplier items past their due date.
- Submit an expense claim straight from an event.
Gift Aid
Not offeredWe found no Gift Aid features on its public pages.ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026
One parent’s declaration covers the whole family, with automatic parent prompts, future eligible payments linked automatically, manual overrides, and an HMRC R68(GAD) export previewed by donor.Claim all the Gift Aid your families’ payments qualify for.
What’s included (10)
- Parents are asked to declare the first time they pay an eligible one-off.
- A dashboard banner prompts parents with an eligible subscription and no declaration.
- Once a declaration exists, every future eligible payment links to it automatically.
- HMRC R68(GAD) export, previewed by donor, for any date range.
- The export includes only payments made while a declaration was in force.
- A coverage tile projects the Gift Aid left unclaimed.
- Manual overrides cover declarations held outside Scoutworks; the export flags them so you add donor details.
- Parents see a five-year tax summary to copy into Self Assessment.
- The Gift Aid tax year starts at midnight UK time on 6 April, on every screen.
- Fundraising donations carry Gift Aid declarations too.
Hall and kit hire
Not offeredWe found no hall or kit hire booking on its public pages. Its roadmap lists building and premises management under ’Ideas’.ScoutForge Roadmap, verified 6 November 2026
A public hire portal with live availability, tiered date-effective pricing, booking rules, three approval modes, Open Banking deposits and balances, and payments posted to the Ledger.Your hall and kit earn income with little admin.
What’s included (10)
- Hirers book on a public portal with live availability and an itemised quote, with no account.
- Each asset confirms automatically, waits for review, or goes to a named approver.
- Price by hour, day, night or person, per organisation tier, with future price rows.
- Booking rules cover blocked dates, notice, minimum and maximum stay, capacity and buffers.
- The calendar greys out dates that break a rule, with a plain-English hint.
- Confirmation, reminder, balance-due and post-stay emails send on their own.
- Every hire payment posts to the Ledger with asset, booking reference and hirer.
- Unpaid bookings cancel after a set number of days and release the slot.
- A timeline shows hire, equipment and events together, with clashes ringed in red.
- Hirers tick to accept each asset’s terms PDF, and the version is recorded.
Equipment and uniform
Not offeredWe found no equipment, inventory or uniform features on its public pages.ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026
QR-labelled inventory with kits and quantity groups, request approvals, condition history, a depreciating asset register with insurance schedule, uniform stock, lost property and a kit marketplace.Know where every item is, what state it is in, and its value.
What’s included (10)
- Requests show live availability, and quartermasters approve all, part or none.
- In Per-Item Approval mode, items not marked Requires Approval are reserved automatically.
- Overdue equipment triggers a daily 8am email reminder.
- A Damaged report moves an item to In Repair, and a Good report restores it.
- The asset register handles depreciation, disposals and warranty alerts.
- Export the asset register as an insurance schedule.
- Print QR labels, and scan an item with a phone to open it.
- Issue uniform on loan or to keep; stock goes down and the profile records it.
- Parents claim lost property from home with This is ours.
- The Marketplace (beta) lets groups sell, swap or give away kit, nearest first.
Insights and reports
PartialGovernance reporting only: a trustee compliance overview and date-ranged PDF evidence packs. Its roadmap lists reporting and export improvements under ’Ideas’.ScoutForge home page, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026
A tabbed Insights dashboard for members, capacity, events, badges, finance, adults and safety, with a session-by-session register, an adult engagement view, and census, leavers and rota reports.Spot drift, gaps and trends before they become problems.
What’s included (10)
- The attendance register highlights who is drifting and summarises each section.
- Adult Engagement shows leader turnout, two-deep coverage and ratios for each section.
- The Parent Rota report shows fill rate, events needing helpers and who never volunteered.
- The Actions Required card gathers pending RSVPs, approvals, consent chases and age-outs.
- The Capacity tab shows section occupancy, the waiting list funnel and movement projections.
- A heatmap checks that recognition awards, such as Cub of the Week, are spread fairly.
- A Census Report PDF summarises membership data for the Scouts census.
- A Leavers Report lists members who left in any date range, as a spreadsheet.
- Each member summary card has an info button that explains how the figure is calculated.
- Survey parents, volunteers and trustees, with NPS results and a section breakdown.
Roles and permissions
Access uses user accounts and role-based permissions. Trustees need no login. A review of group admin and member permissions is ’In Progress’ on its roadmap.ScoutForge Terms of Service, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge Roadmap, verified 6 November 2026
Two main roles, Volunteer and Admin, plus Trustee, Treasurer and Quartermaster permissions added to a person, with section access checked on every request and reversible suspension.Everyone sees what they need, and setup takes minutes.
What’s included (10)
- Choose one of two main roles: a Volunteer runs assigned sections, an Admin runs everything.
- Add Trustee, Treasurer or Quartermaster on top of a role, not instead of it.
- A Treasurer with no sections sees only finance.
- Trustee-only users get read-only governance access with no section.
- Volunteers see members only in the sections they are assigned to.
- Removing a leader from a section roster removes their access to its young people.
- Promote a young person to Young Leader, Volunteer or Admin, keeping one record.
- Suspend a volunteer, then reinstate them in one step with no new invitation.
- Filter users by status and send or resend invitations in bulk.
- Treasurers lose finance access when they step down.
Security and data protection
PartialStates UK/EU hosting, restricted access and a 12-character password rule. We found no two-factor sign-in, passkeys, certification or audit trail on its public pages.ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge Privacy Policy, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge Create account page, verified 6 November 2026
EU hosting, Cyber Essentials certification, encryption at rest and in transit, passkeys and enforceable two-factor, an alerting audit trail, and a subject access request tracker.Your members’ data is protected, and you can show how.
What’s included (10)
- Hosted in the EU, and encrypted in transit and with AES-256 at rest.
- UK Cyber Essentials certified, with cyber insurance.
- Role changes, bank changes, data exports and API key use are logged, with alerts.
- Admins can require two-factor for everyone and choose the allowed methods.
- Passkeys with Face ID, Touch ID, Windows Hello or a hardware security key.
- Track subject access requests against a one-month deadline, and export a member as one file.
- GDPR erasure anonymises the person and keeps audit and safety trails.
- Another adult’s medical details open for the event’s leader in charge, and each opening is logged.
- Every uploaded file is scanned for viruses.
- Signing in on a shared device clears the earlier person’s data across browser tabs.
AI help
Not offeredWe found no AI features on its public pages.ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026
AI term drafts tagged to badge requirements, an email writing bar with pre-send checks, POR-grounded risk suggestions, receipt scanning, and Bring Your Own AI Provider (beta).Less evening admin; built-in AI features never send members’ personal details.
What’s included (10)
- Plan with AI drafts each meeting’s title, notes and activities, tagged to requirements.
- The writing bar drafts, polishes, shortens or changes the tone of an email.
- Check flags a missing reply date, payment route or kit list, and never edits.
- Risk assessments get hazard and control suggestions grounded in current POR.
- Receipt scanning fills claim details and never overwrites what you typed.
- Bring Your Own AI Provider (beta): OpenAI, Anthropic, Google or xAI, with a model choice.
- Your key is tested before saving; if it fails, AI pauses and admins are told.
- The built-in writing help never sends names, email addresses, phone numbers, or medical or dietary data.
- Connect Claude, Cursor or VS Code to group data through a read-only key.
- Groups on the Scoutworks provider get a monthly allowance with a visible counter.
API and integrations
Not offeredIts roadmap lists ’Calendar and document integrations’ under ’Ideas’. We found no API or webhooks on its public pages.ScoutForge Roadmap, verified 6 November 2026
Read-only API keys (beta) scoped by area, incremental reads, an MCP route for AI assistants, signed webhooks (beta), and district keys that read totals only.Use your group’s data in your own tools, safely.
What’s included (10)
- Admins create read-only keys scoped to members, events, badges or the waiting list.
- Keys never share health information, bank details or free-text notes.
- Incremental reads return only the records changed since the last run.
- Guides for Google Sheets, Excel, n8n, Zapier and Python, with a practice demo key.
- Keys can expire, change scope without a new key, and are revoked at once.
- District, county and area keys read totals only across sharing groups.
- AI assistants connect through the same read-only key, as an MCP server.
- Webhooks (beta) send a signed message when a member moves section or a payment updates.
- Attach live Google Docs and Sheets to files, risk assessments and events.
- Embed the waiting list form on your group’s website.
Mobile and offline
Not offeredWe found no mobile app or offline mode on its public pages.ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026
An installable app for iPhone and Android with push notifications, an offline register that syncs, a phone menu for every page, and updates that never lose your work.Run meetings from a phone, even without signal.
What’s included (10)
- The offline register saves attendance on the phone and syncs when back online.
- Install from the browser on iPhone or Android, with no app store.
- Offline, you can still view the member list and information already loaded.
- Push notifications per device, including iPhone once the app is installed.
- An offline banner shows when the connection drops, and the session stays active.
- A new version asks before reloading, so a half-written email is not lost.
- The phone menu is a bottom sheet that reaches every destination.
- The phone Back button closes pop-ups one at a time.
- Treasurers approve or reject claim lines by swiping on a phone.
- Leaders complete premises logbook checks on a phone.
ScoutForge facts checked against its published pages and public registers on 6 November 2026. Visit ScoutForge
Alternative
ScoutForge
What it covers
Trustee governance: a trustee register, meetings and decisions, policy acknowledgements, and risks and incidentsScoutForge home page, verified 6 November 2026Price
£10 per group per year launch offer; £25 per group per year standard; no feature tiers; 30-day money-back guaranteeScoutForge home page, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge terms, verified 6 November 2026Trustee register
A register of roles and term dates; trustees can be recorded without their own loginScoutForge home page, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026Risks
PartialA risks and incidents log; risk assessments are shown as “In Progress” on the public roadmapScoutForge home page, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge roadmap, verified 6 November 2026Board papers
A PDF evidence pack of the records the group has entered, which “does not certify compliance”ScoutForge home page, verified 6 November 2026Charity governance
Not comparedWe could not find a public ScoutForge source on this, so we make no claimPolicy acknowledgements
Records who has acknowledged each key policyScoutForge home page, verified 6 November 2026District and county
PartialA District or County board can use it for its own records, but there are no linked views between groups, districts and counties; parent-organisation management is “Planned”ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge roadmap, verified 6 November 2026Stage
Described in its FAQ as an MVP, in “early launch and alpha”ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026Member records
Not offeredIts FAQ says membership records stay in the central Scouting systems and are not duplicated in ScoutForge.ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge Privacy Policy, verified 6 November 2026Parent portal
Not offeredWe found no parent portal on its public pages. Its FAQ names Chairs, Group Scout Leaders, Treasurers and trustee secretaries as its main users.ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026Youth portal (My Scouting)
Not offeredWe found no youth portal on its public pages. Its FAQ says it does not store personal data relating to young people.ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge Terms of Service, verified 6 November 2026Young Leaders
Not offeredWe found no Young Leader features on its public pages. Its FAQ says it does not store personal data relating to young people.ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026Waiting list
Not offeredWe found no waiting list on its public pages. Its FAQ calls waiting lists a potential future area, with no dates or guarantees.ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026Email and notifications
Not offeredWe found no email or messaging to families on its public pages. Its roadmap lists governance-task reminders as ’Planned’.ScoutForge Roadmap, verified 6 November 2026Events and attendance
Not offeredWe found no event, RSVP or attendance features on its public pages. Its roadmap lists calendar integrations under ’Ideas’.ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge Roadmap, verified 6 November 2026Event safety
PartialKeeps a board-level risks and incidents log ’without sensitive detail’. Risk assessments are ’In Progress’ on its roadmap. We found no ratio checks or medication log.ScoutForge home page, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge Roadmap, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge Roadmap, verified 6 November 2026Hikes and camps
Not offeredWe found no hike, route or camp planning on its public pages.ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026Programme planning
Not offeredWe found no programme planning on its public pages.ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026Badges and awards
Not offeredWe found no badge or award tracking on its public pages.ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026Parent payments
Not offeredWe found no parent payment collection on its public pages. Its roadmap ’Planned’ billing item covers organisations paying ScoutForge for several groups.ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge Roadmap, verified 6 November 2026Accounts and bookkeeping
Not offeredWe found no bookkeeping or accounts features on its public pages. Its FAQ lists Treasurers among its main users.ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026Expense claims
Not offeredWe found no expense claims on its public pages.ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026Gift Aid
Not offeredWe found no Gift Aid features on its public pages.ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026Hall and kit hire
Not offeredWe found no hall or kit hire booking on its public pages. Its roadmap lists building and premises management under ’Ideas’.ScoutForge Roadmap, verified 6 November 2026Equipment and uniform
Not offeredWe found no equipment, inventory or uniform features on its public pages.ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026Insights and reports
PartialGovernance reporting only: a trustee compliance overview and date-ranged PDF evidence packs. Its roadmap lists reporting and export improvements under ’Ideas’.ScoutForge home page, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026Roles and permissions
Access uses user accounts and role-based permissions. Trustees need no login. A review of group admin and member permissions is ’In Progress’ on its roadmap.ScoutForge Terms of Service, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge Roadmap, verified 6 November 2026Security and data protection
PartialStates UK/EU hosting, restricted access and a 12-character password rule. We found no two-factor sign-in, passkeys, certification or audit trail on its public pages.ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge Privacy Policy, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge Create account page, verified 6 November 2026AI help
Not offeredWe found no AI features on its public pages.ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026API and integrations
Not offeredIts roadmap lists ’Calendar and document integrations’ under ’Ideas’. We found no API or webhooks on its public pages.ScoutForge Roadmap, verified 6 November 2026Mobile and offline
Not offeredWe found no mobile app or offline mode on its public pages.ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026Recommended
Scoutworks
What it covers
The whole group: members, badges, programme, events, payments, accounts, equipment and trustees
Trustees see the same records the leaders and treasurer keep.
What’s included (10)
- The Board Pack PDF covers membership, finance, attendance and risk, for one of five preset periods.
- The Charity Commission record is checked weekly, and changes and financial distress are called out.
- A strategic risk register with a 5x5 heatmap, owners, mitigation and review dates.
- Conflict declarations cannot be edited; superseding one keeps the original.
- The premises audit turns every Partly or No answer into a trustee action.
- 29 ready-made compliance logbook templates based on The Scouts’ guidance.
- A failed check becomes a trustee action with an owner, due in two weeks.
- Trustee Insights opens with an Action Required panel of overdue reviews and duties.
- The reserves policy card shows free reserves against your target.
- Trustees see aggregate data only, never member names or medical details.
Price
£150 a year for the whole group, every feature included, six months free
One price covers the trustee tools and everything else the group runs.
Trustee register
Trustee accounts with their own dashboard, and a Trustee Duties calendar with reminders and an iCal feed
Each trustee signs in to a dashboard built for their role.
Risks
A Strategic Risk Register on a 5×5 matrix, separate from the risk assessment for each event
Strategic risks and event risk assessments live in the same system.
Board papers
A Board Pack PDF built from live group data: finance, membership, risks and incidents
Board papers use the figures the group already keeps, with nothing typed in twice.
Charity governance
A Conflict of Interest Register, a reserves policy check and a weekly check of the group’s own Charity Commission record
Trustees see a missed filing or a reserves shortfall before it becomes a problem.
Policy acknowledgements
Not offeredNot available
Scoutworks does not record policy acknowledgements.
District and county
A free District Portal with live census and waiting lists, and the trustees of every connected group by name and role
The district sees live figures from each group, with no spreadsheets sent round.
What’s included (10)
- The district portal is free, and so are district-run units such as Explorer units.
- Needs you lists units without an admin, serious charity changes and incidents not reported to HQ.
- Invite groups to a district event with a number of places for each group.
- Remind groups that have not answered a district event invitation.
- Broadcasts filter by postcode, distance, section and role, with a live recipient count.
- Each waiting child is counted once across groups, to show true demand.
- One district waiting list link and QR code cover every connected group.
- The Charity Commission register is checked weekly for the district and every connected group.
- Email the families of a district event without seeing their addresses.
- Districts never see individual medical information or contact details.
Stage
Live and in use by groups and districts across the UK, with a public changelog
You can check what changed and when.
Member records
Eight-tab member records with care plans, parent verification campaigns that chase stale data, a Data Cleanup health score, duplicate merge, and cross-group share or transfer.
Member records stay complete and current without leaders chasing each family.
What’s included (10)
- Verification campaigns ask parents to check contacts, medical, permissions, details and address, with reminders.
- A parent who RSVPs Yes is asked to check one stale area of their child’s record.
- Data Cleanup scores your records out of 100 and previews each fix before you apply it.
- Duplicate checks run on manual add, waiting list, transition plan and badge import.
- Structured care plans with review reminders; safeguarding plans are locked to admins.
- Share a member read-only with another group, or transfer them, with parent consent.
- Edit names, sections, roles, patrols and dates in place on the members table.
- UK address autocomplete fills street, town, county and postcode on every address field.
- Each member’s Events tab shows every event they were invited to and how they answered.
- Export a CSV that matches the current filter and search exactly.
Parent portal
A free parent portal where families edit records, sign consent forms, RSVP and offer to help, pay by Direct Debit, submit badge evidence and use a private calendar feed.
Families keep their own details current and reply without chasing.
What’s included (10)
- Parents edit medical, dietary, emergency contacts and consents; leaders see changes at once.
- Consent forms open from a secure link with no login, with a drawn signature.
- Parents submit badge evidence per requirement, and resubmit only what a leader returned.
- Per-parent calendar feeds for Apple, Google or Outlook stop working when a parent leaves.
- My Finances shows recurring payments, history, a yearly statement with CSV, and Gift Aid.
- A weekly badge email lists each child’s badges awarded or completed that week.
- A uniform diagram shows where each awarded badge goes, with a printable checklist.
- Parents tick an interactive kit list for each child as they pack.
- One parent account covers children in several Scout groups, and parents never pay for it.
- Parents are emailed as soon as their child comes off an event waiting list.
Youth portal (My Scouting)
My Scouting gives Scouts and Explorers their own login to see badge progress and events, tick kit lists, and suggest and vote on ideas that leaders approve.
Young people follow their own progress and have a say in the programme.
What’s included (9)
- Have Your Say: young people suggest ideas, and a leader approves each before the section votes.
- Votes show live counts; closed votes show results as bars with the winner marked.
- My Badges shows earned badges and the steps left on each one.
- Event pages show the schedule, menu and a kit list they tick, shared with parents.
- My Journey shows weeks attended, milestones and recognitions, with no comparison to others.
- A badge earned since the last visit gets a one-time reveal.
- Leaders survey young members inside My Scouting, and young people are never emailed.
- A parent sets the username and password, so no email address is needed.
- No messaging between young people, no leaderboards and no view of other children.
Young Leaders
Young Leaders get a login scoped to the sections they help, draft programme events that a leader publishes, and full Young Leader Award tracking with helping hours.
Young Leaders shape the programme while leaders keep control of what goes live.
What’s included (10)
- Young Leaders create draft programme events, and a leader publishes them, so leaders control what goes live.
- Young Leader Award tracks Modules A–K, Missions One–Four, helping hours and a reflective log.
- Marking a Young Leader present at a younger section’s event creates a helping-hours session.
- Invite only the Young Leaders who still need the modules an event teaches.
- Invite Young Leaders from other sections; they never take a young person’s place.
- Young Leaders do not count in an event’s adult ratios.
- Their login has no member lists, medical or contact details, or finance.
- Paid-event RSVPs go to the parent; free-event RSVPs go to the Young Leader.
- Weekly meetings carry their Young Leaders into every week, with RSVPs set from one tab.
- The district sees Young Leader progress per module and mission, by group.
Waiting list
A public waiting list form with automatic six-tier ranking, a three-column triage workspace, place offers with deadlines, a Transition Planner for move-ups, and parent self-withdraw and deferral.
Fair, explainable offers, and a list that keeps itself current.
What’s included (10)
- Six priority tiers rank every applicant automatically; you set the order and record overrides.
- The Transition Planner suggests every move-up and intake from ages, capacities and priority tiers.
- Triage groups applicants into Needs you, Ready to accept and Done, with batch accept.
- Queue positions move up automatically when someone accepts, declines, withdraws or lets an offer expire.
- Section capacity limits close the waiting list when a section is full.
- Parents defer their place to a later date through a secure email link.
- Parents withdraw from any waiting list email, and the section leader is told.
- Local, Nearby or Far badges show how far each applicant lives from the meeting place.
- Embed the form on your website or share a link, with a Scout Pages integration.
- Create Member fills the record from the application; a mistaken enrolment rolls back safely.
Email and notifications
A built-in email client with self-updating recipient groups, scheduling, shared templates, group branding, AI writing help, per-email delivery logs and a weekly leader digest.
Every family gets the right message, and you can see it arrived.
What’s included (10)
- Section recipient groups for Everyone, Parents, Leaders and Young Leaders stay up to date themselves.
- Email Logs show each email as Delivered, Bounced, Complained or Failed, with a timeline.
- Scheduled emails go one message per recipient, so they work for more than 50 people.
- Scheduled emails interrupted by a restart carry on, and never send twice.
- A 7am weekly leader digest covers upcoming events, badge progress, attendance trends and actions.
- Merge fields show only what fits the recipients, such as a family’s queue position.
- Sent emails keep their full branding, with header, logo and signature bar, as recipients saw them.
- Email templates are shared across all leaders in your group.
- AI Check flags a missing reply date, payment route, kit list or contact before you send.
- Automatic RSVP, consent, payment and waiting list emails run for every workflow.
Events and attendance
Events with per-section capacity and event waiting lists, payment and consent requests raised by an RSVP, a full RSVP history, an offline register, and card, calendar and table views.
Leaders see who is coming, who has consented and who has paid.
What’s included (10)
- A Yes RSVP creates the payment request from the event’s payment rule, with deposit and balance.
- Consent requests go out on a Yes RSVP, with reminders and one PDF per parent.
- Freed places go automatically to the longest-waiting child in the same section, with an email.
- Event insights flag near deadlines, low replies and missing risk assessors.
- Every RSVP keeps a full history of who answered, when, and every change.
- The offline register saves attendance on the device and syncs when back online.
- RSVP reminders go out 7, 4 and 2 days before the deadline.
- Embed the group calendar on your website, with event, hire or availability layers.
- Phased sign-up opens places in waves and enforces wave priority.
- The Events page has card, calendar, agenda and table views, with table columns you choose.
Event safety
Live ratio checks against POR with short-staffing emails, risk assessments with AI hazard suggestions, incident reports with an HQ helper, a medication log and an In Touch view.
Every trip is staffed, assessed and recorded to Scouts guidance.
What’s included (10)
- The ratio bar uses POR minimums and updates live as adults confirm.
- Short-staffing emails reach the Leader in Charge 3 days, 24 hours and 4 hours out.
- The risk assessment wizard scores before and after, with AI hazard suggestions grounded in POR.
- Show risk evidence three ways: build it, upload a document, or confirm it was done elsewhere.
- Serious incidents get an HQ reporting helper with copy-ready blocks and an HQ Reported badge.
- A nominated incident approver gets each report, with admins as backup.
- The Medication tab logs doses and first aid beside the child’s medical summary and consent.
- The In Touch home contact gets a phone view of roster, headcount, numbers and escalation steps.
- The leader-in-charge report shows member photos beside allergy and medical information.
- Import or export a whole risk library as CSV.
Hikes and camps
A route planner with OS grid references, Naismith times and true-scale printing, a to-scale campsite planner, live expedition tracking with alarms, and costed camp menus.
Plan routes, camps and food in one place, with nothing typed twice.
What’s included (10)
- Route cards give grid references, bearing, distance, climb and Naismith times for each leg.
- Print routes at true 1:25,000 or 1:50,000 scale with OS grid lines, or export GPX.
- Teams check in by join code or QR card with no account, on a live map.
- A help request or a quiet team sounds an alarm until a leader acknowledges it.
- Overdue tracking teams show in an amber banner, most overdue first.
- The campsite planner draws tents and facilities to true size on a real map.
- Camp menus build a shopping list rounded to whole packs and priced from ONS averages.
- The dietary tab names the attendees each dish could affect.
- A menu linked to an event takes its headcounts from the event’s RSVPs.
- The camp budget calculator compares pricing presets side by side with the surplus.
Programme planning
A planner that builds a term from a badge goal using about 2,000 activities, live requirement coverage, AI term drafts, event schedules with clash checks, and patrol scoreboards.
Each term covers the badges you planned, with less evening prep.
What’s included (10)
- Pick a badge goal, and the planner spreads one meeting slot per requirement across the term.
- Each slot suggests activities from about 2,000 Scout activities, ranked by meeting length.
- A live coverage panel shows which requirements are covered and which are open.
- Publish the term as draft events with activities and badge links; republishing updates them.
- Plan with AI (beta) drafts titles, notes and activities tagged to requirements.
- Event schedules flag people who are double-booked and activities over capacity.
- The Requirement Finder lists the badge requirements an activity could count towards.
- Programme plans can invite the section’s leaders and Young Leaders to every event they generate.
- Auto-balance patrols with a preview and undo, and award points to a scoreboard.
- The Term Programme report gives a printable overview of events, filtered by section and date.
Badges and awards
Attendance does the counting: requirements, Nights Away and Hikes Away build up from events attended, a leader confirms each award, plus evidence review, Badge Forecast and stock.
Progress counts itself, and nothing is awarded without a leader.
What’s included (10)
- Attendance does the counting: requirements linked to an event are offered for everyone marked present.
- Nights Away, Hikes Away and Time on Water add up and show Ready to award.
- A leader confirms each award, so nothing is awarded by mistake.
- The evidence queue lets you approve, return with a reason, or re-map each requirement.
- Badge Forecast names young people at risk and the requirements that finish the most badges.
- The forecast uses the same completion rules as awarding, so the two cannot disagree.
- Awarding a badge takes it out of stock at once.
- A weekly badge shopping-list email lists only the badges you need to buy.
- Import every OSM badge export at once with a full preview; re-runs are safe.
- When requirements change, old and new versions run side by side.
Parent payments
One-off Open Banking instant bank payments and recurring Direct Debit, both through GoCardless with no platform fee, plus automatic catch-up, pauses, refunds, bulk chasing and an audit log.
Subs and trip money arrive on time, with no cash to handle.
What’s included (10)
- One-off payments by instant bank payment: parents approve in their banking app, and money is sent straight away.
- Recurring subs by Direct Debit, with one mandate per parent for all their children.
- Scoutworks charges no platform fee on payments; GoCardless charges its own processing fee.
- Catch-up collects missed payments automatically, after the parent accepts the exact amount.
- The payments grid shows every member against every collection, with a status in each cell.
- Bulk chase emails parents, resends Direct Debit links or sends approval reminders.
- Admins and treasurers are told at once when a Direct Debit payment fails.
- Pause a subscription for a set number of payments, and it resumes on its own.
- An Activity tab logs every pause, skip, resume, cancel and collection-day move, with who and when.
- Refund in full or in part; the dialog shows your GoCardless balance first.
Accounts and bookkeeping
Charity cash accounting with GoCardless collections and fees posted and categorised automatically, one-click payout matching, CSV statement import with duplicate checks, restricted funds and trustee-ready reports.
Books that reconcile, and year-end reports ready for trustees.
What’s included (10)
- Each GoCardless collection and fee goes into the Ledger automatically, with a fixed category.
- Scoutworks suggests the GoCardless payout split, and the treasurer confirms it with one click.
- Import CSV statements from the main UK banks; duplicate lines are caught and skipped.
- Match suggestions are scored on reference, amount, date and payee.
- Restricted funds show allocated, spent and remaining, and flag an overspent fund.
- Financial Overview, Restricted Funds, Budget Variance and Receipts & Payments export as trustee-ready PDFs.
- Spending limits alert at 80% and 100%, and income targets warn when they fall behind.
- Closed accounting years refuse any transaction, settlement or import dated inside them.
- Every Ledger transaction has an Activity trail of who added, reconciled and changed it.
- Download a ZIP pack of every receipt for any date range.
Expense claims
Multi-line claims that mix reimbursements, mileage and supplier invoices, with receipt scanning, per-line approval routed to each event’s approver, and Ledger posting on settlement.
Volunteers are repaid quickly, and every claim has a receipt trail.
What’s included (10)
- One claim mixes reimbursements, mileage and supplier payments, each line with its own budget or fund.
- Receipt scanning fills shop, amount, date and the category last used for that shop.
- A duplicate receipt warning names the other claim that holds the same file.
- Mileage uses postcodes, passengers and the group rate, with a straight-line distance check.
- Each line goes to the event’s nominated approver, or to the group default.
- Claims under your threshold are approved automatically.
- Settling a line posts it to the Ledger with its category, section and event.
- Treasurers approve or reject claim lines by swiping on a phone.
- A weekly digest lists unpaid supplier items past their due date.
- Submit an expense claim straight from an event.
Gift Aid
One parent’s declaration covers the whole family, with automatic parent prompts, future eligible payments linked automatically, manual overrides, and an HMRC R68(GAD) export previewed by donor.
Claim all the Gift Aid your families’ payments qualify for.
What’s included (10)
- Parents are asked to declare the first time they pay an eligible one-off.
- A dashboard banner prompts parents with an eligible subscription and no declaration.
- Once a declaration exists, every future eligible payment links to it automatically.
- HMRC R68(GAD) export, previewed by donor, for any date range.
- The export includes only payments made while a declaration was in force.
- A coverage tile projects the Gift Aid left unclaimed.
- Manual overrides cover declarations held outside Scoutworks; the export flags them so you add donor details.
- Parents see a five-year tax summary to copy into Self Assessment.
- The Gift Aid tax year starts at midnight UK time on 6 April, on every screen.
- Fundraising donations carry Gift Aid declarations too.
Hall and kit hire
A public hire portal with live availability, tiered date-effective pricing, booking rules, three approval modes, Open Banking deposits and balances, and payments posted to the Ledger.
Your hall and kit earn income with little admin.
What’s included (10)
- Hirers book on a public portal with live availability and an itemised quote, with no account.
- Each asset confirms automatically, waits for review, or goes to a named approver.
- Price by hour, day, night or person, per organisation tier, with future price rows.
- Booking rules cover blocked dates, notice, minimum and maximum stay, capacity and buffers.
- The calendar greys out dates that break a rule, with a plain-English hint.
- Confirmation, reminder, balance-due and post-stay emails send on their own.
- Every hire payment posts to the Ledger with asset, booking reference and hirer.
- Unpaid bookings cancel after a set number of days and release the slot.
- A timeline shows hire, equipment and events together, with clashes ringed in red.
- Hirers tick to accept each asset’s terms PDF, and the version is recorded.
Equipment and uniform
QR-labelled inventory with kits and quantity groups, request approvals, condition history, a depreciating asset register with insurance schedule, uniform stock, lost property and a kit marketplace.
Know where every item is, what state it is in, and its value.
What’s included (10)
- Requests show live availability, and quartermasters approve all, part or none.
- In Per-Item Approval mode, items not marked Requires Approval are reserved automatically.
- Overdue equipment triggers a daily 8am email reminder.
- A Damaged report moves an item to In Repair, and a Good report restores it.
- The asset register handles depreciation, disposals and warranty alerts.
- Export the asset register as an insurance schedule.
- Print QR labels, and scan an item with a phone to open it.
- Issue uniform on loan or to keep; stock goes down and the profile records it.
- Parents claim lost property from home with This is ours.
- The Marketplace (beta) lets groups sell, swap or give away kit, nearest first.
Insights and reports
A tabbed Insights dashboard for members, capacity, events, badges, finance, adults and safety, with a session-by-session register, an adult engagement view, and census, leavers and rota reports.
Spot drift, gaps and trends before they become problems.
What’s included (10)
- The attendance register highlights who is drifting and summarises each section.
- Adult Engagement shows leader turnout, two-deep coverage and ratios for each section.
- The Parent Rota report shows fill rate, events needing helpers and who never volunteered.
- The Actions Required card gathers pending RSVPs, approvals, consent chases and age-outs.
- The Capacity tab shows section occupancy, the waiting list funnel and movement projections.
- A heatmap checks that recognition awards, such as Cub of the Week, are spread fairly.
- A Census Report PDF summarises membership data for the Scouts census.
- A Leavers Report lists members who left in any date range, as a spreadsheet.
- Each member summary card has an info button that explains how the figure is calculated.
- Survey parents, volunteers and trustees, with NPS results and a section breakdown.
Roles and permissions
Two main roles, Volunteer and Admin, plus Trustee, Treasurer and Quartermaster permissions added to a person, with section access checked on every request and reversible suspension.
Everyone sees what they need, and setup takes minutes.
What’s included (10)
- Choose one of two main roles: a Volunteer runs assigned sections, an Admin runs everything.
- Add Trustee, Treasurer or Quartermaster on top of a role, not instead of it.
- A Treasurer with no sections sees only finance.
- Trustee-only users get read-only governance access with no section.
- Volunteers see members only in the sections they are assigned to.
- Removing a leader from a section roster removes their access to its young people.
- Promote a young person to Young Leader, Volunteer or Admin, keeping one record.
- Suspend a volunteer, then reinstate them in one step with no new invitation.
- Filter users by status and send or resend invitations in bulk.
- Treasurers lose finance access when they step down.
Security and data protection
EU hosting, Cyber Essentials certification, encryption at rest and in transit, passkeys and enforceable two-factor, an alerting audit trail, and a subject access request tracker.
Your members’ data is protected, and you can show how.
What’s included (10)
- Hosted in the EU, and encrypted in transit and with AES-256 at rest.
- UK Cyber Essentials certified, with cyber insurance.
- Role changes, bank changes, data exports and API key use are logged, with alerts.
- Admins can require two-factor for everyone and choose the allowed methods.
- Passkeys with Face ID, Touch ID, Windows Hello or a hardware security key.
- Track subject access requests against a one-month deadline, and export a member as one file.
- GDPR erasure anonymises the person and keeps audit and safety trails.
- Another adult’s medical details open for the event’s leader in charge, and each opening is logged.
- Every uploaded file is scanned for viruses.
- Signing in on a shared device clears the earlier person’s data across browser tabs.
AI help
AI term drafts tagged to badge requirements, an email writing bar with pre-send checks, POR-grounded risk suggestions, receipt scanning, and Bring Your Own AI Provider (beta).
Less evening admin; built-in AI features never send members’ personal details.
What’s included (10)
- Plan with AI drafts each meeting’s title, notes and activities, tagged to requirements.
- The writing bar drafts, polishes, shortens or changes the tone of an email.
- Check flags a missing reply date, payment route or kit list, and never edits.
- Risk assessments get hazard and control suggestions grounded in current POR.
- Receipt scanning fills claim details and never overwrites what you typed.
- Bring Your Own AI Provider (beta): OpenAI, Anthropic, Google or xAI, with a model choice.
- Your key is tested before saving; if it fails, AI pauses and admins are told.
- The built-in writing help never sends names, email addresses, phone numbers, or medical or dietary data.
- Connect Claude, Cursor or VS Code to group data through a read-only key.
- Groups on the Scoutworks provider get a monthly allowance with a visible counter.
API and integrations
Read-only API keys (beta) scoped by area, incremental reads, an MCP route for AI assistants, signed webhooks (beta), and district keys that read totals only.
Use your group’s data in your own tools, safely.
What’s included (10)
- Admins create read-only keys scoped to members, events, badges or the waiting list.
- Keys never share health information, bank details or free-text notes.
- Incremental reads return only the records changed since the last run.
- Guides for Google Sheets, Excel, n8n, Zapier and Python, with a practice demo key.
- Keys can expire, change scope without a new key, and are revoked at once.
- District, county and area keys read totals only across sharing groups.
- AI assistants connect through the same read-only key, as an MCP server.
- Webhooks (beta) send a signed message when a member moves section or a payment updates.
- Attach live Google Docs and Sheets to files, risk assessments and events.
- Embed the waiting list form on your group’s website.
Mobile and offline
An installable app for iPhone and Android with push notifications, an offline register that syncs, a phone menu for every page, and updates that never lose your work.
Run meetings from a phone, even without signal.
What’s included (10)
- The offline register saves attendance on the phone and syncs when back online.
- Install from the browser on iPhone or Android, with no app store.
- Offline, you can still view the member list and information already loaded.
- Push notifications per device, including iPhone once the app is installed.
- An offline banner shows when the connection drops, and the session stays active.
- A new version asks before reloading, so a half-written email is not lost.
- The phone menu is a bottom sheet that reaches every destination.
- The phone Back button closes pop-ups one at a time.
- Treasurers approve or reject claim lines by swiping on a phone.
- Leaders complete premises logbook checks on a phone.
ScoutForge facts checked against its published pages and public registers on 6 November 2026. Visit ScoutForge
Who runs it, and how it protects your data
Your group holds personal data about children. These are the questions to ask any supplier. Where we say we found nothing, the link shows where we looked.
Capability
Alternative
ScoutForge
Recommended
Scoutworks
Who runs it
The privacy policy names “ScoutForge” as data controller, with an email address. We found no company name, company number or postal address on the site, and no company called ScoutForge at Companies HouseScoutForge privacy policy, verified 6 November 2026Companies House search, verified 6 November 2026
Seventeen Things Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (number 16620173)You know which legal entity holds your group’s data, and you can look it up.
ICO registration
We found no entry for “ScoutForge” or “Scout Forge” on the ICO register. A sole trader can register under a personal name, which we cannot search forICO register search, verified 6 November 2026
Registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office, reference ZB950115The company that holds your data pays the UK data protection fee and is on the public register.
Security certification
We found no claim of Cyber Essentials, ISO 27001 or SOC 2 on the siteScoutForge home page, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge privacy policy, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge terms, verified 6 November 2026
Cyber Essentials, certified 14 October 2026, reassessed every yearAn independent assessor checked the core security controls.
Where data is held
The FAQ says “UK/EU hosting” and points to the privacy policy for details; the privacy policy names no country or providerScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge privacy policy, verified 6 November 2026
EU (Amsterdam, the Netherlands), on a platform that is SOC 2 Type 2 auditedYour data stays in a jurisdiction with GDPR protection.
Sub-processors
The privacy policy says data is shared with providers “required to operate the service (eg hosting providers)”, and names noneScoutForge privacy policy, verified 6 November 2026
Every sub-processor is named in the privacy policy, with what it does and whereYou can answer a parent who asks who else sees their data.
Uptime monitoring
We found no status page. The terms say the service is provided “as available” and do not guarantee uninterrupted availabilityScoutForge terms, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge /status (not found), verified 6 November 2026
A public status page with live uptime historyYou can check whether a problem is yours or ours.
Backups
We found no statement about backups. After a subscription ends, data is kept for “a reasonable period”, with a chance to exportScoutForge privacy policy, verified 6 November 2026
Automatic daily backups, and a 30-day recovery window if a group is deletedA mistake or an outage does not cost you your records.
Security contact
We found no security.txt file or security pageScoutForge security.txt (not found), verified 6 November 2026
A published security.txt file and a vulnerability disclosure routeAnyone who finds a weakness knows how to report it safely.
Support
Two published email addresses; we found no support hours or reply timesScoutForge privacy policy, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge cookies page, verified 6 November 2026
A person replies within 2 working days, and the reply times are published on the trust centreYou know when to expect an answer.
Scout Association link
“Not operated by, affiliated with, or endorsed by The Scout Association”ScoutForge terms, verified 6 November 2026
Independent of The Scout Association, and built for its UK sections, badges and policyThe structure matches how a UK group runs.
ScoutForge facts checked against its published pages and public registers on 6 November 2026. Visit ScoutForge See how Scoutworks handles security on the trust centre.
Alternative
ScoutForge
Who runs it
The privacy policy names “ScoutForge” as data controller, with an email address. We found no company name, company number or postal address on the site, and no company called ScoutForge at Companies HouseScoutForge privacy policy, verified 6 November 2026Companies House search, verified 6 November 2026ICO registration
We found no entry for “ScoutForge” or “Scout Forge” on the ICO register. A sole trader can register under a personal name, which we cannot search forICO register search, verified 6 November 2026Security certification
We found no claim of Cyber Essentials, ISO 27001 or SOC 2 on the siteScoutForge home page, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge privacy policy, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge terms, verified 6 November 2026Where data is held
The FAQ says “UK/EU hosting” and points to the privacy policy for details; the privacy policy names no country or providerScoutForge FAQ, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge privacy policy, verified 6 November 2026Sub-processors
The privacy policy says data is shared with providers “required to operate the service (eg hosting providers)”, and names noneScoutForge privacy policy, verified 6 November 2026Uptime monitoring
We found no status page. The terms say the service is provided “as available” and do not guarantee uninterrupted availabilityScoutForge terms, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge /status (not found), verified 6 November 2026Backups
We found no statement about backups. After a subscription ends, data is kept for “a reasonable period”, with a chance to exportScoutForge privacy policy, verified 6 November 2026Security contact
We found no security.txt file or security pageScoutForge security.txt (not found), verified 6 November 2026Support
Two published email addresses; we found no support hours or reply timesScoutForge privacy policy, verified 6 November 2026ScoutForge cookies page, verified 6 November 2026Scout Association link
“Not operated by, affiliated with, or endorsed by The Scout Association”ScoutForge terms, verified 6 November 2026Recommended
Scoutworks
Who runs it
Seventeen Things Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (number 16620173)
You know which legal entity holds your group’s data, and you can look it up.
ICO registration
Registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office, reference ZB950115
The company that holds your data pays the UK data protection fee and is on the public register.
Security certification
Cyber Essentials, certified 14 October 2026, reassessed every year
An independent assessor checked the core security controls.
Where data is held
EU (Amsterdam, the Netherlands), on a platform that is SOC 2 Type 2 audited
Your data stays in a jurisdiction with GDPR protection.
Sub-processors
Every sub-processor is named in the privacy policy, with what it does and where
You can answer a parent who asks who else sees their data.
Uptime monitoring
A public status page with live uptime history
You can check whether a problem is yours or ours.
Backups
Automatic daily backups, and a 30-day recovery window if a group is deleted
A mistake or an outage does not cost you your records.
Security contact
A published security.txt file and a vulnerability disclosure route
Anyone who finds a weakness knows how to report it safely.
Support
A person replies within 2 working days, and the reply times are published on the trust centre
You know when to expect an answer.
Scout Association link
Independent of The Scout Association, and built for its UK sections, badges and policy
The structure matches how a UK group runs.
ScoutForge facts checked against its published pages and public registers on 6 November 2026. Visit ScoutForge See how Scoutworks handles security on the trust centre.
Comparing other options? See every comparison, or try the live demo.