It's Time to Move to Lotus — And Here's Why You'll Be Glad You Did

If you're still logging into the original Open Black Belt app, this post is for you.

The original app has served a lot of school owners well, and we're proud of what it helped people accomplish. But it's time to close that chapter. Lotus is the future of Open Black Belt — and it's not even close.

Here's everything you need to know about the transition, what you're getting in Lotus that you don't have now, and — importantly — what happens to your current price.

Why we're retiring the original app

The original Open Black Belt app was built to solve a specific problem: give martial arts school owners a better alternative to spreadsheets and paper records. It did that. But over time, the needs of school owners grew — and the architecture of the old app made it harder and harder to keep up.

Rather than bolt new features onto an aging foundation, we made a decision: rebuild from scratch, and build it right. Lotus is the result of that effort. It's faster, cleaner, and designed to handle everything a modern dojo needs — not just the basics.

Maintaining two separate platforms doesn't make sense. All of our energy is going into Lotus. The original app will be shut down, and we want to make sure every current customer is set up on Lotus before that happens.

What you get in Lotus that you don't have now

Lotus isn't just a visual refresh. It's a fundamentally different product with capabilities the original app never had. Here's what you're upgrading to:

Lead Pipeline — a built-in CRM for your prospects

A Kanban-style board that tracks every prospect from first inquiry to paying member. Five stages: New Inquiry → Contacted → Trial Scheduled → Trial Completed → Converted. When you drag a lead into Converted, they automatically become an active member. You can add timestamped contact notes to any lead, track how long they've been in the pipeline, and see monthly conversion stats at a glance. No more following up from memory.

Automated Email Sequences

Set-it-and-forget-it email automation that runs in the background while you're on the mat. Two sequences are built in: a prospect drip that nurtures new leads over their first week, and an at-risk retention sequence that automatically reaches out to members who've gone quiet. Every school leaks revenue through inattention — Lotus plugs those gaps automatically.

Member Self-Service Portal

Your members get their own login — no password required, just a magic link sent to their email. From the portal they can view their class schedule, check their attendance history, update their profile and emergency contacts, and see their payment history. Less admin for you. A better experience for them.

Digital Waivers with E-Signature

Send personalised waiver links to individual members or bulk-send to everyone unsigned in one click. Members sign on their phone with a finger signature. Signatures are stored with a timestamp. You can see your signed/unsigned status across all members at a glance and bulk-remind the ones who haven't signed yet. Paper waivers are a liability risk. This removes them entirely.

Belt Testing Events

Create testing events, automatically identify which students are eligible based on rank and attendance, notify them with one click, and track results. The system knows who should test before you do — you just confirm and run the event.

Revenue Dashboard

A real financial picture of your business: MRR estimate, this month vs last month vs year-to-date, your top 10 members by lifetime value, and a new vs churned payers breakdown so you can see if you're actually growing. Not just accounting — business intelligence built specifically for a dojo.

Class Roster with Attendance Marking

See who's booked into any upcoming class, view a 14-day schedule in the sidebar, and mark attendance directly from the roster — one member at a time or all at once with a single button. No more paper sign-in sheets.

A faster, cleaner dashboard

The Lotus dashboard shows you what matters: at-risk members, upcoming birthdays, fresh leads, a live attendance calendar, and KPI chips that tell you at a glance whether your member count is trending up or down. Everything visible at a glance, nothing buried.

What stays the same

Everything you rely on from the original app is in Lotus: member management, class scheduling, attendance tracking, belt rank records, group emails, payment recording, and reports. We didn't remove anything — we rebuilt it and made it better.

Your price is locked. Full stop.

We know change can feel risky, especially when it involves something as important as your school management software. So we want to be completely clear about this:

If you are a current Open Black Belt customer, your price will not increase when you move to Lotus. You are grandfathered in at your existing rate, permanently. You get all of the new features — the pipeline, the portal, the sequences, the waivers, everything — at the same price you pay today.

That's not a promotional offer. It's our commitment to the customers who've been with us from the beginning.

How to make the switch

Moving to Lotus is straightforward. Your data — members, classes, attendance history, belt records — is already there. You don't need to re-enter anything.

1. Log in at openblackbelt.com/lotus/login using your existing email and password.
2. Take 10 minutes to explore. The navigation is in the same place. Your data is there. Most things will feel familiar immediately.
3. Set up the new features at your own pace. You don't have to use the pipeline or sequences on day one. Get comfortable, then explore what else Lotus can do for you.

If you run into anything or have questions, reach out via the contact page or email us directly at help@openblackbelt.com. We're a small team and we read every message.

A note from the team

We started Open Black Belt because we believed martial arts school owners deserved better software than what existed. That belief hasn't changed. What has changed is how much more we're now able to deliver on it.

Lotus is the product we always wanted to build. We hope you feel that when you use it.

Thank you for being with us through the original version. We're excited to have you in Lotus.

— The Open Black Belt Team