Scout SuiteFAQ
Quick answers
The short version of how Scout Suite works — pricing, Groups and Units, parents, payments, OSM, districts, phones and your data. Longer walkthroughs live in the guides.
Getting started
What is Scout Suite?
Scout Suite is software for UK Scout Groups, Explorer Units, districts and counties. Members, waiting lists, finance, badges, events, safety, parents, communications and group phones live in one place — instead of a pile of spreadsheets and extra tools.
How do we get started?
Create a Group or Explorer Unit from the site. New Groups and Units get a 60-day free trial with no card. District and county dashboards are free when the Groups in your area pay for themselves.
Is there a trial?
Yes. New Groups and Explorer Units get 60 days free, no card required. After that it is £60 a year unless district or county is paying centrally. See Pricing.
Where are the guides?
How-to walkthroughs are on Guides. Signed in, the Help menu also has tours for the page you're on, plus a link back here.
Does it work on a phone during section night?
Yes. Scout Suite runs in a phone or tablet browser — taking the register, scanning kit and checking badges. There isn't a separate app store download.
Pricing
How much does a Group or Explorer Unit pay?
£60 per year after the trial. One subscription covers unlimited sections, leaders and young people. Explorer Units pay the same as Groups. Full breakdown on Pricing.
Does it cost more if we have lots of members?
No. The £60 covers the Group or Unit, not a headcount. Sections, leaders and young people are unlimited.
What's included — and what is billed separately?
The subscription is the software, including new platform features as they ship. Group phones, leader eSIMs and SMS are billed separately because they have carrier costs. WhatsApp on the group number is billed by Meta. Support is included — Send feedback in the app, or feedback@scoutsuite.app.
Do you take a cut of parent payments?
Card and Direct Debit go through Stripe or GoCardless, who charge their usual processing. Scout Suite's subscription is the software — not a per-member licence, and not a percentage of every camp or subs payment.
Can district or county pay for us?
Yes. Districts pay £50 per paying Group per year (17% off) once they have at least 10 paying Groups. Counties / Areas / Regions pay £30 (50% off) from 30 paying Groups. Groups keep their own data; billing sits on the district or county Stripe subscription.
Do the prices include VAT?
Yes. Everycast Labs, the company behind Scout Suite, is VAT-registered — prices on the site include VAT where it applies, so nothing extra is added at checkout.
Groups and Explorer Units
What's the difference between a Group and an Explorer Unit?
A Group is a Scout Group (Squirrels through Scouts). An Explorer Unit is a peer of a Group, not a Group with one section switched on — it has its own dashboard, subscription, team and bank, and it only ever runs Explorers. Walkthrough: Explorer Units and Groups.
Can Explorers live inside a Group?
Yes, when the unit is partnered with that Group — same HQ, same executive, same Scout Suite account. Don't create a second organisation. Open the Group and add an Explorers section. Partnership in Scout Suite means they live as a section of the Group, not a linked second org.
Does each section need its own account?
No. One Group (or Explorer Unit) subscription covers every section. Leaders are invited onto that organisation and given the sections they work with — they don't sign up separately per section.
Can a leader be on more than one section?
Yes. Give them access to each section they help with. The same person can also belong to more than one Group or Unit if they're invited there too.
Members and moving on
Can a young person be in two sections at once?
Yes, inside the same organisation. Set as linking adds them to the next section and keeps them in the current one — no automatic end date. Both rosters show a Linking badge while they have two (or more) active memberships. Move is the hard cut: it closes the old section. Details: Moving on and transfers.
How do we transfer someone to another Group?
On the young person's Moving on tab, search for the destination Group or Explorer Unit and send a request. The receiving team accepts or declines from Young People. If you already belong to both organisations and pick a destination section, it completes immediately. The same record moves — badges, contacts, medical, consents and history stay attached. Invoices stay on the old organisation's books.
What if the next Group isn't on Scout Suite?
Download a leaving pack from the same Moving on tab — a PDF to print and a CSV to import. It is this young person only: identity, contacts, medical, consents, section history, badges and an attendance summary. It does not include other children or the Group's bank details.
Can we put the waiting list on our website?
Yes. Share the public signup link, or embed the form on WordPress with the free waiting list plugin. Offering a place creates the member; inviting the parent is a separate step. Walkthrough: Running a waiting list.
Parents
How do parents get access?
Invite the primary contact from the young person's record. They get an Accept Invitation link and then see invoices, Direct Debit, consent, details and awarded badges in the parent portal. Walkthrough: Getting parents online.
Can parents see the whole Group?
No. The parent portal is only their children — details, consent, invoices, badges and payments. They don't get the leader dashboard.
Payments
How do parents pay?
Outstanding invoices show in the parent portal. They can pay by card, or pay by Direct Debit if the Group has Stripe Direct Debit or GoCardless connected. Cash and bank transfers are recorded by a treasurer. Walkthrough: Collecting subs.
Do parents have to set up Direct Debit just to pay for a camp?
No. Camps and trips use the same invoices as membership subs — not a separate payments tool. A parent can pay a one-off camp invoice by card. Direct Debit is optional, and useful when they already have a mandate for subs.
Does Scout Suite support Direct Debit for subs?
Yes. Connect Stripe Direct Debit or the Group's own GoCardless account under Settings → Financial connections. Due invoices with an active mandate can collect overnight. You can still record cash and transfers without any of that.
Moving from OSM
Can we move from Online Scout Manager?
Yes. Scout Suite can import from OSM, and you can keep a one-way sync with OSM as the source of truth while you settle in. See Migrate from OSM and Syncing from OSM.
What happens to badge progress when we import from OSM?
You can include badges in the sync. Review them after the first run before leaders treat Scout Suite as the source of truth — while sync is on, OSM can overwrite mapped fields on the next run. Direct Debit mandates and OSM logins are not brought across.
Programme and badges
Do badges complete themselves from attendance?
On the night, mark who's there. Anyone present whose in-progress badge matches what the session covered gets that requirement ticked. The badge flips to complete when every requirement is done — a leader still awards it, same as handing one over. Walkthrough: Building a programme.
Districts and counties
Is there a district or county dashboard?
Yes — and it is free when Groups in your area pay for themselves. You only need central billing if you choose to fund Scout Suite for those Groups. County / Area / Region works the same way.
How do Groups connect to a district?
A district or county admin sends an affiliation invite (Invite group). It works for an Explorer Unit the same way it works for a Group. The Group or Unit admin accepts it, and the link is made.
What can the district team see?
Affiliation does not hand over the Group's young people, medical details or books. District and county dashboards are for the Groups in their area, billing and shared tools (such as call flows). A Group can escalate a serious incident to district; that is a deliberate action, not a live copy of every record.
Phones and messages
Do we get a group phone number?
You can. A UK group number, leader eSIMs and shareable call flows are a paid add-on on top of the subscription — they need a live Scout Suite plan because they have carrier costs. Walkthrough: Setting up group phones.
Can we email and text parents?
Yes. Email is included. SMS is available where messaging is configured (parents must have opted in). You can reuse email and message templates, and optionally post to a Facebook Page. Walkthrough: Sending messages.
Your data
Is our data secure and GDPR-ready?
The Group (or relevant charity) is usually the controller for member data; Scout Suite is the processor. Card and bank details stay with Stripe and GoCardless. The app includes consent, audit, retention, data-breach and subject access request workflows. Privacy policy: Privacy. Questions: privacy@scoutsuite.app.
Can we export our data?
Yes. Group admins can request a full organisation export from Settings. You can also export a section's member list, and download a leaving pack for one young person when they move on. The data is yours.
Who can see young people's records?
Leaders and helpers see what their role on that organisation allows — typically the sections they work with. Parents see their own children in the parent portal. District and county dashboards do not get the Group's member records just because of affiliation.
More detail
How-to guides when a paragraph is not enough
Walkthroughs for Explorer Units, moving on, OSM, parents, phones and the rest of the features that reward a proper start-to-finish read.