Certification-aware scheduling for aquatic centers

The idea

Every aquatic manager runs two systems that do not talk: a scheduling tool (or Excel) and a cert-expiry spreadsheet. When they drift apart, an uncertified guard sits a chair — which is not an inconvenience but a liability event that shows up in the post-incident lawsuit and can void insurance. Aplano’s $246k MRR shows horizontal shift scheduling sustains subscriptions; it also shows what horizontals treat as a footnote: qualifications are a filter, not a hard constraint with expiry dates, forecasting, and audit trails.

The wedge is making certification the spine of the scheduler — hard blocks, 90-day gap forecasts, swap rules that respect cert parity — plus the two aquatic-specific workflows nobody else models: chair rotations and the June onboarding of 40 teenagers at once. Timing the sale to summer prep season, when managers are visibly drowning, is the whole go-to-market.

Who pays

Pool managers, YMCAs, parks and recreation departments, and swim schools at $50-150/mo per facility — trivial against a single lifeguard’s monthly wage, and the compliance framing makes it a risk-management line item their board approves. Distribution through aquatic management associations, Red Cross instructor networks, and parks-department listservs; one district brings 3-10 pools per contract.

MVP scope

• Drag-and-drop weekly scheduling with position-based shifts
• Cert vault per staff member with expiry hard-blocks and 30-day warnings
• 90-day recert gap forecast against minimum coverage rules
• SMS shift notifications and cert-checked swap requests via Twilio
• Bulk CSV import for seasonal mass onboarding
• Skip for v1: payroll and time clocks, mobile apps, chemical/maintenance logs, class registration, multi-language

Build GuardBoard, a scheduling web app for aquatic centers.

Core flow: a manager creates a facility, defines positions (chair 1,
chair 2, slide, front desk, swim instructor) and adds staff. Each staff
record holds certifications — lifeguard, CPR/AED, first aid, WSI — with
issue and expiry dates and an uploaded card photo. The manager builds a
weekly schedule on a drag-and-drop grid; the engine hard-blocks assigning
anyone whose required cert is expired on that shift date and shows an
amber warning when a cert expires within 30 days of the shift. A
recert-gap forecast screen projects the next 90 days and flags dates
where certified coverage drops below the facility's minimum, so the
manager can book a recert class before it bites. Staff get shifts by SMS
via Twilio, confirm by reply, and can request swaps that the engine only
allows between equally certified guards. Rotation support: define a
chair-rotation pattern (30-minute intervals) and print the rotation sheet.

Stack: Next.js App Router with TypeScript, Postgres via Prisma, Twilio
for SMS, Stripe for billing.

Pages: schedule grid, staff roster with cert vault, recert forecast,
swap requests, facility settings, billing.

Non-obvious details: model certs as date ranges checked against shift
date, not today; build a bulk CSV import for seasonal onboarding of 40
teenage hires with certs in one pass.

Pricing: $75/mo per facility, $150/mo multi-pool districts, free June
trial timed to summer prep.