The clipboard at the door has run UK ranges for decades. It’s also illegible, easily lost, and a nightmare when the police ask for a record. Here’s exactly what changes when you switch.
The short version: paper is cheap to start and familiar — but it fails you exactly when it matters: when a record is illegible, missing, or needs producing for your firearms licensing department. A digital sign-in captures the same details, only complete, time-stamped, GPS-verified and retrievable in seconds.
What you actually get, day to day.
| Capability | Rangely | Paper range sheet |
|---|---|---|
| Record quality | ||
| Complete, legible record every time | ✓ | —illegible writing, skipped fields |
| Can’t be lost, spilt on or left in the rain | ✓ | — |
| Time-stamped & tamper-resistant | ✓ | —times written by hand, if at all |
| On the day | ||
| Members sign in from their own phone | ✓ | —queue at one clipboard |
| GPS-verified they were actually present | ✓ | — |
| See who’s on the complex right now | ✓ | — |
| Automatic sign-out so the sheet stays accurate | ✓ | —people forget to sign out |
| Compliance & retrieval | ||
| Find any member or date in seconds | ✓ | —flick through months of pages |
| Police / Home Office range sheet for any date range | ✓ | manualcopy out by hand |
| Print or export to CSV / Excel in one click | ✓ | — |
| Serials encrypted; no home addresses stored | ✓ | —an open book anyone can read or take |
| Setup & cost | ||
| Up and running | ~5 min | instantit’s just paper |
| No printing, storage boxes or lost folders | ✓ | — |
| Cost | from £50/yr | cheap up frontcostly when records fail |
Being fair about it.
It costs nothing to start, needs no phone or signal, and everyone already knows how to use it. For a tiny, informal set-up that never has to produce records, a clipboard can be enough — right up until the day it isn’t.
The moment your club has to prove who attended, with which firearms, and when — for the police, the Home Office or your insurer — digital wins outright. It’s complete, instant to retrieve, and impossible to lose. And switching takes about five minutes.
Keep the record your club is required to keep — without the paperwork. From £50 a year, live in 5 minutes, 30-day free trial, no card needed.
Start your free trial