RefTown will revolutionize the way you do business 

We service multiple organizations of various sizes—from less than 30 to several hundred—across all major sports. Our highly customizable service can be adapted to serve nearly any scheduling need.

RefTown is the most complete and most comprehensive official’s organization management package available 

Our features cover not only game assigning but can also provide a full web presence for your organization. We can be your only web site. 

Our features include a full set of communications options; election, survey, test, and signup functionality; documents archives, payroll calculations, customized interactive forms, and more. 

We are committed to providing reliable, user-friendly functionality with world-class customer support 

RefTown is designed with a highly intuitive and consistent theme and usage model throughout the site. Most functions have rollover pop-ups that guide you through the use of the site, eliminating the need for highly technical documentation.

RefTown is proven reliable and effective

Organizations that use RefTown have reduced their number of assigning errors as a result. In well over 1,000,000 assignments across multiple organizations representing multiple sports, there have been no missed assignments due to an error on the site.

The officials who use the site find many benefits—from easily locating schools to clear and efficient communication of their assignments and other information. 

  RefTown adapts to your needs

If you have features you'd like to see on RefTown, feel free to contact us and request them. We're frequently adding features based on the requests of customers. All new features are available for all customers to use at no additional charge. 

RefTown guarantees you'll be satisfied 

We are so confident that you'll like what we offer that we’ll give you a free, fully functional, no-obligation trial and will not ask for payment until you are satisfied.

When you choose RefTown, you can be confident that it will make big improvements to your organization.

• Game & Assignment Entry with extensive management and communication features
  • Highly customizable game entry options
    • Program you own lists of sports, leagues, levels, and types of games.
    • Program custom crewtypes or duties for special situations
    • Program locations in custom zones
    • Ability to enter multiple-game sets or to link multiple games together for simultaneous assigning.
  • Multiple Data Entry Modes
    • Direct Game-by-Game Entry
    • Assisted Direct Game Entry to accelerate multiple game entries.
    • Spreadsheet-based game import
    • Spreadsheet-based game export supporting re-importing for mass updates
    • Schools/Teams can be enabled to enter games directly into a "requested games" list where an assignor can approve the games to be moved to the official schedule or reject the request.
      • Notices can optionally be sent to the requesting school/team when action is taken
    • Schools/Teams can be enabled to request changes to existing games directly in the system. Such request are placed in the "requested games" list pending approval.
      • Notices can optionally be sent to the requesting school/team when action is taken
  • Game Management Dashboard for Assigners
    • Numeric and Statistical View of Game and Assignment Details
      • Analyze the status of game and assignment details across multiple categories to ensure
        • Game details are entered correctly
          • Includes communication options with both schools/teams and officials
        • Assignments are covered as desired
        • Officials are used as desired
          • Reports on multiple assignment criteria
            • Assignment counts based on selectable criteria
            • Repeats assignments with teams
            • Repeats assignments with partners
            • Average response time to assignments

• Multiple Game Assignment Tools
  • The system manages, based on your customized setup, the officials eligible for assigning to any game.
    • Considers
      • Availability
      • Sport specific qualifications
      • Duty specific qualifications
      • Location/Distance
      • Skill level (ratings)
      • Scratches (including team, location, or partner based or several broad categories)
    • Provides information about each official's assignment history with each of the teams involved in the game while making the assignments
  • Automatic assignor that considers all the same criteria of the manual assignment mode
    • Includes controls over several assignment considerations that allow tuning the auto-assignor to provide more desirable results.
  • Option to post specific games for self-assignment by officials
    • Only presents games to officials qualified for those games
    • Alternate mode to allow officials to request the games pending the assigners selection from among those requesting the assignment
    • Ability to block specific officials from access to self-assignment positions
    • Ability to grant specific officials complete access to select from all self-assignment positions
  • Tools to manage assignment responses on behalf of officials
  • Designate officials into pre-determined crews for group assigning

• Extensive Availability options
  • Fully integrated with scheduling functions
  • Officials have multiple ways to enter information
    • Repeating Day-of-Week entries
    • Date specific for single organizations
    • Date specific for all organizations
  • Information can be very specific or very general
    • Block entire days 
    • Block specific ranges of times
    • Block all but specific times
    • Add comments related to blocks
  • Official selectable automatic availability blocks for assignments in other organizations
  • Officials can designate a maximum number of days to be assigned over a period of time
  • Officials can designate a minimum number of days between games
  • Officials can designate multiple starting points to be used for driving distances depending on time of day
  • Multiple assignor accessible reports on availability
    • View individual officials calendars
    • View single day summaries with varying levels of detail
    • View several multi-day summaries
    • Export most reports to Excel for additional sorting and filtering

• Communication Tools
  • Email and, optionally, text message announcements of assignment changes
  • Customizable reminder system for schools/teams and/or officials
  • Automatic synchronization "my games" with Outlook, Google Android, or Apple iPhone and other ICS-based calendar programs
  • Automatic synchronization of "my games" with Outlook, Google Android, or Apple iPhone and other ICS-based calendar programs
  • Automatic synchronization of all upcoming games (for assignors) with Outlook, Google Android, or Apple iPhone and other ICS-based calendar programs
  • Manually exportable any list of games for import into Outlook

• Game View Options
  • Extensive search form options to allow location of games by almost any criteria
  • Several pre-programmed searches for quick and easy access
  • Multiple layout options with customizable levels of content
    • Lists
    • Grids
      • Calendar-based
      • School/Team vs Date
      • Official vs Date
  • Multiple sort options
  • Highly integrated navigation to related information

• Evaluation Management Tools
  • Designated evaluation/observation manager can schedule evaluators/observers to a game in much the same manner as officials are assigned
  • Evaluation management personnel can generate cross-referenced report of designated evaluators and target officials to determine when and if any of them are assigned games at the same location on the same date.

• Directory of Officials
  • Designate officials as eligible to work in specific zone, for specific sports, or for specific duties within the crew
  • Designate ratings levels for officials per sport to aid in assigning
    • Compare given rating with actual assignments including the tools to set ratings based on past assignments
  • Designate officials into pre-determined crews
  • Designate officials membership levels (visible or not visible to other officials)
  • Multiple programmable fields for dates, numerical information, yes/no qualifications, or free form text
    • Each field can be independently programmed to be
      • Visible to all officials
      • Visible to individual official 
      • Editable by individual officials
      • Minimum requirement for assignment eligibility
  • Photos of officials with tools to upload and manage photos
  • Export to Excel spreadsheet
  • Import new officials from Excel
  • Import previously exported lists of officials to update information based on either Reftown ID #'s or alternate ID # (for example, a State ID #)
  • Export of official's list for import into QuickBooks as vendors
  • Multiple printable directory options
  • Flexible controls for multiple contact forms

• Organization Board/Committee Directory
  
  • List member officials as part of a board or committee
  • Allows for members to contact other members based on their responsibilities

• Directory of Schools/Teams/Location/Payors
  • Common list to allow a single entry for entities that are used in multiple ways
  • Designate locations to be in specific zones
  • Designate teams to be in leagues  (conferences/districts) and/or levels (classifications) 
  • Export to Excel spreadsheet
  • Import new schools, teams, locations, or payors from Excel
  • Import previously exported lists of schools, teams, locations, or payors to update information based on either Reftown ID #'s or alternate ID # (for example, a State ID #)
  • Export schools, teams, locations, or payors list for import into QuickBooks as customers
  • Multiple printable directory options
  • Flexible controls for multiple contact forms

• Directory of School/Team Personnel (coaches, athletic directors, etc.)
  • Affiliate school/team personnel with one or more schools/teams.
  • Affiliate multiple school/team personnel with a school/team
  • Export to Excel spreadsheet
  • Import new officials from Excel
  • Import previously exported lists of officials to update information based on either Reftown ID #'s or alternate ID # (for example, a State ID #)
  • Export of official's list for import into QuickBooks as vendors
  • Multiple printable directory options
  • Flexible controls for multiple contact forms

•  Game/Assignment-based Invoice generation for officials and schools/teams.
  • Selectively generate invoices from schedules based on game characteristics for as few or as many as desired
  • Tracks changes to games creating necessary credits/offsets from previously invoiced amounts to current amount
  • Support for multiple game-based fee adjustments
    • Either flat rate or percentage based
    • Either add or subtract amounts
    • Independently programmable for different types of games
  • Multiple travel payment options
    • Flat rate
    • Per-mile rates
      • Minimums
      • Maximums
      • Multiple rate ranges
      • Roundtrip or One-way
    • First game only or per game
    • From a common base locations or from multiple base locations (for officials in different regions)
    • Split travel payments across crew members in programmable percentages

• Customizable Invoice Categories
  • Enter custom invoice items using a set of programmable categories.
    
    • Each optionally includable as part of 1099 eligible income
  • Usable for multiple things such as:
    • Dues
    • Equipment
    • Scholarships
    • Fundraisers
    • Government Adjustments such as garnishments
    • Pay advances
    • and more

• Payment Options
  • Ability to pay officials by true direct deposits executed within 1-2 business days
  • Ability collect payments from officials through PayPal for dues or other fees

• General Invoice Features
  
  • Customized invoice content to communicate related information to officials/schools/teams.
  • Track payment status of invoices, either generically or with specific details (method, dates, check numbers, etc.)
  • Communication of invoices to officials/schools/teams by email
  • Printable invoices 

• 1099 Generation and Distribution
  • Generation of 1099s based on customer selectable thresholds to match various state requirements
  • Electronic distribution of 1099s to officials based on current IRS regulations (encrypted and password protected using official's SSN or TIN).
  • Electronic filing with the IRS and most states

• Other Functions
  
  • Tools to reconcile amounts collected from schools/teams and amounts paid to officials on a per-game basis.
  • Tools to compare school/team and officials pay scales
  • Export to QuickBooks for both officials and schools/teams

•  Document/File Library
  • Post documents or other files such as videos
  • Post links to external sites
  • Control which groups of people can access the documents/files
  • Organization into folds for convenient organization and management

• Customizable Forms
  • Multiple Types
    • Registration
    • Evaluation/Observation
      • Either linked with games or generic
      • Tools to track games where forms have or have not been submitted
    • Ejection
    • Applications
    • General Feedback
  • All types allow for customizable content 
  • Options to control who can access each form
  • Options to control who receives  email copies of forms and who can view submitted forms
  • Exportable to Excel for detailed analysis

• Ballot System
  • Can be used for multiple purposes
    • Board elections
  • Supports organization operations by providing a mechanism for voting on different types of things
    • Yes/No
    • Favor/Oppose
    • Lists of Officials (with optional photo-ballot with photos drawn from the roster)
    • Numeric answers
    • Generic lists of choices
    • Text Entries (write-in)
  •  Supports multiple vote formats
    • Select many (within a minimum and maximum number)
    • Ranked lists with Instant-Runoff vote tabulation 
      • For elections where a majority is required to win
    • Ranked lists with point-based rankings
  • Can specify eligible voters in multiple ways
    • All officials/schools
    • Officials/Schools by certain characteristics such as level
    • Specific Officials/Schools
  • Rotates answer order for fairness when there are a large number of candidates....officials with last names starting with Z not always at the end.
  • Option to block votes for self
  • Options to allow candidates to post statements on the ballot
  • Vote reminder tools that provide instructions on how to vote including direct, password-free, access to the ballots for school/teams
  • Ability to export and import lists of questions
  • Options to control when and how much detail is visible to administrators
    • Individual ballots are secret but administrators can choose to see a list of submitters and a list of non-submitters
    • Administrator can choose to see the results as ballots are case or only when the balloting closes
    • The settings for these options are posted on the ballot and can not be changed once the ballot opens
  • Options to control how the results are released to the votes
    • Immediately upon close
    • Only when "Approved"
    • Never
  • Options to control how many times a person can submit an entry
  • Can optionally send confirmation to submitter with or without actual details of submission

• Signups/Surveys
  • Very similar to ballot system but results are not secret...administrators can see results throughout
  • Useful for things like
    • Banquet or other organization event signups
    • Gethering feedback from membership on various topics

• Exams/Quizzes
  • Also very similar to ballot system and the signup/survey system. Results are not secret...administrators can see results throughout
  • Adds ability to randomize question order
  • Adds ability to impose a time limit
  • Allows entry of answer key
    • Automatic scoring with programmable pass/fail levels
  • Useful for things like
    • Certification testing
    • Refresher quizzes

• Ask the Ref function
  • Publicly visible function to allow people (officials, coaches, or even the public) to ask questions
  • Questions must be approved before they are visible to the public
  • Designated individual manage content

• News Log
  • Feature that allows the posting of headlines that are to appear on the organization's home page
  • Articles are dated and fall off the home page automatically after a few weeks but are still accessible on the New specific page

 In addition to RefTown primary (game and game assignment) function and secondary (general information functions), we also provide a variety of other features and services.

• Consulting and Advising
  • When requested, we can often provide direction and advice in many areas of organization management and operations beyond the immediate use of RefTown.
  • We can assist with some data entry and managment issues

• Customizable email distribution groups
  • Create a list of people that are frequently addressed in the email system

• Allow officials to communicate with each other through RefTown
  • You can limit how many people they can email at once to prevent misuse

• Site Archives
  • RefTown allows organizations to create copies of their site that are frozen in time.
  • Usually executed in the off-season
  • Breaks all dependencies between the current system configuration and prior season's content.
  • Keeps old information accessible but out of the way

• Customizable content to create a semi-custom website.
  • Available in two places
    • On each regular page, organizations can add areas of fully custom content
    • Customers can add entirely custom pages
  • Fully customizable with a full-featured What-You-See-is-What-You-Get editor.
    • Freely format content with various fonts, colors, tables, etc.
    • Include images, videos, links, etc.
  • Control which groups of people see which content or even disable content as needed

• Permissions Control

  • Reftown provides approximately 20 different permissions categories to allow organizations to designate various partial administrator right to various members

• Persistent login
  • Reftown provides a secure persistent login function that grants officials and schools/teams immediate access to the site without logging in.
  • This function doesn't allow access to sensitive information without first providing a password
  • The system using a rolling code type system such that prevent reuse of the automatic login credentials for subsequent accesses. On each use, the site provides the user's browser with a new set of credentials to be used for the next access.

• Security
  • RefTown utilizes state of the are security measures to ensure your data remains safe
    • All passwords are encrypted using an algorithm that even prevents someone with direct access to the internals of the system from viewing your passwords
    • All sensitive information (SSN's, Birthdates, Banking Information, etc.) is encrypted using state of the art encryption algorithms.
    • After a small number of failed login attempts to an account, the account is locked for a period of time to prevent hackers from attempting to guess a person's password

• Service Reliability
  • We employ redundant hardware and internet connection strategies to ensure maximum access to our systems including robust power backup systems that can ensure access in the event of most foreseeable situations
  • We implement very extensive rotating backup strategies with partial backups throughout the day along with nightly and weekly backups with varying lengths of retention as well as offsite storage of nightly backups.

All you need to do to start using RefTown is provide an organization name, abbreviation, at least one user/administrator with an email address, and what sport or sports your organization covers.

You can contact us at webmaster@reftown.com or you can fill out our question/feedback form at https://www.reftown.com/rt_feedback.asp.

 We also offer to import your initial data for you for no charge—rosters, configuration assistance, etc. We aim to help you start using RefTown with as little effort as possible.

BASE SUBSCRIPTION

• $75 plus
  • $5 per official up to 300 officials in blocks of 10 ($50 for every 10 officials)
  • $4 per official from 301 to 500 officials in blocks of 10 ($40 for every 10 officials)
  • $3 per official over 500 officials in blocks of 10 officials ($30 for every 10 officials)

Note: All current website features and functions, except for direct deposit and 1099 services, are included in base price.

Includes 50 text message units (160 characters per unit) per official. Extra text messages units available at $25 per 2000 units.

DIRECT DEPOSITS, for subscribed officials organizations

• Annual Fee
  • Per Officials Organization: $50
    • in addition to the base subscription costs for primary subscriber,
• Wire Funding: $10 per batch plus $0.65 per transaction  (***You will incur a fee from your bank to send the wire)
• ACH Funding: $0.90 per transaction (***May not  be available to all organizations)
• Returned Deposit Fee: $5
• Batch Edit Fee: $25
  • (if a payment batch needs to be modified or deleted after sending to the processor)
• Insufficient Funds Fee: $50
  • (if a payment batch is to be funded by ACH but is rejected due to insufficient funds)
  • May be higher if our provider's fees exceed $50.

DIRECT DEPOSITS, for associated schools/districts/leagues/etc

• Annual Fee
  • For School, Districts, Leagues, etc.: $200
    • one fee for all sports
• $2.50 per transaction
• Returned Deposit Fee: $5
• Batch Edit Fee: $25 (if a payment batch needs to be modified or deleted after sending to the processor)
• Insufficient Funds Fee: $50 MINIMUM...Based on what our provider charges
  • (if a payment batch is to be funded by ACH but is rejected due to insufficient funds)

PAYPAL / VENMO

• For Officials Organizations (in addition to base subscription fees)
  • Annual Fee: $0.00
  • RefTown Transaction Fees
    • $0.40 per transaction
  • PayPal/Venmo Fees (subject to change by PayPal/Venmo)
    • $0.25 per transaction
• For School, Districts, Leagues, etc.
  • RefTown Transaction Fees
    • $2.25 per transaction
  • PayPal/Venmo Fees (subject to change by PayPal/Venmo)
    • $0.25 per transaction

1099 GENERATION, ELECTRONIC DISTRIBUTION AND E-FILING

• +$1 per official over the base subscription rate regardless of how many will receive a 1099
• Minimum: $50

ACCOUNT LOGIN 

On RefTown, you will generally have only one login username/password no matter how many organizations you are part of. When you log in, RefTown will automatically identify all accounts you have access to by searching all rosters for the email address associated with your login credentials.  

Logging into RefTown: 

1. Go to www.reftown.com
2. In the login box on the right side of the home page, enter your username and password
3. Click the "Login" Button just below the username and password boxes

You will now be logged into RefTown. Note the red box at the top and near the right that lists your name and the currently active account.

Moving between accounts/associations/sports/schools: 

1. Click the red box at the top and near the right that lists your name and the currently active account
   • It will open a list of all accounts that are linked to the currently active account
2. Locate the association/school you want to access
3. Click anywhere in the row of the desired account to jump to that account.

RefTown will also remember the last selected account and will select that account first upon your next login, usually taking you directly to one of your in-season sports.

If you are affiliated with multiple organizations and do not see all of them in your accounts list, the email addresses on the accounts are not the same. You can "link" them together by updating your email addresses to match (or by having any administrator do so on your behalf).

UPDATING YOUR PROFILE

Changing your Contact Information (address, email address, phone, etc.): 

1.  Log In.
2. Locate and click on your name in the menu bar at the top of the page (in a red box).
3. Click "Profile..." (in a red box).
4. Click the desired category.
5. Make any necessary changes and click update.
6. Select the organizations that your wish to save these changes to...this allows you to make the same change to all of your accounts at one time.
7. Click "Update This Item"

Note: If you change your email address, it may cause a new username and password to be generated and emailed to you depending on various security criteria. An existing username will remain with the old email address as long as some account still lists that username.

YOUR GAMES

After Logging in, you have a several ways to get to your games. A few of them are:

1. From the home page, locate your next few games listing in the middle of the page
   • Click "See full schedule" to see all of your future games that are in the system
   • Click "Unaccepted Games" to see any future games that you've not previously confirmed (or that have since been changed)
2. Click the menu "Schedules" -> "Games" ... this will list all future games that have been entered into the system

You can optionally use the "Search for Games" filter on the games page to refine the listing of games to only show one subset of games (V, JV, etc) at a time.

Confirming your games: 

Once you've reached a listing of your games, you' may need to accept/approve the games/assignments:

1. Check either "Yes," "No," or "OK" by each game as is appropriate.
   • If "No", enter a reason why.
   • Recommended for Schools/Teams when the organization has the feature enabled: For those that are not OK, enter a "Change Request" to specify what exactly is incorrect.
2. Once you've responded to all games, click the "Submit Responses" button at the bottom right
   • Note that it is not absolutely necessary that you response to "all" games at the same time. If you choose, you can deal with them in multiple sessions.

After submitting, you'll be taken to a page that will summarize your responses and, depending on the organization's configuration options, an email will be sent to the assignor(s) with the details of the responses.

UPDATING YOUR USERNAME OR PASSWORD 

Changing your Username: 

After logging in:

1. Click the red box at the top and near the right that lists your name.
2. Click "Profile..."
3. Click "Change Username"
4. Enter your preferred username
5. Click the "Change My Username" button

If the entered username is available, it will be changed immediately; otherwise, you'll be informed that it is not available.

Changing your Password: 

After logging in:

1. Click the red box at the top and near the right that lists your name and the currently active account
2. Click "Profile...".
3. Click "Change Password".
4. Enter your current password.
5. Enter your preferred password.
6. Enter your preferred password again.
7. Click the "Change My Password" button.

OFFICIALS...

Officials will need to update several more pieces of information.

• For details on how the RefTown Availability and Scratch system works, see https://www.reftown.com/kbp/index.php?CategoryID=18
• If you are an official in more than one organization that uses RefTown, see https://www.reftown.com/kbp/index.php?View=entry&EntryID=199

COACHES/ADs...

• For additional info on using the system as a COACH/AD, see https://www.reftown.com/kbp/index.php?CategoryID=55

• There are many more articles in our Knowledge Base that may be helpful to you.

Availability information is entered through "Schedules" -> "Availability"

You have two ways that availability information can be entered.

1. By day of the week
2. By specific dates

If both are entered, the specific date information is used.

If you have accounts on Reftown with more than one organization, you have two levels where you can ether availability information

1. Specific to one organization only

2. For all organizations linked to your primary email address (global)

If you only belong to one organization, the global options will not appear.

The system will use the first information it finds by looking at each source in the following order: 

1. Information for a specific date for the specific organization
2. Information for a specific date for all organizations (global).
   • This is only available to those that have more than one RefTown account under the same username.
3. Information for a day of the week for the  specific organization (default).
   • This can be used to establish a standing availability that applies week after week unless more specific information is entered in either of the date specific calendars.

The priority is determined on a date-by-date basis.

If in in doubt about how the multiple calendars work, use your organization's date specific calendar.

To enter availability information for specific dates  for the current organization:

1. Click on "Schedules" -> "Availability"
2. Navigate to the desired month.
3. Click the "Edit Availability" button. (top right corner)
4. Click "Specific Dates for <organization name> only"
5. Mark yourself as available or not available for entire dates or specific times on specific dates.
6. Click "Save Changes"

To enter availability information for specific dates  for all organizations:

1. Click on "Schedules" -> "Availability"
2. Navigate to the desired month.
3. Click the "Edit Availability" button. (top right corner)
4. Click "Specific Dates for ALL Organizations"
5. Mark yourself as available or not available for entire dates or specific times on specific dates.
6. Click "Save Changes"

To enter availability information by day of the week for the current organization:

1. Click on "Schedules" -> "Availability"
2. Click the "Edit Availability" button. (top right corner)
3. Click "Day-of-Week Availability for <organization name> only"
4. Mark yourself as available or not available for entire days or specific times on specific days.
5. Click "Save Changes"

TIPS ON ENTERING AVAILABILITY INFORMATION

To block an entire day/date

• • Click "N/A"
• To make yourself available for the entire day/date
  • Click "Avail" and leave the times blank
• To allow a limited range of times for the date
  • Click "Avail" enter times in one or both of the "From" and "To" boxes

There are also additional slots for up to 2 time windows of availability. To access the additional slots, click the + button after the last visible time slot. If any of the time windows indicates you are available for a given time, you will be considered available for that time.

Examples:

If you organization use the driving distance feature, each time slot will have a zip code box that you can use to specify where you will be starting from at that time. If you do not enter a zip code in these boxes, your general early/late zip codes will be used or, if those are not entered, your home zip code will be used.

For example, you could put a zipcode for the east side of your city for a time slot from 3pm to 6pm and then a zip code on the west size of town from 6pm to 9pm to indicate you start in the east side of your town but move to the west side later in the evening. You can have up to 2 different locations each day.

There are a 4 buttons at the top of the calendar that may assist you in filling out your availability. You can use them to make all days/dates as available, not available, or clear all information, or replicate the first 7 days of the month to the rest of the month. Use this if most of your availability is the same and then fill in the boxes that are different.

Each date/date box has a button to delete that box's information....it is a small red X at the top of each date's box on the calendar.

Updates to your availability calendar take effect immediately. However, it is possible that assignments that are made but not yet published might be in conflict with availability data entered after the assignment was initially entered. The assignor also has the option to override the availability and assign you in conflict with your availability.

It is also possible, in the event of a rescheduled game, for you to be assigned to a game in conflict with your availability. The assignor may, at the time it is rescheduled, choose to leave you on that game or may choose to reassign it to someone else.

When viewing your availability calendar, you can see which source is being used for any specific date in a gray bar at the top of each date.

• If a match is found you wil be sent an email with your username and a special link that can be used to get and/or set a new password.
  • This link will only be valid for 48 hours after it is generated
  • This link may be invalidated if you repeat this process...only the last genrated link will be valid
    
• If your email address is not found, you may need to submit a registration form (under the "Public" menu or on the main RefTown home page). Once it is submitted, your organization's administrator will be notified and may enable your account. Once your account is enabled, you'll receive your account username by email.
  • If the organization is not configured for online registrations, contact the association through other means (phone, email, etc.) to get your account entered into the system (or to get your email address corrected).

• NOTE for SCHOOLS (or TEAMS for some organizations):
  • The email address entered in the system for your school may belong to any individual in the sports program—Athletic Director, Coach, Secretary, etc. Please try these other addresses. If none of them match, contact the association's administrator to ensure that your school/team is in the system and that your email address is correct.

1. In the email that you receive, click the "Create/Reset Password" link.
2. On the page that opens, you will be given a new password. It will be in a yellow box at the top of the page.
3. Make note of the password you're provided.
4. If you wish to choose your own password, you can do so on the same page by following the instructions in the "Choose Your Own Password" box.

1. (Recommended) Go to login page first:
   1. Go to www.reftown.com
   2. Enter your username (in the login box on the right site).
   3. Enter your password
   4. Click the Login Button
      
      This will take you to the organization that you most recently accessed. After logging in, you can move to other accounts through your Account menu...Click your name in the top right corner and select a different organization.
       
2. Select an organization first
   1. Go to www.reftown.com
   2. Click on your organization name
   3. Click Login (In top right corner)
   4. Enter your username
   5. Enter your password
   6. Click the Login Button

This will take you to the selected organization.

1. Log in
2. Click on your name in the red box on the RefTown menu bar.
3. Click on "Profile..."
4. Click “Change Username”
   • (shortcut link: https://www.reftown.com/login_chun.asp
5. Enter your preferred username
6. Click the "Change My Username" button

If your selected username is available, it will be changed immediately. If it is not available, you'll be informed that it is already taken.

Note that your username is tied directly to a single email address. Through that username, you'll have access to all accounts that list that email address.

1. Log in
2. Click on your name in the red box on the RefTown menu bar
3. Click on "Profile..."
4. Click on the link "Change My Password"
   • (shortcut link: https://www.reftown.com/login_chpwd.asp)
5. Enter the old password
6. Enter the new password in both new password boxes
7. Click the "Change My Password" button

No, by default your email address is chosen as your username. However, you can modify your username to be anything you want as long it is not already in use.

Note, however, that your username will be tied directly to one email address and will give you access to any accounts that list that email address.

·      Officials or schools/teams can update their contact information: mailing address, physical address, phone numbers, email addresses, fax numbers, and pager numbers.

·      A school/team can also enter a website address.

·      Neither officials nor schools are permitted to modify their names—they must contact an administrator to have their name changed.

Your username can be just about anything you like. By default, it is set to your email address, but you can change it. It can include letters, numbers, spaces, and punctuation. The "case" of the letters in your username DOES NOT matter. If your username is or resembles an email address, it must be your own email address.

Your password can also be just about anything you like. By default, it is set to random letters and numbers, but you can change it. It can include letters, numbers, spaces, and punctuation. The "case" of the letters in your password DOES matter. A password must be at least 6 characters.

This happens when there are too many attempts to log into your account with an incorrect password. When there are more than 5 login attempts in a row with an incorrect password, the account will be locked. When your account is locked, you will not be able to access the account for 30 minutes. You should request that your password be sent to you and try again once you have received your correct password and have waited 30 minutes after your last unsuccessful try.

Accounts are connected through email addresses. You can have access to all of your accounts with a single login (1 username, 1 password). Each username is connected to a single email address and to all accounts that list that address on the roster.

Once you log in, you can switch between all accounts having that email address.

To switch accounts

1. Click the individualized Accounts Menu (a red box at the top with your name that appears after log in)
2. Locate the account you want to access
3. Click anywhere on the line for that account

Notes:

• RefTown remembers the last account you accessed and returns you to that one the next time you log in
• When you switch accounts, all permissions will be configured for the new account. You can change back and forth freely....keeping in mind that, if you've opened multiple browser windows/tabs by Shift-Click or Control-Click, all actions will relate to the most recent account you've selected

If you have a Yahoo email address, you will likely have difficulty in receiving emails from RefTown, particularly your username/password email.

Yahoo, and only Yahoo, actively forces emails from our site into the junk/spam folder. We've yet to find a case of a missing username/password email on Yahoo that is not found there.

Here are two different sets of instructions to configure Yahoo to allow our emails through (they both do the same thing, just two different approaches, ):

• http://safesenderslist.com/yahoo.html (In step #3, add mailer@reftown.com as the email address contact)
• https://www.reftown.com/kbp/index.php?View=entry&EntryID=184#yahoo (useful if you've already located the email in your junk/spam folder)

See the article referenced below on having your username/password sent again if needed.

We apologize for this problem but the emails are making it to Yahoo but not to the inbox. We've appealed to Yahoo on this issue and they refuse to address this problem. Complaints to Yahoo, from you, may help with this issue for future users.

Feel free to contact us if you need assistance.

"Keep me Logged In":

When returning to the site after being away, the "Keep me Logged In" feature only provides basic official-level or school/team level access. It does not enable administrative or assignor access or any other elevated permissions level. A user with access to anything more than basic permissions will still be logged in (partially), but only with the same permissions as any other official. The primary reason for that is security.

As a result, the "Keep me Logged In" is more of a benefit for officials than assignors. It can, however, be of some benefit to assignors. You can look up names on the roster and such without full access.

For access to some functions, even basic level users will need to provide their password to proceed. For example, any profile edits will require a password-based login.

An indication that you've used the "Keep me Logged In" option is the yellow triangle by your name in the top right:

If you see that yellow triangle and wish to enable any extra permissions you may have, click on it, then click "Full Login" in order to provider your password.

"Remember Me":

This will cause your browser to remember your username but not your password. Other features from your browser may remember your password for you.

The RefTown Mobile app only uses the primary email address to associate your accounts together. It accesses accounts where your first email address is the one matching the login info. The website will log you in using any of the three email addresses listed on an account.

If you are not seeing one or more organizations in the app, you'll need to edit your profile to ensure the email address being used to log into the app is listed as your primary email address in each account.

To fix it�

1. Log into RefTown from a web browser�.(for any of the three accounts)
    
2. Edit your profile
   • Click your name in the top right corner.
   • Click �Profile��
   • Click �Email�
3. Make sure the desired email address is listed as the first email address, then save the changes.
   • It will save all of the email addresses as listed to all of your organizations, making them all the same.
      
4. Switch to each association on the website.
   • The app assumes you�re already logging into each account from the website.
   • This will initialize each account to be ready to use in the app.

You should then be able to access all organizations within the app.

To function properly, RefTown functions (particularly menus) require that you enable javascript in your web browser.

Internet Explorer 7.0 & 8.0

1. Open Internet Explorer
2. Click Tools, and then click Internet Options
3. Click the Security tab
4. Click Internet to choose the Internet zone
5. Click the Custom Level button
6. Scroll down to the Scripting section and then, in Active Scripting, click Enable
7. Click OK to close Security Settings
8. Click OK to close Internet Options
9. Refresh your browser

iPhone

1. Go to the Home screen by pressing the Home button or by unlocking your phone.
2. Press the settings button
3. Select Safari from the Settings menu
4. Turn on JavaScript by touching the JavaScript toggle
5. Press the Home button to return the the iPhone home screen
6. Select the Safari icon to return to Safari

Internet Explorer 6.x

1. Access the Tools menu and select Internet Options
2. Click the Security tab
3. In the Security dialog, click on the globe for "Internet" zone
4. Click on the button labeled "Custom Level"
5. In the dialog that appears, scroll down to the heading called "Scripting"
6. Click the "Enable" button under "Active Scripting" to turn JavaScript on

Firefox 2.x & 3.x

1. Open Firefox.
2. On the Tools menu, click Options.
3. Click on the Content icon. (Fig. 1)
4. Check the box next to Enable JavaScript. (Fig. 1)
5. Click the Advanced button to open the Advanced JavaScript Options box. (Fig. 2)
6. Check the boxes under Allow scripts to section that you want to allow.
7. Click OK.
8. Click OK.

Safari

1. Open Safari
2. On the Safari menu, click on Preferences.
3. Click the Security icon.
4. Click on Enable JavaScript next to the Web Content section if it is not checked.
5. Close the Preferences window.
6. Close and restart Safari.

To function properly, RefTown requires that you enable cookies in your web browser. Enabling cookies allows the website to recognize you as you browse through the site. For most functionality, only "Session" cookies are required. These are automatically deleted every time you close your browser. In some browsers, you can enable only session cookies separately from normal cookies. To have the site remember your username and association, you will need "First-Party" cookies. Reftown never requires cookies called "Third-Party" cookies.

Microsoft Edge

1. Open Edge
2. Click the "three dot" menu in the top right
3. Click "Settings"
4. Click "View Advanced Settings"
5. Click the "Cookies" menu
6. Choose either "Don't block cookies" or "Block only third party cookies"

Microsoft Internet Explorer 7, 8, 9, 10, & 11

1. Go to your Tools menu and choose Internet Options
2. Click the Privacy tab
3. Click the Advanced button
4. Mark both checkboxes that appear, and make sure that you have chosen Accept from the "First-party Cookies" radio button
5. Click OK in both dialog boxes

Chrome

1. Either click the triple-bar/dot icon at the upper right of the browser toolbar and click "settings" or type "chrome://settings/" in your address bar. Mac users: If you don't see the wrench icon, go to the menu bar at the top of your screen and click Chrome.
2. Click the Show Advanced Settings at the bottom of the page..
3. Click Content settings in the "Privacy" section.
4. In the Cookies tab in pane that opens, select "Allow local data to be set (recommended)" or, if you choose to block more aggressively, add an exception for RefTown under "Manage Exceptions..."

(More Chrome Cookie details)

iPhone

1. Go to the Home screen by pressing the Home button or by unlocking your phone
2. Select the Settings icon
3. Select Safari from the Settings menu
4. Select Accept Cookies from the Safari menu
5. Select From visited from the Accept Cookies menu
6. Press the Home button to return to the iPhone home screen
7. Select the Safari icon to return to Safari
8. Before the cookie settings change will take effect, you must restart Safari. To restart Safari, press and hold the Home button (for around five seconds) until the iPhone display goes blank and the home screen appears
9. Select the Safari icon to return to Safari

Firefox

1. Click on your Tools menu and choose Options
2. In the dialog box that appears, click the Privacy tab
3. From here you can either enable cookies for all sites, or just for RefTown
4. To enable cookies for all sites, mark the checkbox and click OK
5. If you prefer to enable the cookies only for RefTown, click the Exception button, and on the next box, enter https://www.reftown.com and click Allow

Safari

1. On the toolbar, click Safari and choose Preferences
2. On the Preferences menu, choose Security
3. On the Security menu, you'll see three radio buttons referring to cookies
4. Choose either to allow all cookies, or to allow cookies for sites you navigate to—either of these will enable cookies for the RefTown site

This happens when there are too many attempts to log into your account with an incorrect password. When there are more than 5 login attempts in a row with an incorrect password, the account will be locked. When your account is locked, you will not be able to access the account for 30 minutes. You should request that your password be sent to you and try again once you have received your correct password and have waited 30 minutes after your last unsuccessful try.

Becasue various email programs are accessed differently, RefTown supports a few methods when clicking on email address links.

If you have never clicked on an email address on RefTown, we will ask you what method you prefer. You have the chose of having RefTown transfer the email address to your system's default email program or to one of several web-based email services: AOL Webmail, GMail, MSN/Hotmail/Windows Live, or Yahoo.

When you click on an email address or email icon on RefTown, it attempts to transfer the email address to the email application as you have selected.

If you receive an error message, it is likely that your computer is not configured correctly to allow you to click on an email address.

To see what this is set to for Internet Explorer:

1. Click on the “Tools” Menu
2. Click on “Internet Options”
3. Click on the tab “Programs”
4. Set the “E-mail:” box to your desired email program if not already set

There are two file formats in common use for transferring calendar data between various programs. RefTown supports both of the common formats: vCalendar 1.0 and vCalendar 2.0.

You may need to change a setting in RefTown to have it export the correct version.

You can select the other main format under:

• "Your personal accounts menu (red box at the top with your name)"
• "Profile..."
• "Calendar Preferences"
• Check (or uncheck) "Use vCalendar 1.0 Format"

Are the times of your games transferring incorrectly?

RefTown supports the automatic padding of start times with a pregame time and/or a travel time. You change the amount of time used in each case as follows:

• "Your personal accounts menu (red box at the top with your name)"
• "Profile..."
• "Calendar Preferences"
• Enter the number of minutes by which you want to pad the assignment

WHAT IS HAPPENING...

RefTown normally sends all emails out in a form that is commonly used by mailing lists. The email headers are set to show the email was sent by reftown.com on behalf of the person who sent it.

From: john.doe@aol.com

Sender: mailer@reftown.com

Repliy-To: john.doe@aol.com

When such an email is also sent to either another aol user or copied to the person who sent it, AOL's email system sees that it is "From" an aol address and "To" an aol address. AOL determines that it must be a bogus email since it knows it didn't come from an AOL system....they ignore the "Sender" designation. As a result, AOL generates a bounce message. In most cases, the original email is actually delievered and the bounce message is just a nussaince.

HOW TO PREVENT IT...

RefTown offers an option to each user to change how emails are sent that they trigger....they may elect to have the emails sent simply "From" mailer@retown.com. The emails are still sent in such a way that replies will be directed to the actual sender but it will not indicated that it is from AOL.

To set this option...

1. Log in to RefTown
2. Click on your account menu in the upper right of the menu bar
3. Click "Profile..."
4. Click "Global Preferences"
5. Click the checkbox for "Set FROM Address On Emails to Generic RefTown Address"
6. Click "Update This Item"

All future emails will then be sent with the headers indicating it was sent by RefTown

From: mailer@reftown.com

Sender: mailer@reftown.com

Repliy-To: john.doe@aol.com

EFFECT OF THIS OPTION...

Emails in the recipients inbox will not show as "From" the person who sent it but from "RefTown User (for John Doe)".

Accounts are connected through email addresses. You can have access to all of your accounts with a single login (1 username, 1 password). Each username is connected to a single email address and to all accounts that list that address on the roster.

Once you log in, you can switch between all accounts having that email address.

To switch accounts

1. Click the individualized Accounts Menu (a red box at the top with your name that appears after log in)
2. Locate the account you want to access
3. Click anywhere on the line for that account

Notes:

• RefTown remembers the last account you accessed and returns you to that one the next time you log in
• When you switch accounts, all permissions will be configured for the new account. You can change back and forth freely....keeping in mind that, if you've opened multiple browser windows/tabs by Shift-Click or Control-Click, all actions will relate to the most recent account you've selected

On various game-related pages, you will find a fairly powerful search form. You can search/filter the various pages/reports based on nearly all game criteria: Date, Status, ID #, nature of the game, the participants of the game (by name or by categorizations), by administrative ownership, or by the text in the various comment fields.

When execution those searches, it is possible to select multiple items in each drop down list. However, to do so, you must first click the "Multi-Search" button at the top in order to enable that functionality. This is not on by default because it can put a large burden on some user's internet browsers, making the loading of the related pages very slow, even if they were not intending to use the search. If it works well on all of the systems you normally use, you can enabled it permanently under your profile options.

Also, when using the game search, you'll have the option of formatting the output (on some pages) in one of several formats.

Those formats include:

• Simply Game lists
• Calendar Grid formats with or without various game details or counts of games in various states. 
• Grids of either officials, locations, or teams vs. Dates.

In most of the Grid-based formats, you have choose whether to include various game details.

There are several ways to locate games/matches.

The primary way to access games is through the Schedules - > Games/Matches page search form ("Search for Games/Matches").

Select the criteria of interest: date(s), schools, levels, leagues, etc. and then click "Search Now."

Make sure to clear any field you do not wish to search on (e.g., your own name is selected by default under the officials field).

Note that once you've searched for a set of criteria, the header of the games page will not only list the criteria searched with, but also will, for most fields, have a "Previous" and "Next" link. You can step a day at a time or a school at a time with these links. 

There are also other ways to locate certain categories of games/matches. Using the QuickLinks at the top of the Games/Matches page, you can access the most commonly used set of searches: today's game, tomorrow's games, etc.

In addition, Assignors and Administrators can access schedules from the rosters. For each school/team on the roster, there may be several links available to take you to games/matches at that location, have that team as the home team, have that team as the away team, or all of the above.

Go to "Schedules" -> "Game Request" (only available to schools and assignors).

The interface for schools is the same as the assignor's interface (see the related article). The only difference is that the games requested by schools do not go directly to the schedule but into a requested games list where the assignor can choose to put them on the schedule or can delete the request.

To enable this feature, go to:

1. Go to Administration -> Configuration
2. In block #9 GAME PAYOR/TEAM, click on"Response & Request Options
3. Check "Enable Payors to Request New Games" and/or "Enable Payors to Request Game Changes".
4. Click Update This Item.

There are three ways to add games to the system:

1. Assignors/Administrators clicking the  button on the games page
2. Assignors/Administrators importing the games from a .csv or .xls file
3. Enabling schools to request games on RefTown...Schedules -> Game Request

It depends on the settings chosen by your organization.

By default, officials can only see who is working at games at the same location and on the same date as their own assignments. Other games will only show "Assigned" or "Unassigned" in place of the officials' names. Some organizations even choose to hide from officials the assignment status of games not assigned to the official.

Some associations choose to reveal all assignments to all officials, but some enable the ability to see the assigned officials' names when searching for games by a specific date or within a certain number of days preceding a game.

By default, schools/teams can not see the officials. There are options for an organization to reveal the officials names to the payor or to any team on a game. When the names are generally visible, the names can be hidden until the official accepts the assignment.

Yes, depending on the options chosen by the organization.

By default, schools cannot see who is assigned to games/matches.

Organizations have the following options, however:

1. Show All Assignments To All Schools/Teams
   • This allows all schools/teams to see all published assignment for any and every game/match.
2. Show Assignments To Paying Schools/Teams
   • This allows schools/teams listed as the Payor to see the officials assigned to their games/matches
3. Show Assigned Officials To Any School/Team on Game
   • This allows any participant in the game to see the officials� names

Administrators can find these options under Association Configuration, "Games/Matches," then "School Options."

Go to "Schedules" -> "Games" then take the following steps:

1.      By any game that says "Approve?," click the "Yes" button to confirm that the entry is correct or click "No" button if it is incorrect.

2.      By any game that says "Cancel OK?," click the "OK" button to indicate you are aware that officials will no longer be sent to that event.

3.      By any game that says "Postpone OK?," click the "OK" button to indicate you agree that the game has been postponed and that, until future notice indicating otherwise, this game will not be scheduled to be played.

4.      In the comments box (if enabled), you may provide comments regarding your responses.

5.      Once you have responded to the games, click the "Submit Responses" button at the bottom.

You'll receive an email confirmation of your responses a short time after clicking “Submit.” If enabled, your assignor will receive a copy of the response by email.

Once enabled, you�ll see some new icons on the game schedule.

1. There will be an icon for each game in the upper right corner of the officials� box that looks like this: .
   1. This icon will only appear on games which the user (official or payor) has permissions to access the paysheet.
   2. Clicking that will show the paysheet for that individual game
2. The same icon will also appear in the top of that column. Clicking that icon will take you to a single pay sheet for all games listed on the current page.
   1. Again, it will only show paysheets for which the user has permissions.

The paysheet page will show the game details followed by the officials assigned along with their details as set on the paysheet configuration page.

On the paysheet page will be several buttons at the top of the page that will lead to various export options and to a �printable� version of the page�a much cleaner view without the menus, buttons, and most of the links that appear on the regular view of the page.

If the paysheet includes more than one game, there will be a summary section at the bottom of the listings that summarizes the total amounts to be paid to each official from each payor represented on the paysheet page.

When a paysheet page with multiple games is printed, each game will appear on a new page and the summary section for each payor will be on a new page.

The game listing shown on the home page is just a summary of the upcoming games. What is included in that summary depends on various settings chosen by your organization. If that list of games doesn't include what you wish to see, there are several ways to see additional games.

At the bottom of the summary will be several links that will take you to a variety of lists of games based on your teams/schools role in the game. Additionally, you can use the main menus to navigate to the games page (under Schedules). From there, you can use a "Game Search" form to search for games using a large number of criteria. Additionally, on the games page, you will find a "Quick Links" menu near the upper left. In it you will find a large number of pre-configured searches.

To add games to the system:

1. Go to the Schedules -> Games/Matches (or, if you are a coach/AD, Schedules -> Game/Match Request)
2. Click
3. On the page that opens, enter the game/match data (date, time, league, teams, etc.)
4. Save the game/match by clicking "Update this Item" or (from many fields) pressing "Enter"

After saving the game, the add-game/match form will remain open for adding another game. It will be pre-filled with the data from the just saved game/match. You can then modify those items which are not the same as the prior entry and save again without needing to re-enter much of the same info. If you do not need to enter another game, you can simply close the form....click "Close and Reload" to have the main listing show the saved information. Even if you do not click "Save and Reload" the information was already saved at the time of the Update.

For coaches/ADs...requested games/matches will only appear on the main schedule when the request is approved by an assignor.

Tips for game entry...

• "Copy Down"
  • will repeat that line's information on all of the location/home lines below it so that you can enter a school/team just once from the dropdown lists.
• "Show All"
  • By default, a school/team may be enabled only for some types of use (location, home, or visitor). If you do not see the school in the list, you can click the "Show All" button to override these defined uses and can use any school/team in any spot.

RefTown provides users the ability to transfer individual contacts to their personal address books such as Palm, Outlook, etc.

To do so:

1. By the desired roster entry, click  
• This will prepare the contact for transfer to your personal contacts list
2. Click "Open" on the window that opens
3. Click "Save" or "Save and Close"

When a particular piece of contact information is marked as unlisted, it is only accessible to specific individuals in an association: administrators, assignors, and treasurers. In some cases, otherwise unlisted email addresses may be made accessible to other officials who are assigned to the same games.

Bear in mind that if you mark all items as unlisted, your fellow officials will not be able to contact you.

Note: RefTown will never make ANY roster information available to the public. Only logged-in officials have access to roster information.

If an official, school/team, or school/team contact is logged in when filling out the registration form, all contact information will be updated to match what is submitted on the registration form.

Also, if a user is logged in when filling out the registration form, the form will start will all the currently entered roster information—saving a bit of typing and reducing the possibility of errors.

Each user can maintain most of his/her own profile information.

To do so (after login):

1. Click on the Accounts Menu (the red box with your name in it) located near the right end of the menu bar.
2. Click "Profile..."
3. From that page, there are several areas you can edit:
   • My info
     • Name, Address, Phone, Email, etc.
       • An email notice is sent to the official(s) configured to receive roster update notices
     • Roster Photo (if enabled by your organization)
     • Social Security Number and/or TaxID
       • This is an input only field...the number is never shown here.
         • You can enter your SSN/TaxID only. You'll be asked to enter it twice. If both entries match, it will be updated
   • Account Access
     • Calendar subscriptions from external calendar applications
     • Username
     • Password
   • Assignment Options
     • Availability
     • Availability Priority
       • Enables visibility of your schedules between organizations
       • Declares which of your organizations have priority in assigning
     • Scratches
       • Block assignments to teams, locations, etc., if enabled by your organization
     • Scratched Officials
       • Block assignments with certain other officials, if enabled by your organization
     • Other Assignment preferences as enabled by your organization.
   • Website Preferences
     • Games View Preferences
     • Calendaring preferences: pregame and travel times, export format, etc.
     • Email Sending Preferences
     • Other preferences: to disable the fancy text editor if it doesn't work in your browser

The printing of rosters from RefTown is done by exporting the data to your own application (e.g. Excel) for formatting as you wish.

To export a roster:

1. Go to the roster you wish to export (officials, schools/teams, or school/team contacts)
2. Apply any filters you wish in order to export a partial roster
3. Click "QuickLinks" then “Export/Download . . .”
4. Save the file on your computer so that you can edit and/or print it

In order to protect the email addresses of those on the roster from potential junk mail, the exported information will not include email addresses unless you are an administrator.

If "Disable Email" is checked for an email address for an official or school/team contact , it will appear on the roster (for those with permission to see it) but the system will not use that email address when sending notices.

Individuals may still utilize that email address to send emails outside of RefTown.

When looking at a roster of schools/teams, school/team contacts, or officials, you may find numerous symbols.

Those symbols include

• Map access ?
  • When clicked, this will give you an option of up to 4 map services you can choose from to map the address: Bing, Mapquest, Google, or Yahoo.
  • If it is for your own address, it will also have a link indicating where Reftown thinks your address is (latitude and longitude) for the purposes of distance calculations.
  • For Administrators, it will also include an link that will indicate how far it is from that accounts' address to all locations (for offiicials addresses) or to all officials (for location addresses).
• Texting Access 
  • When clicked on a mobile device, will take you to the devices default messaging system
  • When click on a desktop device, will take you to a page within Reftown that will allow you to send a text message to that user by way of an email-to-text gateway.
• Contact Information Download ?
  • Add the user's information to your contact system

Reftown has the ability to synchronize certification/license data with external systems.

Reftown Syncs with: 

• USSF
• Arbiter (Oregon Only for now)

The synchronization of license info for both systems depends on matching up the officials between the two systems. Each organization can be programmed to match on a variety of criteria, up to 4 different elements.

Matches can be made using the following:

Some organizations require a match on all 4 lines. Some allow for a "3-point" match. A "3-point" match includes Email, Last Name, and either a First Name/Nickname match OR a Date of Birth match. Some organizations may even choose to allow a less precise match using as little as the email address. Note that capitalization does not matter. The actual letters, numbers, punctuation, and spacing does matter.

If your account is not matching the USSF/Arbiter system, you will need to update your profile on one of the systems to match the information in the other. It doesn't matter which one you update. Note that updates in the external systems may not immediately be available to Reftown. Please allow for a few hours for the changes to appear.

An official see the status of his or her licenses and registration under their profile by clicking their name in the top right, then "My Profile". The information is in the section for "My Qualifications".

USSF Name or Date of Birth Updates: https://ussoccerfederation.my.site.com/lcsupport/s/article/Change-Profile-Page-Name-and-Date-of-Birth

Below are the instructions for transferring games, meetings, or events from RefTown to your personal calendaring program. Even though all applications are not mentioned, the steps for at least one of the three below should work for nearly any calendar application...only the steps taken within the calendar application should vary.

  Note the following:

• No canceled or reschedule game will be removed from your calendar by this action.
• If you import the same game twice, it may appear twice.
• You must delete canceled games  manually.
• You can modify your calendar options through your personal accounts menu (red menu with your name):
  • Click your name
  • Click Profile...
  • Select Calendar Preferences to change the calendar version or to change the various time options (length, travel time, etc.)

 

OUTLOOK (single or multiple games):

1. SINGLE: Click on the calendar icon  to start the transfer. The icon is by the date and time on the schedule
2. MULTIPLE: Click the multiple calendar icon  on the listing of games you want to import to your calendar (located at the top of the date/time column)
3. Click Open
4. Outlook will open to where you can merge the new items into your calendar 

Depending on how Outlook is configured, it may add the games as a 2nd calendar. If you're rather have the items imported to the main calendar, follow these steps...

1. Start as above to obtain the files but instead of Clicking "Open", click "Save".
2. Open Outlook if it is not already open.
3. In Outlook 2010+ Click on the File Tab -> Open -> Import
   In Outlook 2007 Click on the File Menu then click on Import and Export
4. Highlight "Import an iCalendar (.ics) or vCalendar file (.vcs)" then click Next
5. Choose the location where the iCalendar (.ics/.vcs) file was saved (from step 1) and Click on Ok.
6. Once the file is chosen the data will import to Open as New or Import
   • When the Open as New is chosen the file will open as a separate Calendar. Click the Import to actually import the data to your calendar.

GOOGLE Calendar:  (single or multiple games):

1. SINGLE: Click on the calendar icon  to start the transfer. The icon is by the date and time on the schedule
2. MULTIPLE: Click the multiple calendar icon  on the listing of games you want to import to your calendar (located at the top of the date/time column)
3. Save file to your computer (Desktop recommended)
4. Go to your Google Calendar
5. Click the Add down-arrow button at the bottom of the calendar list on the left side of the page, and select Import Calendar
6. Click Browse and choose the file that contains your events, then click Open
7. Select the Google Calendar where you'd like to import events, then click Import
8. Delete file saved in step 3

Other Calendar Applications:

See their documentation for how to import .ics or .vcs files. It is likely:

1. SINGLE: Click on the calendar icon  to start the transfer. The icon is by the date and time on the schedule.
2. MULTIPLE: Click the multiple calendar icon  on the listing of games you want to import to your calendar (located at the top of the date/time column)
3. Save file to your computer (Desktop recommended)
4. Open your application and find its import function
5. Delete file saved in step 3

Driving distance is an approximation based on the address or zip code of the game site and the address or zip code of the official. RefTown converts each person/location's address to latitude and longitude if that can be determined and, if not, uses a database of the latitude and longitude of the center of each zip code to calculate approximate driving distance. The calculation assumes a straight route plus an extra 20% to account for the fact that the roads will not actually be a straight line. 

The game site address and zip code is taken directly from the Schools/Teams roster for the site listed as the location of the game. If no address or zip code is entered for the location, the driving distance will be assumed to be 0�everyone will be eligible to drive to that location no matter the actual distance.

By default, the official's zip code is taken from the official's roster entry. Optionally, each official can specify two alternative zip codes under their "Account" profile. An official can specify two zip codes and a time if they generally transition between the two. Additionally, an official can specify zip codes on their availability calendar to apply to the day/date and window of time being entered on that calendar. This can be used to influence the assignment of games to be near two different places depending on the time of day and on various days. If no zip code is listed for an official, the driving distance will be assumed to be the official will be considered eligible to drive to any location.

An official can update their effective zip codes by:

1. Click your "Account" menu in the top right.
2. Click "Profile..."
3. Click "Assignment Preferences"
4. Optionally, enter a zip code where you leave from for earlier games.
5. Enter a time when you leave that zip code
6. Optionally, enter a zip code where you leave from for later games.

• In any location where the zip code is left blank, the home location will be used for the relevant date/date/time.

To unsubscribe from Google Calendar:

1. When you are in Google Calendar look on the left hand side for "Other Calendars" and from menu (the downward facing arrow) select "Settings"
2. Find your team's calendar and on the far right-hand side select Unsubscribe
3. Select Unsubscribe again at the prompt and the team will be removed

To unsubscribe from Outlook 2010:

Go to the Calendar and find the list of calendars on the left hand side
Right-click on the calendar you want to get rid of and click on Delete Calendar Name (or you can leave the calendar and just uncheck temporarily)

 To unsubscribe from your Mac:

1. Open up iCal
2. Click on the Calendar button (top left-hand side of the calendar) to show all your calendars
3. Right-click on the name of the subscribed calendar and select Delete

To unsubscribe from your iPhone:

1. Go to the Settings app
2. Go to Mail, Contacts, Calendars
3. Go to Subscribed Calendars
4. Select the team calendar you wish to delete
5. Select Delete Account
6. Select Delete again to confirm

To print your games in a more printable form:

1. Go to "Schedules" -> "Games"
2. Use the "Search for Games" filter or "Quicklinks" to get to the games you wish to print
3. Click the printer icon at the right end of the menu bar
4. Either press Ctrl-P or click your browser’s print button on the window that opens

Note: If you're using a recent generation browser, you can even scale the page to fit more on a page by clicking the % at the bottom right.

Yes, depending on the options chosen.

By default, officials can only see who is assigned to games/matches that are on the same date and at the same sight as their own assignments. They can access this information by clicking .

Each organization also has three additional options:

1. Show All Assignments To All Officials
   • This allows all officials to see all published assignments for any and every game/match.
2. Show All Assignments To All Officials when searched by date
   • This allows all officials to see all published assignments for any and every game/match but ONLY when searched by a specific date.
3. Show All Assignments To All Officials when searched within number of days
   • This allows all officials to see published assignments but only for a specified number of days before a game.

Administrators can find these options under Association Configuration -> "Games/Matches" then "Display Options."

Yes, depending on the options chosen by the organization.

By default, schools cannot see who is assigned to games/matches.

Organizations have the following options, however:

1. Show All Assignments To All Schools/Teams
   • This allows all schools/teams to see all published assignment for any and every game/match.
2. Show Assignments To Paying Schools/Teams
   • This allows schools/teams listed as the Payor to see the officials assigned to their games/matches
3. Show Assigned Officials To Any School/Team on Game
   • This allows any participant in the game to see the officials� names

Administrators can find these options under Association Configuration, "Games/Matches," then "School Options."

By default, you can get to your own games/matches by clicking on the "Schedules" menu and then selecting "Games" (All references to "Games" may say "Matches" or "Meets" depending on your sport).

If you have set your default view to show "Today's Games," click on the "Schedules" menu and then select "Games." Once there, you can get to your future games by clicking on "My Future Games" within the QuickLinks menu.

Alternatively, from any game view, open the search form by clicking on "Search for Games," then select "From Today" and clear all other fields or checkboxes, then click "Search."

There are a few ways�here are two:

1. Click on the "Schedules" menu and then select "Games"
2. Click on "QuickLinks"
3. Click on "My Games"
4. Click on a option corresponding to which of your games you wish to see.

Or...

1. Click on the "Schedules" menu and then select "Games"
2. Click on "Game Search"
3. Change the date from "From Today" to "Between"
4. Leave the first date blank
5. Enter today's date for the second date
6. Click Search

NOTE: 

If you are looking for games from a prior season, your organization may have moved them to an archive. You may need to enter the archives as described in order to access past seasons.

There are a few was...here are two:

1. Click on the "Schedules" menu and then select "Games"
2. Click on "Quick Links"
3. Click on "My Games"
4. Click on the desired time frame.

Or...

1. Click on the "Schedules" menu and then select "Games"
2. Click on "Game Search"
3. Change the date from "From Today" to "All Dates"
4. Click Search

Adjacent to the date and time for the game of interest, click on the icon with the two black arrows—one pointing right, one pointing left:

An officials assigned to the location and date access will also see the officials assigned to all games at the same site on the same date, regardless of the assignment visibility settings.

There are several ways to locate games/matches.

The primary way to access games is through the Schedules - > Games/Matches page search form ("Search for Games/Matches").

Select the criteria of interest: date(s), schools, levels, leagues, etc. and then click "Search Now."

Make sure to clear any field you do not wish to search on (e.g., your own name is selected by default under the officials field).

Note that once you've searched for a set of criteria, the header of the games page will not only list the criteria searched with, but also will, for most fields, have a "Previous" and "Next" link. You can step a day at a time or a school at a time with these links. 

There are also other ways to locate certain categories of games/matches. Using the QuickLinks at the top of the Games/Matches page, you can access the most commonly used set of searches: today's game, tomorrow's games, etc.

In addition, Assignors and Administrators can access schedules from the rosters. For each school/team on the roster, there may be several links available to take you to games/matches at that location, have that team as the home team, have that team as the away team, or all of the above.

It depends on the settings chosen by your organization.

By default, officials can only see who is working at games at the same location and on the same date as their own assignments. Other games will only show "Assigned" or "Unassigned" in place of the officials' names. Some organizations even choose to hide from officials the assignment status of games not assigned to the official.

Some associations choose to reveal all assignments to all officials, but some enable the ability to see the assigned officials' names when searching for games by a specific date or within a certain number of days preceding a game.

By default, schools/teams can not see the officials. There are options for an organization to reveal the officials names to the payor or to any team on a game. When the names are generally visible, the names can be hidden until the official accepts the assignment.

The two most common ways:

Home Page Link:

From the homepage, there will be a notices box indicating the presence of games that have been posted for self-assignment but have not yet been claimed. You can click on the link on the home page to go directly to the list of available games.

Games Page Search:

Go to the Games page under the Schedules menu and click on "QuickLinks" -> "with Open Self-Assignments."

When you see a game you'd like to take, click the "Claim" or "Request" link by the position you wish to fill. The system will first verify that you do not already have a game on the same date. While it will NOT prevent you from taking multiple games on a single date, it will caution you about the possibility of conflicting assignments and will ask for confirmation.

When you confirm the "Claim", your name is put on the game, you are marked as accepting the game, and the game is no longer listed on the open games list as available (if all slots have been claimed).

When you confirm a "Request", you name is added to a list for an assignor to review when making assignments to a that game. The specific position you've requested is indicated, but the assignor will still see your name for other positions on the same game that you would be qualified for.

If you then change your mind about the assignment, you must contact your assignor to have your name removed from the assignment OR, if the organization has it enabled, you can "Turnback" the game.
 

Note, you can only self-assign into games your organization has deemed you to be qualified for. 

This might include things like:

• The "Sport" of the game
• The "League" of the game...potentially editable by the official under "My Profile"
• Skill level required for the game
• Licensing requirements
  • This may be manually managed by an organization or be automated (e.g., for USSF in some organizations)
• Registration on Reftown (reminder on the home page if missing)
• SSN/W9 provided (reminder on the home page if missing)
• etc. 

The specific requirements depend on your organization's configuration. 

If you are missing some fundamental requirement, you may see the list of games but will see a noticed indicating what you're missing. If your organizations do not have you as qualified for a game, you will not see those games.

If you do not see games you believe should be available to you, you will either need to complete the elements you're missing that can be done by you OR you will need to contact your assignor to have them enable your account.

To print your games in a more printable form:

1. Go to "Schedules" -> "Games"
2. Use the "Search for Games" filter or "Quicklinks" to get to the games you wish to print
3. Click the printer icon at the right end of the menu bar
4. Either press Ctrl-P or click your browser’s print button on the window that opens

Note: If you're using a recent generation browser, you can even scale the page to fit more on a page by clicking the % at the bottom right.

There will be "Previous" and "Next" links on each games page in the area that lists the current filter criteria.

The links present themselves when the current view is based on a specific date, location, home team, visiting team, etc. These links will analyze the games data to take you to the next item in the list (by date or alphabetically) that actually has a game.

For example, clicking “next” after searching for games on 12/5/2008 will take you to the next date with games. If there are no games on 12/6/2008, it will move on to the next date that has games.

Note, however, that the previous/next links do not consider other filter criteria. For example, if the next date that has some type of game is tomorrow but none of tomorrows games fit your current search criteria, the next button will still take you to tomorrows games....but will list nothing since there are no games on that date that match the other criteria.

1. Go to Games -> Schedules
2. Click on Game Search
3. In the game number box, you can enter one of several things:
   1. A specific game number
   2. A mathematical comparison, such as:
      • Greater than a specific game number (.e.g. > 73)
      • Less than a specific game number (e.g. < 1235)
      • Greater than or equal to a specific game number (e.g. >= 3774)
      • Less than or equal to a specific game number (e.g. <= 7377)
4. Click Search

Normally, your own games from today and forward will show when you first access the games page.

However, under your Account Menu (red box with your name at the top):

1. Click on Profile...
2. Click on Local Preferences
3. Choose what game you prefer by default
   • You can set it show "Today's" games regardless of who is assigned to the game. This is primarily useful for assignors 

To subscribe to a RefTown calendar feed in the iCal/ics format in another application you wil need to obtain a special RefTown address that is unique to you.

There are four ways to get to the addreses for the subscriptions (all take you to the same place)....

1. Through your Profile
   1. Click on your account menu in the RefTown menubar
   2. Click on "Profile..."
   3. Click on "Calendar Feed"
2. From the Meetings/Events Page
   • Under Quick Links ....click  "Calendar Feed"
3. From your individual Game Schedule
   • Under Quick Links ....click  "Calendar Feed"
4. Go to  https://www.reftown.com/profile.asp?Focus=ShowPAK

Once there, you will then need to decide if you wish to access a single "global" feed for all organizations on one calendar or a separate single-organization feed...if you only belong to a single organization, the two choices are equivalent.

If you have not previously generated a key, click the "Generate New Key". This will create three options that will grant read-only access to information from your account:  your game schedule, your meeting/event schedule, or a combination of the two.

You can use any of these addresses in other calendar programs to show your schedule without needing to manually import your schedule in those programs. Updates to your schedule will automatically be synchronized (a few times a day in most cases).

You can also share one or more addresses with mentors, spouses, etc. so they can stay up-to-date on your schedule in their own calendar application without requiring you to communicate the details of your schedule to them.

At any time, you can return the subscription page to invalidate and replace the keys you've generated. Doing so will block all further accesses to your schedule that use the old key.

Subscribing to the Calendar

iPhone

1. Click on the webcal link as generated under your RefTown profile.
2. Accept the subscription following the prompts on your phone

See http://www.iphonefaq.org/archives/97782 and http://www.iphonefaq.org/archives/97922 for more info.

Outlook

1. Click on the webcal link as generated under your RefTown profile.
2. An Outlook box should appear asking you to "Add this Internet Calendar to Outlook and Subscribe to Updates".
3. Click Yes, and the Calendar will automatically be added to Outlook.

Google Calendar

1. Sign into your Google Calendar account through a web browser
2. On the left side, under "Other Calendars",click  "Add by URL"

1. Click on "Add by URL."

1. Copy and paste the calendar feed URL from your RefTown page into the URL field.
2. Click Add Calendar.

Windows Live

1. Sign into your Windows Live account
2. Go to Calendar
3. Go to Subscribe
4. Select "Subscribe to a public calendar
5. On Calendar URL field enter the URL provided from RefTown
6. On Calendar name field write the name you want your calendar to have
7. Click to "Subscribe to calendar" and "done"

Mac iCal

1. Open iCal
2. Right click under the region titled Subscriptions
3. Then click Subscribe...
4. Next, enter the RefTown calendar feed URL into the field titled Calendar URL.
5. Click subscribe

Android

On the phone, go to

1. Applications -> Calendar
2. Menu -> More -> Settings
3. Calendars
4. Check the calendars you wish to view

On various game-related pages, you will find a fairly powerful search form. You can search/filter the various pages/reports based on nearly all game criteria: Date, Status, ID #, nature of the game, the participants of the game (by name or by categorizations), by administrative ownership, or by the text in the various comment fields.

When execution those searches, it is possible to select multiple items in each drop down list. However, to do so, you must first click the "Multi-Search" button at the top in order to enable that functionality. This is not on by default because it can put a large burden on some user's internet browsers, making the loading of the related pages very slow, even if they were not intending to use the search. If it works well on all of the systems you normally use, you can enabled it permanently under your profile options.

Also, when using the game search, you'll have the option of formatting the output (on some pages) in one of several formats.

Those formats include:

• Simply Game lists
• Calendar Grid formats with or without various game details or counts of games in various states. 
• Grids of either officials, locations, or teams vs. Dates.

In most of the Grid-based formats, you have choose whether to include various game details.

By default, game assignments are not visible in any form until they are published. However, an optional feature can allow officials to see that they have "something" on a given date without any details aside form the date and the general time of day.

To enable this feature...

1. Go to Admin -> Configuration.
2. Click on Visibility Options in the Games Section
3. Check "Show Unpublished Assignment Dates to Officials"
4. Click Update.

If you are receiving a lot of emails indicating that there has been a change to your game but there doesn't seem to be a change, first note where the email is actually coming from.

RefTown's notices always come from mailer@reftown.com. If the emails are coming from somewhere else, it isn't RefTown that is sending them. Often, Google calendar mistakenly sends an update as if games have changed when they haven't. Their emails come from calendar-notification@google.com.

You can disable these notifications.

To do so:

1. Go to https://calendar.google.com
2. In the �Other calendars� section near the bottom of the left column, click on � the  vertical dots for the RefTown calendar, then settings.

3. In the �Other notifications� section, change all 5 options to �None�

Click on "Unaccepted Games" on the home page listing of your upcoming games.

Alternately, you can go to "Schedules" -> "Games." If you're using the default settings, you'll get a list of your own games. If not, click on either Quick Links -> "My Games" -> "Unaccepted" (or Future).

Then do the following:

1.      By any game that says "Accept?," click the "Yes" button to take the assignment or click the "No" button to decline it. If you click "No", a "Reason" box will appear. Some organization will require that you enter something for the reason.

2.      By any game that says "Cancel OK?," click the "OK" button to indicate you are aware that you are no longer assigned to that game or that the game has been canceled.

3.      By any game that says "Postpone OK?," click the "OK" button to indicate that you are aware the game has been postponed and that, until future notice indicating otherwise, you will not be expected to fill the assignment.

4.      In the comments box (if enabled) you may provide comments regarding your responses. Some organization will require a response when an assignment is declined.

5.      Once you have responded to the games, click the "Submit Responses" button at the bottom.

You'll receive an email confirmation of your responses a short time after clicking "Submit". � If the feature is enabled, your assignor will receive a copy of the response by email.

Go to "Schedules" -> "Games" then take the following steps:

1.      By any game that says "Approve?," click the "Yes" button to confirm that the entry is correct or click "No" button if it is incorrect.

2.      By any game that says "Cancel OK?," click the "OK" button to indicate you are aware that officials will no longer be sent to that event.

3.      By any game that says "Postpone OK?," click the "OK" button to indicate you agree that the game has been postponed and that, until future notice indicating otherwise, this game will not be scheduled to be played.

4.      In the comments box (if enabled), you may provide comments regarding your responses.

5.      Once you have responded to the games, click the "Submit Responses" button at the bottom.

You'll receive an email confirmation of your responses a short time after clicking “Submit.” If enabled, your assignor will receive a copy of the response by email.

If an official wants to change a response from decline to accept, that official should contact the appropriate assignor. The assignors have the ability to change the response.

If an official wants to change a response from accept to decline, the official will have one of two options, depending on the settings that official’s organization has chosen.

If the organization has enabled the turnback option and the deadline for a turnback has not passed (another option that is usually set to 2 or 3 days before the game), the official should see a "Turnback" link directly under the game number on that official’s schedule.

If no turnback link appears, the feature is not enabled and the official is not permitted to change previous responses through RefTown once they are submitted.

When the turnback feature is either not enabled or the turnback deadline has passed, the official should contact the assignor so the assignor can change the response.

When a set of games is assigned, an email confirmation is generated. That email is sent to the following:

• The official submitting the response
• Assignors

For the purposes of these responses, the assignors who will receive the email are defined in 3 ways as defined under the association's configuration:

• A list of any number of people to receive such notices as defined in the association configuration
  • These receive the entire submission any time it is sent
• To the specific assignor who made the assignment (with assignments filtered by assignor)
  • If there are two (or more) assignors involved, they'll only receive emails about the games/matches they assigned
• To all assignors of any assignment in the submission
  • All assignors who have an assignment in the submission will receive a full copy of the submission

NOTE: An association can, to reduce unnecessary email, choose to disable emails in two cases:

1. All assignments are accepted—no declines
2. There are no comments entered in the comment box

If an assignment remains in unaccepted state, normally nothing happens. It is merely a communication indication. It has no effect on any other site function.

The exception to that is the "Assignment Expiration Deadline". If that function is being used by an organization, it is possible that the assignment will be canceled by either the administrator or, if enabled, automatically by the system when the deadline is passed.

A game/assignment in unaccepted state will still be invoiced the same as any other game.

The availability feature allows officials or administrators to enter information about when an official is available to take an assignment.

• Times relate to game start times, not end times....Enter times based on when you can or can not START an assignment.
• The colors on the calendar mean the following:
  • Green indicates available
  • Red indicates not available
  • Yellow indicates partialy available
  • Grey indicates that no data has been entered for that date or weekday.

Availability is determined in the following order:

1. Information for a specific date for a specific organization
2. Information for a specific date for all organizations
3. Information for a specific day of the week  for a specific organization
4. Organization defaults:
   • Organizations have a choice on what to assume if no availability information is entered for any given day or date
     • By default, the assumption is that every official is available unless otherwise specified
     • A few organizations choose to assume that an official is NOT available unless otherwise specified
     • You can determine which is used by your association by viewing your availability calendar under "Schedules" -> "Availability"

Most organizations also make use of RefTown's cross-organization assignment-to-availability blocking....if you have an assignment for organization A, the site can automatically block you for organization B. Each official can specify a priority order between organizations such that a more preferred organizations will always block less preferred organizations but the less prefereed organization will not block the more preferred organization. The priority preferences can also be configured to allow the first organization to enter and publish an assignment to claim the date. Each official will also have the control over how much information regarding their assignments is shared with other organizations.

The date/time at the bottom of each box is the last time that entry was updated.

Availability information is entered through "Schedules" -> "Availability"

You have two ways that availability information can be entered.

1. By day of the week
2. By specific dates

If both are entered, the specific date information is used.

If you have accounts on Reftown with more than one organization, you have two levels where you can ether availability information

1. Specific to one organization only

2. For all organizations linked to your primary email address (global)

If you only belong to one organization, the global options will not appear.

The system will use the first information it finds by looking at each source in the following order: 

1. Information for a specific date for the specific organization
2. Information for a specific date for all organizations (global).
   • This is only available to those that have more than one RefTown account under the same username.
3. Information for a day of the week for the  specific organization (default).
   • This can be used to establish a standing availability that applies week after week unless more specific information is entered in either of the date specific calendars.

The priority is determined on a date-by-date basis.

If in in doubt about how the multiple calendars work, use your organization's date specific calendar.

To enter availability information for specific dates  for the current organization:

1. Click on "Schedules" -> "Availability"
2. Navigate to the desired month.
3. Click the "Edit Availability" button. (top right corner)
4. Click "Specific Dates for <organization name> only"
5. Mark yourself as available or not available for entire dates or specific times on specific dates.
6. Click "Save Changes"

To enter availability information for specific dates  for all organizations:

1. Click on "Schedules" -> "Availability"
2. Navigate to the desired month.
3. Click the "Edit Availability" button. (top right corner)
4. Click "Specific Dates for ALL Organizations"
5. Mark yourself as available or not available for entire dates or specific times on specific dates.
6. Click "Save Changes"

To enter availability information by day of the week for the current organization:

1. Click on "Schedules" -> "Availability"
2. Click the "Edit Availability" button. (top right corner)
3. Click "Day-of-Week Availability for <organization name> only"
4. Mark yourself as available or not available for entire days or specific times on specific days.
5. Click "Save Changes"

TIPS ON ENTERING AVAILABILITY INFORMATION

To block an entire day/date

• • Click "N/A"
• To make yourself available for the entire day/date
  • Click "Avail" and leave the times blank
• To allow a limited range of times for the date
  • Click "Avail" enter times in one or both of the "From" and "To" boxes

There are also additional slots for up to 2 time windows of availability. To access the additional slots, click the + button after the last visible time slot. If any of the time windows indicates you are available for a given time, you will be considered available for that time.

Examples:

If you organization use the driving distance feature, each time slot will have a zip code box that you can use to specify where you will be starting from at that time. If you do not enter a zip code in these boxes, your general early/late zip codes will be used or, if those are not entered, your home zip code will be used.

For example, you could put a zipcode for the east side of your city for a time slot from 3pm to 6pm and then a zip code on the west size of town from 6pm to 9pm to indicate you start in the east side of your town but move to the west side later in the evening. You can have up to 2 different locations each day.

There are a 4 buttons at the top of the calendar that may assist you in filling out your availability. You can use them to make all days/dates as available, not available, or clear all information, or replicate the first 7 days of the month to the rest of the month. Use this if most of your availability is the same and then fill in the boxes that are different.

Each date/date box has a button to delete that box's information....it is a small red X at the top of each date's box on the calendar.

Updates to your availability calendar take effect immediately. However, it is possible that assignments that are made but not yet published might be in conflict with availability data entered after the assignment was initially entered. The assignor also has the option to override the availability and assign you in conflict with your availability.

It is also possible, in the event of a rescheduled game, for you to be assigned to a game in conflict with your availability. The assignor may, at the time it is rescheduled, choose to leave you on that game or may choose to reassign it to someone else.

When viewing your availability calendar, you can see which source is being used for any specific date in a gray bar at the top of each date.

RefTown availability works solely based on the start time of an assignment.

• If you can start a game at ANY time on that day of the week,  click "Avail." and leave the times blank
• If you are NOT available for ANY assignment on that day of the week, click "NA" and leave the times blank
• If you can start a game anytime after a specific time click "Avail" and add the time in the "From" box
• If you can start a game anytime before a specific time click "Avail" and add the time in the "To" box
• If you are available only during a certain time window click "Avail." and enter the earliest time you can start in the "From" box and the latest time you can start an assignment in the "To" box
• If you are available anytime EXCEPT during a certain time window enter two or more availability windows to represent the times you are available.

Yes. An official can enter a restriction into the system that they should not work for particular school, team, level, league, etc. or any combination of these items. Official can scratch locations or even locations by zipcode.

To do so:

1. Go to "Schedules" -> "Scratches"
2. Enter the desired restriction...
   1. Click 
   2. In the window that opens, select the type of game to be scratched.
      • Example: enter XYZ High School and Boys Varsity to exclude yourself from working that level of game at that school.
      • Any of the available fields can be left blank as long as at least one field has a value.

Assignors can also fill out scratches on behalf of officials. Assignors can choose whether or not to allow officials to see those scratches.

Some organizations may not allow officials to manage this data....only permitting assignors to enter scratch data.

To notify the assigner of your availability, go to Schedule->Availability.

There are two levels of identifying availability:

1. General availability, where you indicate the time you are unavailable Sunday through Saturday
2. Specific availability by month. Select the month and indicate a specific date you will be available/unavailable.

Specific availability takes priority over General Availability.

 RefTown has a feature where officials can have the system automatically share basic assignment information between organizations so that they do not need to update each organization's availability calendar each time they get an assignment.

The official (and only the official) can, under his/her profile settings, define a set of priorities between organizations. Administrators and assignors can not see each official's settings in this area and can not change them.

• When accounts have equal priority, the first to receive an assignment will block the other equal account(s).
• Accounts with a higher priority (lowest number) will not be blocked by assignments from lower priority accounts.
• Accounts with a lower priority (highest number) will be blocked when an assignment is received from a higher priority account.
• You can specify how long to block for each game.
  • If you have assignments from an higher/equal priority account, you'll be considered unavailable to start another assignment:
    • For the specified time before the start time of the other assignment (default, 2.5 hours)
    • For the specified time after the start time of the other assignment  (default, 2.5 hours)
    • Times are extended for each game in a multiple-game assignment
• An account that is isolated will not participate in automatic cross-organization blocking in any way...no information will be shared between the isolated account and other accounts.
  • You will need to manually update the availability calendar for the isolated account.
  • You will need to maintain other organizations availability calendars with respect to assignments from the isolated account.
• Any automatic blocking will be combined with manually entered availability...
  • If you block a day or part of a day, you'll be blocked for the combination of the manual block and the automatic block.
  • If you manually block an entire day, the system will show you as not available and will not show other assignments.
• NOTE: A person that is an assignor in both organizations will not be restricted by the isolation or priority settings...they will have full visibility into both organizations.

CONFIGURING YOUR AVAILABILITY PRIORITY

1. Click on your "Account Menu" (top right with your name)
2. Click on "Profile..."
3. Click on "Availability Priority"
4. Set a Priority for each organization and what kind of information to share from that organization 
   • Optional
     • Change the amount of time to block out for pre-game travel & preparation.
     • Change the length of time to block out for each game for each organization.
     • Change how much detail is shared from each schedule
5. Click "Save Changes"

NOTES

• Equal priorities allow the first to assign to block the other.
• Higher priority organizations are not blocked by lower priorities and do not see any assignment information from them.
• Lower priority organizations are always blocked by higher priority organizations and can see whatever information you choose to reveal.
• Organizations marked as "isolated" will not participate in this feature.
   
• Note, any information about assignments only becomes visible to other organizations once the assigning organization publishes the assignment. As a result, it is possible for two organizations to make assignment for the same times if the first to assign does not publish the assignment immediately and the second organizations makes an assignment prior to the first publishing its assignments.

They are the same in nearly every way.

The ballot is a "secret" ballot system. No one has access to the details of the ballot submissions. Depending on options selected, administrators of the ballot may be able to see a list of who has submitted a ballot (but, again, not thier choices). The option selected will be shown on the ballot.

The signup is much like the ballot except that the administrators can see the details of the submissions....who selected what.

The quiz/exam allows you toenter a "correct" answer and will generate a % correct score.

The instant runoff voting tabulates votes based on the principle that any vote cast for a last-place candidate shall be transferred to the next-choice candidate on that ballot until one candidate has a majority of votes. This ballot-count method duplicates what would occur if all voters participated in a graduated series of runoff elections.

Vote counting shall start with a tabulation of first-choice votes. If a candidate receives a majority of the first-choice votes, then that candidate shall be declared elected. If no candidate receives such a majority, then the candidate with the fewest first choices shall be declared defeated. Ballots cast for this defeated candidate shall be transferred at full value to the next-choice candidate marked on each ballot. Last-place candidates are eliminated and their supporters' ballots transferred to next-choice candidates who are still in the race in a similar manner until a candidate receives a majority of votes that have not been exhausted.

If a ballot has no more available choices ranked on it, that ballot shall be declared "exhausted."

If there are two candidates with fewest number of first place votes, the number of second-place votes are included. If that still doesn't break the tie, third-place votes are included, and so on. It's still possible, but highly unlikely, that there will still be a tie.

Example:

4 candidates, 50 voters

A: 22 first-place votes

B: 16 first-place votes

C: 6 first-place votes

D: 6 first-place votes

No candidate has a majority of the first-place votes. This voting method drops the one with the fewest votes. In this case, there are two. Which one to declare defeated? Since they have the same number of first place votes, the second-place votes for those two are considered for the tie-breaker.

C: 10 second-place votes

D: 13 second-place votes

C is eliminated and D remains. The 6 ballots that have C as their first choice are referenced for their second choice (they be come first choice votes now that C is no longer in the race, the 3rd place votes become 2nd, etc.)

Of those six votes, two have A second, and 4 have B second.

That gives the following:

A: 24 first place votes

B: 20 first place votes

D: 6 first place votes

Still no majority.

D is alone in last place, so D is eliminated. The 6 ballots that have D as their first choice are referenced for their second choice. Those votes are added to A and B. One of them will now have a majority or there will be a tie.

If there is still a tie, the one with the greater number of first place votes in the prior round is declared the winner—having more natural first place votes.

� The Reftown Ballot/Signup system provides a secure, independent method of collecting votes for various purposes.

� The system remembers who has voted and when. It will not permit a revote by the same individual.

� The details of a submitted ballot are not available to anyone else in your organization.

• All that is revealed is the number of votes cast for each question, the number of votes cast for each option, and, in the case of ranked-list ballots, ranking information.

� Once votes are cast, removing options is not permitted or supported—that would corrupt the votes already cast.

� A voter can confirm that the voter’s own ballot was received by returning to the ballot—the time and date of the submission will be displayed with a notice that the voter can not vote again.

� Like game assignments, ballots/signups remain invisible to the members until published.

� Ballots/signups open and close automatically based on the dates entered. Once a ballot/signup opens, changes are not permitted.The results are automatically tabulated online and the winners determined. The actual ballots are stored in the database but are not visible.

 The import and export functions can be used in a few ways. Most commonly, they can be used to enter multiple questions using Excel rather than through the website. These features can also be used to share entered exams between different organizations....export from one, import to the other.

EXPORT:

1. Preview or View the desired Exam, Ballot, or SIgnup.
2. Click the Export Button
3. Save the file to your computer.

IMPORT:

In order to import questions for an exam, ballot, or signup, you must first configure the basic exam, ballot, or signup.

1. Preview the desired Exam, Ballot, or SIgnup"
2. Click the Import Button (only present if the exam, ballot, or signup is unpublished)
3. Locate the desired file on your computer.
4. Click "Upload File Now"

CREATING A NEW SPREADSHEET READY FOR IMPORT:

1. First, create the exam, ballot or signup without any questions using the website
2. Export the questions....even if there are none.
   • This will provide you with the spreadsheet in the right format.....and the correct columns
3. Enter the questions as needed
   • NOTE: The "RefTown ID" column should be left blank for new questions. That column is an ID# used to identify existing question when importing updates to those existing questions.
4. Proceed to Import

You do not need to import everything at once. You can import a few questions at a time. Note, however, that every question in the import will be added regardless of whether it was previously imported or not.

For most pages, there will be a printer icon  at the right end of the menu bar. Clicking it will reopen the current page in a new window with several elements removed—such as the menus, headers, etc. Some pages are further customized than others to optimize the page for printing. 

Below are the instructions for transferring games, meetings, or events from RefTown to your personal calendaring program. Even though all applications are not mentioned, the steps for at least one of the three below should work for nearly any calendar application...only the steps taken within the calendar application should vary.

  Note the following:

• No canceled or reschedule game will be removed from your calendar by this action.
• If you import the same game twice, it may appear twice.
• You must delete canceled games  manually.
• You can modify your calendar options through your personal accounts menu (red menu with your name):
  • Click your name
  • Click Profile...
  • Select Calendar Preferences to change the calendar version or to change the various time options (length, travel time, etc.)

 

OUTLOOK (single or multiple games):

1. SINGLE: Click on the calendar icon  to start the transfer. The icon is by the date and time on the schedule
2. MULTIPLE: Click the multiple calendar icon  on the listing of games you want to import to your calendar (located at the top of the date/time column)
3. Click Open
4. Outlook will open to where you can merge the new items into your calendar 

Depending on how Outlook is configured, it may add the games as a 2nd calendar. If you're rather have the items imported to the main calendar, follow these steps...

1. Start as above to obtain the files but instead of Clicking "Open", click "Save".
2. Open Outlook if it is not already open.
3. In Outlook 2010+ Click on the File Tab -> Open -> Import
   In Outlook 2007 Click on the File Menu then click on Import and Export
4. Highlight "Import an iCalendar (.ics) or vCalendar file (.vcs)" then click Next
5. Choose the location where the iCalendar (.ics/.vcs) file was saved (from step 1) and Click on Ok.
6. Once the file is chosen the data will import to Open as New or Import
   • When the Open as New is chosen the file will open as a separate Calendar. Click the Import to actually import the data to your calendar.

GOOGLE Calendar:  (single or multiple games):

1. SINGLE: Click on the calendar icon  to start the transfer. The icon is by the date and time on the schedule
2. MULTIPLE: Click the multiple calendar icon  on the listing of games you want to import to your calendar (located at the top of the date/time column)
3. Save file to your computer (Desktop recommended)
4. Go to your Google Calendar
5. Click the Add down-arrow button at the bottom of the calendar list on the left side of the page, and select Import Calendar
6. Click Browse and choose the file that contains your events, then click Open
7. Select the Google Calendar where you'd like to import events, then click Import
8. Delete file saved in step 3

Other Calendar Applications:

See their documentation for how to import .ics or .vcs files. It is likely:

1. SINGLE: Click on the calendar icon  to start the transfer. The icon is by the date and time on the schedule.
2. MULTIPLE: Click the multiple calendar icon  on the listing of games you want to import to your calendar (located at the top of the date/time column)
3. Save file to your computer (Desktop recommended)
4. Open your application and find its import function
5. Delete file saved in step 3

When you click on an email address on RefTown, you should be taken to your personal email program if it is properly configured and email links are supported by your email program.

On Windows XP, Vista, and 7, you can set the default email program in the Internet Options dialog box.

Open Internet Explorer and click the Tools menu, choose Internet Options. Click Programs tab and select your email client from the drop-down list. Once selected, click OK button and close the dialog. If you do not see your email program listed, you may need to contact support for that program for information on how to make it your default email client.

Note that you will require an Administrator-level account to change the default email client as this is a system-wide setting.

For instruction on configuring GMail to be your default client, see http://email.about.com/od/gmailtips/qt/et_default_prog.htm

To subscribe to a RefTown calendar feed in the iCal/ics format in another application you wil need to obtain a special RefTown address that is unique to you.

There are four ways to get to the addreses for the subscriptions (all take you to the same place)....

1. Through your Profile
   1. Click on your account menu in the RefTown menubar
   2. Click on "Profile..."
   3. Click on "Calendar Feed"
2. From the Meetings/Events Page
   • Under Quick Links ....click  "Calendar Feed"
3. From your individual Game Schedule
   • Under Quick Links ....click  "Calendar Feed"
4. Go to  https://www.reftown.com/profile.asp?Focus=ShowPAK

Once there, you will then need to decide if you wish to access a single "global" feed for all organizations on one calendar or a separate single-organization feed...if you only belong to a single organization, the two choices are equivalent.

If you have not previously generated a key, click the "Generate New Key". This will create three options that will grant read-only access to information from your account:  your game schedule, your meeting/event schedule, or a combination of the two.

You can use any of these addresses in other calendar programs to show your schedule without needing to manually import your schedule in those programs. Updates to your schedule will automatically be synchronized (a few times a day in most cases).

You can also share one or more addresses with mentors, spouses, etc. so they can stay up-to-date on your schedule in their own calendar application without requiring you to communicate the details of your schedule to them.

At any time, you can return the subscription page to invalidate and replace the keys you've generated. Doing so will block all further accesses to your schedule that use the old key.

Subscribing to the Calendar

iPhone

1. Click on the webcal link as generated under your RefTown profile.
2. Accept the subscription following the prompts on your phone

See http://www.iphonefaq.org/archives/97782 and http://www.iphonefaq.org/archives/97922 for more info.

Outlook

1. Click on the webcal link as generated under your RefTown profile.
2. An Outlook box should appear asking you to "Add this Internet Calendar to Outlook and Subscribe to Updates".
3. Click Yes, and the Calendar will automatically be added to Outlook.

Google Calendar

1. Sign into your Google Calendar account through a web browser
2. On the left side, under "Other Calendars",click  "Add by URL"

1. Click on "Add by URL."

1. Copy and paste the calendar feed URL from your RefTown page into the URL field.
2. Click Add Calendar.

Windows Live

1. Sign into your Windows Live account
2. Go to Calendar
3. Go to Subscribe
4. Select "Subscribe to a public calendar
5. On Calendar URL field enter the URL provided from RefTown
6. On Calendar name field write the name you want your calendar to have
7. Click to "Subscribe to calendar" and "done"

Mac iCal

1. Open iCal
2. Right click under the region titled Subscriptions
3. Then click Subscribe...
4. Next, enter the RefTown calendar feed URL into the field titled Calendar URL.
5. Click subscribe

Android

On the phone, go to

1. Applications -> Calendar
2. Menu -> More -> Settings
3. Calendars
4. Check the calendars you wish to view

Archives contain a frozen snapshot of an organization's data. Archives allow a user to view the organization's information as it was on date the archive was made.

To access an archive:

1. Go to "Other..." -> "Site Archives"
2. Click the "View" button for the archive you wish to access.
   • The archives are identified by when they were created.
   • You can navigate the entire site normally, viewing the data from that archive, as if it were the moment the archive was made.

 When you are in the "archive" mode, a few things happen:

• A yellow box indicating the archive you are accessing will appear at the top of the page.
• Any changes you attempt to make will be ignored
• No emails will be sent from the system
• You will retain all permission as you had in the live system whether you had those permissions at the time the archive was made or not.

To exit archive mode and return to viewing your current data:

1. Click "Back to live" in the title area of the page

OR

1. Go to "Other Info" -> "Archives"
2. Click "Return to live database"

OR

1. Log out / Close your browser

As a school/team contact (Athletic Director, Athletic Assistant, Athletic Secretary, Coach, etc.), you may need to transfer your account to a new person. If you are the owner of the account for your school/team, you can update your profile information to transfer the account to the new person. Depending on the nature of the transition, this can be done in one of a few ways.

Will the two individuals overlap in their time of service or will there be complete transition all at once? Is the current account holder still available?

Current Contact Present:

This procedure can update the information for ALL connected accounts (those with the same email address as used to log in to this session) in one pass.

1. Log In

2. Click on your name in the top right corner.

3. Click Profile.

4. Under the school section, enter the Phone & Email sections and update the general information for the school if needed.

5. Under the individual section enter the Name, Address, Phone, Email sections and update the info for the new contact. Note, do Email last as that ultimately moves the account to the new person.

NOTE: In the section for �Apply Changes to�� for each type of information, uncheck the any box for accounts you do not wish to change....typically, all boxes are left checked.

Allow Access to Both for a Period of Time

1. Change some or all of the information above to the new person but keep BOTH email addresses in the Individual Email section.

   • Anyone that has an email address there can log into that account. If both emails are kept, both individuals will be able to log in.

   • The newly added person may need to request a password if they do not already have one.

2. When the outgoing contact is no longer involved, either person can repeat the above process changing any remaining information and removing the old contact's email address.

Current Contact No Longer Present:

Contact the assignor/administrator for each of your organizations   and request that they move the current account to your name. If they merely change the email address, you can then log in with that information and follow the steps above to change the rest of the information.

Contact Page: https://www.reftown.com/rt_feedback.asp?fbtarget=Assoc

Reftown has a function available to organizations that allow people to check themselves into an event based on their presence near a defined location.

To use the check-in, log into your organization's account on Reftown. The check-in button will appear in the upper left corner of your organization's home page when a check-in is available. For it to be successful, the person checking in must be within a specified distance of a specific location set by your organization's administrators during a specified time window.

For some people, the function may not initially work due to settings on your devices that prevent your location from being accessible by your web browser. Due to default settings on the phone/tablet, the issue is more common on Apple/iOS devices than Android. Below are some instructions on updating your settings to allow your location to be sent to Reftown.

Enabling iOS Location Services

1. Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services.

• The settings button is the grey cogs/gears icon. 

• 

• 

2. Make sure that Location Services is on.

3. Scroll down to find the Safari app (or whichever browser you're using on your device)

4. Tap the app and select an option:

• Ask Next Time: This allows you to choose Always While Using App, Allow Once, or Don't Allow.

• While Using the App: Allows access to Location Services only when the app or one of its features is visible on the screen.

Alternate instructions for iPhones

Android 12 & higher

1. Swipe down from the top of the screen.

2. Touch and hold Location .

   • If you don't find Location :

     1. Tap Edit  or Settings .

     2. Drag Location  into your Quick Settings.

3. Tap Location Services  Google Location Accuracy.

4. Turn Improve Location Accuracy on or off.

Android 11 & lower

1. Swipe down from the top of the screen. 

2. Touch and hold Location .

   • If you don't find Location :

     1. Tap Edit  or Settings .

     2. Drag Location  into your Quick Settings.

3. Tap Advanced  Google Location Accuracy. 

4. Turn Improve Location Accuracy on or off.

1. Log in
   • If needed, switch to the desired organization. Setup for direct deposit is specific to each organization.
2. Click on your name in the red box on the RefTown menu bar.
3. Click on "Profile..."
4. Click "Direct Deposit Account Info"
   • (shortcut link: https://www.reftown.com/profile.asp?Focus=ShowDD)
5. Click "Add Account Information" or "Replace Account Information"
6. Enter your account information...personal checking or savings accounts are supported
7. Read and agree to the terms and conditions.
8. Submit by clicking "I Agree"

For security, your entered account information is NOT redisplayed to you. You will be asked to enter each number twice in order to ensure it is entered accurately. You entire account number will not even be displayed to your administrators unless the deposit fails....a few digits are shown. These measures are taken to increase the security of this information.

IMPORTANT: You are responsible for entering correct account info.

If you enter an incorrect info, your payments may be made to an account owned by someone else. It may not be possible to correct.

• If your account number has dashes, please include them
• Do not include the check number as part of your account number

 If your organization has chosen to use RefTowns 1099 services, you should receive an email announcing its availabiity sometime in the month of January.

To retrieve your 1099 from RefTown, follow the following steps:

1. Go to Pay -> My Invoices and 1099s
2. in the lower part of the page, click on "View" or "Download" for the appropriate Tax Year
3. Open the file using your Social Security Number or Tax ID Number as the password
4. Click the link "Confirm Receipt".
   • The IRS required your organization to use this information to confirm receiopt in order to electronically distribute 1099s.

1. After logging into your account, click your name in the upper right corner.
2. Click on "Profile..."
3. On the left side, click "PayPal / Venmo Payouts"
4. Choose a payment option (based on email address/phone numbers on the officials profile):
   • PayPal
     • By Email 1
     • By Email 2
     • By Email 3
     • By Cell Phone 1
     • By Cell Phone 2
   • Venmo
     • By Cell Phone 1
     • By Cell Phone 2
5. Click "Update This Item"

• If the email address or phone number is subsequently changed on the official's profile, an existing PayPal or Venmo selection will be directed to the new email address or phone number.
• If the PayPal or Venmo account is subsequently closed. Payments made to the defunct email addresses or phone numbers will be "unclaimed" and returned to the originating account after 30 days but it is best to update your RefTown profile 

Organizations may create invoices for registration dues or other fees charged to officials. If your organization has configured an invoice to be payable by PayPal the instructions below cover how to pay the invoice without needing a PayPal account.

Depending on the configuration of your organization's PayPal account, you may not need a PayPal account to compete the payments....you can often "Pay as a Guest"

To pay as a guest....

1. From your invoice on RefTown, click on the Pay with PayPal button.

2. On the window  that opens, click this�

If you do not see this section, your organization is not configured to receive guest payments.

3. Then, in the form that appears, enter your card number, name, address, etc.

4. If you DO NOT want to start a PayPal account, uncheck the box that says this:

5. Then click Review and Continue

6. Complete the process through PayPal 

1. You need to specify how you want to be paid.
   • If you have not previously configured your account, you will see a notice on your home page indicating that no PayPal/Venmo account information was found for your account. Additionally, if you have an assignment with a school/team that pays using this service, this reminder will indicate how many games you currently have for such schools/districts. If you do not see such a reminder, you've already signed up for the service.
2. On your game schedule, the comment column will indicate if the game will be paid by PayPal / Venmo with the following symbol
   • 
3. By your name on the schedule, you'll see how you have signed up to be paid:
   •  - Not signed up
   •  - Signed up with Venmo
   •  - Signed up with PayPal

Assignors can see this signup status for all officials on the relevant games.

When a payment is made, RefTown will send you an email with the details of the payment...the game(s), the amounts, etc.

Once you receive the money in your PayPal or Venmo account, you can spend in from that account using a variety of options including debit cards issued by PayPal or Venmo or you can have the money moved to your bank account whenever you like. 

To sign up for PayPal or Venmo, you must first have your PayPal or Venmo ID (email address or phone number) listed as on your RefTown profile's email address or cell phone number fields. Once you have the email address or phone number entered in your profile as an email address or phone number, you will then be able to choose that number/email as the PayPal/Venmo account ID.

To make any of these changes to your profile, click your name in the top right corner and then click "Profile". On the Profile page, you'll find all of the necessary links to update your phone numbers, emails, or PayPal/Venmo preferences.

The 1099 that you receive from Reftown is password protected. The password is your SSN (or other TaxID in some cases), without any dashes.

Example: If your SSN is 123-45-6789, your password will be 123456789.

If you are haivng trouble  opening your 1099 received from Reftown, you may have an incorrect Social Security Number in your profile. It is most often due to a simple typo in teh SSN entry in your profile.

To fix the problem:

1. Log in to the organization where you're having difficulty
2. Click your name in the top right corner
3. Click "Profile"
4. Depending on your orgnaization and the type of number you have, click one of the following:
   1.  Add/Edit/View W9
   2. "SSN"
   3. "TaxID"
5. Provide the correct SSN/TaxID by competing the relevant form.
6. Notify RefTown Support that you have updated your SSN and need a new 1099.

IMPORTANT: The 1099s are NOT regenerated automatically. We generate them offline and will send you the updated copy when it is ready...usually within 1-2 days.

DO NOT SEND US YOUR SSN BY EMAIL OR IN OUR SUPPORT FORM.
It must be entered directly into the approriate profile entry.

In a few rare cases, the data stored on your phone may be come corrupted. It may be necessary to clear the data and force the app to re-obtain current information from the server.

The method to clear the app data varies based on the brand of phone but the steps are similar. See the options below for several common phone models.

After clearing all the app data for Reftown Mobile, you'll need to log into the app again.

How to clear app cache and data on Google Pixel

1. Open Settings.
2. Scroll down and select Apps.
3. Tap the See all option at the bottom.
4. Tap RefTown Mobile.
5. Tap Storage and cache.
6. Select Clear cache.
7. Tap Clear storage to clear data and cache.

How to clear app cache and data on Samsung Galaxy phones

1. Open the Settings menu.
2. Scroll down and select Apps.
3. Tap RefTown Mobile.
4. Scroll down and select Storage.
5. Tap Clear data to clear data.
6. Tap Clear cache to clear the app cache.

How to clear app cache and data on OnePlus phones

1. Open Settings.
2. Scroll down and select Apps and notifications.
3. Tap See all to list all installed apps.
4. Tap RefTown Mobile.
5. Select Storage and cache.
6. Tap Clear cache to clear the cache.
7. Tap Clear storage to clear data and cache.

How to clear cache and data on Xiaomi phones

1. Open Settings.
2. Scroll down and select Apps.
3. Tap Manage apps.
4. Tap RefTown Mobile.
5. Select the Storage option.
6. Tap Clear cache to clear only the app cache, or tap Clear data to clear data and cache.

Throughout Reftown, you can enter times in several different formats as follows:

Adminstrator functions depend heavily on "pop-ups." It is quite possible that you may have a program installed on your system that blocks annoying pop-ups/ads from many sites. You will either need to disable that program or, more likely, add RefTown to a list of sites allowed to have pop-ups.

For specific instructions to disable, configure or remove some of the most common pop-up blockers and toolbars, select the appropriate section below:

• Internet Explorer browser
• Mozilla Firefox browser 
• Google Toolbar
• Yahoo Toolbar
• MSN Toolbar
• AOL Toolbar
• Ask Toolbar with Popswatter 
• Ask.com, FunWebProducts, or MyWebSearch Toolbar
• Crawler Toolbar

Note: Toolbars may be hidden but still functioning.  To view a hidden toolbar, go to the top of your Internet browser and select View > Toolbars > click to check the desired toolbar. Only the checked toolbars in the list will be visible in your browser. 

Internet Explorer Integrated Pop-Up Blocker

Beginning with Service Pack 2 for Windows XP, pop-up blocking has been integrated into Internet Explorer and is enabled by default. To configure IE's pop-up blocking:

1. Open Internet Explorer
2. Click Tools > select Pop-Up Blocker 
3. To disable pop-up blocking in IE, select "Turn Off Pop-up Blocker"
4. To allow pop-ups on approved sites, select "Pop-up Blocker Settings"
   
   • In "Address of Web Site to allow" box, type reftown.com
   • Click the Add button. The website *.reftown.com should appear under Allowed sites.
   •  Click the Close button.

If pop-up blocking is turned on in Internet Explorer, it will generate an "Information Bar" the first time you go to a website that uses pop-ups or graphical code resembling pop-up code. Click where indicated inside the Information bar and select one of the following:

1.  "Temporarily Allow Pop-Ups" to view blocked information just during the current session
2. "Always Allow Pop-ups from this Site" to always see pop-ups at this web site 
3. "Settings" to allow pop-ups on multiple sites you specify. 

Mozilla Firefox

Firefox blocks pop-ups by default. To configure Firefox's pop-up blocking:

1. Open Firefox
2. Select Tools > Options > Content
3. To disable pop-up blocking, un-check "Block pop-up windows" > click OK.
4. To allow pop-ups on approved sites, verify that "Block pop-up windows" is checked and click the “Exceptions” button beside it. This opens the Allowed Sites-Pop-ups window
   
   • In "Address of Web Site" box type www.reftown.com
   • Click the Allow button. The website www.reftown.com should appear under Site with an "Allow" Status.  
   • Click the Close button.

Google Toolbar

To stop the Pop-Up Blocking feature in Google Toolbar, either:

1. Click on the Pop-Up Blocker icon   in the toolbar to allow pop-ups on this site , or 
2. Right-click on the toolbar and un-check Google in the Drop Down menu to temporarily disable blocking pop-ups.

Yahoo Toolbar

To disable the Pop-Up Blocking feature in the Yahoo Toolbar:

1. Click the Down arrow beside the Pop-Up Blocker icon  
2. To disable the blocker, un-check "Enable Pop-Up Blocker" in the Drop Down menu
   .
3. To configure the blocker, check  "Enable Pop-Up Blocker" and select "Always Allow Pop-Ups from..." on the same Drop Down menu
4. In the Yahoo! Pop-Up Blocker dialog screen, select reftown.com in the "Sources of Recently Blocked Pop-Ups"
5. Click the Allow button and then the Close button.

In Windows XP or earlier:

1. Open or Run the uninstall.html file and follow the prompts
2. In Windows Vista or Windows 7,
3. Save uninstall.html file
4. Double-click on the saved file and select the appropriate options
5. Close all web browser screens to clear the add-on out of memory. If the add-on persists, restart Windows. 

1.  
   
2. Select the "Services Settings" tab
3. Check the box beside Popup Blocker and click the Settings button
    
4. Under the General tab select Disable 
5. Click the Apply button and then the OK button

To configure the Pop-Up Blocking feature in the Crawler Toolbar:

1. Go to the Crawler Toolbar Settings 
2. Select the "Services Settings" tab
3. Check the box beside Popup Blocker and click the Settings button
4. Select the Advanced tab
5. Click the Add Website button
6. Enter www.reftown.com as the "Site host name"
7. Click the Apply button and then the OK button

To Uninstall the Crawler Toolbar either use Add/Remove Programs in Windows Control Panel, or:

1. Click on the "Crawler" button, select the "Help" and then the "Uninstall" option
2. Select the component(s) to remove and click the Uninstall button
3. Click Yes to close IE windows
4. Click Yes to reboot windows.

Crawler Toolbar

Like Ask.com/FunWebProducts, the "sponsor supported" Crawler toolbar is included with thousands of FREE downloadable products (such as screensavers, wallpaper, animated cursors, desktop weather or traffic utilities, radio & MP3 players, online games, smileys, eCards and IE skins). 

To disable the Pop-Up Blocking feature in the Crawler Toolbar:

1. Go to the Crawler Toolbar Settings

 MSN Toolbar

1. Click the Down arrow beside the Pop-Up Blocker icon  
2. Check "Allow Pop-ups" in the Drop Down menu
    

AOL Toolbar

To stop the Pop-Up Blocking feature in AOL Toolbar, click on the Pop-Up Blocker in the toolbar to toggle it to allow pop-ups .

Ask Toolbar with Popswatter

To disable the PopSwatter popup blocker in the Ask Toolbar:

1. Display the Ask Toolbar if not visible (at the top of your Internet browser select View > Toolbars > click to check "Ask Toolbar") 
2. Click the PopSwatter icon (looks like a yellow flyswatter) on the Ask Toolbar
3. Click Disable PopSwatter.

To configure PopSwatter to allow pop-ups on selected sites such as reftown.com:

1. Go to the web site (www.reftown.com)
2. Click the PopSwatter icon on the Ask Toolbar
3. Click "Change Preferences"
4. Add the site to the "Safe List" (click "Safe List" tab > Allow Popups for www.reftown.com > click Allow > X to close).

Ask.com, FunWebProducts, MySearch Toolbar/browser add-on

The Ask.com, FunWebProducts, or MySearch toolbar/browser add-ons are embedded in many FREE downloadable products (such as Smiley Central, Cursor Mania, My Mail Signature, My Mail Stamp, and Popular Screensavers). These toolbars may then be activated whenever a new browser window is opened automatically—such as when viewing linked MLS documents, IDX search screens, tutorial movies, or calendars.

To remove the Ask Toolbar from Internet Explorer:

1. Close all browser screens
2. Go to the Start menu and click on Control Panel
3. In the Control Panel, double-click on Add/Remove Programs
4. Select Ask Toolbar from the Programs list
5. Click the Change/Remove button to uninstall.

To remove the Ask Toolbar from Firefox:

1. Click on Tools near the top of your Firefox browser window
2. Select Extensions or Add-Ons
3. Select the Ask Toolbar
4. Click Uninstall to remove (or click Disable to temporarily disable), then click OK.

If you continue to experience problems with the Ask.com, FunWebProducts, or MyWebSearch browser add-on (after completing the above removal steps):

Because all IT departments are different, and spam filters sometimes filter legitimate email, it is highly recommended that you add the RefTown domain to your Safe Senders list in your email client. This will help ensure that our emails will get to you safely.

• Outlook
• Apple Mail
• Yahoo!
• Gmail
• iPad/iPhone
• Gmail Phone App

Either add the entire @reftown.com domain to your safe sender's list (if your email program allows adding domains) or add the email address mailer@reftown.com

(Another site that may also be useful for configuring your email settings for RefTown emails: Safe Sender List How To)

Add known valid sender to the Safe Senders list to ensure that their email will not go to your Junk E-mail folder.

1. On the Ribbon, from the Home tab, in the Delete group, select Junk
   .

2. From the drop-down list, select Junk E-mail Options.

3. Select the Safe Senders tab.
   
   

4. Click Add
   
   .

5. In the Add address or domain dialog box, type an email address or domain.
   
   

6. Click OK.
   
   

7. In the Junk E-mail Options dialog box, click Apply. Emails from this sender will now be prevented from being moved to your Junk E-mail folder.
   
   

1. Open the email from the sender you would like to add to the safelist.
2. Click on the sender�s email address at the top of the email
3. A list of options will appear on a drop down
4. Click on �Add to Address Book�
5. Your sender will be automatically added to your Apple Mail safe senders list.

1. Open the email sent to you by the contact you wish to label as safe. Be sure to check both the inbox folder and junk or spam folder.

2. Copy the email address

3. Click the Contacts icon located in the upper right-hand corner of your Yahoo! Mail Inbox Homepage. When you scroll over the first icon, it should say �Contacts�.

4. Click �Add a new contact� located below the list of your contacts.

5.  Fill in the contact details and paste the email address you wish to add to your contact list.

6.  Click Save.

1. Open the email from the sender you would like to add to the safelist.
2. Click on the arrow next to an email icon on the far right.
3. Select �Add To Contacts�.
4. You will see the text �Added *Email Address* to contacts.� Appear at the top of the screen, meaning your new contact has been added to your Gmail Safe senders list.

1.  Open the email

2. Tap the email address or email the user name of the sender (at the top of the screen)

3. Tap �Create New Contact� from the menu at the bottom of the screen.

1. Open the email of the contact you wish to add to your safe sender list

2. Tap the contact name, email or contact card. You might have to click the downward-pointing arrow to reveal the contact name.

3. Tap the �Add Contact� icon located in the top right-hand corner.

Because all IT departments are different, and spam filters sometimes filter legitimate email, it is highly recommended that you add the RefTown domain to your Safe Senders list in your email client. This will help ensure that our emails will get to you safely.
 

This page covers how to do so for Gmail...

1. Log into your Gmail Account.
    
2. Click the gear and choose �Settings��

3. Click the tab for Filters:
   
   
    
4. Click �Create a new filter�
   
   
    
5. Enter mailer@reftown.com as the from, leave the rest blank and click �Create filter with this search�

6. Choose �Never sent it to Spam� and click �Create filter�

SETUP: Overview

There are several steps you will need to take in order to set up RefTown for your organization. Among them, you will need to set up various options, configure basic data, and input officials, team, and location roster. Below is a good way to approach setting up your data. For most settings, you can return to the configuration page and make changes at any time.

1. Go to "Admin" -> "Configuration" and step through the following areas:
   1. BASIC INFORMATION
      • General information about your association
      • Logos, etc.
   2. EMAIL NOTICES
      • Notices to be sent to officials, teams, administrators about upcoming games
   3. OFFICIALS ROSTER
      • Options to control how your roster is listed and how your official's registration forms are configured
   4. SCHOOLS, LOCATIONS, PAYORS, and TEAMS
      • Options to control how your roster is displayed
      • Options to define the roles of individuals associated with your schools/teams.
   5. GAMES
      • Options to control the display of games/matches, availability calendar, assignment responses, school game approval, and game parameter
   6. CREWS
      • Define your crewtypes and duties
   7. OFFICIAL'S FINANCES 
      • Define your crewtypes and duties
   8. SCHOOL/TEAM FINANCES 
      • Define your crewtypes and duties
        
        
2. Enter/Import Rosters

1. Enter/Import Officials
   • Grant extra permissions for anyone who should have them
2. Enter/Import Schools/Teams/Locations/Payors
3. Enter/Import School/Team Contacts

While there are several more functions on the site, this concludes the initial setup. You’re now ready to start adding games and making assignments.

Under Basic Information, you will set up the following:

The contacts page provides access to some of your most commonly contacted people. RefTown provides a contact page that is accessible, in part, to the public, and more fully available to schools, teams, and officials.

For each person listed on the contacts page, you can specify a Title (e.g., Commissioner, Webmaster, Recruiter, etc.).

For each of these individuals, you can also specify exactly what pieces of contact information to list on the contact page. You can specify a different set of contact information to be revealed for the public than for officials, schools, and teams. For example, you could reveal only a single email address to the public, while revealing mailing addresses, phone numbers, and all email addresses to logged-in users.

To set up your contacts, go to "Public" -> "Contact," then:

• To add a contact, click
• To edit/modify a contact, check the box for the desired contact and click
• To remove a person from the contacts page (but keep that person on the roster), check the box by the person’s name and click

The items under Menu Control can be used to block access to certain pages if your organization doesn't make use of those pages or you wish to only have those pages available to administrators.

Under Association Logo, you can upload your own logo to replace the RefTown logo in the upper left corner of all pages.

Under Association Banner, you can upload an image that will be located across the page just below the title area.

• Both of these images should be "small" images in jpeg format
• The maximum recommended size for the logo is 150 pixels wide x 150 pixels tall.
• The maximum recommended size for the banner is 120 pixels tall—the width is not as important.
• These images will be loaded on every page. Since they are commonly used, the file size should be less than 25 KB. Since these images are best optimized manually in order to maintain quality while reducing the size, RefTown will not resize the photo and will reject any that are too large. Please use your favorite photo editing software to resize the images appropriately.

Under notice recipients, you define who shall receive basic automatic emails triggered by actions on RefTown.

Below are the available categories and what causes them to be sent:

 To add a person to one of these groups:

1. Click the  symbol by the notice
2. Select the official's name that is to receive the notice
3. Click "Save Changes"

To remove a person from one of these groups:

1. Click the  symbol by the notice
2. Click "Remove" by the officials name to be removed
3. Click "Save Changes"

Game reminders can be configured to be sent to official through a flexible set of options. The available options offer the the ability to send a reminder 48 hours before a game, 72 hours before a game, the day of a game, twice a week, weekly—just about any combination you might prefer. Notices are sent at approximately 3 a.m. Pacific.

To set reminders for Officials, select the days of the week that reminders will be sent on.

Under “Include Games Starting on,” enter the number of days from the day of the notice to start including games.

Under “For This Many Days,” enter the number of days of games to include in the notice.

EXAMPLES:

For a 48-hour notice, check all days, and enter 1 for “Include Games Starting on” and 1 for “For This Many Days.”

 For a 72-hour notice, check all days, and enter 2 for “Include Games Starting on” and 1 for “For This Many Days.”

For a weekly notice starting with games on the day of the notice check, check ONE day, and enter 0 for “Include Games Starting on” and 7 for “For This Many Days.”

For a weekly notice starting with games the day after the notice, check ONE day, and enter 1 for “Include Games Starting on” and 7 for “For This Many Days.”

To have automatic new game reminder sent on the days checked above, select “New Games.”

Game reminders can be configured to be sent to officials through a flexible set of options. The available options offer the the ability to send a reminder 48 hours before a game, 72 hours before a game, the day of a game, twice a week, weekly—just about any combination you might prefer. Notices are sent at approximately 3 a.m. Pacific.

To set reminders for officials, select the days of the week that reminders will be sent on.

Under “Include Games Starting on,” enter the number of days from the day of the notice to start including games.

Under “For This Many Days,” enter the number of days of games to include in the notice.

By default, schools reminders are sent to the listed Payor of the game. These reminders can also be sent to other parties involved in the game. You can specify that the reminders should also be sent to any or all of the following: Home Team, Visiting Team, or Location.

By default, reminders are only sent to teams that have games as specified above. However, you can cause reminder to be sent to all teams on your roster whether they have games or not by selecting “Copy To All Schools/Teams.” This would also cover the possibility that a team is missing a set of games in a given time. These notices are only sent when there are active games for some team in the specified time frame.

EXAMPLES:

For a 48-hour notice, check all days, and enter 1 for “Include Games Starting on” and 1 for “For This Many Days.”

 For a 72-hour notice, check all days, and enter 2 for “Include Games Starting on” and 1 for “For This Many Days.”

For a weekly notice starting with games on the day of the notice check, check ONE day, and enter 0 for “Include Games Starting on” and 7 for “For This Many Days.”

For a weekly notice starting with games the day after the notice, check ONE day, and enter 1 for “Include Games Starting on” and 7 for “For This Many Days.”

To have automatic new game reminder sent on the days checked above, select “New Games.”

This set of reminders is for administrators/assignors.

The reminder includes a snapshot of the Game Management summary page.

To enable reminders, select the days of the week that reminders will be sent on.

Under “Include Games Starting on,” enter the number of days from the day of the notice to start including games.

Under “For This Many Days,” enter the number of days of games to include in the notice.

EXAMPLES:

For a 48-hour notice, check all days, and enter 1 for “Include Games Starting on” and 1 for “For This Many Days.”

 For a 72-hour notice, check all days, and enter 2 for “Include Games Starting on” and 1 for “For This Many Days.”

For a weekly notice starting with games on the day of the notice check, check ONE day, and enter 0 for “Include Games Starting on” and 7 for “For This Many Days.”

For a weekly notice starting with games the day after the notice, check ONE day, and enter 1 for “Include Games Starting on” and 7 for “For This Many Days.”

A few of the checks on the Game Management page will be made without regard to date (e.g., checks for unusual dates/times or checks for missing details).

For the officials roster, you have the following options:

This is a list of the various member types your organization uses to classify its members. As part of this list, you can give officials in each category a "Rating." Examples of possible rating levels include Probationary, Regular, Certified, Associate, Registered, etc.

This is a coarse level rating that can be used in making assignments�if you have the rating feature for assigning enabled.

The order established in this list will be used in any dropdown lists throughout RefTown.

In the case of a multi-sport organization, a different level can be specified for each sport.

To enable this option, go to Admin -> Configuration - Finances. In the officials section, click on "Fee Calculation Options". Check "Use per Sport Official Levels". Even if you do not use the financial features, you'll need to at least enable them temporarily to get to this setting.

Then, to use this feature...

1. Go do Directories -> Officials
2. Click on Quick Links -> Edit All Officials -> Sports
3. Optionally, choose a specific sport to work on.
4. Choose a level for each sport an official works
5. Click Update
6. Repeat for each page of 25 officials. (or click �List All� between steps 2 and 3 to get them all on one very large page).

Each element of the officials roster can be configured to one of the following options:

1. Force Private�that roster element will never be visible to other officials
2. Allow Individual Choice�each official can choose whether to show or hide each roster element
3. Disallow Private�that roster element will always be visible to other officials

Under this section, you can enable a few extra fields on the Registration form that are not included by default and can also define which fields are required versus optional.

• These elements can optionally be shown on either the officials directory.
• These elements can be made editable by each official.
• NOTE: With any of these features enabled, an official without any Sport/Zone/Duty qualifications entered will not appear as eligible to be assigned unless overrides are applied.

• This info can optionally be shown on each individual official's profile.

When the option to tag officials with Sports/Zones/Duties is enabled, you can manage these items in a couple of ways.

The first option is to edit selected officials from the directory.

Steps:

1. From the officials directory, click the checkbox for the subject official(s)
2. Click one of the following buttons to edit, respectively, sports, zones, or duties:

3. On the page that opens, check the boxes for each official as desired.
4. Click Save Changes

The next option is to edit blocks of officials or all officials at one time.

Steps:

1. From the officials directory, click on Quick Links -> Edit All Officials, then choose either Sports, Zones, or Duties.
2. This will open the same type of page described above with checkboxes for each official for each Sport, Zone, or Duty.
3. Check the boxes as desired.
4. Click Save Changes

Both of these paths ultimately do the same thing but target different groups of officials.

On the page to edit the Sports for officials, you'll also have an option to specify a different membership level for each official for each sport.

On the pages to edit the Sports/Zones/Duties, you will find several aids that may expedite the configuration. At the top of each column, you'll will find a check-all and a clear-all button. Selecting one of those will check (or clear) all of the boxes in that column. Similarly, in each row (for each official) will be the same pair of buttons. With those, you can check (or clear) all Sports/Zones/Duties for that official. This can make it a lot quicker if an official need to have all (or most) items checked.

At the top of this page will be some controls that will allow you to show a list of officials that do not have any Sport/Zone/Duty specified without having to search through the lists.

Also at the top of the page will be controls to show either blocks of 25 officials or the entire roster. For very large rosters, the page can become quite unwieldy when the entire roster is shown with multiple sports/zones/duties.

Uniquely for duties is an option to declare one or more duties as universal. This simplifies the configuration when there may be some duties that every official is qualified for. The designation of "universal duty" is done on the duty configuration. That option only appears when the option to specify specific duties is enabled. 

For the schools, locations, payors, and teams roster, there is only one option on RefTown at this time:

School/Team Leagues is a list of the various school/team leagues your organization serves. This is generally used to classify schools/teams into conferences/leagues but not individual teams associated with a school.

• Examples of possible levels include Pac-10, Metro League, Southwest Conference, etc.—but NOT 5th grade, Freshman, Varsity, etc.

School/Team Levels is a list of the various school/team levels your organization serves. This is generally used to classify schools/teams into very large categories but not conferences/leagues or individual teams associated with a school.

• Examples of possible levels include Division 1, Division 2, 4A, 3A, Rec League, etc.—but NOT 5th grade, Freshman, Varsity, etc and not Metro League, City League, etc.

You can give each level on each list a "Rating." This rating is a part of the equation you can use to calculate a game rating to use in making assignments—if you have the rating feature for assigning enabled.

The order established in each list will be used in any dropdown lists throughout RefTown.

This is a list of general supplementary data used to identify the specific location of an event at a larger facility. Use generic terms where possible to maximize reuse.

Examples include: Field 1, Field 2, Back Gym, Main Field, etc.

This is NOT intended to be used as a list of primary locations. The primary locations (with addresses) will be entered under the location/school/team roster.

This is a list of the various member types of individuals associated with schools and teams.

Examples of possible levels include Coach, Athletic Director, Secretary, League AD, etc.

These titles are used to associate the school/team personnel with the schools/teams—a single person can be affiliated with one or more schools/teams and a single school/team can be associated with one or more individuals in various roles.

The order established in this list will be used in any dropdown lists throughout RefTown.

The association between personnel and the schools/teams is done elsewhere...this only configures the types of roles.

Each element of the school contact roster can be configured to one of the following options:

1. Force Private—that roster element will never be visible to officials
2. Allow Individual Choice—each official can choose whether to show or hide each roster element
3. Disallow Private—that roster element will always be visible to officials

All elements are always visible to administrators.

Under this section, you can enable a few extra fields on the Registration form that are not included by default and can also define which fields are required versus optional.