Preparing a match in the electronic match protocol

The setup screen looks the same everywhere, but what it demands differs. The rules below come from the sport and the federation, not from anything an organiser can set.

From the sport

From the federation

• Swedish handball — the match officials window lists the appointed referees read-only instead of asking you to type them; leaders carry the identification tick; the setup screen adds Home team setup completed / Away team setup completed; the line-up becomes public 45 minutes before start instead of 60.
• Swedish basketball — leaders are compulsory before the match can start, and exactly one head coach must be named, who must hold the coaching level the competition demands. The Profixio clock is off.
• Swedish bandy — leaders are compulsory, a responsible coach must be picked, and the same person may not be both player and leader.
• Swedish beach volleyball and Volleyball Australia — players rotate rather than sit on a bench, which also decides how substitutions work during the match. In Swedish beach volleyball tournaments the protocol is pre-filled with the registered squad the first time it is opened.
• Swimming/water polo and Swedish rugby — coaches without a licence are allowed on the bench.

Whether a player needs a licence to be put in the protocol is a federation policy enforced elsewhere, in playing rights — the protocol only shows you the result of it.

Anyone may look at a match page — it is public, and the protocol simply shows up read-only. What is restricted is opening the protocol and writing in it.

League and series matches. Any one of these is enough:

• You run a club's secretariat. Where the federation has enabled opening the protocol via favourites, the secretariat opens it from the protocol list, which shows the matches of its favourite teams. This is the normal route for a club's own secretariat.
• You are a club administrator. Where the federation has enabled opening the protocol via club, the administrators of the club that organises the match can open its protocol. The organising club is usually the home club, but it does not have to be.
• You are a referee. A referee registered in that federation whose referee type is allowed to use the match protocol can open it, as can a referee who is assigned to that specific match.
• You have EMP access for the federation. A named access right given per person and organisation — used for hired statisticians and arena staff who are neither club administrators nor referees.
• You are a district or federation administrator for that federation.

Tournament (cup) matches. The tournament's own permissions decide: administrators of the tournament, and users who have been given match editing or result editing rights for it. EMP access for the federation also works here.

After setup, the protocol is locked to its secretary. Once the setup is completed, the person who completed it is the match's secretary, and the protocol list shows a padlock with the secretary's name and the time the protocol was set up. Users who may edit the match — for example tournament or series administrators and users with match or result editing rights — and users with EMP access for the federation can still write in the protocol whoever is secretary. Users with match editing rights can see the secretary under Protocol writer on the match and remove them while the match has no result, so somebody else can take over.

A signed protocol is closed. Once the protocol has been signed and has events on it, only users with match editing rights on the tournament or series, and in cup tournaments users with result editing rights, can still change it.

From the protocol list (leagues and series). The menu entry for match protocols opens the list of matches you may write. If you have access in more than one federation you are asked first: "Please select organisation for EMP". The choice is remembered, and you can come back to it with Change organisation.

The list has two tabs:

• Open new protocol — matches from today and the next three days. By default it shows only matches involving your favourite teams; the heading tells you which you are looking at ("Matches for your favorites the next 3 days" or "Matches the next 3 days"). Turn on Show all matches to drop the favourites restriction, and use "Filter on competition, team and match number" to narrow the list down.
• Historikk — matches you have registered events in before.

If the match you want is not in the three-day window, use the search box "Search specific match number" at the top. Searching by match number ignores both the date window and the favourites filter.

Press Open match protocol on the match. A confirmation window appears with the match details and a reminder that the match will be locked to you as secretary — your federation may replace that reminder with its own text, for example about what to check before starting. Confirming takes you to the setup screen. If the match already has events and a completed setup, and you may write in it, you skip the confirmation and the setup screen and go straight into the match.

A match that is already locked shows a padlock with the secretary's name and the time the protocol was set up, plus an Unlock this game report button for those who may use it. A match you cannot open shows only its result button, with no explanation.

From the match itself. On a match page that has no protocol yet, a Match Protocol Setup button appears for everyone allowed to start one. In the Profixio app's match admin menu the same link is called Protocol setup. Where the match page has a Go to match report button, it shows the same confirmation before it opens the setup screen; if you are continuing a protocol you already write in, it opens the setup screen straight away.

Not from the schedule popup. The match card that opens from a schedule or a team's match list is always read-only, however much access you have. Open the full match page or use the protocol list.

The setup screen is one page, not a wizard. Each tile opens a window, and closing it puts you back on the same page, so you can go back and forth freely and leave the page and come back.

Each of the players, leaders and officials tiles carries a green or red mark showing whether that part is complete. Where the sport announces it, a line under the tiles summarises the rules: "Match info: 5 players per team, 4x10 minutes playing time".

If you may edit the match, for example as a tournament administrator, the bottom of the page has three buttons:

• Save and go to match (you become secretary) saves the setup, makes you the match's secretary and takes you into the match.
• Save settings saves the match length and the other settings on the page and keeps the current secretary.
• Open match page takes you to the match page without saving.

Other users get Start the match, or Return to the match if the match already has events, which saves the match length, marks the protocol as set up, makes them the secretary if the match has none and takes them into the match. When someone else has already set up the protocol, the page shows who did it and when, and Save and go to match (you become secretary) is left out; users who may not edit the match get Take over as secretary instead, as long as the protocol is unsigned and the match has no result. If the protocol is restarted with Reset all and restart match, the match comes back to this screen with the line-ups kept and no secretary; the next person who completes the setup becomes secretary.

What actually blocks the start: both teams' players must be complete, and, in the federations that require it, both teams' leaders as well. The mark next to Match officials is informative only — a missing required official shows red but does not stop you starting the match. If something is missing you stay on the page and get the message "Match setup not completed yet", with the red marks showing which team is not ready.

Choose players opens the team's registered squad. Press the plus next to a person to put them in the match; press the red cross to take them out again. Counters at the top show Players, Starters, Bench, Staff and, in volleyball, Liberos.

• Shirt numbers are typed next to each player, between 0 and 999. A player without a number is highlighted, and a number already used in the same team is refused with "The shirt number is in use". Everyone in the protocol must have a number before the team counts as ready.
• Starters and bench. Where the match is played with starters and a bench, each player is either Starter or Bench; press the label to move them. You cannot have more starters than the sport allows ("Cannot add starters. Max starters reached.").
• Captain. Where the sport shows a captain, pick one under Select Captain. A star (*) after the heading means the captain is compulsory and the team is not ready without one.
• Liberos (volleyball). Tick Libero on the player. A libero cannot also be a starter, and there is a limit per team ("Cannot add more liberos").
• Position can be set per player where the tournament uses playing positions.

Adding somebody who is not in the squad. Where the federation allows it, Add an unregistered person lets you type a first name, a last name and a shirt number. The screen warns you what this costs: "Add a person - no statistics will be saved for this person" — the person is a name on this protocol only, with no link to the player register, so nothing is counted towards their statistics. Leaders can always be added this way; adding unregistered players is a per-federation and per-division setting.

Playing rights. In federations that run licences through Profixio, adding an adult player without a valid licence opens a Select license type window instead of adding them directly. Confirming there registers the licence and invoices the responsible club. Children below the federation's age limit pass without a licence.

A player who already has events cannot be removed — the protocol refuses with "Cannot remove player with events in the Protocol". Correct the events first.

The team is ready when: every added player has a shirt number, there is a captain if the sport requires one, and the number of starters is inside the sport's minimum and maximum. In competitions that do not use starters at all — those that pick from the season or tournament player table rather than a per-match squad, and those where players rotate instead of sitting on a bench — it is enough that the squad is at least as big as the sport's number of players on court.

Choose leaders works exactly like the player window, but lists the team's registered coaches and staff instead, and asks for a role rather than a shirt number.

• Every leader must have a role. The list of roles is the federation's own.
• Where the sport uses it, one leader is marked Responsible coach — the person answering for the team on the bench during this match.
• Some federations require the head coach to hold a minimum coaching qualification in that competition. Giving the head coach role to someone who does not qualify is refused with a message naming the level required.
• In Swedish handball the leader list carries an identification tick, used by the secretariat to record that the leader's identity was checked. It is only visible to people who may write the protocol.

When leaders block the start. In most federations leaders are optional and the tile is only a convenience. In the federations that require them, both teams need at least one leader with a role before Start the match works, plus a responsible coach where the sport uses that, and exactly one head coach where the federation defines a head coach role.

The same person cannot be both. Swedish bandy forbids a playing leader. There, adding a person who is already on the other list is refused with "Person is already registered as leader. Remove from leaders first." or "Person is already registered as player. Remove from players first."

Team color opens a colour picker for the team's shirt. The colour is used to tell the two teams apart in the protocol, in live results and on match cards.

Two things are worth knowing:

• The colour saves as soon as you pick it — there is no save button, and the window closes itself.
• The colour is stored on the team, not on the match. Changing it here changes the team's shirt colour everywhere, including their other matches. It is the same colour the club can set on the team itself.

An empty colour shows as an X on the tile. A missing colour never blocks the start of the match.

Match officials is where the secretariat writes itself into the protocol. Which roles exist is decided per federation and sport — typically a match secretary and a timekeeper, sometimes a shot-clock operator or a speaker. Roles marked with (*) are the ones the federation counts as required.

The window has two parts:

1. "Choose your role:" — press the role you are filling yourself, and your own name is entered. This is what links the protocol to you as an official, and it is skipped when the federation only has one role.
2. "Please fill in roles for the match" — type the names of the other officials. The field placeholder is "Enter name". Press Save when done.

Names here are free text and appear on the printed protocol exactly as typed, so check the spelling.

In federations where the officials come from the referee appointment instead, the window also shows a read-only list of the people appointed to this match — role, name, email and mobile — taken from the referee assignment. You cannot change the appointment from here; that is done in referee appointment.

A missing required official shows a red mark on the tile but does not prevent you from starting the match.

The bottom of the setup screen sets how the match is played:

• Number of periods is always shown. It is filled in from the sport's default, or from what the match already had.
• Period length and Overtime Period length are shown only when the match timer is on for this match. Overtime is only offered in sports that actually have an extra-period event.
• Match timer is a toggle — but only in federations that allow the choice. Elsewhere the clock is simply on or off for the whole federation, and there is no toggle to see.

All three values are stored on the match, so what you set here is what the match keeps.

Two choices are written onto the match when the setup is saved:

• whether this match uses the timer, and
• whether players are switched between the court and the bench during the match (bench switching) — which follows from the sport and the squad, not from anything you tick.

They stay on the match even if the federation's settings change. If a match ends up with the wrong timer setting, a user who may edit the match can change Match timer on the setup screen, where the federation shows it, and press Save settings. For a wrong bench-switching setting, contact Profixio support with the match number.

Where the federation asks for it, two extra toggles — Home team setup completed and Away team setup completed — let the secretariat record that each team has confirmed its own squad. They are saved with the setup and do not block the start.

In competitions that use match squads, a team leader can pick the team's own players, leaders and shirt colour before the secretariat opens the protocol, straight from the match card. The trigger is called Change Match Participants, and it opens exactly the same three windows as the setup screen — Choose players, Choose leaders, Team color — but only for your own team.

Every team leader (contact person) of the team can pick players for its matches, as long as they are logged in with the e-mail address that is linked to the team. To let somebody else do this, add that person as a contact person on the team.

You can do this while all of the following hold:

• you are logged in to the tournament or competition the match belongs to, and you administer that team,
• the match has no result and no protocol events yet, and
• the match has not reached its lock time: 60 minutes before start for league and series matches, 5 minutes before start for cup matches.

After that the line-up belongs to the secretariat.

The Change Match Participants button appears on the match card from 15 days before the match date. If you open a match earlier than that, there is no button yet — come back once the match is within the window.

Filling this in early is a convenience for the secretariat, not a requirement — the protocol can still be set up from scratch at the table.

When the line-up becomes public. Spectators and other teams see a match's line-up from a fixed time before the start, normally 60 minutes — some federations use a shorter window. Before that, the line-up is only visible to people who may write the protocol.

Almost nothing on this page is a setting a tournament administrator can change. The behaviour comes from three layers: central federation settings (ask your federation or district administrator about them), competition settings on the division, and a few values written onto the individual match.

Federation and sport (set centrally per federation × sport)

Competition and federation policy

Written onto the individual match at setup

Automatic squad filling. In one competition profile (Swedish beach volleyball tournaments) the protocol is pre-filled with the whole registered team roster as starters the first time the setup screen is opened, when no players have been added yet. Everywhere else the squad starts empty.

Work down the list and stop at the first match — the earlier items override the later ones.

1. Does this sport use the protocol at all? If the federation has not switched the match protocol on for the sport, there is no setup screen anywhere and the match never appears in the protocol list. Nothing on the tournament or the match can override it.
2. Does the division use the protocol? League and series matches also need the protocol enabled on the division. Without it the match is filtered out of the list and opening it is refused.
3. Are both teams real? A placeholder team — a name typed into the scheduling screen, or a bracket slot the draw has not filled — has no squad. The protocol refuses with "The match does not have a home team" / "...away team". Finish the draw or link the slot to the registered team first.
4. Does the match already have a result? A result registered by hand blocks a new protocol. Remove the result first.
5. Has somebody else already opened it? The list shows a padlock with the secretary's name and the time the protocol was set up. There are three ways to take the match off that person, and they are not open to the same people:
   • Unlock this game report in the protocol list — offered to anyone who may write that protocol. The button is only shown while the match has no result.
   • Protocol writer → Remove on the match — only for users with match editing rights on the tournament, and only while the match has no result.
   • Take over as secretary on the setup screen — for users who may open the protocol but not edit the match, while the protocol is unsigned and the match has no result.
6. Is the protocol already signed? A signed protocol with events on it is read-only, except for users with match editing rights on the tournament or series and, in cup tournaments, result editing rights. Ask the organiser if it needs changing: they can correct events or start the match over with Reset all and restart match under More....
7. Are you looking at the read-only view? The match card that pops out of a schedule or a team's match list is always read-only. Open the full match page.
8. Are you signed in? The match page opens for everyone and simply shows the protocol read-only — there is no "no access" message. If the buttons are missing, check that you are logged in as the right user.
9. Are you in the right federation? If you have access in more than one, the protocol list remembers your last choice. Use Change organisation if the list looks empty.
10. Is the match outside the list's window? The list only shows today plus three days, and by default only matches with your favourite teams. Turn on Show all matches, or search on the match number, which ignores both filters.
11. Do you have any of the access routes? For league matches: the favourites route where the federation has enabled it, club administration of the organising club, a referee record allowed to use the protocol, EMP access for the federation, or a district/federation role. For tournament matches: match or result editing rights on that tournament.
12. Does the page say "The match is no longer available"? The match's class has been deleted. The match itself still exists but cannot be shown; put the class back or move the match to an existing class.
13. Is the tournament hidden in the app? A tournament hidden from the Profixio app sends everyone except its own administrators back to the tournament search before they reach the match.

The match protocol has no offline mode. Everything you do — adding a player, setting a shirt number, pressing Start the match — goes to the server as it happens. Nothing is stored in the phone or laptop and sent later, and there is no queue that catches up when the network returns.

What that means at the venue:

• If the connection drops during setup, whatever you had already saved is safe on the server; what you were in the middle of is not. Reload the page when you are back online and carry on — the tiles show what is already complete.
• Setting the protocol up while you still have a good connection does not protect you during the match. Live reporting needs the same connection.
• Report signal problems and lost work to Profixio support with the match number.