Training management system features checklist
Forty-eight features across six areas, with the one thing to test in each vendor's demo. Written by people who ran a 300-instructor training company and bought this software before building it. Print it, or paste it into your RFP.
See every item on this list running on your own schedule.
What features should a training management system have?
A training management system needs six groups of features: scheduling with conflict detection and calendar sync; instructor management with availability, certifications and matching; registrations with capacity, waitlists and attendance; client accounts, proposals and portals; billing tracked per delivered session with margin per course; and an AI, integration and governance layer. The checklist below lists 48 specific features and the demo test for each group.
Use it with the TMS RFP template and the ranked list of training management software.
1. Scheduling
Demo test: Book an instructor who is already teaching that day for another client. Then move a session a week.
- One calendar for sessions, instructors, rooms and virtual links across every client
- Conflict detection across clients and time zones before a session is confirmed
- Recurring sessions, multi-day courses and multi-session programs as linked sessions
- Two-way Google and Outlook calendar sync for instructors and coordinators
- Reschedule cascades: instructor, learners and invoice updated in one action
- Season or term planning in bulk, with classes added mid-season without re-planning
2. Instructors and facilitators
Demo test: Ask for the best instructor for a specific session and look at the ranked list and the reasons.
- One profile per instructor: certifications, skills, location, rate, evaluation scores
- Availability from the instructor portal or calendar sync, not email
- Matching that ranks every qualified instructor on availability, certifications, skills, location, scores and cost
- Automated confirmation requests, reminders and calendar invites, with tracking of who has not confirmed
- Internal, contract and seasonal instructors in one pool with no per-instructor fees
- Backups and co-instructor roles that report utilization correctly
3. Registrations and attendance
Demo test: Register a learner on a public session, fill it to capacity, then cancel one seat.
- Branded registration pages with capacity rules and waitlists that promote automatically
- Confirmations and reminders tied to each session date
- Public, private-client and on-site registration in the same system
- Attendance and results recorded on the session, feeding training and certification records
- Public self-service enrollment with payment where the business sells seats
- Evaluations sent per session, scored by instructor and by class
4. Clients, proposals and portals
Demo test: Trace one proposal from draft to accepted to scheduled sessions to invoice.
- Client or partner accounts with contacts, pricing and a portal showing their schedule and records
- Proposals built from the course catalog, priced against instructor cost
- Stage-based proposal pipeline, and an accepted proposal that becomes the schedule
- Instructor portal with schedule, availability, confirmations and pay
- Each class tied to a client, partner or cost center
- Learner communications in the system of record (or synced to Workday where HR owns them)
5. Billing and margin
Demo test: Ask what last month's most profitable course was and how long it takes to answer.
- Billing tracked against delivered sessions, not rebuilt at month end
- Instructor cost, venue and travel on the session, so margin per course is visible
- Revenue and cost by course, client, instructor and cost center
- Clean hand-off to the accounting system; the TMS does not replace the ledger
- Reporting on utilization and capacity per instructor
- Exports per client, per learner and per period, CSV and PDF
6. AI, integrations, governance and pricing
Demo test: Ask the vendor's AI a question about your own data, then ask what the bill is at twice your volume.
- An assistant that answers questions from your own schedule, instructors and revenue, and flags issues before a class
- Calendar sync on every plan; API access for HR, LMS and CRM connections
- SSO, role-based access and audit logs available when the organization needs them
- Founder-led or documented onboarding with a stated time to first class
- Pricing that does not rise with users, instructors or registrations (ask for the model in writing)
- Data import from your current system included in onboarding
How TryTami scores: every item in groups one to five is in the product, with public self-service enrollment, billing, SSO, RBAC, API and audit logs in the one plan. Pricing is flat by plan, tiered by sessions delivered, with no per-seat or per-trainer fees. TryTami does not include an LMS and does not source new instructors.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most important feature of a training management system?
The one that fixes your slowest step. For most providers and high-volume training teams that is instructor matching and confirmation, because finding a certified, available instructor is where days go. For public course businesses it is registration and payment. Audit a week of coordinator time before you weight the list.
Is an LMS a training management system feature?
No. An LMS delivers self-paced content and tracks completions. A TMS runs the live operation. Some TMS vendors bundle an LMS; most, including TryTami, run next to the one you already have.
How do I use this checklist in a demo?
Send the vendor the six demo tests in advance and ask them to run each one on a copy of your real schedule, instructors and clients. A vendor that runs all six in one 30-minute session has the features; one that needs a follow-up for any of them does not.
Can I copy this into an RFP?
Yes. The TMS RFP template on this site uses the same groups, with scoring columns and the commercial questions (pricing model, contract, implementation, data migration).
Book a demo
See all 48 items running on your schedule.
A 30-minute walkthrough with a founder. Send us the six demo tests and we will run them on your real data.
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