Tutors
Booking and payment systems for private tutors
Tutoring runs on repetition: the same pupils, the same slots, week after week through term, right up until half term, exam season, or a family holiday turns the whole timetable over.
Autumn term - Tuesdays
Half term excluded · billed monthly
An illustration of the kind of screen this builds towards - yours is built around how your tutor actually runs.
The reality
Where the time and money goes in a tutor
Term dates constantly disrupt the timetable
A schedule that runs beautifully for six weeks falls apart at half term, and rebuilding it by text with fifteen families takes an evening.
Invoicing every month by hand
Working out who had how many sessions, allowing for cancellations, sending fifteen invoices and then chasing four of them. Every single month.
The parent pays but the pupil attends
Two different people need two different things - the parent wants progress and invoices, the pupil wants the link and the homework. One inbox does not serve both.
Resources scattered across email and WhatsApp
Past papers, worksheets and notes sent as attachments that get lost, so the same file is sent three times.
Demand is wildly seasonal
September and the run-up to exams are packed; parts of the summer are dead. Without a waiting list, the busy periods turn work away and the quiet ones sit empty.
The approach
How we'd fix it
The core of it is a recurring timetable that understands terms. A pupil takes Tuesday at five for the whole of the autumn term, with half term already excluded, and both you and the parent can see the full schedule up front. Changes happen against that timetable rather than by rebuilding it from scratch each time.
Billing follows automatically from what actually happened. Sessions delivered, cancellations applied according to your policy, invoice generated and paid by card at the end of the month, or paid up front as a block if that suits better. Parents get progress updates and invoices; pupils get their lesson link, materials and homework. Two audiences, handled separately, without you writing the same message twice.
What we build
Built for tutors
Recurring term-time schedules
Weekly slots booked for a whole term with school holidays excluded, so the timetable survives half term.
Online and in-person lessons
Different rates, durations and travel time for each, with video links issued automatically for online sessions.
Automatic monthly billing
Invoices generated from sessions actually delivered and paid by card, with your cancellation policy applied consistently.
Separate parent and pupil access
Parents see progress, attendance and invoices; pupils see their timetable, resources and homework.
Resources in one place
Worksheets, past papers and notes attached to the subject and level, available whenever they are needed instead of buried in an email.
Waiting list by subject and level
When a slot comes free, the families waiting for GCSE maths on a weekday evening hear about it first.
What changes
The difference it makes
- The timetable survives half term without an evening of messages
- Invoices go out and get paid without you doing anything
- Parents feel informed, which is what keeps a pupil booked term after term
- Free slots get filled from the waiting list instead of advertised from scratch
In practice
A worked example: fifteen families, one Sunday evening
A tutor with fifteen regular pupils was losing most of a Sunday evening every month to invoicing - cross-referencing a diary against a spreadsheet, working out who had cancelled and when, and then following up the two or three families who did not pay on time.
Automating it changed nothing about the teaching and removed the entire evening. Sessions delivered generate the invoice, the cancellation policy applies itself, payment is taken by card on the same date each month, and reminders go to anybody who fails. The other change worth noting was less obvious: parents got a short progress note each month alongside the invoice, and retention into the next term went up noticeably. People pay more happily when they can see what they are paying for.
The systems behind it
What this is built from
Everything on this page is put together from the same handful of systems, shaped around how tutors actually work.
Questions
Tutors - the questions I get asked
Can it handle recurring weekly lessons through a term?
Yes, and it should exclude school holidays automatically. You set a pupil up on Tuesday at five for the autumn term and the whole schedule appears, half term already taken out. Both you and the parent can see the full run of dates from the start, which prevents most of the confusion.
How does billing work?
Invoices are generated from sessions actually delivered, with your cancellation policy applied, and paid by card on the same date each month. Alternatively you can sell blocks paid up front. Either way you stop reconciling a diary against a spreadsheet on a Sunday evening.
Can parents and pupils have different access?
Yes, and it matters more than people expect. Parents get attendance, progress notes and invoices. Pupils get their timetable, lesson links, resources and homework. Sending everything to one inbox means the parent is buried in worksheets and the pupil never sees the important bits.
Does it work for online tutoring?
Yes. Online lessons can carry their own rate and duration, with the video link issued automatically in the confirmation and reminder. If you do both online and in person, the in-person slots can carry travel time so the two do not clash.
I run a tuition centre with several tutors. Does that change things?
It adds rooms and staff to the picture, which the system handles the same way a clinic handles practitioners and treatment rooms. Each tutor has their own subjects, levels and availability; each room has its own capacity; group sessions have their own caps. Parents book with a named tutor or with whoever teaches that subject.
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Run a tutor? Let's have a look at it
Tell me how things work at the moment and I'll come back with a clear, fixed quote - and an honest view on whether it's worth the money. No pressure and no jargon.