Month end, twelve different invoices
Your school works with twelve self-employed teachers. At month end each sends an invoice. One sends a Word document with a total and no detail. One sends a spreadsheet listing every pupil. One charges for a lesson the pupil cancelled with notice, which your policy says you do not pay for. One forgets the extra concert rehearsal she did and is annoyed when she realises.
The office puts each invoice next to the timetable and tries to reconcile it. Where the numbers differ, it emails the teacher, who replies a few days later, and the payment run is late for everyone.
Two counts, never the same one
The teacher counts what they taught from memory or their own notes. The office counts what the timetable says should have happened. Neither count includes the lessons that moved, the make-ups, the pupil who came for half a lesson, or the extra work like concerts and exam rehearsals. Your pay rules decide which of those are paid, but they are written in an agreement nobody rereads.
- Teachers keep registers in their own formats, or not at all.
- Cancellations with and without notice are treated differently in your rules.
- Make-ups may or may not be paid again, depending on the reason.
- Extra work such as ensembles and concerts is agreed informally.
How you engage teachers, and what that means for tax and employment status, is for you and your adviser. The problem we deal with is the counting.
The cost of month-end reconciliation
It takes office time, and it delays payment to people you depend on, who notice and resent it. Disagreements about a handful of lessons damage relationships more than the money involved. And when the school pays for a lesson the family was credited for, the loss is quiet and repeated.
A shared lesson record behind every invoice
- Teachers mark each lesson on their phone as taught, pupil absent with or without notice, teacher absent, or moved.
- Extra work (rehearsals, concerts, cover lessons) is logged on the same screen against an agreed activity.
- Your pay rules are set once: what is paid, at what rate, and what happens for each absence type.
- At month end, each teacher gets a statement listing every paid item, which they can check and dispute line by line.
- Once they accept it, the statement becomes their invoice or supports the invoice they send, whichever you prefer.
- Accepted statements go into your accounts package, such as Xero, as bills ready for the payment run.
| Lesson outcome | Pay rule (example) | On the statement |
|---|---|---|
| Taught | Paid at the lesson rate | Listed and paid |
| Pupil absent, no notice | Paid | Listed and paid |
| Pupil absent, notice given | Not paid | Listed, not paid, reason shown |
| Teacher absent | Not paid | Listed, not paid |
| Concert rehearsal | Paid at the activity rate | Listed and paid |
A payment run that starts agreed
The office no longer reconciles twelve formats. Teachers see their statement before month end and fix anything wrong at the source. Disputes are about a specific line with a date, not a total. The same lesson record also feeds family credits and make-ups, so what you pay teachers and what you charge families finally come from one place.
A typical dispute now looks like this: the violin teacher says the Tuesday lesson on the fourteenth should be paid because the parent cancelled on the morning itself. The statement shows the cancellation time the parent gave, the rule applies, and the line is corrected or confirmed in a minute. Nobody has to dig through a phone for a text sent three weeks earlier.
Is month end like this for you?
- Teachers invoice in different formats with different levels of detail.
- The office compares invoices with the timetable by hand.
- You have paid for lessons that families were credited for.
- Extra work is often missed or disputed.
- Teachers are paid later than they would like because of checking.