A stack of invoices at month end
Your social enterprise runs workshops and courses delivered by sessional workers: an art facilitator for the wellbeing programme, a cooking tutor for the community kitchen course, a digital skills trainer, a youth worker for evening sessions, a counsellor on a sessional contract. Each is paid per session at a rate agreed in their contract, sometimes with travel or materials.
At month end the invoices arrive in different formats. One lists dates, one lists a total, one includes a session that was cancelled because of snow, one forgets a session. The programme manager checks each against her diary and the registers, emails queries, and passes them to finance, who code each to a funder and programme. Some tutors are paid three weeks after the month ends. One complains, reasonably, that this is how a small freelancer ends up short.
Why sessional payments are slow
- Claims come in each worker's own format.
- Session records, such as plans, registers and cancellations, are in a different place from the claims.
- Rates differ by worker, programme and session type.
- Each session's cost must be coded to the programme and funder that pays for it.
- Approval depends on the programme manager's time.
Whether a sessional worker is self-employed or should be on payroll, and how they are paid, are questions for your accountant and HR advisers. We do not advise on employment status. We make the checking and payment run cleanly under whatever arrangement you have.
What slow checking costs
Good freelancers go elsewhere. Sessional tutors are often working for several organisations, and the ones who pay quickly and accurately get their time first.
Mistakes cost money in both directions: paying for sessions that did not run, or failing to pay for sessions that did, which is worse for the relationship. And costs coded to the wrong funder make grant reporting harder later.
Claims pre-filled from delivered sessions
What we build ties payment to delivery.
- Each sessional worker has a record with their rates per session type and programme, agreed expenses rules and payment details.
- Sessions are scheduled in the system with the worker, programme and funder. When a session runs, the worker or coordinator marks it delivered and records the register; cancellations are marked with a reason and, where your contract says so, whether a cancellation fee applies.
- At month end, each worker receives a pre-filled claim listing their delivered sessions and rates, and adds any expenses with receipts.
- The worker confirms or queries the claim. The programme manager approves it, seeing any differences from the schedule highlighted.
- Approved claims become bills in Xero or QuickBooks, coded by programme and funder from the session records, ready for your normal payment run.
- Workers can see the status of their claim, so they do not need to email to ask.
| Check | How it happens |
|---|---|
| Session actually ran | Marked delivered, register recorded |
| Cancelled sessions | Marked with reason, fee applied only if agreed |
| Rate | Taken from the worker's agreed rates |
| Coding | Programme and funder from the session record |
| Expenses | Receipt attached, rule applied |
Month end, a few months in
On the last working day of the month, each sessional worker receives their pre-filled claim. The art facilitator confirms hers in two minutes. The cooking tutor adds a receipt for ingredients. The digital trainer notices a session he covered for a colleague is missing, and flags it; the coordinator updates the record.
The programme manager approves all claims on the second working day. Bills appear in Xero, already coded. The tutors are paid on the next payment run, and the funder report later draws on the same session records.
Is sessional payment like this in your enterprise?
- Sessional workers' invoices arrive in many formats.
- Claims are checked by hand against diaries and registers.
- Cancelled or missing sessions cause disputes.
- Costs are coded to programmes and funders after the fact.
- Sessional workers wait weeks to be paid.