Is the Tuesday session worth it?
Your academy has grown: several venues, term sessions, holiday camps, school contracts, parties, adult classes. Some things feel busy and profitable. Some feel like hard work. You suspect the Tuesday session at the far leisure centre barely covers its hall hire and coaches, but you have never been sure.
To find out, you would need to pull bookings from the booking system, attendance from registers, coach pay from the rota, hire costs from invoices and income from the bank and payment provider. You tried once at the end of the year and gave up halfway. Decisions about new venues, prices and coach hours are made on instinct.
Why the numbers are hard to see
- Bookings, attendance, pay, hire and income are in different places.
- Income arrives as termly, monthly and one-off payments that do not map neatly to sessions.
- Coach pay and hire costs are paid in bulk, not per session.
- The accounts package shows totals, not which venue or programme they belong to.
- Nobody has time to build the report by hand.
What flying blind costs
A session that loses money can run for years because nobody can prove it. A popular session that could run twice stays at one. Price rises are applied across the board instead of where they are needed. Expansion to a new venue is a gamble.
The numbers also matter when you talk to your accountant, a bank or anyone thinking of investing in or buying your business. A clear picture by venue and programme is worth a lot in those conversations.
One report that pulls it all together
- We connect to your booking system, registers, rota, payment provider and accounts package such as Xero or QuickBooks, through their APIs or exports.
- Income is spread across the sessions it relates to, for example a termly fee over that term's sessions, following rules we agree with you.
- Coach pay is allocated to the sessions each coach delivered, and venue hire to the sessions at that venue.
- A report shows each session, venue and programme with bookings, attendance, income, direct costs and what is left.
- Trends by term show which sessions are growing or shrinking, and occupancy shows where there is demand for more.
- The report updates on its own, and a summary can be sent to you monthly.
| Measure | Source | Helps you decide |
|---|---|---|
| Bookings and occupancy | Booking system | Where demand is high or low |
| Attendance | Registers | Whether booked children actually come |
| Income per session | Payments, spread by rule | What each session brings in |
| Coach and hire costs | Rota and invoices | What each session costs to run |
| Trend by term | All of the above | What is growing or fading |
The figures are management information for your decisions. Your accountant still prepares your accounts.
Decisions made on numbers
At the end of term, you open the report. The Tuesday session at the far venue covers its hall and coaches, just, but occupancy is low. Saturday mornings at the main venue are full with a waiting list and make good money. Holiday camps carry the business in the summer. School contracts are steady but thin.
Attendance adds a detail that bookings alone miss. A session that is fully booked but where a quarter of children rarely turn up is a different problem from one that is half booked, and the report shows both.
You decide to move Tuesday to a closer venue, add a second Saturday group and review school prices at renewal. The decisions still need judgement, but they now start from real numbers.
Do you know which sessions make money?
- You cannot say which venues or sessions are profitable.
- Income, costs and bookings are in different systems.
- Decisions about new venues are made on instinct.
- Price rises are applied across the board.
- You gave up building the numbers by hand.