Chasing October in November
Invoices for October go out on the first of November. Most families pay within a fortnight. Some pay the wrong amount. A handful do not pay until December, after two reminders and a phone call. By then, the tutors have been paid for October's lessons out of the agency's own cash.
Parents are not being difficult. The invoice arrived in a busy week, the bank transfer needs doing on the laptop, and it slips. For the agency, it is a monthly cash flow gap and hours of chasing.
Why monthly transfers are slow
- Payment depends on the parent remembering to make a transfer.
- Invoices arrive weeks after the lessons they cover.
- References are often wrong, so payments need matching by hand.
- Tutors are paid on a fixed date, whether or not parents have paid.
- Chasing is awkward and inconsistent.
What slow payment costs
Cash flow: the agency funds tutor pay while waiting for parents. Office time on chasing and matching. Occasional bad debts from families who leave owing. Awkward conversations that sour otherwise good relationships. And uncertainty, because the owner never quite knows what will arrive this month.
It gets worse as the agency grows. More families means more transfers to match and more reminders to send, while tutor pay goes out on the same date regardless.
The card on file billing we build
- Parents save a card once, through a secure page from a payment provider such as Stripe. The agency never sees or stores the card number.
- Your terms decide when the card is charged: after each confirmed lesson, weekly, or monthly in advance.
- When a tutor confirms a lesson, the charge is made under those terms, and the parent gets a receipt with the date, tutor, subject and length.
- Late cancellations are charged under your policy, with the reason on the receipt.
- Failed payments are retried under the provider's rules, and the parent is asked to update their card. The office sees any that remain unpaid.
- Payments are recorded in your accounting package, such as Xero, so no matching is needed.
- Families who prefer to pay by invoice can still do so, handled as now.
| Step | Monthly transfers | Card on file |
|---|---|---|
| When payment arrives | Weeks after the lessons | Shortly after each lesson, or as your terms say |
| Matching | By reference, by hand | Automatic |
| Chasing | Regular | Only for failed cards |
| Parent's record | A monthly invoice | A receipt per lesson |
Payment providers charge fees, which vary. Whether to pass them on or absorb them is your decision.
Month end, afterwards
Lessons are confirmed and charged as they happen. By the end of the month, almost everything is paid. A couple of cards failed and the parents updated them after a prompt. The office has nothing to match. Tutors are paid from money that has already arrived.
Parents like seeing a receipt for each lesson; it makes the cost clear and ties it to something that happened.
Cash flow becomes predictable. The owner can see each week what has been charged and what is still due, rather than waiting until the middle of the next month to find out what October really brought in.
Switching over is usually done family by family. New families are set up with a saved card from their first lesson. Existing families are invited to switch at the start of a term, with the terms explained clearly, and those who prefer invoices keep them.
Receipts per lesson also cut down queries, because each charge names the tutor, the date and the subject rather than a monthly total.
Is chasing payment eating your time?
- Parents pay by bank transfer after a monthly invoice.
- You chase several families every month.
- Payments need matching by hand.
- You pay tutors before parents have paid you.
- You have families who left owing money.