Saturday morning 11+ group
You run an 11+ preparation group on Saturday mornings. Six children, one tutor, billed per term. Two children join halfway through the term. One misses three weeks for a family holiday and the parent asks for a refund. A child from another group comes as a drop-in to catch up. The tutor is paid per session, with a bonus when the group is larger, under your arrangement with them.
The office tracks it on a spreadsheet: a column per week, a row per child. At the end of term, working out each family's bill and the tutor's pay takes an afternoon, and the parent asking for a refund is waiting for an answer.
Why group classes are awkward to bill
- Families pay per term or per block, but join and leave at different times.
- Absences may or may not be refunded or credited, depending on your terms.
- Drop-in students are billed per session, separately from the block.
- Tutor pay may depend on group size, which changes each week.
- Registers are taken on paper or not at all.
What getting it wrong costs
Part-term joiners billed for the whole term, or not at all. Refund requests handled differently each time. Drop-ins that are never billed. Tutors paid for the wrong group size. And the margin on group classes, which should be one of your better lines, is unclear because nobody can see the real attendance and income per group.
Without a reliable register, it is also hard to answer the parent who says their child has missed several sessions through illness and wants to know what you will do about it. The answer depends on your terms and the dates, and neither is easy to find on a spreadsheet with a column per week.
The group class system we build
- Each group is set up with its schedule, tutor, maximum size, price per term or block and drop-in price.
- Families enrol online, choosing the start date. Part-term joiners are priced under your pro rata rules automatically.
- The tutor takes a register each session on their phone, including drop-ins.
- Absences are handled under your terms: no credit, credit to the next term, or a make-up session, recorded against the family.
- Drop-ins are billed per session to the family, and added to the register.
- Tutor pay is calculated from the sessions taught and the group size each week, on the basis you have agreed with them.
- The owner sees attendance, income and tutor cost per group, per term.
| Situation | Family billed | Tutor paid |
|---|---|---|
| Full term enrolment | Term price | Per session, per your arrangement |
| Joined halfway | Your pro rata rule | Group size includes them from that week |
| Absent for three weeks | Per your absence terms | Unchanged |
| Drop-in for one session | Drop-in price | Group size that week includes them |
Your terms decide refunds and credits. The system applies them the same way to every family.
End of term, afterwards
The register was taken every Saturday. At the end of term, each family's bill is already correct: the part-term joiners, the drop-in, the family on holiday handled under your terms, which the parent was shown when they asked. The tutor's pay reflects each week's group size.
The owner can see that the Saturday 11+ group is full and profitable and the Wednesday GCSE group is half empty, and decide what to do about it.
When a parent asks mid term how many sessions their child has attended, the answer comes from the register rather than from the tutor's memory, which is a small thing that makes the agency look organised.
Signs your groups are a billing headache
- Group registers are on paper or not taken.
- Part-term joiners are priced by hand.
- Drop-ins are sometimes not billed.
- Refund requests are decided case by case.
- You cannot see the margin on each group.