The first week of every month
Your tutors are self-employed. At the end of each month, each one sends you an invoice. Some send a neat PDF from accounting software. Some send a Word document. Some send an email listing lessons. Some forget, and are chased. One tutor's invoice includes a lesson the parent cancelled late; another's misses two lessons they taught.
The office checks each invoice against the parent billing spreadsheet, line by line. Queries go back and forth. Payment goes out late for the tutors whose invoices needed fixing, which are often the ones who most need the money on time.
Why tutor invoices are slow to process
- Every tutor uses a different format, so checking cannot be automated.
- The agency's lesson record and the tutor's own record are kept separately.
- Cancellations, rate changes and packages are interpreted differently by tutors and office.
- Chasing missing invoices delays the whole payment run.
- Queries are about the whole invoice rather than a specific lesson.
How your tutors are engaged, and what paperwork that requires, is a matter for you and your accountant. We do not advise on employment status or tax. We build the statements in the form you are advised to use.
What the monthly chase costs
Days of office time each month on checking and chasing. Tutors paid late, which is a common reason good tutors move agencies. Errors in both directions: paying for lessons not taught, not paying for lessons that were. Disputes that are hard to resolve because the tutor and the agency have different records.
The statements we build
- Every lesson is confirmed by the tutor on the day in the lesson schedule, so the record is shared from the start.
- At month end, each tutor's statement is produced from their confirmed lessons, cancellations under your policy and their agreed rates.
- The statement goes to the tutor to check. They accept it, or query a specific lesson with a note.
- Queries go to the office as a list of individual lessons, each with the history of what happened.
- Accepted statements are exported for payment, for example as a bank payment file or bills in Xero.
- Where your accountant advises self-billing, the statement can be produced as a self-billed invoice with the details they specify.
- Tutors can see their statements and year-to-date totals in their portal, which helps them with their own records.
| Step | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Tutor invoice | Their own format, sometimes late | Statement produced by the agency |
| Checking | Line by line against a spreadsheet | Built from the same lesson record |
| Query | About the whole invoice | About one lesson, with its history |
| Payment | After chasing everyone | On a fixed day from accepted statements |
Month end, afterwards
On the last working day, every tutor gets a statement. Most accept it within a day or two. A handful query a lesson: a cancellation they think should have been paid, a lesson they forgot to confirm. The office resolves each one from the history. Payment goes out on your usual day, to everyone.
Tutors trust the statements because they confirmed each lesson themselves. The office no longer reads dozens of invoice formats.
Year end is easier for everyone as well. Tutors can download a year's statements for their own tax return, and the agency's accountant has one consistent record of what was paid to whom and for which lessons.
Moving to statements is usually done from a clean month. Tutors are told in advance, see their first statement alongside their own records, and raise anything that looks wrong. After a month or two, most stop keeping a separate log, because the statement already matches the lessons they confirmed.
Is this your month end?
- Tutors send invoices in their own formats.
- You chase tutors for invoices every month.
- Invoices are checked line by line against your records.
- Tutors are paid late when their invoice needed fixing.
- Tutors and office disagree about which lessons happened.