With Duet, you can "set it and forget it" when it comes to sending out invoices to your studio families. In this article, we'll look at how money can go directly into your bank account.
First, make sure you have completed the following steps:
- You've added at least one student to your Student List.
- You've indicated the Billing Cycle and Billing Fee for your student(s)
- If you are charging via subscription, you've indicated the Subscription Start Date and checked the Auto Renewal box
- If you are charging per lesson, you've set up lessons on your calendar and marked attendance for lessons in the past
With those steps done, you're ready to head over to Billing!
Click on Billing in the left hand navigation. You'll get to the main ledger, where each family is shown with their outstanding balance, outstanding lessons (i.e. lessons that have not had attendance or notes recorded), next lesson date, and a link to their latest statement.
Duet works off of a zero-balance principle, meaning that the family's statement will automatically represent the amount needed to get the family's balance back to zero. So if a family has two children, and each are on a $300 per month subscription, then on the date that the subscription renews the family's balance will show -$600. The family's statement will automatically reflect that amount too, prompting them to pay $600.
How To View A Family's Statement
You do not need to "create" statements for your studio families. Statements are always up-to-date. You can view a family's up-to-date statement by clicking View Statement next to the family's name on the Billing page.
If a student is on a subscription plan, the statement will show the latest outstanding subscription charges.
If a student is billed per lesson, the statement will show all lessons in the past that have had their attendance set to Attended. (See the next section if you wish to bill for lessons that are occurring in the future.)
Note that statements will account for students' different billing plans, even within the same family. So Fanny Mendelssohn can be on a per lesson plan and Felix can be on a subscription plan, and the statement will account for both.
How To Change A Family's Statement To Include Future Events
If you want a statement to include future events - i.e. future lessons which haven't yet had their attendance set, next month's subscription charge - click into the family's individual ledger by clicking on the family name.
Click on Send Statement Now. This will allow you to change the date range of the included charges. If you move the date to a month ahead, the statement will include all events and billing charges included in that future month, as well as what the family owes for the past.
How To Change A Statement To Include Additional Fees
Let's say you need to add a charge to a student's account. You spent $20 for some sheet music you bought for that student, and you need to add that charge to their account. This kind of charge will not be captured by the automated statements because it is not part of a subscription cycle and it is not a lesson on your calendar.
One way you can add a transaction manually is by clicking +Add Transaction on the family's Billing ledger. In the screen that pops up, you'll be able to add an additional charge.
This new charge will appear immediately on the family's Billing ledger as well as in the family's statement.
How to Send A Statement
Statements can be sent to families manually anywhere it says Send Statement. There are several places from where you can send statements manually:
- From the main Billing page > View Statement > Send Statement
- From the family's Billing ledger > Send Statement Now
- Whenever you mark attendance for a lesson from the Calendar, Dashboard or Lesson History pages
If you would like to schedule statements to go out automatically, without having to actually click a Send Statement button, you can go to Billing > Scheduled Statements. Simply pick the family or families whose statements you would like to schedule. Pick the date you'd like the statements to go out. Lastly, pick the time frame you'd like the automated statements to include.
Once you schedule these statements, they will be automatically sent to the Primary Contact of your selected families on the date you selected each month.
How Do Families Receive Statements?
When you click Send Statement from anywhere within your Duet account, Duet sends a text to the Primary Contact's phone number. There is no need for the Primary Contact to log in anywhere to see the statement. The text message includes a link that the Primary Contact can tap on and access directly through their phone.
The text will make it clear that it is coming from your music studio.
When a Primary Contact clicks on the link in the text, it will take them to a up-to-date statement with their outstanding balance explained.
If you have your Payment Settings set up to receive credit card or ApplePay payments, the Primary Contact will see a Pay Now button at the bottom of the statement. This will take the Primary Contact directly to a payment processing page where they can pay their balance. The payment will show up directly in your bank account within 1-3 days.
If you do not have your Payment Settings set up to receive digital payments, the Primary Contact will need to pay you a different way (i.e. Venmo, Check) and you will need to enter in the payment manually into the family's Billing ledger.
Stay tuned for more articles on how to set up Payment Settings and how to add manual payments.
Email info@duetpartner.com with any questions, or set up a one-on-one consultation here to get customized tutoring on how Duet works.
