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I keep my tuition statements easy. My tuition is the same every month. I do not charge extra for books. The books and materials are included in the tuition.

My statements are set up in my computer. The only thing I do is change the date on the template. I mail merge addresses and press print. Walla

I mail them in a windowed envelope (Addresses are printed on the statement)

It is very easy and not time consuming. It allows me to also send a newsletter reminding parents of upcoming events. I have 20 or so newsletters I have been recycling for years. Also very easy.

I agree. Some parents need reminding that I am a business. When a statement is sent in the mail, I find tuition payment is written with the rest of the bills. Since sending tuition statement, I have less problem with people remembering to pay. It works for me.


I also have every intention of putting taxes etc on one computer program. Every year my accountant suggest it. I just havn't done it yet.

John, What computer/tax program do you use?

I don't use this service for my students but I have long admired the "Music Teacher's Helper" site.

1) Your students can make their payments there,
2) You can have your own website there.
3) There is just a lot of good things going on at MTH.

Please take a look and see the possibilities for yourself.

My tuition fees and studio policies have been subject to my postings many time in PWF - perhaps some "search" would take you to things I have contributed. I think I have my "act" down to a "science" in the policy and tuition fees and operating my music education business. That is not to brag, but to state that life got a lot easier when I got organized about how I wanted to operate and communicate that to the clients.

I wish everyone good luck in getting their recordkeeping and their trips to the bank to a minimum. It used to be very time consuming for me not to mention erroneous at times. You want to be ahead of the game, not trying to catch up from behind.

Establish some pertinent rules that you need to have. I think over all piano teachers can be timid in asking for what they need. You need a good and consistent income distributed over 12 months of the year.

If you don't have the money income totally meeting your needs you will be pleading with your clients to make their payments from now until the end of your piano teaching life.

The utility companies and the mortgage companies don't take your problems with receiving your incomes from your clients under consideration. Best to have money in the bank beforehand not after. Get the money thing under control by taking a stand on your policy and tuition fees even write a contract if you need to. With this out of the way you can now concentrate on your giving good service and maximizing your teaching abilities.

A piano teacher having financial problems is not compatabile with spending your time where it is needed most, in guidance of your students musical progress. Can't be in two places at once!

Time is of the essence!

Betty

To be honest, I'm not sure how one would test such a thing. Neither my kids' teachers nor mine issue invoices, but I'm a musician (of sorts :)) myself so I don't need this reassurance to know they're doing a decent job. Perhaps people who aren't particularly musical need it more? Dunno, really.

Another aspect to think about - some, perhaps many, families are pushing the envelop when it comes to their finances. Bills are prioritized. Professional looking statements get paid sooner than those which are not. If you use a billing service, which incorporates a late payment fee, your pay will be steady and on time. Your mortgage/rent, utilities, food, etc., must be paid whether Johnnie comes to a lesson or not. If you're product is set up like a school, college, class, etc., you're going to be paid. If you collect lesson fees when Suzie shows up at the door, you're income is going to take a severe hit.

Long time teachers have been down this well-worn path; there is no need for anyone to reinvent the wheel. Your predecessors have learned the hard way. You can believe us or not. You can pick up any of the many college texts on pedagogy, and read the same thing. This is a free country and the choice is yours.

Kevin B said in the posting above John's:

"Perhaps people who aren't particularly musical need it more?"

Whoa, Kevin. My brain immediately said to me:

"Perhaps people who aren't particularly musical should not be teaching at all!"

"Caveat emptor" - Buyer Beware!

Um... I was referring to a lack of musicality in the recipients of the invoices, e.g., the parents of your students.

Although I've suggested some mad things in the past, a career in music teaching for a person with no musical talent would be a crazy notion, even for me

I always thought this thread was a classic:

"Can of Worms" thread

What did you ever end up deciding to do, Betty? Did you ever institute that "commit to a year's lessons in advance" policy? Did it work for you?

It's actually an enlightening thread as it highlights the tension that exists between what teachers want and need vs. what parents/students want and need, and how it's important to take both sides into account.

As a parent, I'm happier if I can pay monthly than having to write a check for each lesson. (I'd even welcome a semester system just so that I don't have to keep writing multiple checks.) I do appreciate being able to send my checks in with my daughter on the first lesson of the month, rather than having to mail it by the 1st. But I should stress that my daughter's teacher is the one who proposed that system, and I would have gone along with anything she suggested--short of paying a year in advance.

Kevin B,

I guess I responded to how I understood it. Sorry about that.

Kevin B said: "Um... I was referring to a lack of musicality in the recipients of the invoices, e.g., the parents of your students.

Although I've suggested some mad things in the past, a career in music teaching for a person with no musical talent would be a crazy notion, even for me"

Exactly what I was trying to say! But, I think we both suspect it's being done.

Betty

The year $ in advance was never my intention, Monica. It was the commitment to enter and stay in piano study for one year. I have long had people pay me by the year, semester or monthly for 10 consecutive payments.

I wrote that topic at a time when with September lessons just having started, about 10 people left my studio with no notice although they signed that they would give me "30 day notice to terminate".

In review of that time, the majority of people were being impacted by job changes, homes being repossessed, and by the high cost of gasoline. Many of my students were coming from a distance making their travel time about 45 minutes each way. So, these were necessary adjustments on their parts, possibly really big reactions too, toward their new budgets that were being redone because of the announced turn in the economy.

I happen to think it was a health topic and forum for things that we have to consider every day in our studios.

It continues on to be a "can of worms" as we can see by those posting today with similar questions about what will the public tolerate.

I think it's almost hilarious that you bring this specific topic back up for review - I got through reading 2 pages of it - and my take on it is it's real, authentic in my life, and a subject for piano teachers every where.

I stand "proud" on this topic.

Chris was talking about my "young" age 65 at the time. Well, I'm 66 years old now, Monica, and the "problems" of piano teachers in business are still the problems that I faced when I was a starting piano teacher at the age of 27. The problems remain the same. I'm an ambitious teacher, but NEVER have I earned money ambitiously in piano teaching.

Now that I'm experiencing senior citizenship and prescription expenses at their highest, I wish I had gone for the money. Lord knows I have worked hard for it! It is not about income for me, it is about giving successful results in music educations.

Everyone, please read "Can of Worms" again - it's a novel in the making! And it will make you ROFL according to Monica.

By the way, Monica, did you find any typo's or misspellings. I want to be the first one to know.

Betty

Can't remember if this has been mentioned before in this thread but Betty's situation is the poster child for why it's a good idea to have folks always pay for their "last month" in advance (i.e. when they start at the studio the "first" payment is a combination of the first months payment plus the "last" months payment). In this way, even if they don't give 30days notice, the teacher is not out the money.

As a parent and student I dislike having to pay by the lesson - on top of everything else I have to remember to send the child into the lessons with a check each week

I like the same payment each month, especially if there is no reminder invoice.

I like the option to pay by the semester - a small discount - even a percent or two is welcome, but I often opt for this even without a discount to avoid having to remember each month.

I appreciate a periodic account statement. One of our teachers has performance committments that require rescheduling lessons at least once a month. Her statements indicate whether the lesson was given, whether the student cancelled (no make up), whether it was rescheduled, or whether the teacher cancelled. These "owed" lessons are listed on the account statement. Putting it in writing quickly clears up any misunderstandings.

My preference is for emailed statements the week before payment is expected.

Most parents and students want to comply with the financial requirements of the teaching relationship. It's great that you are putting the effort out to make it easy for us to remember to do so!

I want to clarify that I send out invoices once a month, for the total number of lessons in the upcoming month. I would go crazy getting checks every week LOL! I like having the students pay up front for the next month, so I'm not having to haggle over missed lessons. I also include any book fees or recital fees in the invoices.

However, I get so bogged down at invoice time (this week!) that I am leaning more and more toward calculating all of the Monday (T,W,Th,F) lessons in a year, minus vacations/holidays, and separating it into 4 installments for the year. It would be sooo much easier. Although I would still have to deal with getting books paid for as well. And recital payments.

On the issue of invoices and professionalism, I have actually had several parents comment on how professional my business is, and many of them have mentioned receiving the itemized invoices as part of that professional perception.

I don’t know what this response is about. It seems to happen often from this poster.

Betty, I find your knowledge, instincts and experience you share on this forum to be very insightful. You are obviously very good at what you do. Please continue. I have learned much from your posts and always look forward to reading them.

I just experienced my first "bounced" check from a client. It was a nightmare of fees and embarrassment (Both sides as it caused some mishaps on my end as well. Boo!) I am starting to see the wisdom of semester or quarterly billing. It reduces the chances of such terrible occurrences!..I am nervous of "switching" everybody, however...maybe after summer break?

Thank you, Mrs. A for your vote of confidence.

It means a lot to me that piano teachers can translate my postings into something helpful to them. That's one of the reasons I'm here - to gain more information and to share - the give and take of creating topics that we can learn from each other!

Betty

Second the opinion of Betty. She has it down!

How do you do invoices? By hand, or do you use Quickbooks or a similar business accounting program?

Morodiene, someone asked a bit back, and I never got around to answering, but I use a spreadsheet program which I've customized. I've used the same program for 15 years now, although Microsoft is making it harder to do so. I started fooling around with computers back in the late 80's, and found that it really helped with record keeping and streamlining documents.

Many of you are not old enough to remember WordPerfect, but it was designed for office workers by office workers, not by computer geeks in Redmond, so it was very friendly to us. MSWord "adopted" a lot of their features, but not all. IMHO, WP is still far easier to use.

Be that as it may, when checks come in, I record them on a page of the spreed sheet, and it automatically updates the amount due on each student's invoice page.

Many of the accounting programs are very good, but are not designed for very small businesses like ours. There is a software program out there just for us, but it's pricey and regretfully, I cannot tell you it's name. Just cannot remember. It does manage all your studio business, however, and if I were starting out fresh, it would be my program of choice.