Billing is designed to be mostly automatic once your classes, enrolments and packages are set up correctly. When everything is configured properly, Class Manager calculates what each family owes, tracks balances and allows you to charge or record payments with very little manual work.
Billing in Class Manager is based on three main things working together: enrolments, pricing packages and the family billing profile.
When a student is enrolled in a class and assigned to a package, the system automatically calculates their expected tuition. This amount appears inside the family’s billing section and updates as enrolments change. If a student joins another class, stops a class or moves packages, the billing updates automatically to reflect the new total.
Everything sits under the family account rather than individual students. This means one invoice and one balance per family, even if there are multiple children enrolled.
Each family has its own billing profile. This is where you can see their current balance, expected tuition, payment history and any outstanding charges.
Inside the family billing area you can:
View total balance owing
See upcoming charges
Review past payments
Apply credits
Record manual payments
Add payment notes
This gives you a full picture of each family’s account in one place.
Expected tuition is the system’s calculation of what a family should be paying based on their enrolments and packages. Once classes and packages are assigned, this amount updates automatically.
You can review expected tuition at any time to ensure everything looks correct. If a package or enrolment changes, the expected amount will update to match. This removes the need to manually calculate weekly or monthly totals.
If needed, you can manually override tuition for a specific family, but in most cases this won’t be necessary as the system handles calculations for you.
If you are using automated billing or direct debit, Class Manager will generate charges based on the billing schedule you have set. Once a charge is processed, it will appear in the family’s payment history.
If you are recording payments manually, you can do this directly inside the family profile. Simply record the payment amount, choose the payment method and add any notes if needed. The system will update the family balance immediately.
You can also apply credits to a family account if required. Credits will automatically reduce the balance and be used against future charges.
Every family has a full payment history showing all transactions. This includes:
Charges
Payments
Credits
Adjustments
This makes it easy to see exactly what has been billed and paid over time. If a parent has a question about their account, you can open their billing profile and see the complete history instantly.
If you have billing visible in the parent portal, families can log in and view their invoices, balances and payment history. If online payments or direct debit are enabled, they can also manage their payment details directly through the portal.
Giving parents access to their billing information reduces back-and-forth communication and helps keep accounts up to date.
The most important part of billing in Class Manager is making sure your setup is correct at the beginning. Once your packages, classes and enrolments are accurate, billing will mostly run in the background. You’ll be able to quickly check family balances, record payments and review reports without needing complex spreadsheets or manual calculations.
Most studios find that once billing is fully set up and running through Class Manager, it significantly reduces admin time and keeps financial records much more organised.
Billing and payments are the backbone of your studio management system. When everything is connected correctly, Class Manager keeps track of what families owe, what they’ve paid and what’s coming up next.
With enrolments, packages and billing all working together, you’ll have a clear and accurate financial overview of your studio at all times while giving parents transparency through their own portal access.
