August 25, 2015 by Sara Campbell 0 comments

Lesson Invoicing Tips

Make your invoices effective!

Today’s quick blurb is about the new invoicing system I’m using this year. In years past I’ve tried making my own invoices through Excel (super customizable, but SUPER time consuming) and using Quickbooks Intuit Online (not my favorite layout, I’m picky, plus Quickbooks is NOT cheap). This year I decided to save a bit of money and use a free invoicing system through Invoiceable.

The time-consuming part is getting all your “clients” listed. It took me several hours to input all the information and create the first round of invoices. Whatever invoicing program you use, whether it’s Music Teacher’s Helper, Quickbooks, My Music Staff, or otherwise… here are a few tips to help make your invoices effective:

Send Invoices Out for the ENTIRE Semester: Instead of sending monthly amounts, I’ve started sending out invoices with the entire semester amount. This means that I can use 1 single invoices per student throughout the semester. As they send in payments, I will apply that payment to their invoice and the remaining balance will adjust itself. Then all I have to do is click “Resend” when their next tuition payment is due.
Include Details About Payments: On each invoice, I make sure to copy information about payment discounts and the types of payments that the studio accepts. This information is straight out of my Studio Policy, but it helps to have things neatly displayed so that parents and students don’t have to shuffle through papers or documents.
Personalize the Email: Most invoicing systems allow you to type a message to the student. Under my account information, I created a standard email that will go out with each invoice. To that standard email, I add personal notes that are important, such as… “Lindsey’s lessons will be on Tuesdays @ 3:30-4:15” or “Tommy is ready for new books. Please note that they are added to this invoice.”
Cut and Paste! If you are including additional notes in an invoice, it’s helpful to have your information available to cut/paste from another document. I normally use a Word document — fill it with all the information I need, and then cut and paste as necessary during invoicing time.