How to track prepaid lessons without losing count

Most language schools sell lessons in packages: ten lessons paid up front and used one by one. Selling them is easy. Keeping count is where it goes wrong: a cancelled lesson that was or wasn't charged, a student who moved to another group, a package that ran out three weeks ago without anyone noticing.

Here is what helps.

Decide the rules before you count

Most disagreements about balances are really disagreements about rules. Write down:

• Which attendance uses a lesson: present, late, absent with notice, absent without notice.
• How much notice counts as "with notice", for example 24 hours.
• Whether a package expires, and when.
• What happens to unused lessons when a student leaves: a refund, a transfer to another course, or nothing.

Share the rules with students when they buy a package, not when there is a dispute.

Record changes instead of overwriting the number

A cell that says "6" tells you nothing about how it got there. Keep one line per change: lessons bought, lesson attended, lesson given back, correction, each with the date and who made it. The balance is the sum of those lines. When a student questions their balance, you show them the history instead of arguing about the number.

Corrections are new lines too. If a lesson was charged by mistake, add a line that gives it back rather than deleting the old one.

Count at the moment of the lesson

Balances drift when attendance is written down days later from memory. The person who knows who came is the teacher, right after class. Make it quick for them to mark attendance, and let the balance follow from that.

Tell students before they run out

A student who finds out at the door that they have no lessons left is an awkward conversation. A reminder when two lessons are left gives them time to pay before the next class. Students who can see their own balance also ask fewer questions.

Check once a month

At the end of each month, look at students with zero or negative balances, packages about to expire and lessons that were held but never reported. Ten minutes of checking saves a lot of untangling later.

How Lessora does it

In Lessora each student's balance is a ledger. Every purchase, attended lesson, refund and correction is an entry with a date and the person who made it, and entries are never edited, only corrected with a new one. Teachers mark attendance on their phone after class, and the balance follows your school's charging rules. Students see their balance, get a warning when it runs low and a notice a week before a package expires.