Hourly billing charges families for the hours their student is in class each week. This article explains how it works. For the setup steps, see How Do I Set Up Hourly Billing in iClassPro?
What is hourly billing?
Most programs charge one set price each month, called flat rate billing. Hourly billing adds up the hours a student is enrolled in each week, and the price comes from that total. More hours can mean a lower price per hour.
Three pieces work together, and you may not need all three:
- Class billing settings tell iClassPro to count hours.
- Tuition sets the price per hour.
- Discount Schedule (optional) takes a percent off for more hours or more students.
Before you start, write down what you charge for each weekly hour total, like 1 hour, 1.5 hours and 2 hours. Every step below starts from that list.
Which way should I set my prices?
Choose one of these three ways before you start setting anything up.
- One price for every hour. Every hour costs the same, like $35 an hour. You need a tuition with one rate.
- Price drops as hours go up. A student with more hours pays less per hour. You need a Tuition Schedule (sometimes called a sliding scale) with a price for every hour total.
- High starting price, then discounts. Good if you also want sibling discounts. You need a tuition with one rate plus a Discount Schedule.
Most setups don't need both a Tuition Schedule and a Discount Schedule. If you use both on one class, the discounts stack on top of the prices already in the Tuition Schedule.
How do I pick my starting price?
Important
Discounts can only lower a price. They can never raise it. Your starting hourly price has to be your highest price. Every other price is reached by going down from there.
Start with your shortest class and work out what it would cost for a full hour. A 30-minute class for $40 is $80 an hour, so your starting price must be $80 or more. To turn any weekly price into an hourly one, divide it by the weekly hours: $180 for 3 hours is $60.00 an hour.
How do I figure out discount percentages?
A Discount Schedule takes a percentage off your starting price. To find the percentage you need, use this formula: 1 − (the price you want ÷ your starting price).
Tip
The free Hourly Discounts spreadsheet does this math for you, including sibling discounts. Enter each percentage exactly as the spreadsheet shows it, up to four decimal places.
▶ See an example Discount Schedule
Each row is an hour total. Each column is a student in the family. Here, Student 2 pays 10% less than Student 1.
How does a Tuition Schedule count hours?
Each row is an hour total. Each column is a student in the family. Two settings decide which cells iClassPro uses.
Count Classes/Timeslots/Hours By decides how the rows are used:
- One at a Time: iClassPro adds together the price in every row, up to the student's total hours.
- One at a Time Per Student: the same, but the count starts over for each child in the family.
- Total: iClassPro uses one cell, the row that matches the total hours, and multiplies that hourly price by the hours.
Count Students By decides the columns. One at a Time gives each child their own column. Total puts every child in the column that matches how many children are enrolled.
The most common setup is Total for hours and One at a Time for students. If every child pays the same price, delete columns 2 and 3, and everyone uses column 1.
Which billing setting should I choose?
On the class Billing tab, set How often will you bill this class? to Once a Week.
Warning
Pick Once a Week even if you send bills once a month. The question is really about how iClassPro counts hours, not how often families get a bill. Once a Week counts each student's hours per week, which is how hourly prices are built.
Once a Month/Session is only for the rare program that prices by total hours in a month, like “20 hours a month costs this.”
Why does every hour total need a price?
A Tuition Schedule needs a row for every hour total a student could have, up to the most hours one student could take in a week. Hours past your last row are not charged, and the Class Tuition Charges preview shows an orange warning.
Watch for partial hours. A 30-minute class plus a 45-minute class adds up to 1.25 hours. If there's no 1.25 row, iClassPro uses the row before it, so the price won't be what you expect. To cover every combination, add rows in 0.25 steps with Add Multiple Rows, then delete any you don't need.
More options
▶ What happens in holiday and short weeks?
iClassPro uses the student's usual weekly schedule, Monday to Sunday, to pick the hourly price. A short week does not raise that price, and a month with five class days does not lower it. Families are only billed for class dates inside the billing period.
▶ Can I set a top weekly price?
Yes. For example, you can cap the price at $100 a week, so a student who takes more than 10 hours a week still pays $100. Use one of these two methods, not both.
- Stop the Tuition Schedule at the cap. Fill in rows only up to your top number of hours.
- Use the Discount Schedule. Set the hourly price so the cap hours add up to your top price, then give 100% off every hour above the cap.
▶ How do I keep add-on classes out of the hourly total?
Some classes, like open stretch time, shouldn't move a student into a cheaper hourly price. Set those classes to bill by Time Slot instead of Hourly. They are billed on their own, and their hours are not added to the total.
Troubleshooting and FAQs
▶ Common Questions
▶ Which child counts as Student 1?
It depends on Students Ordered By. Say one child takes two $75 classes and another takes one $125 class.
- Most Expensive Class: the child in the $125 class is Student 1, because that one class costs the most.
- Highest Total Tuition: the child in the two $75 classes is Student 1, because $150 is the higher total.
▶ Why did a family's sibling discount change for one week?
When prices are figured by the week, iClassPro checks the order of the students every week. If only one student has class that week, that student counts as Student 1 and gets the smallest discount. The usual order comes back the next week.
▶ Do discounts carry across my locations?
No. Discounts only count classes at one location. If a family has students at two locations, the discounts don't combine.
▶ Can I set a lowest price a discount can't go under?
Yes. A Discount Schedule has a Minimum Charge Amount. It can be a dollar amount or a percent, and discounts won't take a price below it.
▶ How can I see how a price was figured?
Open the charge details in the Class Tuition Charges preview. It shows how the students were ordered for each week.
Related: How Do I Set Up Hourly Billing in iClassPro? · How Do I Set Up a Discount Schedule? · How Do I Create/Configure Tuitions and Tuition Schedules?