TutorHQ

How it works

How TutorHQ works

What happens, step by step, when your centre runs groups, changes a lesson, tells parents, takes a register and sends a bill. Each section also lists the awkward cases TutorHQ already handles.

Group scheduling

Groups are the normal case. Each one has a year, subject, tutor, days, time, length, term dates, a number of seats, a fee and a meeting link or location.

What happens

  1. The office creates the groupIts name is built from the year, subject, tutor, day and time, for example "Y10 Biology – Priya Raman – Monday 5 PM – Group 04", and it updates when any of those change.
  2. The weekly lessons are laid outLessons repeat across the term dates. Extra one-off lessons can be added to the group at any time.
  3. Your standard rules are attachedCancellation, lateness, payment, missed and replacement lessons, withdrawal and communication rules come from Settings, and can be changed for one group.
  4. Students take seatsAdd students directly when their parents have agreed, or place them from the waiting list. The waiting list shows each student's subject, year and the times their parents can do.
  5. Parents confirm a held seatWhen a seat is held for a child, the parent sees it on their page with a Confirm button and the time it is held until. They agree to the group's terms when they confirm.
  6. Changes are recordedStudents can be moved to another group, paused or removed. Every add, removal and move is kept in the group's history with the date and who did it.

Edge cases handled

  • A group can't go over its seat count, and two children can't be given the same seat. The database itself refuses it.
  • A tutor can't be booked into two lessons at once, and nor can a child.
  • If a held seat isn't confirmed in time, it is released and offered to the next child waiting. You set how long a hold lasts.
  • When a group needs a tutor, it can be offered to the best-matched tutors a few at a time. The first to accept gets it, and only tutors whose background check is cleared and in date are offered groups.
  • If a tutor can't take one lesson, the office can find cover from tutors who teach that subject, have a cleared check and are free at that time. The cover tutor takes that lesson and its pay.
  • Pausing a group puts its future lessons on hold, and parents can be told. Resuming brings them back. A closed group keeps its full history.
  • The calendar shows every lesson by day, week or month, and warns about clashes and lessons outside a tutor's availability.

See a group and its waiting list in the demo

Lesson changes

A tutor who can't teach a lesson asks in TutorHQ rather than in a chat group. The office decides, and parents hear only once a decision is made.

What happens

  1. The tutor asksFrom their own page they choose cancel, postpone or move, give the reason and, for a move, suggest the new date and time.
  2. The office is alertedThe request appears on the Today screen with the lesson, the reason and the suggested time, and an alert goes to your Slack channel if you have connected one.
  3. The office decidesApprove it as asked, approve with a different time you agreed with the tutor, or reject it with a note. You choose whether parents are told.
  4. TutorHQ applies the changeThe lesson is cancelled, postponed or moved. If the new time clashes with another lesson for the tutor or a student, the change is refused and the request goes back to waiting.
  5. Parents and the tutor are toldEach parent with a child in the group gets one message with the old time, the new time and the reason. The tutor is told the decision, with your note.
  6. The history staysThe original time is kept next to the new one, and the request, the decision and who made it stay in the activity log. Decided requests are listed for later reference.

Edge cases handled

  • Two office staff deciding the same request at once: only the first decision counts, and the second person is told it was already decided.
  • A tutor can withdraw a request while it is still waiting.
  • A lesson that has already started, or isn't scheduled any more, can't be changed by request.
  • A postponed lesson keeps its original date on record until the office gives it a new time.
  • Two children from the same family in the group: the parent gets one message that names both.
  • If the decision is saved but the tutor can't be told automatically, the office is alerted to tell them.
  • The office can also move, postpone or cancel a lesson directly from the calendar, with a reason, and choose whether parents and the tutor are told.

Try a lesson change in the demo

Parent communication

Parents see everything on their own page in any browser, with no app to install. Messages also go out by email once you connect an email provider. Your office team gets alerts and summaries in Slack.

What happens

  1. Messages start from your templatesWelcome, lesson moved, postponed or cancelled, payment due, withdrawal confirmed and others are written once in your wording, with an exact preview.
  2. Morning reminders are preparedEach morning TutorHQ drafts one reminder per parent for that day's lessons, with every child in the family included in the same message.
  3. The office reviews themRead them, change any wording, skip one, or send them all at once. In Settings you choose whether you review them first, they go automatically, or they are off.
  4. Messages are deliveredEvery message appears on the parent's page. Service messages, about seats, cancellations, money and direct replies, are always emailed. Optional ones, such as lesson reports, are emailed only to families who agreed to them.
  5. Delivery is trackedEach message shows its state: queued, sent, delivered or read where the provider reports it, failed with the reason, or held because there is no consent or no provider connected yet.
  6. Parents replyParents can message the office from their page, and the replies appear there too. They can also tell the office about absences and holidays ahead of time.
  7. Your team stays informed in SlackTutor requests, parent questions, failed messages and other alerts can be posted to your Slack channel, with a morning summary at the hour you choose.

Edge cases handled

  • A failed email is retried three times with growing waits, then marked Failed with the reason, and your team is told. You can retry failed messages in one go.
  • An email address that bounces is marked on the Today screen and on the family's page.
  • If a lesson is cancelled, moved or added after the morning reminders are drafted, the affected reminders are rewritten. Your own wording is kept when the lessons haven't changed, and Send all sends only the versions the office has seen.
  • Until an email provider is connected, messages are kept in TutorHQ and on the parent's page, so nothing is lost.
  • Practice families in the sample data are never emailed for real.
  • Announcements, such as a holiday closure, can go to all parents, all tutors, the waiting list or a single group.

See a family's morning reminder in the demo

Attendance and billing

The register, the parent's bill and the tutor's pay come from the same lesson record, so each lesson is charged and paid for once.

What happens

  1. The tutor takes the registerOn their phone or computer, each student is marked present, late, absent or excused. Absences a parent reported in advance arrive already marked as excused.
  2. The lesson is completedEvery student must be marked before the lesson can be completed. Notes and homework can be added for the group or one student.
  3. Charges follow your rulesFor families who pay after lessons, present and late are charged. Absent without notice is charged only if your rules say so, and excused absences are not.
  4. Invoices are raisedBill after lessons, by monthly fee on the billing day you set, or from prepaid lesson packages. Invoices go from draft to raised, sent and paid.
  5. Parents payParents see their balance, invoices and payments on their page and can pay by card through Stripe once you connect it. The office can record cash, bank transfer and cheque payments.
  6. Tutor pay is preparedCompleted lessons and each group's tutor rate become pay statements. The office approves each statement, then records the payment reference. Tutors see their lessons taught and what they are owed.

Edge cases handled

  • A lesson can't be charged twice for the same child, and a charge can't appear on two invoices.
  • A lesson can appear on only one tutor pay statement, ever.
  • An invoice raised in error can be voided, and refunds are recorded with the method and a note.
  • Prepaid credit: a parent can ask for a lesson package from their page, and the credit is added once the payment is recorded.
  • Repeated absences raise an alert on the Today screen. Attendance percentages are shown by student, group and tutor.
  • The Who owes list shows unpaid and overdue balances, and payment reminders can be sent from it, at most once every three days per family.
  • Withdrawing a student records the date asked, the last lesson, the balance at that point and any refund due. Money is visible only to staff with accounts permission.

Mark a register in the demo

Who sees what

Everyone signs in to their own view. What each person can see is decided by their role, and every change is written to the activity log with who made it.

The office

Admins, coordinators and finance staff

  • The Today screen: tutor requests, absences, payments due, new students, withdrawals and lessons without a tutor
  • Groups, calendar, waiting list, students, parents and tutors
  • Separate permissions for operations, people, accounts, messages, analytics, imports, exports and settings
  • Staff without accounts permission don't see money

Tutors

Username and password, or their private link

  • Today's lessons and meeting links, and confirming the week in one tap
  • Registers, notes and homework for their own groups only
  • Students shown by first name and last initial
  • Requests to cancel, postpone or move a lesson, their available times and their pay

Parents

One sign-in for every child

  • Their own children only: timetable, tutor and meeting links
  • Attendance, and the homework and notes tutors chose to share
  • Messages from the office, and replies to it
  • Balance, invoices, card payments and absence notices
  • A private calendar link for Google, Apple or Outlook calendars

The owner

The account holder for the centre

  • Every office permission
  • The only person who can connect, change or disconnect Stripe, Slack, email, backups and other services
  • Runs off-site backups on demand and removes the sample data before go-live
  • Invites office staff and sets what each one can do

Switch between the office, tutor and parent views in the demo

See it with your own groups in mind.

Explore the demo centre on your own, or book a 30-minute walkthrough and we'll show the office, tutor and parent views with practice data.

Explore the demo Book a walkthrough