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BillingOverview

Billing

Billing in Spotter is a running account for each family. Tuition, fees, items, and event costs go on as charges. Discounts and money you give back go on as credits. Payments, at the desk or online, bring the balance down. Statements and receipts are built from the same record, so what a parent sees always matches what you see.

Billing is for owners, admins, and the front desk. Instructors don’t see it. Some setup (posting tuition, late fees, statement names, family rules, and voiding) is for owners and admins only. Each page says who can do what.

The Billing page

Open Billing in the sidebar. At the top you’ll see three numbers: Owed by families, Collected this month, and Charged this month. Below that:

  • Post tuition, to charge every family for a month in one step (owners and admins).
  • Late fee and Statement names (owners and admins).
  • Families with a balance, largest first. Click one to open the family.
  • Monthly tuition, the price of each class.
  • Items, the things your studio sells besides tuition.
  • Deposits, each Stripe payout to your bank and what’s inside it.

Day-to-day work for one family happens on the family’s page, in its Billing section. See Families.

A family’s bills

Most families have one bill: the monthly bill, called Classes by default. Tuition, makeup credits, items, and desk fees go here.

Studios with a competitive team also have a team bill for event costs: routines, costumes, and event fees. Its default name follows your studio type: Competition team for a dance studio, Meet team for a gym. If you run two teams that pay separately (say, a competition team and a Pom team), an owner can turn on a second team bill.

Each bill has its own statement, amount due, and Pay button in the parent app, so a parent can check that tuition is right without event fees mixed in. A family only sees a team bill once they have charges on it. You can rename any of them. See Team bills.

Balances

A family’s balance is everything charged minus everything paid, with voided lines left out. On the family page it reads $X due, $X credit, or Paid up. A family with a team bill shows each bill’s balance side by side.

Nothing in billing is ever deleted. A mistake is voided: the line stays in the history, crossed out, and stops counting.

How money is applied

Spotter decides what each payment paid for with one rule, in the order money came in:

  1. A payment marked for a bill pays only that bill. Money recorded for the team bill never pays tuition.
  2. A deposit marked for one line pays that line first (a solo, a costume), then anything else on the same bill.
  3. Older payments not marked for a bill pay the oldest open charge on either bill.
  4. Whatever is left over is a credit on that payment’s bill, and pays the next charge that comes in.

Every charge on a statement is marked Paid, Due, or how much is left, using this rule. Receipts list exactly which lines a payment covered.

Tasks

Post monthly tuitionCharge every enrolled family for the month in one step.Charges, credits, and itemsAdd a fee, give a credit, sell an item, or void a mistake.Record a paymentLog cash, checks, and payments made outside Spotter.Statements and receiptsPrint, save, or email a month’s statement or a payment’s receipt.Team billsKeep event costs on their own bill, and add a second team.Autopay and online paymentsHow families pay by card or bank, and how autopay runs.Refunds and disputesWhat happens in Spotter after a Stripe refund or a card dispute.Late fees, proration, and family rulesLate fees, partial months, discounts, and flat tuition.

Where to go next

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Absences and makeupsPost monthly tuition