Billing on autopilot

With autopilot on, you don’t post tuition. Each month’s statement closes on its own, like a credit card statement: Spotter bills the coming month’s tuition, adds anything that changed this month, and sends every family their statement. Autopay charges it on the due day. You only step in when something looks off.

How a month goes

Say statements close on the 25th and tuition is due on the 1st. For December:

1. November 22, three days before the close: owners and admins get a notification, like “December statements go out Wednesday: $21,905.00 to 118 families.” If something will hold it (see below), the notification says so.
2. November 25, the close: Spotter posts December’s tuition exactly as Post tuition would (proration, private lessons, hours, flat rates, discounts). It also bills what changed in November that wasn’t billed yet: a kid who joined on the 10th pays for the classes left, and a kid who added hours pays the difference. Each family gets their statement by email, and a notification in the parent app, like “Your December statement: $123.75 due Dec 1.” You get a summary.
3. December 1, the due day: autopay charges each statement. Families who pay by hand have until the due day.
4. December 2: you get one summary: autopay declines, and how much families without autopay still owe.

Anything added after the close, like a T-shirt on the 27th or a late fee, goes on the next statement (January’s). It isn’t charged by autopay or counted as late until that statement is due. Parents see it under the open statement and can still pay it early.

Credits happen right away, as they do without autopilot: a drop, a move, or a private lesson you cancel is credited on the day and shows on the next statement. See When a kid leaves after you post.

Turn it on

The overview then shows the next statement, when it closes, and the last one sent. The first statement is the next one whose preview day (three days before its close) hasn’t passed, so you always see a preview before anything goes out. Post any month before it by hand as usual: Needs you still reminds you, and that tuition is due on its own day.

A month Spotter never posted, like one you billed in your old software, isn’t billed again at the close. Only months that were posted in Spotter get November’s changes added.

When it waits for you

Spotter holds a statement instead of sending it when:

• Kids won’t be billed for a reason you haven’t seen, like a class with no tuition set or a kid who isn’t in a family. Trials and kids with no classes left that month don’t count.
• The total is far from last month’s: up or down by more than a quarter.
• A family’s tuition at least doubled from last month (and by $50 or more).
• There’s nothing to bill, like a summer break.

You get a notification, and Needs you on the Billing overview (and on Today) shows what it’s waiting on. Choose:

• Send now: the statement goes out. A kid skipped for the same reason won’t hold next month’s.
• Skip this month: nothing goes out. Post tuition by hand if you need to.

If it’s still waiting on the due day, Spotter tells you billing is late. Sent after its due day, a statement says it’s due now, and autopay charges cards the next morning, after families have it. Once a later month’s statements have gone out, an older held month can only be skipped: post anything it was missing by hand.

Autopilot can’t be turned off while statements are going out. Wait a minute and try again.

If a close stops partway, Needs you shows Try again. Posting only adds what’s missing and sending picks up where it stopped, so nobody is billed or emailed twice.

Cards that would decline

A week before the due day, Spotter checks the card each autopay family uses. Families whose card expires before the due day, or whose last autopay didn’t go through, get an email asking them to update it in the parent app.

Where to go next

• Post monthly tuition: what each family is charged.
• Autopay and online payments
• Statements and receipts