Nov 29, 2018
It’s an unfortunate reality in the tutoring world that getting paid can be a challenge. In fact, 75% of tutors say they’ve been a victim of late payments or—worse—not getting paid at all. But the blame for missed payments doesn’t always lie with clients. Sometimes bad business practices and poor accounting processes can mean that tutoring companies are their own worst enemy.
Clark recently worked with one New York-based tutoring company that was experiencing exciting success. They were growing more than 30% year over year and logging almost 500 tutoring sessions per month—but they were managing their books manually and with a totally disorganized approach. With separate data stored across Excel spreadsheets and in Quickbooks, and a complex mix of clients signed up for hourly pricing, monthly packages, and different rates based on subject, both the company’s owner and administrator were spending hours each week trying to calculate how much to charge their clients. All that growth was great in theory, but their invoicing structure just couldn’t keep up.
Needless to say, it wasn’t working well, and when they came to Clark for help they had more than $30,000 in unreceived tutor wages, no easy way to know who owed what, and no mechanism for following up with clients about late or missed payments.
The good news is that this tale of accounting woe has a happy ending. Once this company was up and running with Clark, within the first month they’d balanced out all their past-due receivables and reclaimed that $30,000 in missing wages. And with new tools and organized processes in place, they started getting paid 100% of their invoices on time at the end of each month right off the bat.
How did they turn it around so fast? When a tutor logs a session in Clark, we automatically calculate how much that client owes you based on the payment system they’re signed up for, whether that’s session-by-session or a prepaid package. An invoice is generated right then—no manual input required—to be sent at the end of the month or track against a prepaid amount.
With Clark, you can easily view all your past and outstanding invoices in one place for a simple view of what’s been paid and what hasn’t. You can also easily send formal, branded invoices and payment reminders. We handle all payments and transactions for you, so there’s no more playing phone tag with clients to track down a credit card number, and you can even set clients up for autopay to take the forgetfulness factor out of the equation.
Don’t let income slip through the cracks of faulty and unwieldy accounting practices. If you’re struggling to keep track of invoices and payments, Clark can help!
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