Education & Enrichment
Prepaid lesson packages, varying student schedules, multiple payment types. We track student accounts and keep your books clean so you can focus on teaching.
Teaching Became a Business
You started with students. Maybe a few piano lessons on the side. A weekend karate class. Tutoring after school. The demand grew, so you found a space, set up a schedule, and suddenly you were running a business. The teaching part came naturally. The accounting part did not.
Now you have students on different payment plans. Some pay monthly. Some bought lesson packages months ago. Some owe you money and you keep forgetting to follow up. The enrollment software says one thing, your bank account says another, and reconciling them happens at midnight if it happens at all.
Who This Covers
Who This Covers
Tutoring centers, music schools, dance studios, martial arts academies, driving schools, art instruction, swim lessons, and any Metro Detroit business teaching skills and managing student enrollments.
The Complexity
The Complexity
Prepaid packages, recurring monthly fees, drop-in rates, sibling discounts, and semester registrations. Revenue arrives in different forms at different times. Instructors might be employees or contractors with their own pay arrangements.
What We Handle
We track student payments against your enrollment records and make sure the numbers actually match. Prepaid lesson packages need proper accounting treatment. Monthly tuition needs reconciliation against payment collection. Outstanding balances need identification so you know who to follow up with.
Instructor payroll often involves part-time staff with varying schedules. Some studios pay per class taught. Some pay hourly. Some split revenue on private lessons. We handle these calculations and make sure tax withholdings and deposits are filed correctly and on time.
Student Account Tracking
Student Account Tracking
Packages, credits, and outstanding balances reconciled monthly. You know exactly who has prepaid lessons remaining and who owes for sessions already delivered. No more guessing or digging through old emails.
Instructor Payroll
Instructor Payroll
Part-time schedules, per-class rates, and varying hours handled correctly. Whether you have three instructors or fifteen, payroll runs smoothly with proper tax withholdings and timely deposits.
Common Problems
Prepaid packages cause real issues when recorded as income immediately. A student buys 10 lessons for $500 in October. If you record the full $500 as October revenue but only deliver 3 lessons that month, your books don’t reflect reality. This inflates current income and creates a liability you haven’t accounted for.
The other issue is visibility. You might know your total revenue and total expenses, but can you tell whether Saturday morning kids’ classes make money or lose it? Without tracking costs and revenue by program, you can’t make informed decisions about pricing, scheduling, or which offerings to expand.
Package Revenue Problems
Package Revenue Problems
Recording prepaid sessions as immediate income throws off monthly profitability and creates tax complications. When tax season arrives, you may have already spent money that was meant to cover services not yet delivered.
Program Blind Spots
Program Blind Spots
Group classes might be covering their costs while private lessons subsidize everything else. Or the opposite. Without program-level tracking, you make expansion and pricing decisions based on gut feeling instead of actual numbers.
What Changes
You gain clarity on which programs and class types actually make money. The after-school tutoring sessions might be your highest margin offering while weekend workshops barely break even. This information changes how you think about scheduling, pricing, and growth.
Tax preparation becomes straightforward. Revenue is recognized when earned, not just when collected. Your accountant receives clean books showing actual income and expenses by month, with prepaid liabilities properly recorded and no surprises about unreported payments.
Program Decisions Based on Data
Program Decisions Based on Data
You see the profitability of group classes versus private lessons, weekday sessions versus weekends. When you decide to add a new class or phase one out, the decision is grounded in actual performance data.
Time Back for Teaching
Time Back for Teaching
The hours spent reconciling student payments, chasing outstanding balances, and calculating instructor pay go away. You focus on students and instruction while the accounting happens in the background.
Metro Detroit's Small Business Bookkeeper
The Next Step:
A Short Conversation
Tell us about your business and your current bookkeeping situation. We'll listen, answer your questions, and give you a clear quote.
