Understanding Billing Contracts
A billing contract is the record that controls how a specific student enrolment is billed — which model is used, what the price is, and when invoices are generated. Every enrolment has exactly one billing contract, and i
What Is a Billing Contract?
When a student is enrolled (or added to a group), the platform automatically creates a billing contract for that enrolment. This contract stores everything that determines how the enrolment is billed:
- Which billing model is in use (calendar, PAYG, lesson pack, etc.)
- Whether the enrolment is currently active for billing
The billing contract is what the system reads when it is time to generate an invoice. It is not a global setting — it is specific to that one enrolment.
Contracts vs School-Level Billing Settings
It is worth understanding the difference between your school-level billing settings and individual billing contracts:
| School-Level Billing Settings | Billing Contract (per enrolment) | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A template and set of defaults for your school | The authoritative billing record for one specific enrolment |
| What it controls | Default billing mode and payment instructions for new enrolments | Actual billing mode and schedule for this enrolment |
| When it's used | When a new enrolment is created (to pre-fill the contract) | Every time an invoice is generated |
| What happens if you change it | Affects new enrolments only — existing contracts are not updated | Affects this enrolment's next invoice onwards |
One Contract Per Enrolment
Each enrolment has exactly one billing contract at any time. This is true for both individual student enrolments and group enrolments:
- An individual student enrolled in piano lessons → one contract.
- The same student also enrolled in a theory group → a second, separate contract for the group enrolment.
- Each contract is independent and can be on a different billing model.
There is never more than one active contract per enrolment. If you edit a contract, the existing record is updated — a new one is not created.
How Contracts Are Created
Billing contracts are created automatically when an enrolment is set up. The initial values are copied from your school-level billing settings at the time of creation. You can then edit the contract for that specific enrolment if needed.
Editing a Billing Contract
You can edit a billing contract at any time from the billing section of the student or group detail screen. The billing card shows the current settings for that enrolment, and you can open it, make changes, then save or cancel. Changes take effect for future invoices — they do not alter any invoices that have already been created, sent, or paid.
Common edits include:
- Updating the lesson price if a student's rate has changed.
- Changing the billing model (for example, moving a student from calendar billing to a lesson pack).
- For a monthly enrolment, choosing whether its invoices show the scheduled lesson dates for that month.
- Deactivating a contract when a student goes on extended leave.
The current billing contract workflow is centred on manual billing runs for invoice generation.
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