What Is Monthly Billing?
Monthly billing charges a fixed amount each period, regardless of how many lessons are scheduled or attended. The amount comes from the monthly price on the assigned lesson type — not from the calendar. It suits studios
The Core Idea
Monthly billing — called flat subscription in the platform — is the simplest billing model in terms of invoice calculation. Each billing period, you charge the same amount. The system never looks at the lesson schedule to calculate the invoice.
This model works well for:
- Studios that charge a consistent monthly retainer, regardless of school holidays or schedule variation
- Teachers who bundle irregular lessons, group access, or other services into a single monthly fee
- Studios that prefer predictable, fixed charges for families rather than variable per-lesson amounts
What Monthly Billing Doesn't Do
Because the flat subscription model is contract-driven — not calendar-driven — it has no concept of "lessons in a period." It doesn't count how many lessons are scheduled, doesn't adjust if a month has a public holiday, and doesn't integrate with attendance.
You can optionally show scheduled lesson dates on a monthly invoice as helpful detail for families. Those dates are for display only: they do not change the fixed fee, count lessons, or make the invoice calendar-based.
If you want the invoice amount to reflect the actual lesson schedule, calendar-based billing is a better fit. If you want families to prepay for a bundle of lessons, lesson packs are designed for that.
Collection Modes
Monthly billing has two collection modes:
Manual — you generate invoices yourself when you're ready. The system never creates invoices automatically. You navigate to the Billing area, generate invoices for the relevant students, review the drafts, and send. See Generating Monthly Invoices.
Automatic — the platform generates draft invoices on a recurring monthly schedule, based on an anchor day you configure. You don't need to trigger generation yourself; the system creates the drafts and you review and send them.
Both modes create draft invoices — they are never sent directly to families without your review.
Setting the Monthly Amount
The monthly amount is not typed into the billing contract itself. It comes from the monthly price on the lesson type assigned to that student or group. It's a flat rate — there's no per-lesson calculation involved. The same amount appears on each invoice unless you change the assigned lesson type or update that lesson type's monthly price.
For group enrolments on monthly billing, the amount comes from the group's assigned lesson type, so all members share the same monthly price.
If you need to update that price, see Setting Up Lesson Pricing.
How Monthly Billing Fits the Invoice Generation Flow
Monthly billing invoices are generated through the same Billing area used for all billing types. The process follows the standard review-and-send flow: navigate to Billing, select monthly billing, choose the students to invoice, generate drafts, review, and send. See Generating Monthly Invoices for the full walkthrough.