Knowledge Base

What a Monthly Billing Contract Covers

Each enrolment has its own billing contract. For monthly billing, the contract defines:

• The billing model — flat fee
• The collection mode — whether you generate invoices manually or the platform generates them automatically on a schedule
• Billing interval and anchor day — how often the period repeats and which day it starts on (see below) — this applies regardless of collection mode
• Bills starting from — the earliest date this enrolment can be invoiced, manual or automatic
• Lead time and auto-send — only relevant once collection is automatic; see Automatic Invoicing, Lead Time, and Auto-Send: Full Guide
• Monthly invoice detail — whether invoices show the scheduled lesson dates for that period

These settings apply to one enrolment. A student with both individual and group lessons will have a separate contract for each.

Setting Up the Contract

Navigate to the student or group enrolment and open the billing settings card. For an individual student, this appears in the student's billing area. For a group, it appears in the group's Billing tab. Select Flat fee (annualised) as the billing model.

Monthly Rate

The monthly amount is not entered directly into the contract. It comes from the monthly price on the lesson type assigned to that student or group. It doesn't change based on how many lessons are scheduled — it's a flat charge, regardless of the billing interval you choose.

If you need to update that amount, change the lesson type price. See Setting Up Lesson Pricing.

Collection Mode

Choose Manual or Auto for collection. On manual, you generate invoices yourself from the Invoices page whenever you're ready. On auto, the platform generates them for you on the schedule set by the interval, anchor day, and lead time below — see Generating Monthly Invoices for the manual flow and Automatic Invoicing, Lead Time, and Auto-Send: Full Guide for how automatic collection actually runs.

Billing Interval and Anchor Day

Regardless of collection mode, every flat-fee contract has a billing interval (how many months each invoice covers — 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, or 12) and an anchor day (which day of the month each period starts on, 1–28). A 1-month interval anchored on the 1st is the default and most common setup, but you can bill every 2, 3, or more months instead, starting on whichever day suits your studio or a particular family's enrolment date.

You can change the billing interval or anchor day later. If invoices or waived periods already exist, the new schedule must start after the end of the latest period already accounted for. Set Bills starting from to that next available date or later. Existing invoices keep their original dates and amounts; the new interval and anchor day apply only from the new start date onwards.

If a draft invoice already covers a future period, it also counts as billing history. To start the new schedule earlier, void or otherwise resolve that draft first.

Bills Starting From

This date is the earliest this enrolment can ever be invoiced, under either collection mode. It defaults to today, but you can set it earlier or later — for example, if a family enrolled now but their lessons (and billing) shouldn't start for a few weeks.

If this date falls only a few days before the next anchor date, the opening partial period may round to no charge under monthly billing's nearest half-period rule. The review shown before you save will identify that date range. Octavia records it as a no-charge period, does not create a $0 invoice, and starts invoicing from the next chargeable billing period shown in the review.

Showing Lesson Dates on the Invoice

With Flat fee (annualised) selected, choose Show lesson dates on monthly invoices if you want families to see the scheduled dates for that billing period. The invoice and PDF show these below the fee as Lessons scheduled this month:.

This is explanatory detail only. It does not change the monthly price, the number of lessons charged, or whether the invoice is created. Dates already covered through another invoicing path or by a consumed lesson-pack credit are not shown.

Changing the Contract Later

You can edit a billing contract at any time. After you save, future monthly invoice runs use the updated settings; invoices already created are not rewritten.

When changing the billing interval or anchor day after invoicing has begun, choose a Bills starting from date after the latest billed or waived period. Octavia will block the change if the new schedule would overlap existing billing history and will tell you the earliest date you can use. Choosing a later date is allowed, but any time between the previous period and the new start date will remain unbilled.

Groups and Monthly Billing

For group enrolments on monthly billing, the contract belongs to the group and is edited from the group's Billing tab. All members share the same lesson type and monthly price. If you want individual members billed at different rates, they would need to be in separate groups.

When invoices are generated for a group, each member receives their own invoice with the same amount — the group contract defines the terms, but invoicing is always per person.

Adding a Student to a Group Mid-Cycle

Monthly billing tracks which periods have been billed per group, not per member — so a student you add partway through a billing period isn't given their own catch-up history when they join.

In practice, that means:

• If the group's current period has already been invoiced, the new student is not added to that invoice — they aren't billed for it at all.
• They only start appearing on invoices from the group's next period onward, at the full period rate — there's no automatic proration for the partial time before they joined.

If you want to charge the new member for that partial first period, create a custom invoice for the pro-rata amount.

Calendar-based group billing doesn't have this gap, since it charges based on lessons the student actually attended rather than a membership snapshot — see How Lessons Are Counted.

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