Tag Archives: school management software

Ready For Taxes? How ClassJuggler Can Help!

Use our financial reports to get the information you need

When you run a business, time is money, and the time you spend preparing to file your annual taxes can be frustrating, even if necessary.

Fortunately, ClassJuggler software for class-based businesses is loaded with reports for just about every aspect of your school or other class-based business.

With U.S. tax day fast approaching, here are…

The 4 most important reports for tax preparation

Whether for tax preparation or for monthly bookkeeping, you definitely want to check out ClassJuggler’s…

Customer Payments report
Customer Applied Payments report
Deposit Summary report
Company Billing report

Here’s where you can find these forms within ClassJuggler:

How you do your accounting (cash-based vs. accrual-based) factors in to which of these ClassJuggler financial reports will benefit you most in your bookkeeping and especially at tax time.

Here are some tips and details on these reports.

Deposit Summary report – [for CASH accounting]

This report can show you summarized information about payments received, organized by type, for any period of time. This is ideal for reconciling your checkbook and your merchant account activity and deposits.

Customer Payments – [for CASH accounting]

This report can show you all of the income you are receiving daily, weekly, monthly, or for any period of time you choose. The report will total payments in a variety of ways you choose to make reconciliation and deposit reporting simple.

Customer Applied Payments – [for CASH accounting]

This special report links payments received to the charges they were applied to, and can tell you exactly how much was earned by a particular charge account or by account category. It will only show applied amounts, so if a customer has a credit balance remaining, those amounts will not yet be factored in.

=EXAMPLE=

Let’s say you posted $1,000.00 in tuition and $200.00 in merchandise in the month you are running the report on, and you received $1,300.00 in payments for the same period; only the $1,200.00 applied to charges will be considered “earned,” leaving $100 unapplied.

Company Billing – [for ACCRUAL accounting]

the Company Billing report provides you with a list of charges your company has posted in a particular period of time. Since this is only showing what you have posted in charges, and not what has been paid or not paid by your customers, this is the go-to report for businesses that use accrual-based accounting for their bookkeeping.

=EXAMPLE=
Let’s say you posted $1,000.00 in tuition and $200.00 in merchandise during the month in which you are now running the Company Billing report; this report would return $1,200.00 total in products and services billed out to your customers.

For more information on these reports and examples and instructions for running them, please refer to “Online Help Manual” found in the green Help & Links Menu found at the bottom left of every screen in ClassJuggler. Or, as you already know if you are an existing customer, give ClassJuggler support a call if what you find in the online help leaves you with any questions about running these reports, and we can walk you through it step-by-step.

Go gangbusters with ClassJuggler custom team training sessions!

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ClassJuggler has free customer support – the best in the industry, according to one independent poll – but what if you’ve got a big school and a big need to get one or several of your staff members up to speed quickly? This can happen when you are new to ClassJuggler or when you are hiring new employees and need to give them a jumpstart.

For times like that, if you need that extra bit of help to get started with ClassJuggler, or maybe you just want to become an expert, where happy to let you know that ClassJuggler can put together an affordable training session for you and your team.

How it works

Our education staff is ready to help you reach the next level by creating a custom training program for you and your staff. Depending on your needs, we can make it a general introduction – a full system overview, if you will – or a targeted session on a specific feature you want your team to start using, such as email marketing or billing, or whatever. We tailor-train your session to suit any need.

We usually perform these in an interactive webinar fashion – the most affordable option – in which all attendees are able to watch us perform steps from anywhere. This method is especially useful if you want your team members to be able to attend from any location, not just at your business.

Optionally, we can also come to your school or town to perform ClassJuggler training for the most interactive experience. This can be a great time to get away from your business for your team, where they can learn how to use ClassJuggler to it’s fullest potential.

Our educational services start at just $25 USD per hour for the first trainee, plus $15 per hour for each additional trainee. In-person sessions also require you to cover transportation costs.

When Two Is Too Many–Killing Duplicate Customer Records in ClassJuggler

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One of the common support questions we receive is this:

“I have a duplicate customer record — How do I merge the two?”

Duplicate records happen when you have a customer that re-registers online under a different email address or name, such as when they have forgotten that they already have an active account.

Merging two records is not always easy, but there are things you can do to make it easier. For instance, open two browser windows: one for each of the duplicate records.

And choose to keep the record with the most customer history, particularly transactions. Then manually copy over any new info from the other profile (enrollments, children, contact info, whatever) into this one.

To do this, you might need to manipulate some of their class enrollment data, as well as their charges and payments.

If you get stuck or confused, give us a call and we can walk you through the process.

Generate a Class Wait List in ClassJuggler

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ClassJuggler has a helpful report tool you’ll want to learn to use: the Class Wait List. This report prints a handy list of enrollees for a selected class or for a group of classes.

By default, the Class Wait List includes class name, class ID, classroom, begin and end dates, mini-schedule, session/group, instructors, schedule description, student: name, age, primary contact name and phone number, group, registration info, class enrollment info, waiting list date, and wait list comments.

Here’s how to make one:

There are two ways to run this report. Either way, you’ll want to go ahead and log in to your ClassJuggler account and then navigate to reports:

The first way, shown in Figure 1 below, is by selecting a specific class to report on:

The second way, show in Figure 2, is to choose to view all classes that match one of the four class status options:

Either way, it starts like this:

Select a report type.
If you chose to report on a single class, select a class from the pop-up class listing by clicking the Select button. (You can view the Select a Class help page for more information on using the class selector pop-up.)
Click Generate Report to create your report.

It’s that simple. However, here are some optional extra steps you can take to finesse the results.

When reporting on multiple classes:

Enter a search string to select classes in a particular session or group that begins with the string of characters you enter.
Enter a search string to select a set of classes whose names begin with the same string of characters.
Select a class day to limit the list of classes.
Or select all days for all classes or “open” for only classes with open class schedules.
Select “any time” for the class or choose a specific time range, when reporting on multiple classes, by unselecting the “any time” checkbox.
Select to see totals & subtotals for students on waiting lists.

To see report selectors and other options with this tool, see the full article on this feature in our online help, which you can find here:

Using ClassJuggler to Handle Holiday Class Schedule & Billing Changes

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One of the ClassJuggler “power tools” is its ability to deal with prorated billing for calculated class occurrences during a month and also for “closed” days on your calendar – a big help when holidays wreak havoc on your regular class schedule and standard billing.

To do this, simply employ the prorated billing options for any of the three tuition types we support: monthly billing, per-class billing, and class total billing. You establish this at the time of enrollment,

A common question – What about dealing with prorated fees during an ongoing billing cycle when posting new tuition?

Easy answer with ClassJuggler – Proration and the ability to exclude closed calendar dates is totally supported for Per-Class pricing. And also the Monthly Tuition type can have prorated fees based on closed calendar dates. Simply choose this optional feature when you run your Post Tuition billing cycle step, as shown here:

Add any time you set up ClassJuggler to prorate tuition for per-class or monthly-based tuition, it adds a secondary description to the transaction explaining how it calculated any prorated discounts. This is handy when you need to determine why a certain amount was posted for a certain family.

Some things to remember about ClassJuggler prorated tuition tools:

Make sure that the classes that you want tuition to be prorated for (per class or monthly) have the checkbox for “skip ‘closed’ calendar event dates” enabled under Step #2: Class Schedule. If this is not set, ClassJuggler will assume you have skipped this class for prorating due to calendar closed dates.
Per Class tuition always prorates based on class occurrences per month and also supports closed calendar dates by default.
Monthly based tuition allows for prorated class fees for closed calendar dates only when the checkbox is set on the Post Tuition billing cycle screen.

These class proration features are available in all our ClassJuggler products:

http://www.swimclassjuggler.com Swim ClassJuggler

Any questions remaining? Simply contact us and we can answer your questions or walk you through it.

Why K12 ClassJuggler Is the Best Way to Get an A+ in Running Your Business

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Do you own and operate a a growing preschool, K-12 education program, adult education program, evening learning school, or after-school programs? If so, you are likely already experiencing growth pains, such as:

More time required to keep on top of billing/invoicing
Class scheduling/instructor scheduling overlaps to be managed
Trying to be responsive to schedule changes and notifying parents
Keeping track of students’ progress
Staying on top of student or parent information
Managing martial arts build paths
Student skills level management taking more time
Keeping track of the growing number of martial arts belt systems/groups and belt ranks
Handling payment options

Most successful school owner-operators find that, as their business grows, they have less and less time to work with students, and are spending more and more time with the business of managing the business.

It’s for this very reason that we created K-12 ClassJuggler — to help school owners get back to the very thing that got them excited about doing business in the first place – helping their students increase their skills, knowledge, and confidence.

The features in www.k12classjuggler.com will help you excel in academics school operations, empowering you to:

Easily manage hundreds or even thousands of student records and customer records.
Manage and schedule instructors, staff, and trainers.
Easily perform in-depth reporting such as class reports, student reports, customer/parent reports, instructor reports, financial reports, and more.
Easily manage recurring bills and membership fees with no double-entry—no entry at all, since ClassJuggler integrates your customers’ payment history and class records with the billing features, so you can bill all of your customers with just a few clicks.
Track primary and secondary customer contact information.
Get going with no startup costs. Don’t underestimate this one. Some of the available cloud-based class management software programs have enormous upfront fees. We have none.
Spend less time managing customer information by letting customers manage it themselves with our Customer Self-Service Center
Accept credit card payment for classes.

Here are just some of the features that will make it easy for you to get started and work with ClassJuggler:

Low monthly fees. Unlike our competitors, you get gradual, fairly-tiered pricing. It’s just a $5/mo. increase for each additional 150 students—and as your database grows, so does your discount.
No tech skills needed. It’s an easy-to-use online environment, designed for those who aren’t computer-savvy.
Easy help! ClassJuggler has robust and fully searchable help tools, plus free email or phone support with fast response times.
Fast search tools. Locate your customer data fast!
FREE upgrades. You’ll never pay for “the latest version” – our online software updates you instantly, and at no cost.
No software to install. With ClassJuggler in “the cloud,” i.e., completely online, you get easy access from anywhere, and on any PC, Mac, or mobile device.
Easy student assessment. Our assessment tools make tracking progress a breeze, no matter how many students you have.
Speedy ground mail. USPS mail takes no time at all with our mailing label generator, which can create labels based on your customer/student records.
Advanced security features. Gain control over which of your employees can or cannot see certain kinds of information, defined by you.

ClassJuggler’s online school management platform supports the unique business needs you face as an owner or operator of a school, helping you gracefully and efficiently manage classes, customers, and students.

To learn more, go to www.k12classjuggler.com or contact us.

Five Critical Questions to Help You Decide If and When to Invest in School Software for Your Studio

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You may be surprised to hear this from the president of a company that provides online software to help you manage your school/studio, but now may not be the right time for you to start using a software product (whether computer-based or cloud-based studio management software) to help you manage your class-based business.

And then again, it might actually be the perfect time!

To help you evaluate this important decision, make sure you have a good answer for each of these five questions:

Is my business big enough to benefit?
Does my business income justify the cost?
Will the class-based software I select deliver on needed efficiencies?
Will the studio business management software I choose generate new business?
Do I have time to look for software?

Each of these important questions deserves careful response. I’ll cover each question and answer in a separate article. Let’s start by responding to the first question:

Is my business big enough to benefit a class-based business management tool?

How many students do you need before it makes sense to start managing your dance studio with software?

Great question! To answer, let’s start with an analogy. Suppose you want to sew your own outfit or make a quilt;you don’t need to acquire and operate a textile mill, right? Of course not. A simple sewing machine is likely the most you will need. But if you want to sew several articles of clothing, or a couple dozen quilts, every week, that simple sewing machine may not be up to the task, or the process may be too slow on a consumer-grade sewing machine compared to the efficiencies you’ll get from a commercial, computerized textile system.

What about your studio? If you are just starting out, or intentionally keeping your dance school, martial arts dojo, or gymnastics studio very small – say, with less than 30 students – there will be a limit to the efficiencies you can gain from having software to manage scheduling, bookkeeping, and student records. Why? Because even the simplest and best scheduling software may be unnecessary if you only have one class to schedule students into – just as you don’t need a factory to make one dress. But when your enrollment starts getting to 40, 50 or 100 students, those spreadsheets, napkins with notes, and other miscellaneous tools start to hinder your growth rather than help it.

Then how can I tell when my school is big enough that it is time to consider software?

There is no magic number of students or classes, per se. But, as your student count and number of classes begin to grow, you’ll notice that you have less time to do what you love – teaching dance, martial arts, gymnastics, swim, academics, or whatever your school is about – because you are spending an increasing amount of time in administrative functions, such as managing payments, keeping records of income/expenses, managing your website, etc. Many software products on the market, such as our software, ClassJuggler, streamline these administrative functions and give you greater/quicker insight into how your business is doing.

Note: The efficiencies you gain from setting up and operating school management software are going to be most pronounced as your school grows. With just fewer than 30 students, the efficiency gains will be minimal. But when you start growing, and find that you’ve got more than 40 students and several classes to juggle, the software quickly pays for itself from the time you will save in business management.

Consider what studio owners have said about the efficiencies they have realized once they started using our business management software:

“ClassJuggler makes my job of running a dance studio so much easier — billing that previously took days now takes virtually no time at all because customers can self-serve!” – Amy Forde, director and owner of Let’s Dance in South Carolina
“With ClassJuggler previously unpleasant billing and payment processes are now easy, both for us and for our clients. Now that we have online financial processing of payments, we no longer require our clients to come in and swipe a credit card to make a payment.” – Sean Cunnington of T-Rox Music Academy of Mississauga, Ontario
“End-of-the-month reporting is so easy with ClassJuggler, and takes a lot less time than before. Time is money, and doing reports doesn’t make you money, serving customers does.” Jennifer Reid, owner of Kinderdance of Alamo City, TX
“The efficiencies we experience with ClassJuggler has been a significant time saver, such as how it allows us to pull all data … into one automated monthly report. It used to take me a few hours of work monthly to pull and centralize the data from each of our locations. Now, it’s an automated process, thanks to ClassJuggler.” Joey St. John, Vice-President of Operations at JumpBunch® Incorporated of Annapolis, MD.

To summarize, keep an eye out for any inefficiencies that develop from a growing business. This alone may justify the purchase of business management software.

In our next article on this topic, we’ll answer the question, “Does the business income my class-based studio generates justify the cost of investing in a business software solution?

Sincerely,

Jon Koerber, Pres., ClassJuggler

PS: If you are already certain that you need the efficiencies that a business software program can give your studio, see our family of products that most closely matches your business:

DanceClassJuggler – online dance school software to save time and money on the business of running your business, so you can focus on your students
CheerClassJuggler – online gymnastics and cheer management software designed to streamline the business of operating your gymnastics school or cheer camp
ClassJugglerDojo – a martial arts school management platform designed to support the operational challenges of business such as karate schools, kung fu schools, self-defense courses, mixed martial arts centers, taekwondo training, fencing classes, kickboxing studios, Jeet Kune Do or Jiu-Jitsu schools
SwimClassJuggler – online swim school management software is designed to support the needs of those who own and operate swimming schools, water rescue classes, life guard schools, and diver training schools
MusicClassJuggler – all-in-one online business management tools that make customer, academics, and music class management a breeze for vocal training centers and instrumental music training centers
K12ClassJuggler – a management platform that supports the busy schedules of those who own and operate preschools, K-12 education, adult education programs, evening learning schools, night classes, and after-school programs
ClassJugglerFitness – slimming down record keeping for athletics schools, fitness centers, spin classes, yoga sessions, and tennis camps