Help Centre

First Steps

You've signed up — here's what to do first to get your platform ready.

1. Set up your subjects

Go to Subjects in the sidebar and add the subjects you teach. For each one you can set a default hourly rate and lesson duration. These will auto-fill when you create new lessons.

2. Set up your locations

Go to Locations and add the places where you teach — your home, a student's home, a library, or "Online" for virtual lessons. An "Online" location is created for you automatically.

3. Add your first student

Go to Students and click + New Student. You'll need to either select an existing family or create a new one. Every student belongs to a family (even if it's just one person — the family is who gets invoiced).

4. Schedule a lesson

Go to the Calendar or Dashboard and click + New Lesson. Pick the student, subject, date and time. The rate auto-fills from the subject default but you can override it.

5. Take attendance and get paid

After the lesson, mark it as attended on the Dashboard (one tap). When you're ready to invoice, go to Invoices and hit + Generate Invoice — it'll automatically create an invoice from all completed unbilled lessons for that family.

Adding Subjects

Subjects are what you teach. They help organise your calendar and auto-fill rates.

From the sidebar, click Subjects, then + New Subject.

• Name — be specific, e.g. "GCSE Maths" rather than just "Maths". This helps when you have students at different levels.
• Default Rate — the hourly rate you normally charge for this subject. You can override it per lesson.
• Duration — the default lesson length in minutes (usually 60). Again, overridable per lesson.
• Colour — used on the calendar to visually distinguish subjects. Pick something you'll recognise at a glance.

Adding Locations

Locations are where lessons happen.

Three types are available:

• In Person — a physical location (your office, a student's home, a library)
• Online — virtual lessons (Zoom, Google Meet, Lessonspace)
• Phone — phone-based lessons or consultations

An "Online" location is created automatically when you sign up. Add more as you need them.

Adding Students

Students are the people you teach. Every student belongs to a family.

Click + New Student from the Students page or the Dashboard.

The family connection

Every student must belong to a family. This is how billing works — invoices go to the family, not the individual student. If a parent has three children, they're all in one family and get one combined invoice.

When adding a student, you can either:

• Select an existing family from the dropdown, OR
• Type a new family name to create one on the fly

Student statuses

• Active — currently receiving lessons
• Trial — doing trial lessons, not yet enrolled
• Paused — temporarily stopped (holidays, illness, etc.)
• Archived — no longer a student. Their data is kept but they're hidden from active lists.

Managing Families

Families group parents and students together for billing.

On the Families page you can see all your families, how many students each has, their current balance, and whether they have portal access.

Family balance

The balance shows how much the family has in credit (green, positive) or owes (red, negative). It updates automatically when payments are recorded and invoices are generated.

Adding parents

Click View on a family to see their full details. From there you can add additional parents or guardians, each with their own contact details.

Parent Portal

Give parents their own login to see lessons, invoices and progress.

To enable portal access for a family:

1. Go to Families and click View on the family
2. Click Generate Portal Credentials
3. You'll see an email and password — give these to the parent
4. They log in at your-subdomain.mytutor.work/portal

In the portal, parents can see:

• Upcoming lessons for their children
• Outstanding invoices and payment history
• Progress notes from each lesson (if you write them)
• Learning goals and targets

Creating Lessons

Lessons are the core of the platform. Every lesson links a tutor, student, subject, time and place.

Click + New Lesson from the Calendar or Dashboard. Fill in:

• Student — who you're teaching (leave blank for a group lesson)
• Subject — auto-fills the rate if you've set one
• Date — when the lesson is
• Start & End Time — duration calculates automatically
• Location — where it's happening
• Rate — auto-fills from the subject, but you can override
• Type — Private, Group, Trial, or Assessment
• Notes — anything you want to remember

Using the Calendar

The week view is your central command screen.

The calendar shows a 7-day week view with colour-coded lesson blocks. Today's column is highlighted with a teal tint.

• Use Prev / Next to navigate between weeks
• Click Today to jump back to the current week
• Click any lesson block to open it for editing, attendance, or notes
• Each block shows the start time, student name, and subject

Lesson blocks are colour-coded by the tutor or subject colour you've set — this makes it easy to see your day at a glance.

Recurring Lessons

Most tutoring is recurring — set it up once and the platform handles the rest.

When creating a lesson, you can set a recurrence pattern:

• Weekly — same day and time every week (the most common)
• Fortnightly — every two weeks
• Monthly — same date each month
• Custom interval — every N days/weeks

You set an end date for the series (e.g. end of term). All the individual lessons are created immediately so they appear in your calendar and can be individually edited, cancelled, or rescheduled.

Taking Attendance

One tap. That's all it takes.

On the Dashboard, today's lessons are listed with three attendance buttons:

• ✓ (green) — Attended
• ✗ (red) — Absent
• L (amber) — Late

Marking a lesson as "Attended" automatically changes its status to "Completed" — which means it becomes billable and will appear on the next invoice you generate.

You can also take attendance from the Calendar by clicking on any lesson.

Cancelling Lessons

Life happens. Here's how to handle it.

Click on a lesson in the Calendar and hit Cancel Lesson. You can add a reason. Cancelled lessons are not billed.

If the lesson is part of a recurring series, you'll have the option to cancel just this one or the entire series from this point forward.

Generating Invoices

Invoices are generated automatically from completed lessons — no manual calculation.

How it works

1. Go to Invoices and click + Generate Invoice
2. Select the family you want to invoice
3. The platform finds all their completed, unbilled lessons and creates an invoice with a line item for each one
4. The invoice is created as a Draft — review it before sending
5. Click Send to email it to the parent
6. When they pay, click Mark Paid

Invoice statuses

• Draft — created but not yet sent. You can still edit or void it.
• Sent — emailed to the parent. Waiting for payment.
• Paid — fully paid. The family balance updates automatically.
• Overdue — past the due date and not yet paid.
• Void — cancelled. Lessons are unlinked and become billable again.

Recording Payments

Track every payment, however it arrives.

Go to Payments and click + Record Payment. Select the family, enter the amount and method (bank transfer, cash, Stripe, PayPal, etc.).

When you record a payment:

• The family's balance is updated automatically
• If linked to an invoice, the invoice status updates (partially paid or fully paid)
• A record is kept for your financial history

Lesson Packages

Sell blocks of lessons at a fixed price.

Packages let you offer things like "10 Lessons for £280" (a saving compared to the per-lesson rate). When a family buys a package, the lessons are deducted from the package balance as they're completed.

Package management is available in the admin settings. Each package has a name, number of included lessons, price, and optional expiry period.

Managing Leads

Track enquiries from the moment they contact you.

The Leads section is a simple CRM pipeline. Every potential student starts as a lead and moves through stages:

1. Enquiry — they've contacted you (the sidebar shows a count badge)
2. Contacted — you've responded
3. Trial Booked — a trial lesson is arranged
4. Trial Done — the trial has happened
5. Enrolled — they've signed up (lead is converted)
6. Lost — they didn't proceed

For each lead you can record the parent's name, contact details, the student's name, the subject they're interested in, and where they heard about you (source tracking).

Converting Leads to Students

One click turns a lead into a real student + family.

When a lead is ready to enroll, click the Convert button on their row. This automatically:

• Creates a new family using the parent's name
• Creates a parent record with their contact details
• Creates a student record linked to that family
• Updates the lead stage to "Enrolled"

From there you can schedule their first real lesson, set up the subject and rate, and you're away.

Business Profile

Your business details appear on invoices and the parent portal.

Under Settings, you can update:

• Business Name — shown on invoices and the portal header
• Phone — your contact number
• Address & Postcode — shown on invoices
• Accent Colour — customises the look of your platform

Online Booking

Let parents book lessons directly from your public booking page.

Your booking page is at your-subdomain.mytutor.work/book. From Settings you can configure:

• Booking Enabled — turns the public booking page on or off
• Auto-Accept — if on, bookings are confirmed immediately. If off, you'll need to approve each one.
• Advance Days — how far ahead parents can book (default: 28 days)
• Minimum Notice — how many hours before a lesson a booking must be made (default: 2 hours)

Notifications

Automated reminders so nobody forgets a lesson.

Under Settings, you can set the Lesson Reminder hours — this controls how far before a lesson an automatic reminder email is sent to the parent. Default is 24 hours.

Automatic reminders are sent for all scheduled lessons where the student's family has an email address on file.

Status Meanings

Quick reference for all the status badges used across the platform.

Student statuses

• Active — currently receiving lessons
• Trial — in trial period
• Paused — temporarily stopped
• Archived — no longer a student, hidden from active lists

Lesson statuses

• Scheduled — upcoming, not yet happened
• Completed — happened, attendance marked as "attended"
• Cancelled — won't happen, not billed

Attendance

• Attended — student was present, lesson completed
• Absent — student didn't show up
• Late — student arrived late

Invoice statuses

• Draft — created, not yet sent
• Sent — emailed to parent, awaiting payment
• Paid — fully paid
• Overdue — past due date, unpaid
• Void — cancelled, lessons unlinked

Lead stages

• Enquiry — initial contact
• Contacted — you've responded
• Trial Booked — trial arranged
• Trial Done — trial completed
• Enrolled — converted to student
• Lost — didn't proceed

FAQ

Can I use this on my phone?

Yes. The platform works in any browser on any device. There's no app to download — just open your browser and go to your platform URL. You can add it to your home screen for quick access.

Can parents book their own lessons?

Yes — if you enable online booking in Settings. Parents visit your public booking page, pick an available slot, and submit a request. You can choose to auto-accept or manually approve each booking.

Can I teach group lessons?

Yes. When creating a lesson, leave the student field blank and select "Group" as the type. You can add multiple students to a group lesson after creating it.

What happens if I cancel a recurring lesson?

You can cancel just the single lesson or the entire series from that date forward. Cancelled lessons are not billed.

Can I charge different rates for different students?

Yes. The rate is set per lesson. The subject's default rate auto-fills, but you can override it for any individual lesson. Create different subjects (e.g. "GCSE Maths" and "A-Level Maths") if you consistently charge different rates.

How do I give parents access to view their child's progress?

Generate portal credentials for the family (Families → View → Generate Portal Credentials) and give them the email/password. They log in at your-subdomain/portal.

Is my data secure?

Yes. All connections use HTTPS encryption. Passwords are hashed with bcrypt. Each tenant's data is completely isolated — you can never see another tutor's students, and they can never see yours.

Can I export my data?

Invoice and payment data can be exported for your accountant. We're adding more export options regularly.

What's the difference between "Absent" and "Cancelled"?

Absent means the student didn't show but the lesson still "happened" from your perspective — you were there and available. You may choose to bill for it (e.g. if they didn't give notice). Cancelled means the lesson was called off in advance — it's not billed.

Getting Support

We're here to help.

If you're stuck, have a question, or want to suggest a feature:

• Email: support@mytutor.work
• We aim to respond within 24 hours (usually much faster)
• No chatbots, no ticket queues — you'll hear from a real person