Good morning!
I wonder if any of you would have suggestions for an inexpensive (or even free) software to speed up my tracking of payments. This is not a large business that is going to grow much bigger than it is right now, but a small "tutoring service", where tutors are paid directly. I'll give you the basic scenario, and hopefully I can get some good suggestions.
There are nine tutors that teach in our cooperative. Most teach more than one class. The monthly fee per class is the same (with the exception of "private music lessons" which are more). The only thing that may vary is an occasional "supply fee" for a lab class. Parents write checks out to the individual tutors. Sometimes a check will be for more than one class or more than one student. (for example the Smith family might write a check to Mr. Adkins for the price of two classes, because they have 2 students, or because "Johnny" takes two classes from him).
I have volunteered to help with tracking of payments, because I have a little background (albeit rusty) in accounting & finance, and I enjoy this type of work. At the end of the calendar year, and again in May, I generate a receipt for each family who has students participating in the cooperative. All payments made by a given family, were on one sheet, with a blank for each instructor they paid to sign off on it (sorry, I tried to upload a "sample" rather than use all these words, but for some reason the forum said "invalid file"
) Last year, I did a very simple excel spreadsheet for each family. As the checks came in, I would record check # and amount for each instructor they were paying. A couple of times, I missed seeing where a family had not yet paid, because every family had a separate tab in the workbook. I also did not have the capability to list or arrange the data in different ways. I could not see at a glance how many people had not yet paid Mr. Jones for example.
This year, the co-op did grow substantially. I successfully downloaded an Access database template for a school, and despite my VERY LIMITED knowledge of Access, I have been able to use this template to record student registration info, and I can "at glance" see who has registered for which classes. I have been able to generate "rolls" for each class, contact info for students, etc. I do not know how to create what I need using what I have in the existing database, so I am looking for another program.
I am thinking that each instructor could be a separate "business". His or her Accounts Receivable would be all the families that have students in his classes. I would love to have something that allowed a quick "data entry" of payments. If necessary, I am willing to go to a system where each "business" generates a separate receipt, rather than having all of them on one, if it makes the process easier. Any suggestions you can give would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Anita
I wonder if any of you would have suggestions for an inexpensive (or even free) software to speed up my tracking of payments. This is not a large business that is going to grow much bigger than it is right now, but a small "tutoring service", where tutors are paid directly. I'll give you the basic scenario, and hopefully I can get some good suggestions.
There are nine tutors that teach in our cooperative. Most teach more than one class. The monthly fee per class is the same (with the exception of "private music lessons" which are more). The only thing that may vary is an occasional "supply fee" for a lab class. Parents write checks out to the individual tutors. Sometimes a check will be for more than one class or more than one student. (for example the Smith family might write a check to Mr. Adkins for the price of two classes, because they have 2 students, or because "Johnny" takes two classes from him).
I have volunteered to help with tracking of payments, because I have a little background (albeit rusty) in accounting & finance, and I enjoy this type of work. At the end of the calendar year, and again in May, I generate a receipt for each family who has students participating in the cooperative. All payments made by a given family, were on one sheet, with a blank for each instructor they paid to sign off on it (sorry, I tried to upload a "sample" rather than use all these words, but for some reason the forum said "invalid file"
) Last year, I did a very simple excel spreadsheet for each family. As the checks came in, I would record check # and amount for each instructor they were paying. A couple of times, I missed seeing where a family had not yet paid, because every family had a separate tab in the workbook. I also did not have the capability to list or arrange the data in different ways. I could not see at a glance how many people had not yet paid Mr. Jones for example.This year, the co-op did grow substantially. I successfully downloaded an Access database template for a school, and despite my VERY LIMITED knowledge of Access, I have been able to use this template to record student registration info, and I can "at glance" see who has registered for which classes. I have been able to generate "rolls" for each class, contact info for students, etc. I do not know how to create what I need using what I have in the existing database, so I am looking for another program.
I am thinking that each instructor could be a separate "business". His or her Accounts Receivable would be all the families that have students in his classes. I would love to have something that allowed a quick "data entry" of payments. If necessary, I am willing to go to a system where each "business" generates a separate receipt, rather than having all of them on one, if it makes the process easier. Any suggestions you can give would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Anita
