LessonLoop gives you two ways to invoice, and you pick by how many families you’re billing: New invoice for a single, one-off invoice you build yourself, or a billing run to bill lots of families at once from their lessons.
Where invoices live
| What you want | Where it is |
|---|---|
| Your invoices | Billing & Finance → Invoices |
| Raise a one-off invoice | Billing & Finance → Invoices → New invoice |
| Start or review a bulk run | Billing & Finance → Billing runs |
| Numbering & payment terms | Settings → Billing & subscription → Invoice settings |
Raise a one-off invoice (New invoice)
Use this for an ad-hoc charge — a single family, a one-off item, anything outside your regular run.
- Go to Billing & Finance → Invoices and select New invoice (the primary button).
- Choose the payer — a family/guardian, or an individual student.
- Pull lessons from the calendar (optional, and usually the quickest way): in the Add lessons from the calendar panel, pick a from and to date and select Find lessons. Every billable lesson for that payer’s children in the range appears — tick the ones to bill and add them. Each arrives as its own itemised line with the student, the lesson, the date and time (school register lessons without real times show the date only) and the price filled in from your rates. Lessons already on an invoice show as Already invoiced and can’t be added twice.
- Add any other line items by hand: a description, quantity and unit price for each. The running total updates as you type. A line can carry a negative price to apply a discount or adjustment (e.g. “Goodwill discount −£30”), as long as the invoice total stays at or above £0.
- Set a due date and select Create. LessonLoop saves it as a draft.
- Open the draft to review it, then send — the family receives it, and if you’ve connected card payments it carries a Pay button.
Invoice just one family
From Billing & Finance → Family Accounts, open a family and select Invoice this family. This starts a billing run already scoped to that family’s active students (a guardian who pays for several children covers all of them), so you can bill one household straight from their account.
Bill everyone at once (a billing run)
A billing run turns confirmed lessons into one invoice per family for a whole period. Every lesson becomes its own line, so the invoice reads like a register: the child’s name, the lesson, the date and time (school register lessons without fixed times show the date only), in date order per child. Parents can see exactly what they’re paying for, line by line.
- Go to Billing & Finance → Invoices and select New billing run (you can also start from Billing & Finance → Billing runs).
- Choose the period under Bill by:
- Term — bill for one of your academic terms.
- Custom dates — bill for any date range you set (use this for a calendar month, or any other period).
- Choose Who to bill:
- Everyone (whole studio) — every family with billable lessons in the period.
- Specific students/families — pick who’s in the run.
- Choose the Billing mode:
- Each pupil’s setting — the default. Each pupil is billed before or after lessons according to their own record (Bill this pupil) or your studio default (Settings → Organisation → Billing timing). The preview groups families under Billed before lessons and Billed after lessons.
- Delivered (completed lessons) and Upfront (all scheduled) sit under Advanced, for one rule for everyone.
- Select Preview. LessonLoop shows you exactly who would be billed and for how much — including anyone skipped or with auto-invoicing off — without writing anything.
- When the preview looks right, select Generate. LessonLoop builds a draft invoice for each family in scope, based on their lessons and rates.
A run that previews short says why If the preview bills less than you expected — or nothing — it lists every reason with a count and a link to the fix: lessons not yet marked as taught (take the register, or bill those pupils before lessons), a length with no rate card (add one), a pupil with no payer, lessons marked No charge, autopay switched off. Lessons priced at your default rate because their length has no card of its own are named too, so a 25-minute lesson never bills at a 60-minute price unnoticed.
A Delivered run that previews empty If nothing has been marked yet — a term you're billing before it starts, say — LessonLoop checks whether an Upfront run would find lessons and offers "Bill upfront instead" in one tap, rather than leaving you staring at an empty preview.
Every run is listed under Billing runs, so you always have a clear record of what was billed and when. There’s no “Recurring” tab — to bill each period, run a Term or Custom run when you’re ready.
Review and edit before you send
Both routes create drafts — nothing reaches a family until you send.
- Open a draft invoice to check the lines.
- On a draft you can edit the line items in place — add, change or remove lines with the edit (pencil) control, and the total recomputes. (Only a draft can be edited. Once an invoice is sent it’s a document the family has already received, so you correct it with a credit note or by voiding and reissuing — not by editing.)
- When it looks right, send. If you’ve connected card payments, the invoice carries a Pay button.
Set numbering and terms
Your invoice number format, payment terms and footer are set once under Settings → Billing & subscription → Invoice settings, and apply to every invoice from then on.
Don't mix these up Billing & Finance is where you invoice your families. Settings → Billing & subscription is where you manage your own LessonLoop plan — a separate thing.
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