Billing Plans
Billing plans define how families are charged for lessons and classes. Every course in Conductly has exactly one billing type, chosen when you create the course in the Catalog.
The Four Billing Types
Conductly offers four billing types to cover the most common pricing models used by music schools:
| Billing Type | How It Works | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Pay in Full | One upfront payment for the entire duration | Semester or year-long commitments with a single payment |
| Payment Plan | Total cost split into installments | Families who want to spread out a large payment |
| Per Meeting | Rate × the number of scheduled meetings in each billing period | Weekly private lessons billed by what's on the calendar |
| Subscription | Flat recurring tuition regardless of how many meetings occur | Schools that prefer predictable billing |
Pay in Full
With the Pay in Full type, the student pays the total cost of the enrollment in a single payment. This is typically used for semester-based or annual programs where the school wants full payment upfront.
Example: A fall semester guitar program costs $600. The family pays $600 in one invoice at the start of the semester.
When to use it:
- Semester or year-long programs
- Workshops and camps
- When you want to secure payment before lessons begin
Pair the Pay in Full type with early registration discounts to encourage families to commit early.
Payment Plan
The Payment Plan type takes the total cost and splits it into installments over a set period. This makes expensive programs more accessible by spreading the cost across multiple payments.
When you choose Payment Plan, you configure a frequency (Weekly or Monthly), an interval, the total number of periods, and the total price.
Example: A full-year violin program costs $1,200. With a Payment Plan set to 12 monthly installments, the family pays $100/month.
When to use it:
- Year-long programs where the total cost is high
- When families prefer monthly payments
- Programs where you want a commitment but with payment flexibility
How installments work:
- Conductly divides the total across the number of periods
- An invoice is generated for each installment, labeled "Payment N of M"
- Each installment invoice has its own due date
Per Meeting
The Per Meeting type charges families based on the number of scheduled meetings on the calendar in each billing period. Each meeting is priced by your lesson rates, and invoices reflect the number of meetings in the billing period — attendance is never a factor.
Example: Piano lessons are $50 per meeting. In a month with 4 scheduled lessons, the invoice is $200. In a month with 5 scheduled lessons, the invoice is $250.
When to use it:
- Studios where lesson counts vary from month to month
- Weekly private lessons priced by lesson length
- When you want invoices to mirror the calendar exactly
How meeting counts are determined:
- Conductly counts the meetings scheduled on the calendar within the billing period
- Meetings that fall on your school's Closed Dates are skipped and not billed
- Meetings removed from the calendar are not billed
Per Meeting courses require lesson rates to be configured first — see Lesson Rates below.
Lesson Packs
A Per Meeting course can optionally be turned into a lesson pack by setting "Lessons per pack" in the course's Billing Information panel (Catalog → course detail). Leave it blank for open-ended Per Meeting billing (billed one meeting at a time, as above); set it to a whole number and the course bills that many meetings up front as a single pack.
- Conductly bills pack_size meetings at once, then re-bills the next pack only once the current one is fully used up (lessons elapsed, checked daily) -- not on a calendar schedule.
- A depleted pack is flagged for renewal, or auto-renewed, based on your Settings → Invoices → "Lesson pack renewals" configuration. See Billing Automation.
- Pack progress (e.g.
"7 of 10 lessons left") shows on the student's Enrollments card, and packs can be filtered, sorted, and renewed from the Purchases list.
Example: A course is set to 10 lessons per pack at a $65 lesson rate. The family is billed $650 up front for the pack. Once all 10 lessons have occurred, Conductly bills the next pack automatically (or flags staff, depending on your renewal setting).
See Lesson Packs for tracking pack usage on the Purchases page, renewing packs one at a time or in bulk, and configuring automatic renewal.
Selling a Lesson Pack in the Store
Private-lesson packs can be sold through the online store's cart, just like any other product. To make a pack sellable, set a Pack price in the same Billing Information panel -- the total the family pays upfront for the whole pack (Conductly shows a $/lesson hint next to it, e.g. "$260 · $65.00/lesson" for a 4-lesson pack).
- With a Pack price set, the product page shows the pack price and lesson count (e.g. "$260 for 4 lessons") and the button reads Add to Cart, like any other product.
- Without a Pack price, or for open-ended (non-pack) Per Meeting private lessons, the button shows "Contact us to schedule" instead -- there's no way to charge a fixed amount for billing that depends on a schedule. Give the course a pack size and price, switch it to a different billing type, or use Book online instead.
- Lessons scheduled after the purchase draw down the prepaid pack automatically, so nothing is billed twice. Renewals of a store-bought pack bill from your configured rates going forward, so a renewal invoice can differ from the original pack price.
See Managing Products for how the Add to Cart button configuration works.
Store Checkout Options
For Per Meeting group class or program courses sold through your online store, the course detail's "Store Checkout" setting controls what a family pays at checkout: Pay in Full, Pro-Rate First Month, or Trial Lesson. This only affects the storefront purchase — it doesn't change how the course bills afterward.
Store Checkout only applies to open-ended Per Meeting group classes and programs. Private lessons use Book online or, for lesson packs, the Pack price described above -- the Store Checkout field doesn't appear for them.
Subscription
The Subscription type charges a flat tuition amount per billing period (Monthly, Semester, or Yearly) regardless of how many meetings occur in that period. This is the simplest billing model and provides predictable revenue for your school and predictable costs for families. On a student's enrollment card, Subscription billing shows as a "Tuition" badge.
The tuition amount itself comes from your Tuition setup under Settings → Rates and Tuition.
Example: Monthly piano tuition is $150, whether the month has 4 or 5 lesson weeks.
When to use it:
- Schools that want consistent monthly revenue
- When you want billing to be simple and predictable
- Programs where lesson count variations are absorbed by the school
Subscription is the most popular billing type for schools that bill monthly. It eliminates confusion about varying monthly amounts and makes budgeting easier for both you and your families.
Subscription Configuration
When you pick Subscription, several additional fields appear in the course setup drawer: Tuition Frequency, Academic Year Start Month (yearly only), Billing Cycle, and Prorate First Period (calendar billing only).
Tuition Frequency
Choose how often the subscription is billed:
- Monthly — A flat tuition amount is billed each month. This is the most common choice.
- Semester — A flat tuition amount is billed each semester. Useful for schools organized around academic semesters.
- Yearly — A flat tuition amount is billed once per academic year. Useful for traditional conservatory-style pricing.
Academic Year Start Month
This field only appears when Tuition Frequency is Yearly.
Pick the month when your academic year begins (January through December). This determines when the yearly billing cycle resets.
Example: A school whose academic year runs September through August sets this to September, so the first yearly invoice is dated September 1 and the cycle resets each year on that date.
Getting this wrong will produce billing cycles that don't match your school's fiscal calendar — double-check this value when configuring yearly tuition.
Billing Cycle
Choose how the subscription's billing periods are anchored:
- Monthly from signup date (default) — Each period is a full month measured from the student's signup/enrollment date. Every cycle is a full period, so there is nothing to prorate.
- Calendar month (renew on the 1st) — Periods align to the calendar month and renew on the 1st. A student who joins mid-month gets a partial first period that can be pro-rated.
Prorate First Period
This field appears only when the Billing Cycle is set to Calendar month. It controls what a mid-cycle joiner pays on their first invoice:
- No proration (default) — The student is charged the full cycle amount regardless of their enrollment date.
- By scheduled lessons — The first invoice covers the share of the month's lessons the student will actually attend (remaining scheduled lessons ÷ the lessons a full month would have). Falls back to By week when there is no lesson schedule, such as a storefront subscription.
- By week — The first invoice covers the share of the month's weeks remaining, counted on the enrollment weekday (naturally 4 or 5 weeks).
- By exact days — The first invoice is split by the calendar days remaining in the month.
Only the first partial period is pro-rated; every cycle after that is a full month. For worked examples, see Tuition Proration for Mid-Cycle Enrollment.
How Billing Types Connect to Courses
The billing type is chosen at the course level, when the course is created:
- Go to Catalog and click Add Course
- In the final step of the drawer, choose the Billing Type
- Configure the type-specific options (installments for Payment Plan, tuition frequency for Subscription, etc.)
When a student enrolls in a session under that course, the billing type determines how their charges are calculated.
One Billing Type per Course
Each course has a single billing type — families don't pick between payment options at enrollment. If you want to offer the same lessons under two pricing models (say, Pay in Full and a Payment Plan), create one course per offering in the Catalog.
One place where billing can differ from the course default:
- Store Checkout options — open-ended Per Meeting group classes and programs can offer Pay in Full, Pro-Rate First Month, or Trial Lesson pricing at storefront checkout (see above). Private-lesson packs use a Pack price instead (see Lesson Packs).
Per-enrollment billing overrides are no longer available — an enrollment always bills according to its course's billing plan.
Lesson Rates
Lesson rates set the price of a meeting and drive Per Meeting billing. They're managed under Settings → Rates and Tuition ("Lesson rates" → New rate). Each rate is either:
- Per meeting (flat) — a fixed price per meeting, or
- Per hour (pro-rated) — an hourly price that Conductly pro-rates by the lesson's duration
Rates can be set per lesson duration (Default, 15, 30, 45, 60, or 90 minutes). For example:
| Lesson Duration | Rate |
|---|---|
| 30 minutes | $35/meeting |
| 45 minutes | $50/meeting |
| 60 minutes | $65/meeting |
Rates support Effective/Expires dates (so you can schedule price changes) and overrides scoped to a Course, Session, Student, or Group — the most specific matching rate wins.
Set up lesson rates before creating Per Meeting courses. This ensures invoices are generated with the correct amounts from the start, and you won't need to manually adjust pricing for different lesson lengths.