The Family Portal
The Family Portal is where your students and guardians log in to see what they owe, pay invoices, manage their payment method, and -- for private lessons -- reschedule or cancel their own upcoming sessions. This guide covers what families see and can do there, and links out to where you control it.
Who Uses the Portal
Guardians and students are the only two roles that use the portal. When either logs in, they're taken straight to the portal -- there's no other area of Conductly they can reach. See Roles & Permissions for how portal access compares to staff roles.
Families don't need to log in to pay an invoice or update their card -- the signed link included in invoice and reminder emails works without an account. The portal is for families who want a persistent, logged-in view of their account.
The Portal Home Page
When a guardian or student logs in, they land on a single home page with:
- A greeting -- "Hi,
{name}" - A balance summary -- either the amount due, or "You're all caught up -- nothing is due right now." if nothing is owed
- Upcoming lessons -- the student's scheduled private lessons and group classes
- Due now -- a list of unpaid invoices, each with a Pay now button
- Payment method -- the card or bank account on file
- History -- past invoices and payments
- A theme toggle -- Light, Dark, or System
Invoices that were never sent (still Draft or Void) never appear in the portal. Everything else shows once it's been sent or paid.
Paying Invoices
From Due now, a family clicks Pay now on any unpaid invoice to pay it immediately. Paid invoices then show up under History. This is the same payment flow as the emailed payment link -- see Payments for how charges, receipts, and failed payments work.
Managing the Payment Method
The Payment method card shows the family's saved card ("Card ending in 1234") or bank account. From here, a family can:
- Update payment method / Add payment method -- opens the same signed update form sent by email
- Remove -- deletes the saved payment method, with a confirmation step
If the family had an invoice that auto-charge already tried and failed to collect, saving a new payment method retries it immediately, and the confirmation page shows whether it went through. See Payments for details.
See Payment Settings for how cards get on file and what's required to accept bank accounts (ACH).
Rescheduling and Cancelling Lessons
Families can manage their own upcoming private lessons directly from the portal:
- Reschedule -- opens a "Reschedule lesson" dialog offering new times with the lesson's existing instructor, at the same duration. The family confirms with Confirm, or backs out with Keep existing.
- Cancel -- opens a "Cancel this lesson?" confirmation. Cancelled lessons stay listed with a red Cancelled pill rather than disappearing.
Group classes are view-only -- families can see them under Upcoming lessons but can't reschedule or cancel them from the portal.
Reschedule and Cancel aren't unconditional. Both buttons disable with a tooltip explaining why once a family hits a policy limit -- see Family Portal Settings to configure notice periods, booking windows, and change limits.
Behind the scenes, a cancelled lesson isn't deleted -- your school still has it on the calendar, and whether the family owes for it or gets a make-up credit follows your school's own policy. Depending on how your school has Late cancellations configured (see When a Family Cancels), a family cancelling very close to the lesson time may find the Cancel button disabled entirely, or may be able to cancel with the lesson recorded as a no-show.
Custom Field Answers
If you've added custom fields for Students or Guardians, any marked Families can see it show up on a Your details card in the portal -- one section for the guardian's own fields, plus one per linked student. Fields also marked Families can edit it are genuinely editable there; anything else on that card is read-only.
Choosing How to Be Reminded
A Reminders card lets each family choose how they want to hear about upcoming lessons and unpaid invoices:
- Whatever my school sends -- follows however your school has reminders configured (the default)
- Email only
- Text message only
The choice saves as soon as a family picks it -- there's no Save button. If a family picks Text message only but texting won't actually work for them -- they've texted STOP to unsubscribe, they have no mobile number on file, or your school doesn't send text reminders -- the portal tells them why and reminders go to their email instead. A family that's texted STOP has to text START to the number their reminders came from to start receiving texts again; picking Text message only in the portal doesn't undo an unsubscribe.
This one preference applies to both lesson and payment reminders -- families can't set a different channel for each.
Turning the Portal Off
The portal is on by default. If you turn it off (Settings > Student Portal > Enable the student portal), families who try to log in see a message that the online portal isn't available, along with your school's contact information -- but emailed invoice and payment-method links keep working regardless. See Student Portal Settings.
What the Portal Doesn't Do
Worth knowing so you can set expectations with families:
- No messaging -- families can't message your school through the portal
- No editing of core contact info -- families can't change their own name, email, or phone number from the portal (only family-editable custom fields, above)
- No new-lesson booking -- Reschedule only moves an existing lesson to a new time; it doesn't let families book additional lessons
Learn More
- Student Portal Settings -- Configure self-service rules, notice periods, and the on/off toggle
- Roles & Permissions -- How Guardian and Student access compares to staff roles
- Payments -- How online payments, stored cards, and failed charges work
- Payment Settings -- Connect a payment gateway and enable ACH
- Custom Fields -- Add your own fields to Student and Guardian records, and control what families can see or edit