Getting Paid

CONFIRMATION

Before you finish a session, confirm the duration with the client. Students very often lose track of time, and too many invoices are queried simply because the student can’t remember how long they were working with their tutor.

The best protection is a signed time-sheet, but we recognize that this is not always practical. However, it’s a good habit to note down the start and finish times of your sessions, at the time, to make sure your record is correct.

LOGGING HOURS

The next step is to record the hours on The Profs’ system.

• Open the Job for that student.
• Select ‘Add New Lesson’. (alternatively, click the ‘+’ symbol next to the client’s name in ‘My Jobs’)
• Enter the date, start and finish times of the session.
• Add a session title (we recommend the number of the session e.g. Session 2, and a brief summary of the work done e.g. Trigonometry or Literature Review).
• Add a Report (optional). This will be attached to the client’s invoice and is intended to give them more information on how their tuition is progressing.
• Hit ‘Submit’. That’s it!

We strongly recommend that you log your sessions as you go, and at the very least once a week. The first session with a new student, in particular, should be logged as soon as possible, so that we can follow up with them and make sure they’re happy. The longer the delay between session and invoice, the more likely it becomes that your client will query the charge.

If you have added a session in advance, you will need to confirm that it has taken place in order to raise the invoice. To do this, open up the session record and hit ‘Mark Complete’. Until then it will be marked ‘AwaitingConfirmation’. You can see all your unconfirmed sessions in your Calendar on Tutor Cruncher.

An invoice will be raised as soon as the session record is complete, so make sure the details are correct before submitting.

N.B. There are two ‘Mark Complete’ buttons on the system: one to confirm the session, and one on the Job, which if pressed will mark the whole job complete and prevent you from recording any further sessions (unless the job is re-opened by our team). Make sure to click the right button!

INVOICING

Once a session is marked either ‘Complete’ or ‘Cancelled but Chargeable’ an invoice will be raised automatically, and the client will be notified by email. Please make sure the details are correct, as you will not be able to change these retrospectively without assistance from The Profs.

Payment is usually processed automatically three days after the invoice is raised, barring financial or technical problems on the student’s side.

CANCELLED SESSIONS

If you are charging for late cancellation you will need to make this clear in the title of the session: ‘Late Cancellation’ or ‘Session Cancelled with Insufficient Notice’ will be sufficient. You must also let the student know at the time of cancellation that the session will be billable.

If you do not intend to charge for the session, but it has already been recorded as a ‘Planned’ session, then mark it ‘Cancelled’ rather than complete, and an invoice will not be raised.

The Profs’ standard late cancellation charges are 50% of the planned session length for less than 24hrs’ notice, and 100% for less than two hours’ notice or non-attendance.

CHARGES FOR PREPARATION AND INDEPENDENT WORK

As a rule, we assume that an hour of tuition entails around half an hour of preparation time as standard, for which we would not expect to charge. However, where the support which a student requires will entail significantly more preparation time, it is appropriate that the tutor should be remunerated.

This also applies to time spent in reading and providing written feedback on a student’s work, or any other work undertaken by the tutor, at the client’s request, outside sessions. The time required will vary significantly from project to project, and depends on the quality of the work under review, but as a rule of thumb we would expect roughly an hour to an hour and a half per 1000 words.

Please see the Working With Students section for guidance on the kind of support our tutors usually provide in relation to coursework projects, and avoiding plagiarism.

‘Preparation rates’ are usually 50% of the rate for a session, (although we are happy to discuss higher rates with the client where this seems appropriate). In particular, where the tutor’s independent work is likely to be, or becomes, the chief element of the placement, this might be billed at closer to the full rate originally quoted.

Process:

The usual process is to set up a secondary Job with the same student on The Profs’ system, at the rate agreed for independent work, clearly titled (usually beginning ‘Prep Rates’). Hours to be billed at this rate should be logged here.

Any charges for work undertaken in the absence of the student MUST be agreed with the student beforehand, in writing, both in principle and in detail. If you believe that more preparation than usual will be required for a placement, or if the student asks you to undertake work in your own time, for which you wish to charge, you must:

• Email the student (and the bill-paying client if different from the student)
• Copy in the relevant Client Liaison Manager at The Profs
• With the following:
  • You will need to charge for this time
  • How long you expect to need
  • Are they happy with this arrangement?

If you are happy to undertake this work at the usual half-rate then you can simply say this in your email (avoid quoting actual figures, to avoid confusion), otherwise please refer them to us, and let us know separately what you believe is an appropriate charge for the work. We will then confirm this with the bill-payer before the work goes ahead.

N.B.

• Agreement should be both in principle and in detail. Do not assume that agreement to preparation charges for one session implies agreement to any future charges. If in doubt, get confirmation.
• Always give as accurate a prediction of the time needed as you can. If it ends up taking longer than you thought, let the client know by email before they receive their invoice.

EXPENSES

If you expect to incur expenses for which you believe you should be reimbursed by the client, e.g. travel, materials etc., make sure to agree this explicitly before those costs are incurred. Once agreed, these can be added through your Tutor Profile in much the same way as tuition sessions, or they can be added to a specific session at the time that that session is logged. These will then show up on your client’s invoice as ‘Ad Hoc Charges’

Don’t try to add tuition sessions as Expenses/Ad Hoc Charges, as this will result in an incorrect total charge on the invoice, and may mean you receive less than you are owed!

PAYOUTS

If you haven’t already, you will need to set up a Payouts Account on our system. If you wish to use a non-UK bank account, please see International Payments, below.

Your Payouts Account will be held with Stripe Express, and will act as a holding account for payments received from your clients. This system is not under the control of The Profs, and is administered separately by our platform providers, Tutor Cruncher.

The contents of this holding account will be pushed through to your nominated bank account on the final day of each month. If needed, a second payout can also be triggered manually via your account on our platform, once a month.

PAYMENT SCHEDULE

1. When the session is recorded: the client’s invoice and your payout doc. (PO) are raised immediately.
2. Three days later: payment is attempted automatically, from the client’s default payment method.
   • If unsuccessful: you and the client will be notified by email, immediately. From this point, the client will need to make payment themselves, manually.
3. When payment is made: your PO is marked ‘Paid’ in TutorCruncher, and the transfer to your ‘Payouts Account’ (Stripe account) is initiated.
4. Seven days later: payment arrives in your Stripe account.
5. Last working day of the month: all funds in your Stripe account will be pushed automatically to your designated bank account. (this is triggered five days beforehand).

We have produced a guide to pursuing payments which are significantly delayed.

BILLING DETAILS

The name and address on your Tutor profile are automatically included as the billing information in the invoices we raise on your behalf. Your invoices will not be valid without correct billing information, so do make sure that the details on your profile are up-to-date.

PAYMENT DELAYS

All invoices raised by The Profs have a payment deadline of 10 days. We usually attempt to take payment after three days and contact the client if, for any reason, this is not possible. If payment continues to be delayed you will be notified.

Late payment is very rarely deliberate on the part of the client and is very often the result of a problem with their bank card, e.g. loss, theft or expiry. However, in the event of deliberate or prolonged non-payment, we have produced a guide[link] to pursuing payment.

RECORDS

All your past payment orders can be viewed on Tutor Cruncher, under ‘Payment Orders’ in the left-hand menu. This is particularly useful for self-assessed income declarations.

INTERNATIONAL PAYMENTS

Stripe Express can process payments internationally, but currently only in the following currencies:

• GBP
• EUR
• USD
• CHF
• DKK
• NOK
• SEK

To use a billing address outside the UK, you may first need to delete your address from Tutor Cruncher, temporarily, before confirming your Stripe Express account. Once this is set up, you can add the address back to TC.