Fortnightly Swimmers

Lachlan McGrath

Modified on: Fri, 19 Mar, 2021 at 2:10 PM

There may be times when you will be asked to have fortnightly lessons for some students, generally because of family arrangements. SimplySwim doesn't allow for fortnightly classes, but you can easily create a system to deal with the Fortnightly Swimmers.

There are two options on how to accomodate Fortnightly Swimmers.

For both options, you must create a different non-attendance reason specifically for the fortnightly swimmers so that their attendance and non-attendance can be marked off each week as with any student. This is essential so that classes are not overbooked due to a fortnightly swimmer's off-week. Creating these non-attendances will show the booking each week as it does for a weekly swimmer.

Option 1 leaves the student enrolled at the usual price per lesson, with the weeks they are not attending credited back. We consider this option to be best practice as it is the cleanest admin solution for your centre in terms of marking off attendances and arranging make-ups or credits if they are ever needed.

Option 2 enrols the student at a special price of half a normal lesson price each week, with non-attendances marked off without any credits. This can create issues if there is an absence on a week they are supposed to be swimming where a make-up or credit is needed as it will only be for half of the lesson price.

The two options are there for you to choose the option that will best suit your centre.

OPTION 1

This recommended option leaves the student enrolled at the full lesson price and only charging for the dates that the student will attend, so it is much easier for current or new enrolments as, in terms of admin, it is a case of enrolling into a class as per usual with the usual price. If they are an existing student, you do not need to end their enrolment and enrol them again (unless they are changing classes).

1. Create a Non-Attendance Reason (from your Configuration tab) called "Fortnightly Credit". Tick the "Issue a Credit Invoice for the calculated lesson amount" checkbox. The "Display Order" is where you can order the non-attendance reasons in your drop-down menus, so the higher the number means it will be further down the list. We suggest putting in anywhere between 90 to 100 so it is last on the list as you won't be needing to use it for all students.

2. Make a quick phone call or send a quick email to the family asking for the dates that they will not attend (or the week they want to start swimming and you know it is fortnightly from that date). You need these dates so that you can accurately bill the students, and just as a common courtesy to you so you know what weeks the student will attend. If you already have this information, even better. If you know a student will continue fortnightly in the next term/billing cycle, make sure you ask for this information ahead of time to save you chasing it up.

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The next step is to mark off the weeks that the fortnightly student will NOT be attending. For this you will need to have done your billing run. If it is within your current billing period, the attendances will already be there. If it is for your next billing cycle, you will need to mark the attendances after you have done your billing run.

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3. Go to the student's screen. In the Attendances section in the bottom left, you need to mark off the attendances that the student will not be attending with the "Fortnightly Credit" non-attendance reason and click "Update". Do this for all the weeks that the student has notified they will not attend.

Check the credits are showing in the family's finance:

You are now set for the term/current billing period.

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OPTION 2

With this option, you will be enrolling the student at a special price of half the lesson fee and charging for all of the weeks in the term/in the billing period. This means that the student will be charged for each week at half price, rather than the number of lessons attended at full price. The pitfalls of this option are that you will need to mark off the non-swim weeks with a non-attendance reason that does not credit back any lesson fees, but if the student ends the enrolment early, or if they are absent on a swim day, it can cause issues with credits/make-ups due to the half-price enrolment, which can create more admin time to fix.

1. Again, you will need a Non-Attendance reason, but this time you do not want it to give any credits to the student. Call it "Fortnight half price" or "Fortnight NO Credit" or something similar so that you and your staff know it is a different reason. Do not tick any of the boxes.

2. If a student is already enrolled, it is best to end their enrolment, and then re-enrol them at the special price. If it is a new student, enrol them at the special price (half the lesson fee). When enrolling the Fortnightly Students you need to tick the 'Set Special Price' and enrol the student as half price for the lessons as the Non Attendance reason doesn't give credits for the absence.

3. Make a quick phone call or send a quick email to the family asking for the dates that they will not attend. You need these dates so that you can accurately bill the students, and just as a common courtesy to you so you know what weeks the student will attend. If you already have this information, even better. If you know a student will continue fortnightly in the next term/billing cycle, make sure you ask for this information ahead of time to save you chasing it up.

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4. Go to the student's screen. In the Attendances section in the bottom left, you need to mark off the attendances that the student will not be attending with the "Fortnightly Half Price NO Credit" non-attendance reason and click "Update". Do this for all the weeks that the student has notified they will not attend.

You are now set for the term/current billing period.