We all know time is money. And, the best part about class management software is the amount of time you save from automation that would otherwise be manual upkeep. When enrollment and tuition billing is more streamlined, you can get some of your time back to spend outside of your youth activity center. While you love what you do, a little time away or a good work/life balance never hurt anyone – right?
As the industry’s most powerful class management software, Jackrabbit Class debuted one of our most-used features last year – automated discounting and prorating – and our clients are loving it!
What is automated discounting & prorating?
Sounds too good to be true but it is exactly what it sounds like – discounting and prorating is automatically calculated when tuition is posted. You’ve heard the saying “good things take time” and they certainly did with this feature because we wanted to get it right.
The work on this feature started late 2018 but was released to our clients in 2019. Because this feature affected online web registration, enrollments from the Parent Portal, and tuition posting, our team worked on each layer one at a time. This year, our team is just putting the icing on the cake with additional functionality.
What are the benefits of automated discounting and prorating?
Anything automated is your best friend. Knowing that tuition will post with discounting and prorating considered is every youth activity center owner’s dream! With all of the benefits, it’s just a no brainer.
But, remember – don’t over-discount yourself. You have to keep making a profit in order to make your awesome classes and facility available in your community. Discounts are a great way to attract people to enroll siblings and take more classes. Just make sure it’s not cutting into your bottom line.
Now that we have the serious business out of the way, let’s get to the fun part!
Unmatched flexibility
Every youth activity center operates differently with a different billing structure. Knowing that the Jackrabbit team built our automated discounting and prorating feature with the flexibility to accommodate just about any billing schedule.
Settings you can customize include:
- How you bill (i.e., by class or by hours taken per week)
- How often you bill (session, monthly, weekly, or custom)
- Which classes are excluded from prorating or discounting
- Which classes or families should receive special discounting
- If discounts are calculated by dollar amount or by percent
Confidence in accuracy
When it comes to automation, there’s always that initial feeling of ‘what if it isn’t done the way I thought’. Fair enough, but our team also worked to make sure that tuition is calculated and posted correctly in real-time based on your settings. Knowing you set the details and have full control will put you at ease and have you looking like the professional that you are!
Elements that improve accuracy include:
- Advanced detection to find which students dropped during the billing cycle
- Prorating based on dates your facility is closed
- Additional charge for the months that have a 5th lesson
Loving what you’ve seen so far? Start a 30-day free trial and work with one of our Product Coaches to set up your new, shiny Jackrabbit application!
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Improve productivity
In addition to the obvious time savings of eliminating manual discounting and prorating, enrollment and billing processes are streamlined, making you way more productive than ever. With fewer clicks, you can post tuition to all family accounts in a matter of seconds. Even new registrations and enrollments will come through the discounted and prorated tuition posted automatically!
But, don’t take my word for it. Hear how one of our long-time clients, Little Otter Swim School, saw a positive impact from automated discounting and prorating.
Perks for your customers
What’s great for you should also carry down to your customers. Whether it’s a new student registering or an existing family enrolling in classes for a new season, being able to see the discounts applied to their account is exciting.
Everyone loves a good deal!
And while this may seem trivial, it’s the very thing that will keep these customers coming back for more – customer loyalty is what you strive for after all!
What other Jackrabbit Class features were improved by automated discounting & prorating?
Because discounting and prorating covered more parts of the Jackrabbit application than one would think, there were additional bonus features that came out of this epic enhancement.
New Tuition Settings wizard
Setting up how your tuition posts and the factors involved is usually a one-time thing. You may need to make a tweak here or there but the main setup is done once. Even if you aren’t a DIY-er, the new(er) tuition settings wizard makes you feel like you are one.
Easy waitlisting
With an improved workflow for enrollments, it was a great time to make waitlisting easier than ever as well! With this new process, enrollments and waitlisting can happen seamlessly at the same time for the same student!
Multiple enrollments made quicker
When you have students that like to load up their schedule with multiple classes, you want that process to be as quick as possible. The new functionality allows for one student to be added to multiple classes and multiple siblings to be added to one class.
Detailed transaction information
Improved transaction details takes the guessing out of the game for you, your staff, and your customers. Each adjusted transaction shows details prior to posting, giving you the opportunity to make adjustments for special scenarios. And on the other side, a note is attached to the transaction so parents know what was discounted and prorated.
Printable enrollment summary
From time to time, new families come in to register and want something tangible in their hands to show what they have signed up for. Why not print that out once classes are selected and fees are posted? With all of the class information, you can easily set your new families up for success for their first class at your facility!
As you can see, automated discounting and prorating came with a lot of power – even beyond the initial enhancement itself. And it shaped up to the most epic enhancement so far. Ready to see how discounting & prorating can be life-changing for you? Join the Jackrabbit family and start with 30-days free!
