How to manage an academy with software: what to set up first

Most academies start with a spreadsheet and a group chat. That holds up while the owner knows every learner by name and takes most fees in person. It starts to break when a second branch opens, or when an instructor leaves and the only attendance record for their batches goes with them. This guide is for the owner or manager at that point. It explains what academy software has to hold and ends with a checklist for your first two weeks.

Signs the spreadsheet has stopped working

A spreadsheet rarely fails on one particular day. It gets slower and less trusted, and staff start keeping their own copies. If several of these sound familiar, it is time to move:

• Two people keep their own learner list, and the lists disagree.
• You find out a learner stopped coming only when the fee goes unpaid.
• Instructors send attendance as photos of a paper register, and someone types it up at the end of the month.
• A parent asks about a fee they paid in cash and nobody can find the receipt.
• You cannot say how many places are left in next month's intake without phoning each branch.

What academy software has to hold

An academy runs differently from a school. There is no single year that everyone moves through together. Batches start in different months, run for different lengths and often mix ages. Whatever system you choose has to be comfortable with that, and in practice it needs to hold five things well.

Branches

Each branch has its own learners, rooms, timetable and cash, and you still need to see the whole academy in one place. Staff at one branch usually should not see another branch's records unless they work at both. Ask how any system keeps branches apart and how it reports on each one.

Batches and courses

The batch is the unit an academy runs on. Instructors take attendance per batch, and parents think in batches ("the Saturday morning one"). The course sits above it. One course, such as beginner guitar, can run as four batches at different times. You need to see one batch on its own and all batches of a course side by side, and it pays to name and size batches with a few fixed rules.

Intake

Enquiries arrive all year. Some families want a trial class first, and others ask about a batch that is already full and have to wait. Each enquiry should sit in a list with its stage, so a follow up does not depend on someone's memory. The steps from first enquiry to first class deserve their own routine.

Fees

Academies mix fee types. Ongoing batches usually pay monthly, fixed courses are often paid once, and there are one-off charges for registration or materials. On top of that come sibling discounts and the odd agreement to pay later. The system should show at any moment who owes what, and since when. Fees also work better when they sit next to attendance, which is the subject of connecting the register to the fee book.

Instructors

Many instructors are part time or visiting, and some teach at more than one branch. You need their contact details, the batches they teach, their leave and what you pay them, kept with the rest of your records. Their hours shape the whole week, so scheduling instructors is worth planning before you publish a timetable.

Set up the structure before the fees

Owners often want to start with fees because that is where the money is. Fees depend on everything else, though. A fee belongs to a learner in a batch, a batch belongs to a course and a branch, and attendance only works once learners are placed. Build in that order and each step has what it needs.

Take Copperfield Arts Academy, a fictional academy used here as the example. It teaches art and music at two branches, Central and North. For example, it runs 14 batches with 9 instructors and about 220 learners, in drawing, painting, piano and guitar. Its owner set up the branches and rooms first, then the session, then courses and batches. Only after that did she import learners and raise the first month's fees.

A setup checklist for the first two weeks

1. Write down your branches, the rooms in each and the hours each branch is open.
2. Decide what a session means for you. Many academies use the calendar year, and some use a teaching year that starts after the long holiday.
3. List your courses and the levels inside each one.
4. List every running batch with its course, level, branch, days, time and instructor. Give each batch a name a parent would recognise, such as "Piano beginners Tue 5pm".
5. Agree your fee patterns: which courses are monthly, which are paid once and which one-off charges apply.
6. Put learner and parent details in one spreadsheet, one row per learner, ready to import.
7. Add instructors and give each person access only to the branches and work they need.
8. Run attendance in the new system for one week alongside the old register, then retire the old one.
9. Raise the next month's fees from the new system and record every payment there from that day on.

As a rough example, a one-branch academy with eight batches might finish the first seven steps in a few days and give a week to each of the last two. Copperfield, with two branches, took about twice as long. The week of running two registers side by side is tempting to skip. It is also the step that catches mistakes in batch lists before parents see them.

Mistakes that slow academies down

The first is copying every column from the old spreadsheet. Old sheets collect fields nobody uses, and moving them over makes the new system feel just as cluttered. Import what you need for attendance, fees and contacting families, and add the rest later if someone asks for it.

Another is giving everyone full access because it is quicker. An instructor who can see every family's fee history at both branches has more access than the job needs. Set roles on day one, while there are few people to change.

Letting one instructor stay on paper "for this month" causes trouble too. Within a few weeks there are two systems again. If someone struggles with the app, sit with them through their first two registers.

Last, do not start from zero on fees. Families who owed money on the old spreadsheet still owe it. Bring each learner's opening balance across on the day you switch, so the first invoice in the new system is correct.

How SkoolBro fits an academy

SkoolBro is an education management platform used by schools as well as academies, so its screens use school words. For an academy the mapping is short:

At your academy	In SkoolBro
The academy	School
Branch	Campus
Session	Academic year
Group of batches that share a fee, often a course area or level	Grade
Batch	Section
Course	Subject
Learner	Student
Parent or sponsor	Guardian
Instructor	Staff member, shown as teacher

The grade line needs a word of explanation. In SkoolBro, fee structures are set for each grade in a session, so batches that pay the same fee belong under the same grade. Copperfield charges one monthly fee for all music batches and another for all art batches. It has two grades, Music and Art, with each batch as a section and piano, guitar, drawing and painting as subjects.

With that in place, the parts an academy uses most are already there. Enquiries and applications move through stages in Admissions, and one action turns an accepted application into a learner with parents linked. Instructors mark attendance for each batch, and the register saves offline if the connection drops. If a child misses a batch, their parents are told that day. Homework covers assignments, and exams cover tests, with marks, grading scales and report cards. On the fee side you get monthly and one-off charges, invoices with a printable voucher showing your bank details, receipts, and concessions that someone has to approve. Each payment is recorded with how it was made, from cash to a mobile wallet.

Each branch gets its own overview, and staff only see the branches you give them. A portal lets parents, and older learners themselves, check attendance, the timetable, results and fees. The AI assistant answers questions about your records and cannot change them.

Some things are not built yet. There is no online fee payment for parents. Parents are told by email and in the app when an invoice is issued, but the printable voucher is not attached and overdue reminders are up to you. Notices reach families by email and in the app, and text messages and WhatsApp are still to come. SkoolBro also does not host course material or video lessons. Every module is described in the features section of the home page, and pricing explains how plans count institutions and learners.

Questions

Can one SkoolBro account run more than one branch?

Yes. Each branch is set up as a campus of your academy, each campus has its own overview, and staff only see the branches you give them access to.

SkoolBro says classes and sections. Will that confuse my staff?

Agree the mapping once: a batch is a section, a course is a subject and a session is an academic year. You still name each batch the way you do today, such as "Piano beginners Tue 5pm".

Can I bring my learner list over from a spreadsheet?

Yes. Learners, staff and opening fee balances can be imported from a CSV or Excel file, so families who already owe fees start with the right balance.