I'm excited to announce a new feature is now available!
I know issuing invoices and taking payments from students is part of the job, but I also know it's a headache preparing them, keeping track of who owes what and chasing up people who pay late. In terms of time productively spent doing what you love, it just isn't efficient.
I'm a member at a local flying club and I'm told I'm one of a handful of people who pay invoices early. So at least I'm not costing the school time chasing me up for late payment. But even so, someone has spent a few days working out all the invoices, entering them into the bookkeeping system, issuing them and checking payments have arrived in the bank account. It just seems like such a waste of time and money, especially when the booking system knows exactly who flew, in which aircraft and with which instructor.
A few years ago I realised we could automate billing, and have the booking system keep track of invoices and payments for everyone. Until April this year I was busy developing financial software and have not had the time to work on big developments so the idea has been sitting on my to-do list.
Until now!
The new billing system is integrated with the rest of the system and can take on as much or as little of the process as you like. If you want to "go the whole hog", you can set up your prices and it will create invoices from flights, ground school and regular payments such as membership fees. Customers receive their invoices by email, and can pay online using their credit card. Reminders are sent to late paying customers automatically. To make it even easier for people to pay, the system allows them to re-use their card for future payments. For any new invoices, the system will then take payment on the due date automatically.
The system is designed to be flexible and powerful and there are too many features to include in this article. But the owners manual and user guide have been updated with more details.
Here are some main points though!
VAT
The system handles Value Added Tax and presents your sales and receipts data in a form friendly to your bookkeeping system. You can set up as many VAT rates as you like, each with its own code so your bookkeeping system can identify it.
Pre-payments
Great for cash-flow! The system can encourage people to pay into their account before they receive invoices. Many people prefer this option compared to paying invoices as they arrive.
Booking Options
When setting up the system, you have the option to prevent people from making further bookings until they have cleared their overdue debt. Alternatively, you could require a positive balance (meaning the customer must pre-pay into their account) or just turn this feature off to allow people to book regardless of any debt they owe.
Price Groups
Set your prices using a flexible system called Price Groups. If you offer different prices to different people, it's no problem! And if you change your prices, you can schedule these ahead of time.
Instant Statements
Everyone you give booking system access to has their own online statement which shows all activity in their account. They can see straight away what's come in and gone out, so instead of preparing customer statements manually or answering queries, you should save valuable office time.
Customers will see the new Bills & payments tab if you turn on billing for everyone or for specific customers.
Card payments are handled by Stripe, a company certified by the Payment Cards Industry to their data security standards. Stripe handle the card payments and deposit the money into your bank account. As part of the billing system setup, you will be guided through setting up your own Stripe account and linking it to Flight School Booking.
About Stripe
Stripe is a platform for online payments, founded in 2010. The company charges a low fee per transaction (1.4% + £0.20 in UK) and pays the balance direct to bank accounts. Stripe is now one of the most highly valued startups in the world at roughly $35 billion (September 2019). The company is now in 40 countries covering 70% of the world economy and process hundreds of billions of dollars each year.
Security
We do not store any card details in Flight School Booking. In fact because of the way the Stripe API has been designed, no payment information ever passes through our servers. It is instead sent direct from the customer's browser to Stripe, and we obtain a ‘token’ which represents your school's use of the card. Stripe has been audited by a PCI-certified auditor and is certified to PCI Service Provider Level 1. This is the most stringent level of certification available in the payments industry and allows them to process card payments and to securely store details for future charges on the same card.
Can I try the system out?
Yes, the billing system is available on the Silver Plan as a pay-as-you-go option. Try out the new features in your own booking system by connecting your own Stripe account under Admin > Billing. On the Silver Plan there is a 3% fee in addition to the Stripe standard fee. If you find the system is popular with your customers, saves time accounting for invoices and payments, and improves your cash flow, you can upgrade to the Gold Plan at any time which carries no additional fee per transaction.