Payments and invoicing

Payments is where you invoice families, collect payment and keep track of who has paid. Families pay by card in the app, invoices are sent with a PDF automatically, and you can see what’s owed at any time.

Find your way around Payments#

Open Payments from the left menu. Invoices are split into five tabs:

Along the top you’ll find Send Bulk Reminders, Export as CSV, + Add Invoice, a date filter (Filter by due date or Filter by paid date) and search.

Admins see every invoice. Students and parents only see their own.

Choose the right invoice type#

Create an invoice#

1. Click + Add Invoice.
2. Basics: enter an invoice name (like “Red Hotshots Term 3”), check the currency and set the due date.
3. Type: choose Standard, Recurring, By quantity or Per-event.
   • Recurring: set how often it repeats and the start and end dates.
   • By quantity: enter the unit price and quantity. Outcoach works out the total.
   • Per-event: pick the event type, the event, and the dates you’re billing for. Only sessions that haven’t been invoiced yet are listed, so nothing is billed twice.
4. Billing: under Bill to, choose the people or groups to invoice.
5. Amounts: enter the invoice amount, plus any amount already paid, a discount, an admin fee (for example 2.5% card processing) and tax (for example 10% GST). Tax is calculated once the invoice is created.
6. Details: add a description of up to 400 characters, like “4 classes in June, including a makeup for the cancelled session”.
7. Check the summary and click Create Invoice.

Depending on your settings, the invoice is sent straight away or saved as a draft. Sent invoices go to the student and their parents by email and push notification, with a PDF attached.

Tip: Name invoices consistently, like “Red Hotshots June Term” or “Monthly Membership: July”. “Invoice #1” is hard to find later.

Invoice a whole term at once#

Bulk invoicing bills every student for a term in one go, usually at the start of term.

1. Choose the program and the date range.
2. Outcoach counts each student’s sessions in that period and multiplies by the program’s price.
3. An invoice is created for every student.

A business with 500 students across several programs can bill a full term in about five minutes. Students on a trial, and sessions already invoiced, are left out automatically. Public holidays are taken out for you.

You can also start from a class: open it and click Generate standard invoice. All attendees are filled in and every session you bill is tracked.

One invoice per family#

Turn on family invoicing to send one invoice per parent covering all their children. A parent with two children in two classes each gets one invoice, not four.

Use credits on invoices#

• Makeup credits (amount model) can carry over and come off future invoices automatically. See Makeup credits.
• Account credit is a balance on a student’s account that’s taken off their next invoice automatically. Use it for prepaid packages or goodwill credit instead of a refund. The student can always see their balance. You can add notes, see the history and increase or decrease the credit at any time from their Payments tab.

Bill weekly, fortnightly or monthly#

For families who pay as they go, recurring invoices are created and sent on your schedule with no manual work. If the family has a saved card, it’s charged automatically.

• Common for private lessons, where you charge each week at the time of the lesson.
• You can also charge the card the day after the lesson, at 10 pm AEST. That leaves time to adjust for a washout or cancellation before anyone is charged, so you don’t need to refund or credit later.
• Recurring invoices can be cancelled at any time. When you cancel a lesson, Outcoach asks whether to cancel that week’s invoice or give makeup credits.

For example, a $70 weekly dance class becomes one recurring invoice instead of 52 a year. You’ll find them all in the Recurring tab.

Students who join mid-term#

1. Open the class and click Generate standard invoice.
2. The details are filled in. Select only the dates the student will attend, for example 4 of the 10 weeks.
3. Outcoach does the rest.

The family pays for exactly what they get, and there’s no awkward conversation about mid-term pricing.

Invoice from attendance#

Some businesses bill after classes have happened, based on what each student attended.

1. Go to Events › Actions › Attendance report.
2. Choose the term dates. You get a spreadsheet of every class that ran, who attended, who didn’t and the class price, both as a summary table and as a class list for each day.
3. Multiply the lesson price by each student’s attended sessions.
4. Create the invoices in Payments for each group of students.

Track and chase payments#

Click any invoice to see its details, resend it, or mark it as paid. Drafts can also be edited or deleted.

• Overdue invoices are flagged automatically every day.
• Paid outside Outcoach? If a family pays by bank transfer or cash, mark the invoice as paid.
• Every class has an Invoices tab showing whether each lesson has been paid.
• Remind one family from the invoice at any time, or remind everyone at once (below).

Send bulk reminders#

1. Click Send Bulk Reminders.
2. Choose who gets a reminder:
   • Due invoices only: unpaid invoices due today or soon. A friendly heads-up.
   • Overdue invoices only: unpaid invoices past their due date.
   • Due and overdue invoices: everyone who owes money right now.
3. Click Send Reminders. Everyone who matches is notified straight away.

A simple routine:

Send reminders early in the week, and avoid weekends, late evenings and holidays. If someone still hasn’t paid, follow up with a direct message, then a phone call.

Search, filter and export#

• Search by name, amount or invoice number, like “Sarah”, “$280” or “Red Hotshots”.
• Filter by due date or paid date, for example everything due in June.
• Export as CSV downloads the invoices in your current tab and filter, ready for your accountant, Excel or Google Sheets.

Set up payments#

Connect Stripe#

Payments are processed by Stripe, a secure, PCI-compliant payment platform. Connect your business bank account through Stripe’s guided setup inside Outcoach. It takes a few minutes, and payments are paid straight into your bank account.

• Families pay by credit or debit card in the app, and can save their card for next time.
• Currencies include Australian dollars, US dollars, British pounds, euros, Singapore dollars, Canadian dollars and Indian rupees.
• You get automatic reconciliation, automatic tax calculation, branded invoices, instant reporting and refunds.

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HitPay for Singapore#

Businesses in Singapore can use HitPay, which supports local payment methods. Set it up in your club settings.

Sync with Xero#

If you use Xero, Outcoach syncs invoices and payments automatically. When a payment comes in, the matching record is created in Xero with no data entry. Set your income accounts, tax codes and tracking categories to match your chart of accounts. Outcoach, Stripe and Xero stay reconciled, with tidy customer accounts and itemised invoices. Our team will help you connect it all.

Example workflows#

Start of term. Bulk invoice each program for the term dates, with family invoicing on. Send due reminders the week before the due date.

Weekly private lessons. Set up a recurring weekly invoice that charges the saved card the day after each lesson.

10-lesson package with a discount. Create a By quantity invoice: $100 × 10 = $1,000, less a 10% discount, $900 due.

Tournament fees. Create a Standard $150 invoice for each family in your “Tournament Participants” group. Three days before, send overdue reminders and export a CSV to confirm who’s paid.

Troubleshooting#