What it does
A provider account is for anyone teaching home-educated learners: private tutors, subject specialists, group-class leaders, alternative-provision teams. As a provider you can:
- accept connections from families — the consent step that lets you see their learners at all;
- publish lesson pricing, with an optional volume discount, and sell prepaid session packs;
- write curricula and lessons and set assignments for the students you teach;
- schedule sessions and confirm what you delivered;
- review payments families record against you, and see every charge raised;
- control billing settings — how often charges roll up, and whether absences need your approval.
Families never receive an invoice out of the blue: a charge only exists once both sides confirmed the session happened.
Where to find it
- Navigation: Pricing & Billing (families see this same item labelled "Payments")
- URL:
/dashboard/credits - Related screens: Sessions (
/dashboard/sessions), Curriculum (/dashboard/curriculum), Assignments (/dashboard/assignments)
Step by step
Become a provider
New accounts start as a parent/guardian. To switch:
- At first sign-in, choose I'm a tutor or provider on the welcome screen and select Set up my pricing; or
- Later, go to Settings (
/dashboard/settings), find the role section, and select Become a provider. Confirm at the "Become a provider?" prompt.
You can switch back at any time with Switch to a parent account. See Settings.
Set up your lesson pricing
- Go to Pricing & Billing (
/dashboard/credits). - Under Lesson pricing, select Add a lesson price.
- Complete the form:
- Lesson type — what you're pricing, e.g. "1:1 Maths (60 min)".
- Price per session (£) — prices are in pounds sterling (GBP).
- Discount after (sessions) (optional) — the number of recent sessions after which a discount applies.
- Discount (%) (optional) — how much comes off once that threshold is met.
- Select Add price.
Use Edit price to change one, and Delete price to remove it (you'll be asked to confirm). Existing charges keep the price they were raised at.
Teach and confirm
- Schedule sessions against a price in Sessions — see Sessions.
- After each session, use Update status to set Provider status to Delivered.
- When the family confirms attendance, AltEd raises the charge automatically at the agreed price.
Let AltEd do the chasing
If a family's charge goes past its due date, AltEd emails them a single reminder covering everything outstanding with you, linking to their balance. Families aren't emailed about the same debt more than once a week, so it stays a nudge rather than a nag — and you don't have to have the awkward conversation.
Review payments
- On Pricing & Billing, look at Payments to review.
- Each entry shows the family, the amount and any note or proof they attached.
- Approve a payment you've received, or Reject one you haven't. Approving credits the family's balance and clears their oldest outstanding charges first.
- Reviewed items move to Previously reviewed so you keep the history.
Payments made by card through Stripe don't need reviewing — they arrive already approved.
Sell a block of sessions up front
Families often prefer to pay for a term in one go, and it saves you chasing.
- On Pricing & Billing, open the Session packs tab.
- Select Record a pack.
- Choose the family and the lesson type, then enter how many sessions the pack covers, the amount paid, an optional expiry and a note.
- Save. The dialog shows the effective per-session rate as you type, so you can see the discount you're offering.
From then on, each delivered session for that lesson type uses one session from the pack instead of raising a charge — the family isn't billed twice, and both of you can see how many are left.
Packs only cover the lesson type they were bought for, and an expired pack stops being used.
Tune your billing settings
Under Billing settings ("How and when families are charged for your sessions"):
- Charge cadence — "How often delivered sessions are rolled into charges."
- Auto-generate charges — "Create charges automatically when sessions are delivered." Leave this on for hands-off billing.
- Absences need your approval — whether a reported absence waits for your decision.
Select Save changes.
What each screen shows
Pricing & Billing brings your money in one place:
- Payments to review — pending payments families have recorded, with Approve and Reject. Empty, it says "Nothing to review" / "New manual payments will appear here."
- Previously reviewed — what you've already approved or rejected.
- Lesson pricing — your price list, with the discount rules on each. Empty, it says No prices yet / "Add a lesson price".
- Billing settings — cadence, auto-generation and absence approval.
Charges raised against families appear alongside, so you can see what's outstanding.
Tips and good to know
- Set your pricing before your first session. Sessions are scheduled against a price, so the price list is the first thing to fill in.
- Name lesson types the way families think about them — "1:1 Maths (60 min)" beats "Standard rate".
- The volume discount is a retention tool: it applies automatically once a family reaches the session threshold you set, so it rewards regulars with no admin.
- Your headline in Settings is shown next to your name in the provider directory — one clear line about what you teach.
- You can only see learners of families who have connected with you, and a family can end that connection at any time. Student profiles always stay in their guardian's control. See Connections.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | What to try | | --- | --- | | My sidebar says Payments, not Pricing & Billing | You're on a parent/guardian account. Switch in Settings → Become a provider. | | I can't schedule a session | You need an accepted connection with that family, and at least one lesson price. See Connections. | | A delivered session hasn't raised a charge | The family hasn't confirmed attendance yet. Both sides are required. | | A family says they've paid but I see nothing | Ask them to record it under Payments. It then appears in your Payments to review for approval. | | "Couldn't save the price" | Check the price is a number in pounds, and that a discount percentage (if set) is between 0 and 100. |