Administrative tasks are the primary complaint among private music teachers. Bookkeeping, accounting, and invoicing can be agonizing for some. In fact, I taught for multiple music store/music lessons companies before starting my studio because I simply wanted someone else to deal with the money aspect. That is why I am so thankful I found Wave when I did. Even if you are a whiz at accounting in your business, Wave can make it easier and more time effective. Isn’t that what we’re really looking for in all of our businesses?
Accounting with Wave for Private Music Teachers
One of the best things about Wave is the ease of set-up. You can be processing credit card payments as soon as you start! When I started the private studio, I was using Dwolla to process online payments. For one, I’m a big fan of supporting Des Moines-based businesses. Secondly, they have a fantastic rate for credit card processing. However, the functionality of Wave won me over in the end. I can use the one site for so many aspects of the business that ease of use brought me to using Wave solely.
Connect Your Accounts
Wave safely and securely helps you connect your business bank and credit card accounts. They import three months of data to help you do your projections, reports, and breakdown of expenses.
After you’ve connected your accounts, it is important to categorize your expenses. This really helps when it comes to tax time especially since you are running your own business.
Wave even offers a receipt scanning app in case you’re used to paying for things in cash.
Creating Invoices
With Wave it’s easy to create invoices from any of your devices. They’ve really thought all this stuff through so you don’t have to. You are able to customize your invoices at the outset with things like a company logo, various products (or services) offered, and pricing structure. I have a number of products saved such as “Piano Lessons – 30 Minutes”, “Performance”, and “Blog and Social Media Services.” These populate a drop-down menu when you go to create a new invoice or you can add a new products while you make the invoice. You can also add customers before creating invoices or add new customers as you create the invoice.
Wave allows you to customize your invoices with company logo, various products offered, & pricing structure.
In my private studio, I always invoice at the beginning of the month. I make it clear in the policies that invoices are expected to be paid by the fifth of every month. That means that I’m sending out invoices before the first of every month to make sure my clients have a chance to pay by their preferred method by the fifth. Wave allows you to add a deadline to the invoice so clients are reminded and you can easily see that status of each in your invoice list. I also get an email each time a client pays online so it is easy for me to update my schedule and payment spreadsheet.
Raking in the dough with Wave Accounting… figuratively speaking, of course.
Then, poof, the payments from your clients appear in your bank account! Isn’t technology swell?
Scheduling Information Delivered with Invoices
As an active performer, it is essential to communicate scheduling information each month. My studio families all know to look to the invoice at the beginning of the month for that information. I make sure to put it in multiple places. I detail which days of the month we’re planning on to having scheduled lessons in the services item description. Such as, “Violetta July Lessons (7/6, 7/13, 7/20, 7/27.)” Then, I make a note in the footer of the invoice and in the email note when I send the email.
You can never be too clear or over-communicative when it comes to outlining scheduling details.
In the email note with the invoice, I make sure to include two details: a short progress note for each student and a request that they let me know about any scheduling issues they may have in the coming month. I’ll write more about the short progress report in an upcoming post. The second aspect is just a helpful reminder to get families to communicate their schedule changes with you as early as possible.
Wave Makes Financial Reports Easy
One of the aspects that I like the most about Wave is that it offers me excellent reporting capabilities. I’ve been able to use my reports for financial applications because they are clear and professional. I’m able to keep unambiguous records for tax time and that is a real preventative for emotional distress.
There are plenty of online resources that offer similar business offerings. Wave just happens to be the best one for my studio. Let me know if there’s another service that you’re just over the moon about. I’m curious to know!
