Studioware 2.0 Accounting

Studioware contains a full accounting module.  The Accounts Receivable module allows you to track your student's financial transactions, and the Accounts Payable module tracks your staff member's financial transactions.  Each student and staff member created in Studioware automatically receives a financial account.  Some transactions are automatically added to the financial accounts (such as tuition transactions when a student enrolls in a class), other transactions can be manually added.  

In this help email, we are going to focus on Student Financial Accounts.  A financial account is automatically created for every student in Studioware.  If students are grouped together in a family, the family receives a financial account instead of the individudal students.

Viewing the Financial Account:

There are a number of ways to view a student/family financial account.  You may search for a student (in the upper right corner of Studioware) by last name, email address, or phone number.  From the search results, click on the "View" button next to the student you want to open.  The student summary page is displayed, which contains some important accounting information: 

Notice that the summary page contains:

• Current Balance: The sum of transactions to the current date
• MTD Balance: Month-to-Date Balance, which is the sum of all transactions to the end of the current month
• Total Balance: The sum of all financial transactions.  Many transactions are added in the financial account with a date in the future.  Total balance will include those future date transactions
• Last Payment Date and Amount

Learn more about account balances.   

Click on the "Account" button in the student toolbar to view the financial details:

Accounting Ledger Features:

The acounting ledger has a lot of functionality.  Here is an overview of some of the functionality

1. The financial transactions are grouped into month and year.  By default, the current month of transactions are expanded.
2. Older transactions are collapsed, however, the sum of the transaction balances are displayed.  Future transactions are also collapsed.
3. You can click on Edit or Delete next to any transaction.
4. The accounting ledger allows you to print or email a receipt to your students/families.
5. You can add new transactions by clicking on Transactions | Add Transaction.
6. The "Balance" column displays the accumulated balance.  For example, the total balance on the account above is $685.00

Add a Transaction:

Suppose a student/parent comes into your studio and wants to make a $100 payment by check.  Studioware allows your students/parents to make electronic payments that are automatically captured on the financial account, however, for this scenario, let's consider a payment made in person by a parent.  We need to add a "Payment" transaction on the student's financial account.  Click on Transactions | Add Transaction.  Select "Payment" as the transaction type:

Enter in the payment amount, payment type, check number, and note.  Click on the "Save" button.  Studioware will save the financial transaction and update the balance on the student/family account.

Advanced Accounting Options:

Studioware offers many additional accounting options:

• Some transactions are automatically added to student financial accounts, such as "Tuition" transactions when enrolling in a class, or "Payment" transactions when an electronic payment is made (more on this in a future email)
• There are many different transaction types that can be added to student financial accounts such as tuition, payment, adjustment, administration fee, late fee, registration fee, tuition refunds, purchases, and more.
• Studioware allows you to create your own transaction types.  Learn More.
• Studioware allows you to add financial transactions to more than one student.  For example, you could add a financial transaction to all students in a class. Learn more.
• Studioware can automatically Pro-Rate tuition when enrolling in a class that has started.  A "Discount" transaction will be added to the account.  Learn more.
• Studioware can calculate your instructor's salary (based on pay rate and hours worked), and post the "Salary" transaction to the staff financial account.  Learn More.
• Studioware contains many financial reports including the "Account Balance Report", "Class Revenue Report" and more.  Click on "Reports" in the main menu to view all the available reports.

Whats Next?

In tomorrow's email tutorial, you will learn more about the Business Portal; so stay tuned!