# Billing & Payments for Tutoring & Coaching Businesses Sell packages up front or in installments, put families on autopay, take pay by bank capped at $5 a transaction, and pay Gigpie a flat 2% of what you collect. Canonical URL: https://gigpie.com/features/billing-payments --- A family's second installment was due on the 1st. You notice on the 9th, because Sunday night is when you cross-check the Stripe dashboard against the payments spreadsheet against the Venmo history. Now you owe them an awkward email: a payment reminder to parents whose kid you'll see on Tuesday. Gigpie treats collecting money as software work. You define a package once; checkout, installments, retries, and receipts run on their own. ## Sell Packages Up Front, in Installments, or by Hand A package is a name, a price, and a set of hours (or a subscription). Families buy it through a checkout link with no login: a parent enters an email address, confirms a six-digit code, and pays in full or in scheduled installments. Some sales never touch online checkout. When a family pays by check or a school district wants an invoice, assign the package directly; it sits on the family's account marked Unpaid until you record the payment or waive it. For a single family that needs different terms than everyone else, admins and staff can prepare an offer instead of changing a public package: choose the family and package in searchable pickers, add an eligible discount code and/or an additional discount, inspect the complete price and installment calculation, and set an expiration date. The price and terms lock in the moment you create the offer, even if the underlying package or discount code changes later, and checkout stays locked to that one family. Share the offer link yourself; Gigpie doesn't send it for you. ![Package Management list in Gigpie showing fixed-hour and subscription packages with prices, hours, and active family counts](/images/marketing/admin-package-catalog-list.png) _Every package your center sells, with hours, price, and how many families are on it, in one list._ ## Autopay Collects Each Installment When a purchase has a payment plan, autopay does the chasing. Gigpie charges the family's saved card or bank account on each due date, checks for due installments every two hours, retries failures without double-billing, and gives bank transfers their clearing time instead of flagging them as failed on day one. ![Installment payment plan on a Gigpie purchase showing one paid and one scheduled installment with autopay enabled](/images/marketing/admin-package-installment-payment-plan.png) _A two-installment plan, $1,000 each: one paid, one scheduled, and autopay ready for the next charge._ ## Pay by Bank Never Costs More Than $5 Card processing costs 2.9% + $0.30, so a $1,000 installment loses $29.30 before it reaches you. Pay by bank runs on [Stripe's standard ACH rate](https://stripe.com/pricing), 0.8%, capped at $5 no matter the invoice size: $5.00 on that same $1,000, and still just $5.00 on a $5,000 one. Parents connect a bank account in about a minute through Stripe's instant verification (no micro-deposits, no multi-day wait), and it works with autopay exactly like a saved card. > **Let parents choose who pays the card fee** > > Add an optional service fee to card payments and leave bank transfer free. > Parents who want card rewards cover the processing cost; everyone else > switches on their own. ## Who Owes What, and What Parents See Each family's Payments tab lists every plan they have ever had, paid and due dates side by side, and each purchase shows the gross, the processing fee, and the net that reached your account. Reconciliation stops being a weekend project. ![Family Payments tab in Gigpie listing multiple payment plans with per-installment paid and due dates](/images/marketing/admin-family-payments-history.png) _Every payment plan a family has ever had, with paid and due dates side by side._ Parents see the same picture in the [parent portal](/features/parent-portal): remaining hours, saved payment methods, and each plan's next payment date. That heads off the balance-check email before a parent has to send it. Packages belong to the [family](/features/family-management), so siblings draw on one shared balance. ![Purchase detail in Gigpie showing paid-in-full status with a Stripe fee breakdown and net amount](/images/marketing/admin-package-detail-payment-status.png) _A fully paid purchase, with Stripe's fee and the net amount broken out automatically._ Every card or bank payment gets its own Stripe-hosted receipt, linked from the parent's Receipts list on Purchases & Payment Plans and from Gigpie's payment confirmation email, including payments made before that list existed. ## What Gigpie Costs Gigpie takes a flat 2% of what you collect, computed on the gross charge to the buyer. There are no seat fees and no tiers, and a month with no collections costs nothing. Stripe's processing fees (the 2.9% + $0.30 for cards, or the capped-at-$5 rate above for pay by bank) are separate and go to Stripe, not to us. > **The 2% in practice** > > A family buys a $2,000 package in two $1,000 installments: Gigpie's fee is $20 > per installment, $40 total. For a per-seat comparison, TutorBird charges > $16.95/month plus $4.95 per additional tutor as of August 2026: $51.60/month > for an 8-tutor team, at any revenue. Gigpie's 2% matches that at $2,580 > collected per month; below it you pay less, well above it TutorBird is cheaper > in raw dollars. Run the math on your own numbers, and price what each number > covers: TutorBird's fee is per seat, while the 2% carries everything on this > page, no-login checkout, installment autopay, the $5 pay-by-bank cap, and one > balance a family's kids share. ## Who This Is For A solo tutor collecting a flat rate per session doesn't need an installment engine; a payment link and a calendar will do. The billing system earns its keep once you sell packages to more than a handful of families and installment plans start to overlap. Ten families on different payment schedules is exactly the kind of bookkeeping people do badly on Sunday nights and software does correctly every two hours. ## How-To Guides - [How parents purchase a package](/docs/how-tos/parents/purchasing-a-package) - The checkout flow your families will actually see, step by step. - [How parents enroll in a group class](/docs/how-tos/parents/enroll-in-group-class) - Enrollment can draw on purchased package hours instead of a new payment. ## Frequently Asked Questions ## FAQ **Q:** What does Gigpie charge? **A:** A flat 2% of what you collect, computed on the gross charge. Stripe's processing fees are separate: 2.9% + $0.30 for cards, or 0.8% for pay by bank capped at $5 no matter the payment size. There are no seat fees; months with no collections cost nothing. **Q:** Can I record a payment that happened outside the platform? **A:** Yes. Assign the package directly; it shows as Unpaid until you record the payment or waive it. This covers checks, cash, and organizations that pay by invoice. **Q:** What happens when a bank transfer fails or is slow? **A:** ACH transfers take a few days to clear, so Gigpie tracks them in a dedicated processing status. If a charge fails, autopay retries it without double-billing the family. **Q:** How do refunds and disputes work? **A:** Both run through Stripe. Money flows through your company's own Stripe account via Stripe Connect, so refunds and dispute responses happen there, and payouts land in your bank on Stripe's schedule. **Q:** Can I offer discounts? **A:** Yes, with discount codes redeemed at purchase; there is no automatic rules engine. The 2% is calculated on the discounted amount, so a discount also lowers the fee. **Make getting paid the easy part Free until you collect revenue, then a flat 2% of what you collect. Autopay does the chasing.** [Get started free](/register) ## Related Resources - [Parent Portal](/features/parent-portal) - The family-facing side of balances, payment methods, and plans. - [Family Management](/features/family-management) - Why packages belong to the family and how shared balances work. - [Educator Payroll](/features/educator-payroll) - What happens after you collect: pay groups, payroll runs, and exports for your processor.