Skip to main content
Gigpie logo
Gigpie

Family Management: Bill the Family, Not the Student

One family record, shared package hours siblings draw from, one payment method on file, and a balance parents can check without emailing you.

7 min read·Updated August 8, 2026

A mother of two hands you one check in September: both kids, the whole fall. In a per-student system the bookkeeping starts immediately. You split the payment across two accounts, guess the ratio, and from then on every reschedule and every "can Maya use Leo's leftover hours?" becomes an accounting decision only you can make.

Gigpie never asks you to split anything, because the family is the billing unit. Packages, payment methods, sessions, and balances belong to the family record, and every student in the household draws from the same pool.

One Record Per Household

A family starts as a single record: the parents, the students, and everything the household buys. Setup is one screen. Enter the parent, add the student, pick a package from your catalog, assign a coach, and the payment summary totals up as you go.

When a second sibling starts later, you add them to the same family and the invite flow links them into the family's existing packages automatically. No new account, no transferred hours, no fresh paperwork for a parent you already know.

Family and package setup modal with parent, student, package, and coach selected Parent, student, package, and coach on one screen, with the $2,000 payment summary calculated live as you pick.

One Balance Siblings Actually Share

Every package a family buys belongs to the family, so there is no per-student wallet to reconcile. Any student in the household can book against it, and each completed session deducts its hours from the same balance. The family page shows members, active packages, hours available, and total investment in one view.

Family detail page showing members, active packages, and shared hours available The Wu family's record: 2 active packages and 24 hours available on one shared balance the family draws from.

How a shared balance moves

Say a family buys one 20-hour package. Tuesday, the older kid's algebra session runs 1.5 hours: the balance is 18.5. Thursday, the younger one's reading session runs an hour: 17.5. Nobody allocated anything, and 17.5 is the number everyone sees, whether they look at the family record, the session log, or the parent portal.

Separate Packages When the Family Wants Lines

Sharing happens per package, not per family, so the household decides the structure. One pooled package for general tutoring that both kids draw on. A dedicated SAT-prep package for the older one, with her own coach assigned to it. Or both at once. Each package keeps its own balance and its own coach assignment, so "which hours went where?" always has an answer.

One honest limit: Gigpie does not enforce per-child hour caps inside a single shared package today. A package's balance is fully pooled among the family's students. When a family wants hard lines between kids, sell separate packages; that is what they are for.

Parents See the Same Number You Do

The balance question stops routing through you because parents can look it up themselves. The parent portal lists every package the family has bought, the hours still available on each, its payment status, and the next payment date. Every parent in the family gets their own login to the same view, so the answer is identical no matter who asks.

Parent view of family purchases with hours available and payment status per package What parents see: every package the family owns, with hours remaining, payment status, and the next payment date.

Progress runs the other way from money. Package balances pool at the family level, but goals attach to each student: a coach sets a measurable goal with a baseline and a target, then records dated snapshots along the way, and parents can read each child's before-to-after timeline in the same portal. A two-kid family shares one balance and keeps a separate goal record for each child.

One Payment Story Per Family

Payment methods live at the family level too. A saved card or bank account covers every student in the household, and a family can keep more than one on file. Installment plans split a package into scheduled payments, autopay collects each one as it comes due, and pay-by-bank ACH is supported alongside cards. The family's payments tab keeps every plan's paid and due dates side by side, so "what have we paid?" gets the same one-screen answer as "how many hours are left?"

Family payments tab listing payment plans with per-installment status and dates Every payment plan the Noether family has had, with each installment's paid or due date in one place.

Who This Helps

If every client you serve is a single adult, you will barely notice any of this: the family record holds one person and stays out of the way. Family billing starts earning its keep the day a second sibling signs up, because that is the moment per-student tools split one household's money across two accounts and hand you the reconciliation. Tutoring centers and music schools, where multi-child families are the norm rather than the exception, feel the difference most.

Getting Started

Step-by-step guides for the family-side flows:

Frequently Asked Questions

How does Gigpie handle divorced parents who split billing?

It depends on how separate the finances are. If the parents share costs, keep one family: each parent gets their own login and sees the same balances and sessions. Fully separate billing across two households is a setup Gigpie's family structure is built to support; talk to us about your specific situation and we'll help you configure it correctly.

What about step-families or grandparents who help coordinate?

A family can have any number of parent-role members. Invite a stepparent, grandparent, or anyone else coordinating care, and each gets their own login into the same family view. For a student who genuinely splits time between two separate households, talk to us about the setup so we can configure it correctly for your case.

Can I cap how many hours each child uses from a shared package?

Not today. A shared package's balance is fully pooled: any student in the family can draw from it until it runs out. When a family wants hard limits per child, sell each child their own package; every package keeps its own balance.

What happens to the shared balance when a student no-shows?

A student no-show or late cancellation still deducts the hour from the family's package, and the coach is still paid for holding the slot. If the coach is the one who fails to show, it reverses: the family keeps the hour and the coach is not paid.

Can a family keep more than one payment method on file?

Yes. Saved payment methods belong to the family rather than to one parent, so a family can store several cards or bank accounts and set one as its preferred method.

What happens when a family stops working with us?

Archive the family. Its history, packages, and payment records are preserved, but it drops out of your active lists. If they come back next school year, reactivate the record and pick up where you left off.

One family, one balance

Free until you collect revenue, then a flat 2% of what you collect. No seat fees.

Get started free

Related Resources