Billing is where teaching becomes a living. It is also where small mistakes cost the most: a wrong amount, a lost email, a fee that eats into a lesson. We built Soniq Studio’s billing around three ideas. Your lessons are the source of every invoice. Nothing reaches a family until you say so. And the money should travel from the family’s bank to yours for the lowest fees we can manage.

Invoices start from lessons

You do not type an invoice from scratch in Soniq Studio. You choose a date range, and Soniq Studio lists the lessons on your timetable for that period. Each lesson becomes a line on the invoice, priced from the lesson’s price and length.

We chose this because the timetable already holds the truth about your teaching. If a lesson moved, was cancelled or was given as a makeup, the timetable knows. An invoice built from it is right the first time, and you never copy dates and amounts from one place to another. A makeup lesson that uses a lesson credit never appears on an invoice at all, because the family paid for it already.

We do not decide when you bill. Some teachers bill every month, some every term, some in advance and some after the lessons. So you choose the dates and the due date each time, and Soniq Studio fits around the way you work.

Nothing goes out until you send it

A new invoice is a draft. The family sees nothing until you select Send invoice, or until you tick Send immediately when you create it. The draft gives you a moment to check the lines, add a personal message, or take a lesson out.

Once an invoice is sent, it becomes a record. Each invoice gets the next number in your own sequence. It keeps the billing name and address you had on the day it was created, even if you change them later. To correct a sent invoice, you cancel it, or issue a credit note once it is paid. Either way, the original stays on file. This is how invoices are normally kept, and it means your records still make sense when you or your accountant look back. Soniq Studio records and presents your figures. It does not give tax advice; for that, see GOV.UK or your accountant.

The details of every field and status are in Invoice fields and statuses.

Why we collect by bank, not by card

Card payments usually carry a fee on every transaction. On a lesson fee, that adds up across a year, and it comes out of your income or the family’s pocket. Bank payments cost less. That is why Soniq Studio collects online payments through GoCardless, which takes money straight from the family’s bank account. We explain the wider reasoning in Why lessons must stay affordable.

GoCardless gives families two ways to pay:

  • Pay by Bank is a single payment the family approves in their banking app. Nothing is set up for next time.
  • Direct Debit asks the family to set up a mandate once. A mandate is their permission for you to collect from their bank account. After that, each invoice needs only a tap on the payment page.

You can also take bank transfers and record them yourself. Your bank details then appear on the payment page, and you mark the invoice as paid when the money arrives.

The family stays in control

Sending an invoice does not take money from anyone’s account. Each payment starts when the family opens the payment page and chooses to pay, even when they already have a Direct Debit with you.

We designed it this way on purpose. A parent sees each invoice before any money moves, so no charge ever comes as a surprise. That protects the trust between you and the family, and it means a disagreement about a lesson is a conversation, not a bank dispute. The cost is that some families need a reminder to pay. On the Professional plan, Soniq Studio can send those reminders for you, kindly, as we describe in Why chasing money shouldn’t cost you the relationship.

Where the money goes, and what it costs

When a family pays, GoCardless collects the money and pays it out to your own bank account. Soniq Studio never holds your money. You can follow each payment from Collecting to Collected to Paid out, and see every payout with its fees. The statuses are listed in Payment and mandate statuses.

GoCardless charges its own fee on each payment. On the free Community plan, Soniq Studio adds a small fee too. On the Professional plan, it does not. We show both fees on every payout, so you always know what a payment cost you. The current figures are in Subscription plans and fees.

Putting it together

Your timetable says what you taught. An invoice turns that into a record you control. A bank payment moves the money to you at a low cost, at the family’s own pace. Each part is there to save you time and money, so more of what families pay ends up supporting your teaching. To try it from start to finish, follow Get paid. For the day-to-day steps, see How to send an invoice.