Use this when... you need to set organisation rules for lesson scheduling, cancellation windows, rescheduling, attendance expectations, tutor availability, branch behaviour, rooms, lesson lengths, or recurring series.

Before you start... agree the policy with the people who own operations, billing, tutor management, and parent communication. Scheduling policy affects lessons, invoices, credits, tutor pay, messages, and reports, so it should not be changed casually.

Use Settings for organisation-wide scheduling rules and defaults.

Scheduling policies define how lessons are created and changed. They may include default lesson length, cancellation notice period, rescheduling rules, tutor availability expectations, branch or room requirements, attendance status options, recurring lesson behaviour, and parent or tutor notification rules.

Before changing settings, map how your team currently schedules lessons: enquiry, tutor match, first lesson, recurring series, attendance, reports, billing, and changes. Policy should support this workflow rather than surprise it.

Check the live scheduling workflow before changing default policies.

Configure standard duration, format, branch, room, buffer time, and recurrence defaults where available. Defaults should match the most common case, not every exception.

Set notice periods, late cancellation behaviour, no-show handling, credit rules, and who can reschedule. Confirm how these rules affect billing and tutor pay before saving.

Create or review example cases: normal recurring lesson, parent cancellation with notice, late cancellation, tutor cancellation, room change, online lesson, and trial lesson. Check resulting attendance, billing, and notifications.

Lessons are created with the wrong defaults: check organisation, branch, tutor, service, and recurring series settings.

Parents are charged unexpectedly: review cancellation policy, session status, invoice generation, and credit rules.

Tutors receive too many changes: review notification timing and who can edit scheduled sessions.

Record major scheduling policy changes with date, owner, reason, and expected impact. Review policies after term starts, exam seasons, holiday periods, and repeated parent or tutor confusion.

Scheduling policies should usually be approved by the operations owner and understood by finance. A small change to cancellation windows or default lesson length can affect parent charges, tutor pay, room usage, and attendance reporting. Record the decision so admins know the rule is intentional.

Decide whether the new policy applies to existing lessons, future lessons only, new families, or a specific branch. If the policy changes mid-term, document how exceptions should be handled so admins do not make inconsistent decisions.

Review parent and tutor wording after policy changes. If cancellation, rescheduling, or attendance expectations change, update message templates, form wording, and website policy text where applicable.

After changing policy, watch for cancelled lessons, credit requests, tutor questions, and invoice disputes. Early confusion is a signal that the policy or communication needs refinement.

If branches follow different timetables, room rules, or cancellation expectations, document the exception clearly. Hidden exceptions create inconsistent parent communication and make reports harder to interpret.

Give admins examples of common scheduling decisions. They should know how to record late cancellations, tutor sickness, parent reschedules, trial changes, and holiday pauses before those situations happen.

Review a sample of edited sessions after launch and again after the next busy teaching week and holiday period. Check whether admins are applying the new policy consistently across branches, tutors, online lessons, in-person lessons, trials, and recurring series. Use the sample to correct training gaps before they become billing disputes.

After policy changes, compare attendance, cancellations, reschedules, no-shows, credits, and tutor pay exceptions for a few weeks. If a metric changes sharply, investigate whether the policy changed behaviour, whether admins are recording statuses differently, or whether parents and tutors misunderstood the new rule. Use the findings to improve training and wording.

After changing scheduling policies, test a realistic lesson workflow, tell the admin team what changed, and monitor the next billing and attendance cycle for unexpected effects.