Meet the newest member of my studio: Mikey, by Blue Microphones. Mikey is quickly working his way into my heart as a where-have-you-been-all-of-my-life kind of tool.

Mikey is not my only recording friend. I have loved my Zoom H4 for the last few years. The Zoom is a handy companion. I loved being able to record accompaniments for my students, record them performing to burn CDs for presents for their parents, and record myself playing their repertoire pieces at different tempos to practice. But the interface leaves much to be desired, and the process from the first step of making the recording to handing a CD to a student or emailing them an MP3 file just took a few more steps than I would have liked.

Then Mikey entered my life as a thoughtful Christmas present from my husband. What do I like about him (Mikey, not my husband…)?

He’s plug and play. You plug him into an iPod (check this site for compatible iPods), and use Voice Memo or another recording application such as Evernote or Blue FiRe, check the gain (there are three to choose from. I’ve been happy with the lowest for recording at the piano), and push the record button on the iPod. Whammo. Done. If your students bring their iPods, they have a recording ready to use at home. If your student doesn’t have a compatible iPod, you can easily download the track to iTunes to burn to a CD or put in Dropbox or email.

How am I using Mikey? So far, my main use of Mikey so far has been to record festival pieces at different practice tempos. I don’t always encourage students to play with recordings rather than metronome, but some of them respond better to a performance than to the tick tick tick of the metronome. I have also recorded an accompaniment for an informal audition and recorded a student composition to burn a CD for a festival entry. I envision using him to record concerto accompaniments at different tempos and playing backgrounds for students to improvise with at home. My soprano friend records warmups onto her students’ iPods. I also may consider asking parents to think about buying a Mikey for their own homes, allowing students to record their own compositions or even portions of their practice sessions for me to check or for their own benefit.

Does Mikey take the place of the Zoom? No. The Zoom’s recording quality is higher end and will definitely be my recorder of choice for recitals and most CDs. But my husband bought Mikey for just under $40, and I see that the Zoom’s newer cousin (the H4n) is running around $300. For a low-ish price, great ease of use, and a decent sound quality, I highly recommend having Mikey come to play at your studio.

Music Teacher’s Helper continues to grow as more teachers hear about how easy it is to manage your studio schedules, finances, and more through our software. Be a part of spreading the word and earn some extra income on the side by joining our affiliate program today. We pay you 20% recurring commission for any teachers you refer to us.

Here are the latest updates we’ve made to Music Teacher’s Helper:

• The mobile site was closing the reconcile screen prematurely. This is now fixed.
• If you recently emailed us and didn’t get a response, please try again. Uservoice sent some emails to us without a return address.
• Few automatic invoices failed to run. We found the bug and this is now fixed. We’re sorry, thank you for your patience.
• The Student Contact List Report included everyone, even former students. We’ve now added a filter so you can choose who you want to see.
• Former students were appearing in the Student Account Summary Report list. We’ve now removed them.
• Affiliates are now able to reset their own passwords if they forgot them.
• All-day events did not filter on the calendar view. This is now fixed.

The last day of the Christmas holidays in London was unexpectedly sunny, crisp and breezy. After the departure of some visitors, my husband Robert and I were about to go out for a walk and some tea and cake, when he suddenly pointed to a patch of light on the wall behind me. The reflections from the garden of waving branches and the wrought iron of a clothes post were casting flickering shadows onto the wall in an astonishing fashion, almost like a silent movie. Robert grabbed his iPhone and captured some video. “You could use that for a film-poem, “ I remarked, thinking about the beautiful short videos some friends had made recently.

When we got home from our walk, I began improvising to the footage on the piano, while Robert, listened and wrote.  Within twenty minutes, we both had something. Remarkably, when Robert read his poem aloud, it was exactly the same length as the video footage. He recorded it, using the free application Audacity, and then I recorded my part onto a different track so that we could experiment with individual volume and color.

I’m not a recording engineer, but I know what works when I hear it. In this case, I knew we needed to take the ‘edge’ off the sound on both tracks. It took a little while to find the right effect for the piano part. It wasn’t until Robert added a little reverb that it harmonized with the imagery. It sounded as if it had been recorded many years ago in a dusty, cavernous ballet studio on a slightly tinny upright. Perfect.

We both could hear that Robert’s voice was also cutting through the texture in a way that sounded too immediate, modern and dynamic. When he equalized it, using an effect called RCA Victor 1947, it all came together. He then exported it as a wav file, and dragged it into iMovie, an easy-to-use Mac application.

Result: a film-poem in one evening. If only making art could be this easy and graceful every time.

During the following week, Robert discovered that there were free time-lapse applications available for the iPhone, and shot some footage from his office window high over the city, using an app called Gorillacam. As he wrote on his blog, www.robertpeake.com,  “Yesterday, with the help of an iPhone app, I propped my phone by the window for several hours and set it to take pictures six times per minute. I composited these images into video at 24 frames per second using Quicktime, then looped the clip back-and-forth, adjusted the colour, and added a panning and zooming effect using iMovie.”

Meanwhile, I was thinking about how best to reflect the images in sound. As I watched the flickering footage at the weekend, I realized that what one often hears accompanying time-lapse cityscapes are minimalistic, repetitive, fast-moving patterns. I wondered what it would be like to go for the polar opposite. I created a slow chord sequence aiming to mirror at once the golden light of the buildings, and the creepy effect of the looping footage.  When Robert read the poem simultaneously with the music, the rhythm of the chordal sequence tended to pull at the poem. However, when we recorded them on separate tracks, they worked beautifully when juxtaposed. Hey presto, another film-poem!

Click to watch “Upon Arrival”

So why am I recounting this on a music teachers’ blog? Well, it seems to me that there are new opportunities here for us to work creatively with students. Imagine a student shooting video footage on their phone during the week, bringing it to the lesson, and then using it as a basis for improvisation. Or, equally, bringing a poem to record on a separate track. It is so easy now to use these applications to create something convincing. This could then be posted on youtube or easily shared on Facebook with their friends. So much of what we do as musicians is temporary, created in a moment and then disappearing once more. Preserving these creative events can be immensely satisfying.

What kinds of creative collaboration inspire you? What kind of applications have you discovered to use with students?  I’d love to hear your experiences.

Like the old saying: “The teacher teaches what he most needs to learn.”

Most of us who teach have a naturally giving personality.

In fact, a career coach I regularly work with, Barbara Deutsch, told me the first time she met with me over ten years ago that my competitive edge in any industry is…giving.

But like any good quality we may have, we always have to be vigilant to make sure we stay in balance.

I’m not great at this sometimes, okay, often…and I’m guessing many of you have your own struggles with it as well.

What are you doing to fill your own tank creatively? Personally?

As teachers, we have to be energized, rested, and refreshed if we are going to offer the very best to our clients, and there are as many ways of doing this as there are teachers….

I will give you a concrete example of how this works.

I was on a long jag of teaching…many days in a row without creating a day off for myself. Sometimes I will look at my teaching calendar and think, “This schedule is ridiculous!”

Then the voice/feeling/knowing in my gut that sounds a lot like Atticus Finch will calmly say, “You created this schedule.” Atticus will then follow up with, “And remember the time when you felt lucky to have just one client in a day?”

Yes, yes….reality check with a little gratitude always goes a long way.

But back to the concrete example…on the teaching jag, tired, and clearly not as present for my clients as I would like to be.

One especially insightful client of mine, Brenda, ends her lesson time by giving me an assignment.

She says, “This week I want you to take one day off and just go somewhere like the Getty Museum and have a day for yourself.”

As soon as she said it, I knew it was the right thing.

Arial View of The Getty

I cleared my calendar for one day and took myself to the museum, got the audio tour, and just went slowly through, looking at the beautiful things that caught my eye.

Number one, the Getty couldn’t be in a cooler location, in the hills overlooking Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and the Pacific Ocean.

The art itself was obviously inspiring and just does something for your soul, bringing you back to the knowledge that as a creative person, you get to be a little part of, a contributor to, this big sea of art and creative expression.

There was a Leonardo da Vinci sketch exhibition on at the time, so that itself was incredible. One small piece of his overwhelming body of work.

And there is just something about the Getty that is magnificent. I have a theory that it is the Italian travertine….just makes you feel all bella vita.

Getty Courtyard

In short, I left the museum rejuvenated and happy that I took some time to invest in myself.

I also picked up some great inspiration for images and ideas that helped in my teaching.

So whether it’s a museum, a massage, a football game, or time with family and friends, take the time to invest in you.

Your clients will thank you for it.

It’s also important to consider your personal professional development. Did you expand your musical knowledge last year? How many teaching or music-related books, blogs, articles or forums did you read? How many seminars, master classes and conferences did you attend? How many performances did you give? How many concerts did you attend? How many colleagues have you bounced ideas off?

One you have an accurate idea of what works and what doesn’t work in your teaching studio, start to think about things you would like to expand on or develop this year. The next step is crucial – don’t just think about your goals, take action. If you would like to go to two conferences this year, google them, note down the registration dates and block out the times in your calendar. If you aim to be more prepared for your lessons, block out time in your schedule each week to make this happen. If you want to read more music books check out your local library or order them online. Don’t just look them up and then fail to act. Finally, I schedule a reminder every week or fortnight to read over my assessment of last year and my goals for this year. This is the key to keeping on track for me. If you have any further tips or goals please feel free to share them in the comments section below.

Image: aopsan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Posing proudly after a No-Worries Workshop

1. Lesson Time: Adults are able to schedule lessons during those hours when most K-12 school students cannot attend.

2. Income: Because adults can come during “off hours” weekly income is expanded.

3. Friendship: Every time a new student enters the door a new relationship is established and inevitably a friend as well.

4. Variety: Each adult student arrives with a unique and distinct musical background and agenda. While some desire to master Mozart, others want to learn note names, while others wish to play current pop hits. Because of time limitations, I have not initiated a Recreational Music Making (RMM) class but this could be a possible option for your studio. This program, that emphasizes recreational and not traditional lessons for adults, continues to grow in popularity. For more information check out the Recreational Music Making Handbook.

Don and Stuart--self-titled "The Octogenarian Duo"

5. Appreciation: While I thoroughly enjoy seeing kiddos eager to play their first song (and watching them discover how fast they can play their new piece!), adults seem to enjoy and appreciate every aspect of their progress. Each step of the piano path seems to be equally important as, or even more important than, a perfected performance.

6. Light-Bulb Moments: In many cases, soon after lessons begin there are the “Ah-Ha” moments. Example: some students have known that 1 sharp at the beginning of a piece means that the F needs to be sharped throughout. However, it is so exhilarating when the need for the F# in the key of G is discovered and understood. Many theory secrets are unlocked after being bound by years of “blind obedience” to the score.

7. Staying Hip: One of my “younger” adult students keeps me up to date with the latest YouTube pianists and digital print music. He can play by ear but wants to read the latest hits as well. Since he has no prior reading skills, we both continue to carve a way to master pitch, rhythm and chord symbol recognition from the grand staff in an unconventional, non-method-book manner.

8. Flexibility: Job obligations or vacation plans often get in the way of weekly piano lessons for most of my adult students. Although the income may not be as reliable, I don’t mind a weekly schedule that varies. Because lessons may not occur weekly, Music Teachers Helper is crucial to keeping things organized. Lesson Reminder emails prompt students of an upcoming lesson (that they may have forgotten about) and e-mailed Daily Summary reports remind me of the lesson as well. Students truly appreciate the lessons notes I write and these serve as a basis for the following lesson. The notes are especially helpful if there is a long gap between lessons.

9. Workshops and Wine: I have learned adult students prefer not to perform among young pianists so I offer informal “No-Worries Workshops”. Students are invited to perform and share some details of the composer, the composition or the challenges encountered while mastering a piece. I always learn something new from the information they share. This past December we all enjoyed a glass (or two) of wine after the December workshop to celebrate the season. That just doesn’t happen at my bi-annual K-12 church recitals

10. Wisdom: One of my students boasts 88 years with the daily schedule of an 18 year old, another is a renowned eye surgeon, one a general contractor, another, a bio-chemist engineer, another a psychiatric practitioner, one is a World War II vet and…Although most are “retired” they prefer to call this stage a new chapter in their lives. All of them generously share their wisdom and perspective with me on a regular basis. Many times, I feel I OWE THEM for what I learn from their life experiences  and professions.

Sarah (on the right and 88 years young) celebrating her performance with friends

Teaching adult students may be a great fit for you IF:

• your policies allow for flexibility in scheduling (my adult student policies are far different from those for K-12 students)
• you enjoy meeting new people and engaging in stimulating conversation
• you are willing to teach those who may suffer from arthritis, hearing loss, poor eyesight…
• you are willing to customize lessons to match students’ desires and goals
• you are interested in the concept of and the benefits of Recreational Music Making for adults
• you enjoy keeping great minds stimulated and on track in the later years.

Would love to hear from others who enjoy teaching adults!

Willard A. Palmer Favorite Solos

Dr. Palmer was a world renowned musician, scholar and music teacher. With 789 published works, his name is familiar to students and teachers alike, most notably associated with Alfred’s Basic Piano Library. This new series contains a nice collection of his original piano solos for students of all ages. There is a variety of styles, sounds and moods, and the music is laid out beautifully, suitable for the youngest students as well as the older beginners. There are no childish pictures to put off the older beginners, and the music engraving is large enough that the younger students may be able to follow easily.

Book 1 Early Elementary/Elementary

The first volume contains 8 solos. They are very accessible for your beginners, yet the music sounds surprisingly sophisticated. I am especially impressed by the following features:

1. Very clear, precise pedal markings – some are understandably optional in this volume.
2. Hand crossing – beginner students love to show this off!
3. Using different registers of the piano keyboard – changing the register is the easiest way to create variation, and this is used a lot in repeats, to create echos, at endings of phrases, or for dramatic effects.
4. Performance instructions are mostly in English – this is very appropriate for beginners. As the music becomes more difficult, more and more Italian terms are introduced.
5. Optional duet part – The first five pieces have optional duet part; they sound great both ways.
6. Melody is sometimes in the left hand, sometimes shared by both hands – great to see this concept introduced in the first volume.
7. Major/minor twist in melody – musical interest and complexity is achieved without making the music overly difficult.

Book 2 Late Elementary/Early Intermediate

This volume contains 9 solos. They introduce many important concepts and terms found in classical music, most appropriate for your developing students:

1. Titles such as Bagatelle, Ballade, Caprice, Theme and Variations
2. Alberti bass accompaniment figure
3. Key change
4. Tempo change

Book 3 Early Intermediate/intermediate

This volume contains 8 solos. All of the features in Book 1 and 2 continue to be explored. There is now almost an exclusive use of Italian terms, and we see titles such as Baroque Bourree, Prelude in D Minor, and Serenade in G. New concepts introduced include use of optional third staff, chromatic scale, whole tone scale, and ornaments. More modern sounds and styles such as syncopation, swing rhythm, and ragtime are also represented.

Alfred also publishes the Favorite Solos series for other composers: Dennis Alexander, David Carr Glover, Martha Mier, and Catherine Rollin. These best-loved piano solos of each composer have been compiled into graded collections for students to enjoy playing and teachers to enjoy teaching! I will have to check them all out in detail.

Signature Series

If you are looking for just that one more piece to compliment your student’s audition program, or would like to try a new contemporary (living) composer, then the Alfred Signature Series is for you! This is modern sheet music at its best. Each piece is printed on one large sheet: page-turn and budget friendly! Numerous composers are featured. If you want to be safe, go with familiar names such as Melody Bober, Dennis Alexander, Martha Mier, Robert Vandall, Catherine Rollin, or Wynn-Anne Rossi, or be pleasantly surprised by Betty Sutton, Ted Cooper, Mike Springer, Mary K. Sallee, or W.T. Skye Garcia. Better yet, on the Alfred website you can view a sample page before purchasing, to make sure you like the particular composer’s style. Oh, and the artwork on the sheet music cover is carefully selected to reflect the level of each solo – “cutesy” for the elementary pieces, and more “artsy” for the more advanced!

How do you select audition music for your students? Do you have a favorite series? Do share in the comments below!

Are you a social media expert?

with people you know and meet people you don’t.  In fact, social media is all the buzz in advertising in today’s market. It’s free, it’s fast, and you can hit a large market.  Big companies are even hiring social media experts whose full time job is to tweet you, text you, and message you about hot deals and cool stuff.  It’s the next big thing in marketing.  But should you use it for your private music teaching studio?  I do.

Facebook.  I love Facebook, mostly for its ability to quickly and easily connect with a ton of people, specifically my friends, family, high school classmates, and even my piano students. You can quickly and easily get messages to all or some of the people you know, advertise your studio, and share tips and tricks for practice times.   But Facebook is rife with privacy issues.  If you’re going to post personal items on Facebook, you must be vigilant about using discretion and privacy settings.  After all, some, if not all, of your posts may end up in Google searches.  You also need to watch that some distant relative doesn’t tag you in an unflattering photo from your third cousin’s wedding.  It might reflect poorly on the image you are hoping to portray to your private lesson students.  Avoid posting anything that you don’t want the entire world to know or see.  Don’t post rants about people or places, instead, keep your posts positive, fun, and inspiring.  Better yet, create a separate page based on your studio website.  You can invite all your students to visit, as well as post events, ads, or information that you want your students to see.  It’s a great place to offer an incentive for referrals.  You can also join Facebook groups such as your local high school band page or church page.  From there, you can meet new poeple and make new connections.  Don’t forget to ask people to ‘like’ your page so they can find you later or share you with their friends.

www.facebook.com

LinkedIn.  LinkedIn is a more professional venue, and a great way to network with other private teachers, businessman, and other professionals.  It’s a great way to get your resume and credentials out there, as well as advertise your studio website.  You’re not likely to find young students on LinkedIn, but you will be able to network with people who can lead you to new students (such as their professionally employed parents).  Be wary of attaching your Twitter and Facebook accounts to LinkedIn.  It’s much safer to keep this account strictly professional with no personal references.  Include a great looking head shot so people remember you as a person, not just a name on the computer screen.  You can also join various discussion groups through LinkedIn, so you can find job openings or people looking to find a private music teacher.  Don’t forget to link your profile to your free Music Teacher’s Helper website.

www.linkedin.com.

Twitter.    The key to Twitter is in being succinct.  You only have 140 characters to get your message out there, so the more concise you can be, the better.  You can invite your friends and family to follow you on Twitter, and you can gain followers by following people you like.  Whenever you tweet, you should add a hashtag that compliments your tweet.  So if you tweet about piano practice, you may want to end your tweet with #piano or #musicpractice.  A hashtag is like  a keyword.  Other Twitter users can search for keywords, and hopefully, your tweet will come up.  Again, make sure to link your account with your Music Teacher’s Website.  Be careful of privacy issues, and keep an eye on your followers.  It is polite and expected to follow back appropriate followers on Twitter.

www.twitter.com

Google+.  Google plus is like Facebook without all the fancy bells and whistles (and with less privacy problems, too).  It’s a great networking tool, and I’m sure it will be gaining popularity as time goes on.  Invite your friends and family to join, and create ‘circles’ to categorize them in.  You can then associate with people that are in their circles, and thereby expand your own.  Being so concise will inspire your creative writing, too. www.google.com.

There are a few tricks to good, social networking.  First, post often, but don’t spam.  I love hearing what local business men and women are doing, but I get annoyed by the people that post every half hour.  I just don’t have time for that!  If your are networking to advertise, post things that are relevant to your studio, such as practice tips, composer tidbits, and available lesson spots.  It’s also a great place to offer incentives or advertise specials, if you have them.   Routinely look for new people to connect with by checking your family and friend’s pages and searching for groups and individuals.  Avoid ranting and raving or gossipping in your posts.  Keep your comments positive and helpful.  If you are going to post about your students, make sure you have their parents permission.  People love to see photographs, but be very careful what you post and who you tag.  If you want to post photos of your students, you should probably get written permission first.  Lastly, always be aware of privacy concerns.  If you don’t want the entire world to know, play it safe and just don’t post it.  Link your accounts to your free Music Teacher’s Helper Website so people know where to find you.

In the beginning of my teaching, I stayed away from teaching Jazz because I did not have any training in this genre. Last year, I became very curious about Jazz and started practicing on my own. Just a standard here and there, as well as some Jazz method book learning. I also began listening to a lot of old Jazz greats like Thelonius Monk, Miles Davis, and Billie Holiday. It seemed scary, but I decided to try testing out the old Yogi Tea wisdom, and I started assigning Jazz pieces to my students and teaching them how to improvise. I may not be a master of Jazz, but I am certainly much better that I was last year, and my students have proven that I am doing a good job.

It doesn’t stop at genres either. This year I felt I needed to work on my own focus, discipline, and attention to detail, as well as tame the inner critic in my head. I started emphasizing these traits in my students and we have all greatly improved. Have you tried this approach? Do you find you are getting better right along side your students?

Tip #1:  How to find the invoicing function.

Invoicing functions are found under the Billing tab, where you can select Invoicing and view Invoice History, Create Invoice(s), or work with Automatic Invoicing.

Tip #2:  Preview everything.

Any time you make use of invoicing, first preview your invoice(s) by clicking the “Preview or Print” button. You need to see what the student will be seeing – does the invoice show the right dates, the right events, and does it add up to what you expect? If not, see Tip #4. Also, make sure only the invoices you want to create are showing – if there’s more than one invoice, there will be more than one page to preview.

Once you take a look at the preview, click “Go Back to Invoicing Creation” at the top of the page, so you can either revise the invoice or send/print/record it. But beware! When you go back to the Invoicing Creation page, all the boxes you checked are still checked. This includes all students boxes, which might not all be visible if you have more than 5 students. This means that if you preview one student’s invoice and then go back to check out another student’s invoice, you have to make sure to uncheck the first student or else you’ll be creating an invoice for him/her again.

Tip #3: Invoice vs Statement.

Know the difference between an invoice and a statement. The system is set up by default to create an invoice, which is a bill for services – only what the student owes during the time period selected (by default, the current month). But if you check off the right boxes, it can be set up to display a statement, which is a record of everything the student did financially during that time period – how much they owed at the beginning of the period, what they are being charged, how much they’ve paid, and what they currently owe as a result of all this.

An invoice will show what the student owes, but not what they’ve paid. This is easily remedied, if you wish – just check off the box “Show Payments.” If you want to show how much they owed at the beginning of the period, check off the box “Show Previous Balance and Date Range.” You really have to check off this box if the student owes something, or has a credit, going into the current month (or the time period you’ve selected); otherwise the invoice will only show what they owe this month regardless of any previous balance. All the option boxes that you can check off in creating an invoice are explained in the Help section’s Knowledge Base at this link.

But remember Tip #2! If you check off boxes, be sure to preview before sending the invoice!

If you send invoices to all of your students, you will probably want to set up the invoice as a statement, including the previous balance, and all payments and charges. Unless you check off the box “Create invoices/statements even if amount due is zero”, the only invoices that will be created are the ones where a student owes you, or has a credit.

Tip #4:  Accuracy counts.

Be sure the invoice shows the correct events and amounts. A student’s invoice will display all of that student’s lessons/classes for the month (or other time period selected). Make sure you entered them all! The invoice is not just for asking for money but also for displaying what the student is paying for. It can serve to confirm the lessons that have been scheduled. Make sure those lessons are entered with the correct amount due for each one – each lesson and amount owed will show up under “Lesson Charges” on the invoice. Or perhaps you charge a flat rate for the month – this shows up above “Lesson Charges” in the “Fees and Credits” section. Both these options come from the profile of the student, where you can choose to set either a flat rate or a per-lesson charge.

If after previewing the invoice, you find some errors in events, whether in amounts charged or in the descriptions or dates of the events, just go back to the calendar and fix those entries, and try again. No harm done (unless you clicked “Do it!” to save the invoice (or email it to the student). If you hit “Do it!” by accident, see Tip #5.

Tip #5: Viewing/deleting Invoices.

When you click “Do it!” your invoice(s) will be saved and if you checked off the radio button to email it to your student, that will be done as well. To look at the invoice, or to see if it was made, go to Billing tab, Invoicing, Invoice History. Here you can see what invoices you created, when, and when they were sent to the student. You’ll want to click the “View” link to see the invoice, and that’s when you can delete the invoice if you need to, by using the Options box to the right.

Tip #6: Invoice everyone or only as needed?

If you send invoices/statements to all your students every month, you probably will want to set this up to happen automatically. I personally only use automatic invoicing for a few students who have a flat monthly rate and requested the invoices so they can pay online (the “Make Payment” link at the bottom right of the invoice makes this easy and accurate). I send manual invoices to students who have missed a payment or are confused about charges.

An invoice serves many purposes: it’s a request for money, an explanation of charges, an easy way for a student to pay you online, and makes it easy for a student to mail you a check, since your name and address is displayed in the upper left.

For manual invoices, I usually send a separate email to the student telling them I sent the invoice and that there is a payment link in the lower right corner.

Tip #7: Automatic invoicing.

This can be found under the Create Invoice(s) option. Once you are familiar with creating invoices, this option is fairly self-explanatory, but be careful to keep in mind the date range you set for your automatic invoices. I had one student who hadn’t paid by mid-month and he normally gets an automatic invoice the first of the month. I realized later that the date range for his automatic invoices had expired!

~~~

You may well have other tips, or comments, or questions – if so, please add a comment below! I look forward to hearing from you.