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Moving your tutoring records from a spreadsheet to an app

A spreadsheet is the right first tool for a new tutor. It just has no idea that a row is a lesson, that a lesson has a student, or that a student owes money. This guide is for the month you decide to move.

By the Tutitor team · Updated

Signs the spreadsheet has stopped working

  • You fill in attendance from memory at the end of the month.
  • Invoices are typed by hand from the sheet, and sometimes miss a lesson.
  • A parent asks "which lessons is this for?" and you have to go back and check.
  • You have one sheet per student per month, and a folder of PDFs to match.
  • You cannot see from your phone whether a family has paid.

None of these mean you did something wrong. They mean the sheet is being asked to be a calendar, a register and a billing system at the same time.

What to look for in a replacement

  • Attendance that leads to the invoice. Mark the lesson once, and the invoice line appears. No re-typing.
  • A no-show rule built in. Missed lessons should bill according to your policy, not according to how you feel that day.
  • A private link for parents, so they can see and pay without an account.
  • Your payment methods on the invoice: bank transfer, QR code, or a link.
  • Works on your phone, because attendance gets marked on the way out of the lesson, not at a desk.
  • Free or cheap. Software should cost less than the missed lessons it catches.

How to move without losing anything

  1. 1

    Finish the current month in the spreadsheet

    Do not switch mid-cycle. Close the month and send the last invoices from the sheet.

  2. 2

    List your students

    For each one: name, parent contact, subject, rate, and how you bill them (per hour, per lesson or monthly).

  3. 3

    Add them to the app

    Add each student with their rate. Set up the weekly lessons so the calendar is full for next month.

  4. 4

    Run both for one month

    Keep the spreadsheet going for one more month as a check. Compare the app's invoices with the sheet's.

  5. 5

    Keep the old sheet

    Do not delete it. It is your history. Export the app's data now and then too.

What this looks like in Tutitor

Tutitor is a free tutor app built for exactly this move. Students, the weekly calendar, attendance and invoices are one record. You mark a lesson Completed, Excused or Unexcused on the calendar, and the monthly invoice adds it up: completed lessons at the full rate, unexcused ones at your no-show percentage, excused ones at nothing.

Each invoice has a private link, a PDF, your payout details, and a status of Paid, Pending or Overdue. Invoices export as CSV, so you are never locked in.

See the Tutitor vs spreadsheet comparison for a side-by-side view.

Common questions

Do I lose my old records when I switch?

No. Keep the spreadsheet as an archive. Start the app from the next billing cycle so there is a clean cut-off.

How long does it take to set up?

For ten students with weekly lessons, about half an hour: add each student with their rate, then create the weekly lessons.

What if I want to leave the app later?

Tutitor exports invoices as CSV, and each invoice downloads as a PDF or PNG, so you can take your records with you.

Is a Google Sheets template not enough?

It is enough while you have a few students. The problems start when attendance, invoices and payments live in different places and you keep them in sync by hand.

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