Lesson-credit and makeup tracker for private tutors
Parents buy prepaid lesson packs, and the app tracks credits, makeups and expiry using the teacher's own cancellation rules.
The problem
Private teachers run on policy rules like 'one makeup per quarter' and 'no makeup without 24 hours' notice'. Studio policies show parents being told to mark absences on a calendar before the month starts, plus late fees and termination after weeks of non-payment. Existing tutor apps mostly log sessions and make PDF invoices. They don't enforce the credit rules, so teachers fall back on spreadsheets and awkward texts with parents.
Who has it: Independent music, language and academic tutors with 8-40 students.
Who pays
The tutor, to stop chasing payments and arguing over makeups. · $8–12/month per teacher.
Offer a free tier for 3 students and charge for unlimited students. Seed it in music-teacher and tutor communities, where you can pitch the policy engine as the thing generic trackers lack.
What to build first
- Student and parent records with lesson packs (e.g. 10 lessons) and expiry dates
- Teacher-defined policy: notice hours, makeups allowed per term, credit expiry
- Parent link (no login) to see remaining credits, upcoming lessons and report an absence
- Auto-decrement credits on attended or late-cancelled lessons
- Stripe checkout to buy a new pack, with a low-credit reminder to parents
- Monthly summary: who owes, who has unused credits
Suggested stack
Next.js Supabase Stripe Resend Tailwind
Starter prompt
Paste it into Cursor, Claude Code, Lovable or Bolt and iterate from there.
Build TutorCredits, a web app for private tutors to manage prepaid lesson packs and makeups. Stack: Next.js, Supabase, Stripe Checkout, Resend. Data model: tutor, student (with parent email), pack (lessons purchased, price, expiry), lesson (date, status: scheduled, attended, cancelled-in-time, cancelled-late, tutor-cancelled, makeup), and policy (notice hours, makeups per term, whether late cancels forfeit credit). Tutor dashboard: add students, sell or assign packs, schedule recurring weekly lessons, and mark outcomes. Credits decrement automatically per the policy. Tutor-cancelled lessons always create a makeup credit. A magic-link parent page shows credits left, upcoming lessons and makeups owed, and lets parents report an absence, which is auto-classified as in-time or late by the policy. Send Resend emails when a pack has 1 lesson left, with a Stripe Checkout link to rebuy. Add a monthly CSV export.What could go wrong
MyMusicStaff and similar tools already serve music teachers, so differentiation has to come from simplicity and price. The evidence is mostly policy documents and app listings, not direct complaints, so willingness to pay needs checking with a few tutors.
Where we found it
- USU Young Children's piano tuition policy — A teaching program tells parents to mark absences on a shared calendar before the month begins, adds a $10 late fee, and says no makeup without 24 hours' notice. It shows the rule-juggling tutors manage by hand.
- Northwestern Music Academy piano policies — Limits makeups to one per quarter with 24 hours' notice and adds a late-bill fee. This is the kind of rule a tracker should enforce.
- SessionFlow app listing — Pitched at tutors who want to stop using spreadsheets. It covers sessions, invoices and payments, but the listing doesn't mention credit or makeup rules.