Running lessons

The one thing to know: the attendance code

A code is what tells us the lesson happened. Marking a lesson complete does not do that. Entering the code lets your payment be released: when the student confirms, or automatically 72 hours after the lesson.

• The student has the code. It appears on their screen when the lesson starts, under a button that says Show my code.
• You enter it. Your entry box appears on your lesson at the same time.
• You ask them to read it out at the start of the lesson. That’s it.

Neither of you can see it before the lesson’s scheduled start time. Don’t go looking for it the night before — it isn’t there yet.

If nobody enters it, we release your payment automatically 7 days after the lesson’s scheduled end, unless the student reports a problem. Entering it is much faster. You have until 72 hours after the lesson ends to enter it, and we’ll remind you on the day, the next day, and two days later.

A one-on-one lesson, start to finish

When a booking comes in you’ll get a notification (and usually an email). The student has already paid — we hold the money until after the lesson.

If you’ve turned on booking approval, bookings arrive as requests you accept or decline, and they expire if you don’t answer. You can also decline a booking without penalty if it’s within 24 hours of being made and more than 24 hours before the lesson, three times a month. Ignoring a request is not free: a request you never answer is recorded the same way a decline is, and both lower the acceptance rate shown on your profile.

Before the lesson, add your meeting link for anything online — Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, whatever you use. Nothing reminds you and nothing stops the lesson going ahead without one, which is the problem: your student opens the lesson, sees “Waiting on your meeting link”, and has to message you.

During the lesson, ask for the code and enter it. Do it at the start — it’s easy to forget at the end.

After the lesson, mark the session complete and fill in what you covered. This is what a parent reads to see their child is making progress. Marking it complete is a record, not a payment trigger — the code is the payment trigger.

Running a group class

A group class is one lesson with several students, each paying for a seat. Go to Group classes → New group class. You’ll need a subject and grade you are approved to teach, what the class covers, a date and time on a quarter hour, a length (anything from 30 minutes to 8 hours), the number of seats (between 2 and 30), a minimum to run, how students join, and a price of at least R50 a seat.

Online, in person, or both. A class can be online, in person, or online and in person, where each student picks one. In person means a public venue — a library, a school, a university campus, a community centre or hall, or another public place — or your own home; you confirm which when you create the class. We check every venue before anyone can book an in-person seat: until it’s approved an in-person class is hidden, and an online-and-in-person class sells only its online seats. Students see only the type of venue and the suburb until they have a seat; the full address and your directions are shared only with people who have a seat. Once someone requests or books a seat the venue is locked, but you can still change the directions, and everyone holding a seat is emailed when you do.

Seats and minimum to run are two different numbers. Seats is the most students you’ll take. Minimum to run is the fewest you’ll accept — anything from 1 up to the number of seats. If fewer than that have booked two hours before the class starts, the class is cancelled and everyone is refunded. Set it to the smallest number genuinely worth your time; setting it to 1 means the class always runs.

The minimum is checked two hours before the class starts. The cancel-and-refund itself is done by a check that runs every hour, on the hour, rather than at that exact moment, so a class that didn’t fill is normally cancelled within an hour of that point, and at least an hour before it was due to start. Nothing is lost by the wait. You choose when bookings close: when the class ends (the default), when it starts, or two hours before. A class that runs keeps taking bookings until then, and someone who books after the start goes straight into the class. You can change it on the class page, even after people have joined. If you decide earlier that you want to run it anyway, you can confirm the class yourself and it will run whatever happens.

Being asked to run one. A student can ask you to run a class from your profile. Accepting is creating the class — there is no separate accept button; you open the new class form with the subject and grade already filled in. Declining tells them, and they can ask another tutor. Nothing expires one of these: a request you never answer stays pending until you decide or the student withdraws it.

During and after. Ask each student to read out their own code — it tells you who actually turned up. Any one student’s code proves the class happened, so you don’t need all of them. Once a code is in, seats are released 48 hours after the class ends; if no code is entered at all, it’s 7 days. Both of those mean “at the next daily check after that point” rather than to the minute.

When you get paid

We release your payment after the lesson, on the timings above, and it then goes to the bank account on your profile. A student has 48 hours after a lesson to report a problem, and we hold the payment while we look at it.

We don’t promise a specific arrival time and won’t pretend to. If something looks wrong, email support@upmarktutoring.com.