Hi Everyone! My Music Staff was recently reviewed by Kathy Schmidt in the Ontario Registered Music Teachers’ Association’s publication of Notes magazine (Spring 2015)! A big thanks to ORMTA and Kathy.
My Music Staff has all you need to keep your studio running efficiently and smoothly each week at a very low cost of $12.95 per month. For that price a teacher receives a website with unlimited pages and media storage which is extremely use friendly. This program is internet based so you can access it from any computer anywhere. It allows a teacher to keep track of student attendance and repertoire, both in progress and completed, with sources details. Student and parent contact information can quickly be inputted during a lesson, and the program keeps track of all email threads. A generic or specifically designed greeting is sent to all students on their birthday. Students can log in and record their practice minutes each day along with comments or questions. One can hide or reveal all lessons and events to students through the calendar reminder system. The library lending feature allows you to keep track of all loans and returns.
The best part of this program in my opinion is the accounting. My Music Staff allows a teacher to bill students, keep track of payments, credits and discounts. Parents can pay directly through PayPal. Invoices and receipts can be sent to families instantly. All your expenses and income are kept in one convenient place and stored safely. Reports can be generated for year end taxes or just weekly/monthly assessments. My Music Staff is now able to send out Canada Revenue Agency tax receipts to families with all the required information for the Child Recreation Tax credit.
The calendar shows all regular lessons and special events. Students receive email reminders of the lessons, but have the option of turning that feature off. Each day the home page shows all booked lessons and the teacher can mark in attendance, tracking billable and non-billable absenteeism. It is extremely simple to change lesson times, and to alert the teacher about any cancellations including where they might be able to fit another student in. My Music Staff has many templates for reports and backgrounds for website pages, including a feature to upload your own favourites. It is highly recommended that teachers take advantage of the 30 day free trial. Teachers will be amazed at how well it keeps the studio organized and avoids paper and hand-written notes.
Schmidt, Kathy. “Mymusicstaff”. Notes 2015: 27. Print.
