Hi Everyone! My Music Staff was recently reviewed in the Canadian Federation of Music Teachers’ Association’s publication of The Canadian Music Teacher (January 2015)! Thank you to the CFMTA for including us in your magazine. We would also like to thank Jean Ritter for her time and effort in preparing this article.
It has been my pleasure to review this software! When I first visited My Music Staff website I was quite impressed with the ease at which all the tasks could be applied. We all have methods of tracking our studio but I recommend taking advantage of the 30 day Free Trial on this web based software where you don’t need to download anything and is designed with you, the teacher in mind.The cost for the teacher is $12.95 per month which is extremely reasonable if you consider what you receive for that amount. The sidebar gives you access to the following pages: Home, Students, Calendar, Library, Families and Invoices, Expenses and Other Income, Mileage, Website, and Report Center. The price remains unchanged regardless of the number of students you have. There is a student portal where the students and parents can login and access their schedule and account balance and you can communicate calendar changes and upcoming events. There is also the option to have multiple teachers at an additional monthly fee of $3.95 per teacher.
When you get started and enter your students, you enter their name, email address, lesson length, cost per lesson and of course the day they are scheduled. If there is more than one family member it is processed so that the billing is calculated for the family.
The software is set in such a way that you can download PDF files or Excel documents. You are able to import students and set their status. There are settings to distinguish between adult students and younger students.
Once you’ve entered your students their lesson times are automatically scheduled on the calendar. You take attendance weekly and their account balance is calculated as well as your revenue.
Creating invoices is uncomplicated and you can choose to print them or send them by email. As you enter payments, expenses and other income, a graph chart is updated including monthly projections. Keeping track of your mileage is easy and saves you the guess work come year end.
Now if this isn’t enough to peak your interest, you can create your own studio website! Yes, all included in that low monthly rate! It is easy to work with and there is amazing tech support! When I sent a question, an answer was returned to me within hours! You get weekly emails giving tips and information about improvements made to the software and a running blog keeps you current.
During the last few weeks I have spent time investigating the many available tools on this site. My next step is to use my iPad and incorporate the program into my lessons. My students will be able to log their practice time and send me practice questions and get responses so that valuable time isn’t lost waiting for the next lesson. I’m excited about this step as well as fully developing my website.
I highly recommend you consider this wonderful organizational tool and see how stress free running a studio can be!
Jean Ritter – British Columbia
Ritter, Jean. “My Music Staff”. The Canadian Music Teacher 2015: 41. Web. 1 Jan. 2015.
http://www.cfmta.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/2015-Winter-Edition.pdf
