Teachworks – Business Management for Educators

Tutoring centers, language schools, and test preparation companies all operate in the education field, however these organizations have very different business needs than traditional classroom-based institutions. Teachworks is a business management application that provides tools for managing and monitoring all different types of education-based businesses.

The Teachworks platform includes modules for scheduling, student communication, billing, payroll, and analytics, among other features. Begin upgrading your own business practices by selecting which modules are most important within the context of your educational center. For example, if you run a driving school, you’ll probably want to begin by creating a company calendar where students can schedule sessions with specific instructors. On the other hand, if you manage a language school with younger students, then being able to communicate digitally with those students’ parents is probably a top priority. With Teachworks, you can also do things like set up automatic lesson reminders to go out to students before each class, along with notifications whenever new invoices have been sent or payments have been received.

Business owners can give their employees more autonomy by allowing them to have their own personal Teachworks logins. Giving employees access to Teachworks enables them to edit their own schedules based on availability and provide feedback to students with lesson notes. Teachworks even sends teachers their payslips via email, including all payment hours and details.

Practical Uses:

• Automatically bill students who enroll in your school
• Access class notes from any computer or mobile device
• Set up automated lesson reminders for students
• Maintain detailed student attendance records

Insider Tips:

• Adjust the session status based on whether the student attended, cancelled, or missed the class
• Send emails to teachers with payment details whenever checks go out
• Set up multiple “locations” based on the number of places where you provide your services
• Data from Teachworks can be exported to Excel

What we liked:

• Schools can accept payments via credit card
• Teachworks is a great way for teachers to keep their students’ parents in the loop
• The business management tools offered by Teachworks are all geared toward businesses in the education industry
• Teachers can automatically send welcome emails to all new students

What we didn’t like:

• Nothing

Alternatives:
* Blackboard – http://www.blackboard.com

Company Info:

• Launched: 2014
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Burlington, Ontario, Canada
• Web site: https://teachworks.com

Costs:

• Small, Medium, and Large plans range in price from $25 to $200 per month