SAMii simply put!
Parents/students have control and clarity over lesson schedules, payments and communication.
And equally important, Educators are paid at the end of the week for all lessons conducted during that week. Including late cancellations (48 hours) and no shows.
Fact: 22.4% of music educators are owed fees for lessons provided (2020 National music education survey)
And Because musicians are typical ( right side thinkers – creative ) administration tends to be left aside or managed poorly)
Q- How do Students pay for lessons?
A- when enrolling, there are 2 options currently,
1- Pay per lesson ( Direct debit 48 hours prior to the scheduled lesson), plus 2 in advance, Just in case there is an issue charging the card.
2- Pay for 10 lessons in advance. Then, when 8 lessons have been provided and the student has 2 lessons left, SAMii will debit 8 lessons to top back up to 10. ( an email notification will advise of the upcoming debit amount )
Q- How do I see how many lessons I have left?
Students can see what upcoming lessons have payments associated with them.
Q- How much notice needs to be provided for cancellations.
A- 48 hours.
The current version of SAMii has a 48 hours notice policy.
In some cases, educators that provide group lessons have a zero cancellation policy.
If lessons are a group of 2 and one cancels (with more than 48 hours) the other lesson effectively becomes a 1:1 lesson.
Q- How do students cancel a lesson if cant attend?
Before parents decide to cancel the lesson, there is a “move to online“ option. The lessons can still occur at the same time as scheduled, via a secure video connection. This might be a good idea if cancelling within 48 hours of the lesson as lesson fees will still occur.
Q- What happens to lessons that fall on a public holiday or school holiday?
A- The Educator will cancel lessons from their SAMii dashboard. Notification of canceled lessons will be sent to all involved. No charge for any lesson that the educator has cancelled. If the educator cancels within 48 hours to the scheduled lesson, as your DD has already processed. That lesson charge will be applied to a future unpaid lesson. There will always be 2, Or maximum of 10 lessons in advance.
Educators can pause lessons and their associated Debits for any length of time. Fees associated with future upcoming lessons will sit dormant until the lesson occurs.
Q- What if the student doesn’t wish to continue.
A- all good things must come to an end. The Educator can “end lessons” from their dashboard. Any unused lesson fees will be returned to the payer’s Credit Card.
Q- What if the Credit Card can not be charged for an upcoming lesson?
A- SAMii will try to debit the card every 2 days until the lesson payment is successful.
This is why SAMii charges an additional 2 lessons in advance. So there is some time to get things sorted and lessons can continue in the meantime without interruption.
Q- What if my credit card can not be charged, and both of them in advance lessons are used up?
A- SAMii will send email notifications during this process to inform that in advance lessons are being used. You may need to update your payment method via SAMii-app.com. If in the event that SAMii can not get the in advanced lessons back up, the student will become inactive and the scheduled time will be made available to other students. The payer and educator will receive an email informing them of this. There is a link in that final email that can re-enrol the student back into the schedule to carry on under the previous arrangements.
Q- How do parents/students keep track of payments applied to lessons.
A- With every successful Direct Debit, an invoice/paid receipt is emailed to the parent. SAMii’s admin humans have access to all transactions and can send reports on request.
Q- How much does SAMii cost to use?
A- When the Educator sets up a lesson time, they choose to either on charge or Absorb the SAMii fee. 4.95% of the lesson. This covers EFT Credit Card transaction fees and SAMii admin fees. A $30 Lesson would include a $1.48 SAMii fee. Either added on to the raw lesson fee or absorbed.
Q- Can I claim the SAMii fee on tax?
A- Absolutely. At the end of every week (Sunday evening) educators receive Tax invoice/Paid receipts.
Q- How are students enrolled into SAMii?
A- The Educator creates a lesson then shares an invite link to the student or students that need to be allocated to that lesson.
The parent or student will create their profile on SAMii, Choose their payment option (per lesson or pay for 10 lessons) then enter their payment method.
Students are scheduled in the educator’s schedule once payment is made.
Here is a picture of the cash flow….flow.!
