If your centre sells lesson packages, attendance isn't just a register. Each tick uses up something a parent has paid for.
When attendance sits in a paper book and balances sit in Excel, the two drift apart, and you usually find out when a parent disputes the count.
Decide what uses up a lesson
Agree on this before anyone marks attendance, and put it in your fee policy:
- Present: one lesson used
- Absent without notice: usually one lesson used
- Leave with enough notice: no lesson used
- Late leave: depends on your leave policy
- Make-up class attended: uses the lesson that was saved by the leave
Mark attendance during the lesson
Attendance filled in at the end of the week is mostly guesswork. Ask teachers to mark it on their phone at the start of each lesson. It takes less than a minute, and it's accurate.
Let attendance update the balance
The balance should change the moment attendance is marked, not when someone copies the register into a spreadsheet at month end. That way the number parents see is always the real one.
Have a way to fix mistakes
Teachers will sometimes tick the wrong student. Decide who can correct a record, ask for a short reason, and keep a note of who changed what. When a parent questions a lesson, review that record instead of arguing from memory.
Let parents see what's left
Most "how many lessons are left?" messages disappear once parents can check for themselves. Showing the balance also lets you remind families to renew before a package runs out, instead of after.
Check a few numbers every month
- Lessons that haven't been marked yet
- Students whose package is about to run out
- Records that a parent has questioned and are still open
Ten minutes on these each month saves a lot of awkward conversations later.
How Communex tracks attendance
Teachers take attendance in the Communex teacher app, and lesson credits update with each record. Disputed records go to a review list, and parents see the lessons their child has left in the parent app.
