Music school & lesson scheduling software — buying checklist
From: https://www.iwantmywebsitenow.com/industry/instruction/music/
Workflow sources checked: 2026-10-01. Prices have separate capture dates.

Use this with a vendor or a builder. These are proposed evaluation tests, not claims that any product passed them.

YOUR BUSINESS
Current software:
What must work differently:
Records to bring across:
Budget and timing:

QUESTIONS TO TEST
1. Teacher, student and room
Ask: Can an available teacher be booked into an occupied piano room?
Demonstrate: Create two teachers but one required room. Try overlapping lessons and check the room constraint as well as staff availability.
Observed result:
Follow-up:

2. Missed lessons
Ask: What is the difference between a cancellation, a make-up credit and a refund?
Demonstrate: Apply your example policy to a late cancellation and a teacher absence. Inspect attendance, make-up entitlement and invoice balance separately.
Observed result:
Follow-up:

3. Family billing
Ask: Do siblings share a payer without merging their lesson histories?
Demonstrate: Create two students with one billing contact, different teachers and different rates. Verify the family invoice and each student’s private lesson record.
Observed result:
Follow-up:

4. Term boundaries
Ask: What happens to recurring lessons during a holiday or teacher change?
Demonstrate: Skip a school closure, then change the teacher for one occurrence. Confirm that the rest of the series remains as intended.
Observed result:
Follow-up:

DEMO SCENARIO (SYNTHETIC)
Two siblings, one invoice and one missed lesson
1. Create two siblings billed to one family account. Give them different teachers, services and lesson times.
2. Choose a hypothetical policy: an eligible absence earns one make-up lesson but does not itself refund tuition. Record an absence and inspect the separate attendance, entitlement and balance records.
3. Book and complete the make-up. Check that the credit is consumed once and cannot be applied to another lesson accidentally.
4. Move one future lesson to a substitute teacher and another room. Verify teacher availability, room availability and what the family sees before sending the updated schedule.

MIGRATION
Move entitlements as well as the calendar
Request students, family billing contacts, teachers, rooms, scheduled lessons, attendance history and make-up balances. Preserve the links between siblings and their payer without combining their lesson notes. Reconcile future lessons by teacher and room, then compare invoice balances and unused package or make-up entitlements independently. Decide how archived lesson notes and attachments will remain accessible. Payment authorizations and teacher-pay calculations require their own review rather than an assumption that a calendar export contains them.

A POSSIBLE FIRST BUILD
A first build could cover enquiries, enrolment or a family-facing information workspace while retaining the teaching and billing platform. A replacement school system needs explicit policies for attendance, credits, recurring lessons and staff compensation. Prove the rules with a sample family before migrating a whole term.

SOURCES
My Music Staff: calendar and attendance
https://www.mymusicstaff.com/calendar-attendance/
Describes recurring schedules, attendance choices and make-up lesson management.

My Music Staff: attendance meanings
https://www.mymusicstaff.com/student-attendance-explained/
Explains distinct attendance options. This older article is background; confirm present behavior and configuration in a demo.

Teachworks: scheduling and billing FAQ
https://www.teachworks.com/faq
Documents billing methods and scheduling features, which should be tested against the school’s policy.

Research by Don, I Want My Website Now.
A product description is not hands-on testing. Verify the plan, current price and export access before committing.