You teach. Encore runs the studio.

Yes — upload the spreadsheet you already keep. Encore matches your header row however it is spelled, ignores columns it doesn't recognize, and shows you row by row what will happen before anything is written: new, already here, adds an instrument, or skipped and why. Import the same file twice and the second run changes nothing.

No. If you'd rather not touch a spreadsheet at all, we'll do the move for you: $297, one time, offered when you set up your studio. We import your families, students, enrollments and recurring charges from Opus1, build your timetable, verify it against what you had, and agree a cutover date with you. Two things have to come from you before we can start — your Opus1 exports, which we collect over a private upload link rather than email, and a short worksheet listing your teachers. Past lesson and attendance history deliberately doesn't come across. Your families' saved cards live in your Stripe account, not in your studio software. Connect that same account to Encore and they stay right there; if they're in a different account, Stripe can copy them across (an account another platform set up for you needs that platform to ask). Encore charges a saved card only after the family has been told which card, when and how much, and hasn't opted out; otherwise families pay each invoice from a secure link. Coming off something other than Opus1? The spreadsheet import handles it — that is the same import described above, and it is free.

No. A student can be their own billing contact, so an adult learner is one person on your books rather than a grown-up filed under an invented parent. Adding a client asks up front who the lessons are for, and the People tabs and the enrollment flow both follow that answer.

Yes. Encore treats in-home and mobile teaching as a first-class way to run a studio, not an afterthought. Booking, billing, contracts, and the client portal all work the same; on Encore Studio+, Routing plans each teacher's day around addresses and travel time so the schedule follows the map, not the other way around.

Every studio gets its own branded portal at yourbusiness.encorestudio.app. That address is where your families book lessons, sign contracts, and pay tuition — it carries your studio's name, so it reads as your front door, not ours. Put it on your website, your business cards, and your voicemail.

Yes, on every plan. Studios and families message each other in the portal, teachers keep their own threads with their families, and announcements go to everyone or to a segment — one teacher's families, or just your leads. Anyone who doesn't have the portal open gets an email, so nothing waits on someone logging in. There is nothing to set up and no phone number involved.

If you already text families from your own business number, yes — connect that Twilio account under Settings → Communications and Encore sends and receives through it. Replies land in your studio inbox beside your portal threads, so a conversation reads as one conversation however the family answered. Because the number and the carrier registration are already yours, there is nothing for us to file and nothing to wait on — which is usually the part that takes weeks elsewhere. Encore charges no add-on fee for this; you pay Twilio directly for what you send, and it needs an active Encore subscription like everything else. Families opt in before the first text and STOP is honoured automatically. If you don't have your own texting account, portal messaging and email are how your studio reaches families today — and they reach every family, which a text can only do once they've opted in.

No. Every plan is one flat rate with unlimited students and unlimited rooms, and multi-teacher support is a core feature. Add your third teacher or your tenth room and the bill stays the same.

Encore connects to Stripe, and the account is your studio's own, in your name — money goes straight from the family to you, and Encore never holds it. Tuition runs automatically from your schedule, families pay online by card, and one-off invoices — recitals, books, makeup lessons — are reconciled against their payments for you. Encore takes 0%: some platforms take a percentage of every payment you collect, and we take none, so Stripe's own processing fee is the only deduction and you pay it to Stripe. Connect QuickBooks Online and a paid invoice posts to it as a sales receipt — income and deposit in one write — so nothing lands in your books as a receivable nobody manages.

No. Sign up and set up your studio with your real students and schedule before entering any payment details. When you're ready, pick a plan and you're only billed from that point on.

Yes, and the two work slightly differently. Moving between Core, Plus and Pro is self-serve: pick the new plan under Settings → Billing and it takes effect straight away. Switching between monthly and yearly billing is one step further along, through the Manage billing button on that same page, which opens Stripe. Either way the change is prorated automatically, so you never pay twice for the same period.