Changing tuition for a family on automatic payments

When a family is on automatic payments, they have agreed to a specific amount. Encore will not charge more than that figure — not by a cent — unless the family has been told about the new one. Change the price without that, and the automatic charge stops and they get an emailed invoice instead.

Why Encore works this way when other platforms do not

Some studio software will happily charge a saved card whatever the current price says. Encore will not, and the reason is not caution — it is the law.

When a family authorizes automatic payments, they are authorizing a specific amount. A business may only charge what the customer actually agreed to. Charging more, even by a few dollars, even for tuition genuinely owed, is a charge the customer never authorized — and the exposure lands on you, the studio, not on the software. It can mean chargebacks, card-network penalties, and in the case of bank debits, a violation of federal rules.

So a platform that makes this effortless is not doing you a favor. It is quietly moving the risk onto your business. Encore refuses the charge instead, and tells you why.

What a family agreed to

• Set up on the pay page: the family agreed to their monthly figure exactly. Any other amount — higher or lower — is not charged automatically.

• Card, through a notice from your studio: the family agreed to be charged up to an amount, so a smaller charge is inside the agreement and a larger one is not.

• Bank account: a bank debit has to match the amount the family was given, so any change at all needs them told first.

Keeping automatic payments running through a change

In Documents → Recurring, click the family's amount to open Change amount, type the new figure and press Review change. Encore works out what happens on the family's next charge day and tells you before you save.

• A decrease keeps automatic payment running. Nothing to tick.

• An increase keeps it running only if you tick the sentence beneath it: that you have already emailed the family the new amount and when it starts, at least 10 days before that date. That tick is your word, and it is recorded with the change.

When it continues, the review says Automatic payment continues. Press Save new amount and Encore emails the family straight away — the new amount, the day it is first charged, and a button to stop automatic payments if they would rather pay each invoice themselves. If that email does not send, the new amount is not charged until it does, and the dialog offers Email them again.

Leave the box unticked, and the change is saved the ordinary way. Whether automatic payment carries on then depends only on what the family already agreed to (above): a card family whose agreement covers the new amount is still charged; anyone else is sent a pay link each month instead. The review tells you which before you save, and nobody is emailed.

Who can keep it running

Only you, the owner. A manager can change an amount too, but never with the tick: their change is always saved the ordinary way, so a family stays on automatic payments only if their existing agreement already covers the new amount. And keeping it running is for monthly charges only: the email tells the family about their monthly tuition, so a weekly, quarterly or yearly charge cannot be kept running this way.

Bank debits need ten days' notice

Federal rules covering electronic debits from a bank account require the customer to be told at least ten days before any debit that differs from the amount they were given. That applies whether the new amount is higher or lower. It is a legal requirement, not a courtesy — and it is why the tick asks about ten days.

The step only you can take

Tell the family before you raise their price: the new amount, when it starts, and how they will pay it. Encore's own email follows when you save, but it is not a substitute for hearing it from you first — a family who receives an unexplained new figure will assume something has broken. A family who heard from you last week will not.

Invoices you have already sent are never changed. The new amount starts from the next billing period. Changing several families at once? See Recurring charges and batch pricing.