How to Pay Tutors Per Lesson: Rates, Earnings and Payouts

If you run a tutoring agency or a centre with visiting teachers, you probably do not pay a fixed monthly salary. You pay for lessons actually taught: Rs 600 an hour for one tutor, Rs 450 per class for another, a higher rate after a tutor has been with you a year.

That sounds simple until month end. Someone has to count each tutor's lessons, remember who changed rate in the middle of the month, subtract classes that were cancelled, and then type amounts into a bank upload. One missed lesson means an unhappy tutor. One lesson counted twice means money you cannot easily get back.

This guide explains a clean routine for per-lesson pay, and how the Tutor earnings page in TuitionDesk automates the counting part.

Hourly, per lesson or monthly: pick one model per tutor

Tutor pay generally falls into a few shapes:

Model	Works well when	Watch out for
Fixed monthly salary	Full-time staff with a steady timetable	Paying the same in a month with fewer classes
Per hour	Part-time or visiting tutors, lessons of varying length	Needs accurate start and end times
Per lesson	One standard class length, such as a 60-minute session	A short or long class pays the same
Hybrid	Core salary plus extra for additional batches	Two systems to keep in sync

Whatever you choose, write the rule down for the tutor: what counts as a paid lesson, whether cancelled or no-show classes pay, and how often you pay. Disputes almost always come from an unwritten rule, not from the arithmetic.

For monthly salaried staff, see teacher payroll and salary management. This post covers the per-lesson side.

What TuitionDesk records for you

TuitionDesk supports two rate types for each tutor: per hour and per lesson. The flow is:

A lesson is held. An earning is created when a class is marked complete, or when the tutor checks out of the lesson. Each lesson can have only one earning per tutor, so a double tap or a retry does not create a duplicate.
The rate on the lesson date is applied. The earning uses the tutor's rate as it stood on the date of the lesson, not today's rate.
The amount is calculated. For an hourly rate, the amount is the rate multiplied by the lesson's minutes (start time to end time), rounded to the nearest minor unit. For a per-lesson rate, it is the flat amount.
If there is no rate yet, the earning is saved as Needs rate instead of being lost. Set the rate later and price those lessons in one step.

Each earning moves through simple statuses: Accrued (ready to pay), Needs rate, Statemented (exported, awaiting payment), Paid, or Void.

TuitionDesk records and totals what you owe. It does not move money. You pay tutors through your own bank or payout tool, then mark the batch paid in TuitionDesk.

Set rates that change over time

On the Tutor earnings page, the Set a tutor rate form takes the tutor, rate type (per hour or per lesson), amount, currency and an effective from date.

A new rate closes the previous one the day before it starts. History is kept, never overwritten, so last month's lessons still price at last month's rate.
You cannot save a new rate that starts on or before the date an open rate already began. This stops accidental overlaps.
Currency is set per rate, so an agency paying some tutors in one currency and some in another can total each separately.

Practical tip: set the new rate to start on the first day of a pay period. It keeps statements easy to explain to the tutor.

If you added lessons before a tutor had any rate, tap Price waiting lessons after saving the rate. Every Needs-rate lesson whose date now has a rate gets priced.

Catch under-payment before you export

The most common payroll error is a lesson that was taught but never counted. TuitionDesk shows a warning on the Tutor earnings page when lessons from the last 60 days were held but have no earning. The count is a prompt to check those sessions before you export, so a tutor is not underpaid.

A sensible pre-payout checklist:

Clear the amber warning for lessons held with no earning.
Clear any Needs rate rows.
Scan the list for unusual durations, such as a 3-hour entry for a 1-hour class.
Void anything wrong, with a written reason (at least 3 characters). Voiding is only allowed before a lesson is exported or paid.

If you use substitutes, the earning follows the teacher who actually took the class. See substitute teachers, attendance and pay for how cover and reassignment work.

Export, pay, then mark paid

When the list is clean:

Tap Export CSV. You get a file with tutor, lesson date, minutes, amount, currency and a batch ID, up to 5,000 rows at a time.
Exporting stamps those rows as Statemented with the batch ID, so a second export never repeats the same lessons. If more than 5,000 rows were waiting, export again for the rest.
Pay the tutors through your bank or payout tool using the file.
Back in TuitionDesk, tap Mark paid on the batch. This marks every lesson in it paid. The page asks you to confirm because it cannot be undone.

When a batch is marked paid, tutors who have an email on file receive a payment confirmation email with the amount and period.

Totals are shown per currency as Owed and Paid, so you can see what is outstanding at a glance. You can filter the list by status, and large lists page through 50 at a time.

What tutors see

Teachers who sign in get a My earnings view showing only their own lessons, amounts and statuses, plus owed and paid totals. They cannot see other tutors or change rates. Showing tutors the same ledger you pay from removes most of the "did you count my Thursday class?" messages. Pair it with separate teacher logins so each tutor has their own access.

A monthly routine that takes minutes

When	What to do
Start of month	Add or update rates with the start date as the first of the month
During the month	Tutors check out of lessons or you mark classes complete
Pay day minus 2	Clear the held-lesson warning and Needs-rate rows, void errors
Pay day	Export CSV, pay, mark the batch paid
After	Record the payout in expenses; see recurring expenses and monthly profit

Agencies managing many tutors will also find running a home tutor agency with 100 teachers useful.

Limits to know before you start

Pay models supported are per hour and per lesson. Per-student or percentage-of-fee pay is not built in.
Tutor earnings is a paid-plan feature and is not on Free. Check the pricing page for the plan that includes it.
Earnings appear for lessons completed or checked out after the feature is active on your plan.
Mark paid cannot be reversed, and exported lessons cannot be voided from the page, so review before exporting.

Stop counting lessons by hand

Per-lesson pay should be a five-minute review, not a day of spreadsheets. Create your free TuitionDesk account to set up tutors and batches, then see the pricing page to choose a plan that includes Tutor earnings.