Are you still using an Excel-based student payment control system? 

It's normal that if you haven't tried anything else, you manage your students' payment control system with Excel. You divide it into columns, in each one you put a piece of data or a type of information about your students, such as: name, surname, phone, email, applicable discounts or fees, etc., and you're done. 

But, what happens when it comes to calculating the final fees? Could you make calculations with different cells and figures quickly and with the certainty that you've done it correctly? Does not it sometimes get very complicated to know which cells you have to mark and in what order for the formula to be correct? 

Below, you'll find the advantages and disadvantages of using an Excel-based student payment control system, compared to the advantages and (very few) disadvantages of using specialized software in your sector. You'll see how you can save a lot of time and have the assurance that the calculations are correct, and even better, you don't have to do practically anything.

Advantages of using Excel

• It's a very precise and organized program for office tasks. 
• It allows for countless calculations and formulas. 
• You can create charts of different styles for presentations. 

Disadvantages of using Excel 

• It's not a cloud-based program, meaning you can only access your Excel information from the computer on which it's installed. 
• If you want to have the original program, you have to pay for it, and it's not cheap. If you work with a copy, it may cause problems or be incomplete. 
• It requires previous knowledge or subsequent learning to be able to use many of its functions, some of which are very complicated. 
• It's only compatible with Windows and Macintosh. 
• Files take up a lot of space on the hard drive. 
• Viruses can be attached to Excel files. 
• It requires a powerful computer to work quickly and effectively. 

As you can see, the disadvantages can become a problem if you want to take full advantage of everything the Excel program offers. 

Using an Excel-based student payment control system can mean two things:

1. You end up using it only as an organizer to have all the information about your students in columns and/or tabs.
2. You need external help or spend a lot of time controlling how to perform operations to control fees and payments.

But not everything is bad news; luckily, tools advance and digitalization allows for creating new solutions. Nowadays, you can find management programs or software that allow you to control fees and payments quickly and, above all, effectively. 

Having a student payment control system through software has multiple advantages: 

• It's more agile and fast, and calculations don't depend on you combining cells. 
• You can have all your students' information organized and with more customization options: add photos, separate by type of information, add family profiles, etc. 
• It's a cloud-based program; you can access it from anywhere and control any payment. 
• You can link your software with online payments; this way, besides controlling payments, you'll receive them instantly in your account. 
• It's an easier and more convenient system to use. 
• There are management programs that automatically generate reports and statistics so you know how your dance or music school is doing. 
• The design and aesthetics make it very pleasant to work with. 
• You can create individual or global discounts and with a couple of clicks add them to the fee and have the final price. 

As the only disadvantage, we could say that these programs are not free, although most of the time they offer convenient monthly payments, not to mention that they allow you to do countless tasks in addition to controlling payments. It's important to add that when it comes to cloud-based programs, the updates and improvements that are incorporated are included in the price, so they guarantee that you will never be left with obsolete software. 

At Kydemy, we seek to help you enhance your schools and studios with resources that make your daily life easier, streamlining tasks, and offering the best online services. 

We are at your disposal to answer your questions and clarify all your doubts through any of our communication channels.