Class passes, memberships and the money from missed classes
Expiry dates, make-up classes and arrears in plain sight: how to set your rules in advance and explain them without upsetting anyone or giving classes away.
Equipo Aforo
From the trade ·
In short
The three money rules: expiry dates, make-up classes and arrears in plain sight.
Money trouble in a studio comes from deciding each case on the spot. Three rules, written down before they’re needed, prevent it.
Class passes have an expiry date. A useful expiry date has three parts, and the first is a deadline that fits comfortably within the real pace of your classes.
The second is a reminder before it runs out, so there’s time to react. The third is a date that’s visible from the day of purchase.
Make-up classes are decided as a rule, and anyone who gives notice in time gets one. You choose the exact form, as long as it’s published where people book.
Monthly memberships issue their bill every month, show arrears as soon as they exist and pro-rate the first month for anyone who joins partway through.
Rules don’t upset people; surprises do. Anything bought before a change is honoured as it was.
Selling the class is the easy part. The hard part is everything that happens afterwards.
There’s the class pass bought months ago, and nobody knows how many classes are left on it. There’s the member who has two unpaid bills you feel awkward bringing up.
And there’s the student who didn’t come on Tuesday and asks whether she can come “any other day”. That’s where a studio loses money and patience.
Almost all those messes have the same root: the rules weren’t decided before they were needed.
Each case is decided on the spot, with the person in front of you, and of course what comes out is the generous answer, not the sustainable one.
Class passes: an expiry date keeps order
A class pass with no expiry date looks like a nice gesture, but it creates a double problem.
For you, it’s money collected that is still a debt: classes you owe at some undefined point in the future.
For your student, it’s a list of “I’ll go soon” that never comes, and a relationship with the studio that cools without anyone deciding it.
A well-set expiry date has three parts:
- A reasonable deadline for using up the pass, based on the real pace of your classes: comfortable enough to fit, but firm enough to nudge people to come.
- A reminder before it expires, with time to react. The reminder is there so the pass gets used.
- The date visible from the day of purchase, on the receipt, in their account, where they can see it without asking you.
Make-up classes: decide the rule, not each case
“Can I make up the class?” is the most awkward question in the trade, because any improvised answer makes you look bad.
If you say yes to everything, your classes turn into an endless game of Tetris; if you say no on a bad day, it looks unfair.
The way out is the same as with cancellations: a written rule, the same for everyone.
You choose the exact form: giving notice in advance entitles people to a make-up class, make-up classes go into free slots, they expire if unused…
Any of them works if it’s decided beforehand, published where people book, and applied automatically.
Whoever gives notice in time makes up the class; whoever doesn’t gets whatever you decided, not whatever your mood is that day.
Memberships: arrears in plain sight
With monthly memberships, the enemy is silence. A bill that goes unpaid and unclaimed turns into two.
And asking for two months is far more awkward than asking for one. In the end you give classes away to avoid having the conversation.
- Every month, its bill: always issued, with no exceptions left to memory.
- Arrears visible as soon as they exist, to you and to the person who owes them. An automatic reminder in the first month saves the awkward conversation in the third.
- The first month, pro-rated: whoever joins mid-month pays their fair share. Starting with clear accounts sets the tone for everything else.
How to explain it without upsetting anyone
Rules don’t upset people; surprises do. To go from “we’ll see” to clear rules without damaging the relationship:
- Write them short and in your own voice: three clear sentences are worth more than a rulebook.
- Publish them where people buy and book, not hidden in a PDF.
- Apply them from now on: anything bought before is honoured as it was, and new rules are announced in good time.
- Let the system play bad cop: if the expiry reminder goes out by itself and the bill is issued automatically, you’re never the one chasing, you’re the one teaching.
That’s why Aforo has class passes with expiry dates that deduct themselves, make-up classes under your rules and memberships with arrears in plain sight.
That way the money from missed classes stops being an issue, and you can get back to the wheel.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a class pass last before it expires?
Long enough to be met, written down from day one and visible at the moment of purchase.
In creative studios it’s usually between three months and a year, depending on how many sessions the pass includes.
The practical rule is that the deadline should let people use it up by coming at a reasonable pace, not at a punishing one.
Without an expiry date, the pass stops being a sale and becomes an endless debt of work.
People turn up two years later with unused sessions bought at a price that no longer exists. What keeps the expiry date from causing conflict is the reminder.
An automatic reminder when only a few weeks are left turns a problem into a repeat purchase.
The person who had lost track comes back and often buys another pass once it’s used up.
The date also has to be visible from the day of purchase, on the receipt and in that person’s account.
Nobody should discover it on the day they can no longer use the pass.
How do you charge a student who doesn’t turn up to class?
With a rule decided before it happens and always applied the same way.
What you need to decide is what your studio counts as cancelling in time: twenty-four hours, twelve, the same day, depending on how long it really takes you to resell a place.
Below that threshold the place is lost, because there’s no longer time to sell it to someone else, and above it the place is released and whoever is on the waiting list gets in.
That has to be written down and shown before anyone pays, not when they complain. What makes the rule bearable is not having to apply it yourself.
If the system sends the notice, releases the place and offers the slot on its own, you stop negotiating case by case.
Nor do you have to decide based on how awkward that particular person makes you feel, which is what ends up causing grievances between students.
Which is better for a studio, class passes or monthly memberships?
They don’t compete: they solve different things, and studios that do well usually have both.
The class pass is for people who come when they can, with no fixed schedule: it gives you cash in advance and gives them flexibility.
The monthly membership is for people with a regular spot, and it’s what lets you budget for the year, because you know how much is coming in for January before it arrives.
The practical difference is in what each one needs: the pass needs an expiry date and a reminder, and the membership needs a bill, arrears in plain sight and pro-rating for the month someone joins and the month they leave.
A studio that only sells passes lives from peak to peak; one that only sells memberships loses everyone who can’t commit to a fixed day, and in a studio for adults that’s a lot of people.
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