Paying, packages and credits
How you pay your teacher, and how packages and monthly plans turn into lessons you can book.
You pay your teacher directly
Aula does not take payment for lessons. You pay your teacher the way you agreed with them, for example by bank transfer or cash. Your teacher records the payment, and a lesson shows as paid once they do.
Packages
A package is several lessons at a lower price per lesson. The site shows the price, the saving and how long the credits last.
Request the package
Open a package and choose Request this package. Your teacher gets an email.
Pay your teacher
Pay directly. In Credits, the request shows as waiting for payment. You can Withdraw request while it waits.
Book with credits
When your teacher confirms the payment, the lessons appear as credits. Each booking of that lesson uses one.
A request that your teacher does not answer closes after 14 days. Nothing is owed, and you can ask again.
You and any children on your account can send up to 6 package and plan requests in an hour and 15 in a day, withdrawn ones included. Past that, try again later.
Credits
Credits shows what you can still book, how many are left in each package, when they must be used by, and a history of every change: lessons added, used, returned from a cancelled lesson, expired or changed by your teacher.
- When you book a lesson that your credits cover, One of your credits is chosen by default. You can Pay your teacher directly instead.
- Credits that expire soonest are used first. The lesson must take place before they expire, so a time after that date is paid directly.
- Cancel within your teacher's free cancellation window and the credit comes back. Cancel late and it stays used.
Payments
Credits also lists Payments: every lesson, package, plan month and set of extra lessons your teacher recorded as paid, newest first, with the amount and the day they recorded it. A payment your teacher gave back shows as Refunded. At a school, each line names the teacher you paid. If a payment you made is missing, tell your teacher: only they can record it.
Each payment has a receipt: a page with what it paid for, who it was for, the amount, the date and how it was paid, which you can print or save as PDF. Monthly statements shows one calendar month at a time: the payments recorded that month, including class fees the bank collected by direct debit that month, the month's class fees with where each stands (unpaid, nothing to pay when the school waived it, sent to the bank, collected, or returned by the bank with the date and the reason), and what is still owed at its end, the unpaid lessons and the unpaid or returned class fees of that month or earlier, with the totals. A guardian's statement covers every child on the account, and a child's payments show on it. If you book for children, the family home (Open the family home on Account) also lists this month's class fees with where each stands and shows your direct debit mandate. Receipts and statements are not invoices. When the school invoices its class fees in its invoicing app on the same account, the statement also names the invoices issued for that month's fees.
Class fees and direct debit
A class can have a monthly fee and an enrolment fee, which the school charges to whoever pays for the student: you for your children. The school can collect them from your bank account by SEPA direct debit, or you pay it another way.
When the school takes direct debit, Account shows Direct debit with Manage direct debit, and a class with a monthly fee that you or a child have a seat in shows Set up direct debit under it on Classes and on Account. To sign a mandate, enter your IBAN (spaces are fine; only accounts in the SEPA area can be debited) and the Account holder as your bank has it, read the mandate text, which names the school, tick the box to accept it and select Sign mandate. One mandate covers all your children's fees. Your bank lets you claim a refund of a debit within 8 weeks of it.
Once signed, the page shows the account ending, the mandate reference and the day you signed. Download the mandate (PDF) saves a copy, with the account partly hidden. To change bank account, sign again under Change bank account: the new mandate replaces the old one. Revoke mandate stops the school debiting your account; it then asks you to pay another way.
Before each debit the school emails you the amount, the day your bank will be charged, the concept and your mandate reference. If something looks wrong, reply to the school before that day.
If the bank returns a debit, for example for insufficient funds, the school emails you the amount, the return date and the reason, the fee shows as returned with the reason on your monthly statement, and the school collects it again or asks you to pay. If class fees you pay yourself stay unpaid, the school emails you a reminder 3 days after they fell due (or after the bank returned the debit), a second at 10 days and a final notice at 20, with what you owe. Your data download lists your mandates with the account partly hidden. Deleting your account revokes your mandate, and the school keeps it as its record.
To pay the school by bank transfer, open your monthly statement: when the school has a collection account and your fees are not collected by direct debit, the statement and its email show Pay by bank transfer with the account holder, the IBAN and your own reference. Write the reference in the transfer's concept so the school can tell the payment is yours. It stays the same every month and covers all your children.
Monthly plans
A monthly plan gives you a set number of lessons each month at one price. Choose Ask to join on a plan, optionally with the weekday and time you usually want, and your teacher accepts and picks the start date. You pay each month directly. Each paid month adds that month's lessons. Unused lessons lapse at the end of the month unless the plan says some carry over: then up to that many move to the next month and lapse at its end. If you need more lessons in a month, ask your teacher: once you pay for them they add them to that month, and they lapse when it ends. Your teacher can pause or end the plan. If your teacher sets up weekly lessons, they book them for you each paid month. You can open one lesson to cancel only that one.