Pay to Book | Help Center

With pay to book, a family pays for a lesson when it is booked. Trio holds the time until the family pays, and releases it at the deadline when they do not. Pay to book needs the Pro or Max plan and a connected Stripe account.

Setting It Up

On the Plans tab of your billing dashboard, create or edit a Per Lesson plan.
Set Billing Timing to Pay to book each lesson. See Billing Plans.
On the Automation tab, under Pay to Book, set Hours to pay before a booking is released: 1 to 168 hours, 48 by default. This is one setting for your whole studio. Click Save Settings.
Enroll the student in the plan. See Enrollments and Pauses.

What Happens at Booking

When a family or a teacher books a single lesson on the plan, Trio creates the lesson, a one-line invoice and a payment hold in one step. The lesson shows on your calendar with an Awaiting payment label and the deadline until the family pays.

When a family books from their own schedule, they review and pay on one screen, and the lesson is booked when they pay. If the payment fails, they can go back and the time is released at once.
If the family has autopay with a card or wallet, Trio charges it at once and confirms the booking.
Otherwise, the family gets a notice to pay, with the deadline. The pay page takes cards and wallets. Bank payments are not offered, because they clear after the deadline.

The Deadline

The deadline is the earlier of:

the hours you set in Hours to pay before a booking is released, counted from the booking, and
1 hour before the lesson starts.

A booking less than 1 hour before the lesson starts is refused.

When the deadline passes and the lesson is not paid, Trio voids the invoice, cancels the lesson with no makeup credit, and tells the family and the teacher that the time is open again.

Keeping or Cancelling a Held Lesson

To keep the lesson without payment, open it on the calendar and choose Confirm without payment. The hold clears, and the invoice stays open like any other per-lesson invoice.
Cancelling a held lesson before it is paid voids the invoice and gives no makeup credit. A paid lesson follows your normal cancellation policy.

Lessons That Are Not Held

Recurring lessons, group lessons, and makeup bookings are never held; the monthly run bills them as usual.

On a pay-to-book plan, the monthly run bills recurring lessons and makeups before the month starts, and a makeup bills $0. A booking dated inside an enrollment pause is not held for payment.