Bringing it up again
You mentioned it two weeks ago. They’re good people, they just forgot. Now you have to say something before Thursday’s session, to the parent of a kid you like.
Get paid without chasing parents
Slate is billing software for independent tutors. Log a session and Slate does the rest — builds the invoice, sends it, follows up until it’s paid, and shows you what you earned at the end of the month.
Free while Slate is in early access, and it gets set up with you. No card to start.
IMAGE — tutor and teen at a kitchen table, laptop open, warm daylight
IMAGE — parent on a phone, paying an invoice, over-the-shoulder
IMAGE — close-up of hands, notebook and calculator on a table
IMAGE — tutor mid-lesson, whiteboard or workbook, natural lightMarch · Eli T.
SEND
The part of tutoring nobody bills for
Chasing payments, rebuilding the same invoice, and the session that never made it onto one.
Rebuilding the same document
Eleven sessions, two rates, one cancelled Tuesday. Every month you open the spreadsheet and do it all over again from the calendar.
The session that never got billed
You taught it. It didn’t make it into the sheet, so it didn’t make it onto the invoice. You will probably never find out.
None of this is tutoring. All of it happens after 9pm.
From taught to paid in three steps
Only the first one is yours. Slate does the other two on its own.
STEP 01
Log the session
One tap when you finish. Slate knows the student and the rate, so the session prices itself.
StudentEli T.
Length60 min
Travel15 min
Session$67.50
STEP 02
Slate writes the invoice
At month’s end, every session becomes one clean invoice under your name. Parents don’t need an account to open it.
Mar 4 · Algebra II$67.50
Mar 11 · Algebra II$60.00
Mar 18 · Algebra II$67.50
Invoice #0148$385.00
STEP 03
The reminder comes from Slate, not you
If it’s late, Slate follows up. Parents pay by card in a tap and the money lands in your Stripe account. You never bring it up.
To Eli’s mom · Today
Hi Dana — a quick reminder that March tutoring ($385.00) is due Friday. You can pay here: slate.to/pay/0148
Thanks! Just paid.
Your month is already invoiced
Built from the sessions you logged and the rates you set. Nothing to rebuild, no math, no copy-paste from last month’s file.
$85 for SAT prep, $60 for algebra, a different number for the family you’ve had for three years. Every session prices itself from there.
If you drive to the session, the drive is part of the bill. Set it once per family and it lands on every invoice.
A cancelled Tuesday rolls into a credit or gets waived, on your policy — and either way the record is on the invoice.
Invoice #0148
Dana T. · Eli T.
6 sessions · Algebra II$360.00
Travel · 50 min$25.00
Total due Mar 31$385.00
SAT prepstandard$85/hr
Algebra IIstandard$60/hr
Sofia P.Friend rate$45/hr
Parents book you without texting you
Share one link. They pick from the times you’re actually free. No thread of “does 4:30 work?”
Set the windows you teach. Parents see only those, and a booking becomes a billable session automatically.
Taught, cancelled, rescheduled. When it’s time to bill, the record is already there — including the Tuesday you’d have forgotten.
Session notes, the schedule, and their own bills — scoped to their child, and nothing else.
Tue 4:00
Tue 5:30
Wed 4:00
Thu 3:30
Thu 5:00
Sat 10:00
Mar 18Algebra II · 60 min$67.50
Mar 16SAT prep · 90 min$127.50
Mar 14Cancelled · rolled to a credit$60.00
The follow-up you don’t have to send
Session reminders and payment nudges go out by text, under your name. Parents opt in, and can reply STOP any time.
Your name on the message, your wording if you want to change it, and a record of every reminder that went out.
It’s a real conversation, not a no-reply blast. What they send back lands with you.
Parents pay by card and the money goes into your own Stripe account, not ours. Slate never holds it and never takes a percentage of it.
From Beth Donovan Tutoring · Thu 8:02am
Reminder: Eli has tutoring today at 5:30pm. Reply STOP to end texts.
Got it, thank you!
$385.00
Paid Mar 29 · Visa ···· 4242
Know what you made this month
One page at the end of the month: what you billed, what came in, what’s still out, and who it’s with.
Billed, collected, and outstanding — the three numbers you currently work out by scrolling a bank app.
Named, with how long it’s been outstanding and how many reminders have already gone out.
Every month adds up to a year you can hand to an accountant instead of reconstructing from texts.
March
Mar 1 – Mar 31
Billed$2,140.00
Collected$1,755.00
Still outstanding$385.00
Dana T.18 days · 2 reminders sent$385.00
Everyone elsepaid in full$0.00
The spreadsheet is free until it isn’t
Google Docs and Zelle cost nothing, and they work — right up until a $240 invoice quietly never gets paid. Four sessions taught, four sessions gone.
The difference isn’t the invoice. Anyone can write an invoice. It’s that Slate sends the reminder, by text, under your name, and keeps sending it until the money lands. A spreadsheet has never once chased anybody.
Slate is free while it’s in early access — no card, no student limit, nothing switched off. Card processing is Stripe’s own rate, charged by Stripe straight into your own account, with nothing added on top and no percentage of what you earn.
Four sessions at $60 is $240. Slate will charge for the product eventually; tutors using it now get an email with the price and a date first. Competitor pricing as published, August 2026; Stripe’s rate is set by Stripe, not by Slate.
What it actually costs
Slate, for a whole yearFree while it’s in early access
$0
One month a family never paidFour sessions at $60. It only has to happen once.
$240
TutorCruncher, for a year$30 a month + 3.85% of every card payment
$1,284
The three things tutors ask first
Asked on every setup call so far, answered here instead of in an email.
Will the texts annoy my families?
Parents opt in before anything sends, messages come under your name rather than ours, and one word — STOP — ends them. Most of what goes out is a session reminder, which parents tend to be glad to get.
I only have eight students. Isn’t a spreadsheet fine?
The spreadsheet is fine right up until a $400 invoice quietly never gets paid. Slate costs nothing right now, so that invoice is the whole argument.
Where does the money actually go?
Into your own Stripe account, under your name, on Stripe’s schedule. Slate never touches it. If you cancel, the account stays yours.
What is Slate?
Slate is the back office for independent tutors. It logs the sessions you teach, turns them into invoices priced from your own rates, sends those invoices to parents by text and email, and takes card payments. Reminders and follow-ups on late invoices send themselves, so you are not the one chasing. It is free while it is in early access.
How much does Slate cost?
Nothing, while Slate is in early access. No card to sign up, no limit on students, no transaction fee, no percentage of your invoices and no per-message charge for texts. Card processing is Stripe’s own rate, charged by Stripe into your own account. Slate will charge for the product eventually — tutors using it now will get an email with the price and a date well before that happens.
Do parents need to create an account to pay?
No. A parent receives a link, opens a real invoice document, and pays by card in one tap. No password, no signup. If they want more, they can open a portal to see past sessions and invoices, but nothing about paying you requires them to create an account.
How is Slate different from tutoring software like TutorCruncher or Teachworks?
Those are built for agencies: multiple tutors, staff scheduling, payroll splits, and usually a percentage of card payments on top of the monthly fee. Slate assumes one person. Sessions, rates, invoices, reminders and payment for a single tutor, with no cut of your revenue.
See what a month with Slate looks like
Free while Slate is in early access. Twenty minutes together and your first real invoice goes out on the call.
IMAGE — tutor at a desk, relaxed, phone down, end of the day