My Music Staff

Vorteile

Scheduling with family portal; auto-invoicing and autopay; automated reminders; options for to host with MMS or embed MMS features on your website.

Nachteile

I’ve grown with MMS // I started using it almost right from their beginning. I was looking for something to help manage my growing student list and have stuck with them through some growing pains as they’ve vastly updated over the last 2yr (was on the beta testing team!).

Vorteile

I love that they have integrated all of software needs to run my business in one place! I have used MMS for close to 10 years and it has been the BEST decision that I’ve made for my business!!

Nachteile

I wish there was a dedicated app, instead of having to use my browser, but that is a very insignificant complaint. 😁

Vorteile

I LOVE the calendar system, attendance system, student/parent portal, and the simple integration with Stripe for payments that populates from the calendar. It saves so many hours each week!

Nachteile

I wish it was easier to schedule staff meetings in MMS, and I would love it if teachers could have their own connected student account that we could put in Performances and Meetings/Events.

Vorteile

I find new things pretty much every day that make it easier for me. I like the addition of the pencil at the top of each category, which is a great prompt.

Nachteile

I find the revenue section incredibly difficult to understand. I wish the day view on the calendar had a little more information. Also, living in Australia makes it hard to have any answers to questions in a timely manner. It would be great to have access to help outside of normal hours in Canada. I would also like to see Quickbooks integrate with My Music Staff.

Vorteile

I honestly wouldn't be able to do this job without Mymusicstaff. It's works like a well oiled machine with everything linking in. On the odd occasion I've needed technical support, this has been easy and timely.

Nachteile

Literally can't think of anything - all I need is included.

Vorteile

My Music Staff was a game changer for me in terms of managing multiple clients, classes and locations that I work from. It helped me to consolidate my calendar, my billing and payments, my class notes and all my files for online lessons. Overall it's a great platform if you would like to consolidate all your client information and manage your studio well.

Nachteile

My only criticism is the amount of upgrades lately and there is not indication of what will change when you're asked to upgrade. I would love to go back to the old model sometimes because I miss the student notes being visible instead of an attachment. I also don't like that if I have a missed class I cannot add payment to the note, I have to go in separately and add the payment from billing. Otherwise I have no complaints.

Vorteile

Love the calendar organization features, being able to see all my students info and arrange my time appropriately. It also comes with a website to build that I utilize. Also helps me track my invoices and payments in a timely manner.

Nachteile

Downside is no app available, but I hear it's in the works

Vorteile

I love the ease of organizing and tracking my students. I easily set up recurring time slots and set permanent weekly times for each student. I can also send mass messages and emails about recitals and news. It automatically sends invoices each month and I can customize my fees for each one if I'd like to give discounts, for example.

Nachteile

I wish it had an app, though the developers have been constantly updating and improving it for as long as I've used it (over two years).

Vorteile

I love that My Music Staff integrates my Studio Calendar, my billing, and allows me to track my income and business expenses. Having all of that in one location saves me so much time when doing my taxes each year!My students find it very easy to work with when they need to swap out their lesson time occasionally.

Nachteile

It took me a while to understand some of the details of the invoicing process. There are still times when the charges are not what I expected them to be.

Vorteile

The best features are the automatic invoicing based on the calendar, the reminder texts and emails, the registration form and how I can put it on my website through Weebly, and the student management.

Nachteile

There is no way for two parents to each pay half of a bill for a student. I have worked around this by making a second "student" for the second parent to pay for. I also don't like how the invoices are specific enough and will just say "balance forward" instead of what the charge was. I wish I could customize the left sidebar to take out the features I don't use.

Vorteile

I love that this does everything for me - online library, booking, billing, record keeping, linking to my website. I will NEVER go back to the way I used to do things.

Nachteile

There are a few bugs and tricky things to figure out - like setting up MMS reminders, allowing students to book during cancelled lesson slots without using a makeup credit.

Vorteile

Integrating MMS was incredibly easy. There are a few small features they could add to make it even easier but overall it went quickly enough. I love the transparent (and inexpensive) per teacher pricing. Uptime is fantastic; I don't think I've ever experienced the site being down.

Nachteile

MMS is great but not quite mature. I appreciate the really solid uptime but the site can be very slow. As an administrator, I am used to the system and I can generally make it do what I want. My teachers sometimes complain about it (navigating to the contact information for the parents of a child student can be a pain, and has to be explained to them because it's not obvious) but overall they enjoy having student and schedule info at their fingertips. None of them make use of the notes, repertoire, library, etc. so these features don't do much for us though they seem like solid features

Vorteile

MMS is easy to use and understand and when on the rare occasion you have a question you can talk to a live tech support person within hours. Having that immediate help is critical in my busy studio.

Nachteile

I wish I could add e transfer payments automatically although I know that is impossible. It is pretty quick and easy but I just forget to do it during my busy days.

Vorteile

It's intuitive, very user friendly, easily lets me reconcile lessons & contact parents, and invoicing has never been easier!

Nachteile

I wish there were keyboard shortcuts in the Lesson Notes section for things like bullet points, numbers points like there are in Google Docs or Microsoft word. Small thing, but it would be great.

Vorteile

I liked the fact that I could have my teaching business all in one place, and their's a student portal I can share all my resources.

Nachteile

Every month the invoices and Family Accounts don't match up.
Invoices don't make sense most of the time, and if you use the balance brought forward option, it is more often that not, wildly inaccurate.
I have been left out of pocket on so many occasions, cos invoices are generated incorrectly from the system.
Family accounts are invariably wrong, despite inputting the correct information.
My books never balance!
I have raised the issue with MMS countless times, and each time they fob me off with generic user manual spiel, but never resolve the issue.
The customer service is appalling.
Am looking for a new system to use, cos their accounts management is so inaccurate it's really damaging my business now.

Vorteile

Ability to have all student data in one place

Nachteile

The email feature is very limited in fonts and formats. I would like more options in font style (particularly Garamond so it matches my studio brand)

Vorteile

The calendar is my favourite feature, but it's more than that. It's how all the additional features work together with the calendar for efficiency and organization. Without My Music Staff, I would not be able to keep up with the number of students my school now has.

Nachteile

The only thing that comes to mind is how make-up lessons are recorded under teacher payroll when a substitute teacher is involved. The original teacher is given the income from a cancelled lesson instead of the substitute, but is corrected only if the substitute teacher gives a make-up lesson. The substitute should be the one being compensated regardless.

Vorteile

The calendar and invoicing systems are the BEST!!!!

Nachteile

Some of the menu options do not fit on a desktop screen so I have to "scroll" to the right or left to "see" everything. I would prefer that all information is "viewable" on one screen.

Vorteile

Everything that I mentioned about MMS being the best possible music lesson software out there on the previous page! The best things are it allows students to make payments via Stripe, and has a fantastic scheduling and lesson notes system.

Nachteile

Only thing I could say is that the formatting for lesson notes can be a little glitchy sometimes. Otherwise everything's perfect.

Vorteile

My very favorite part of my music staff is invoicing! And I love her students can manage their lesson cancellations in the calendar. My music staff has a small price to pay, but ultimately helps me manage my earnings and probably saves me money in the long run because it is much easier to keep track of cancellations and make up lessons. I also really like how I have opportunity to have a website. Another big favorite aspect of the program of mine is that students can register themselves into Recitals.

Nachteile

The concept of make up classes is sometimes hard to get across to students, but the functionality is fine! The phone app is a little hard to use, especially when trying to edit titles of news and blog posts. Sometimes it freezes. But this is a very minor part of my use of my music staff.

Vorteile

I love being able to manage 100s of students and 10s of teachers in MMS. We are able to easily contact every one and schedule them.

Nachteile

I dislike the fact that there is no API to help us connect ClickFunnels and be able to enroll our summer campers in a more streamlined way.

Vorteile

MMS is easy to use and easy to integrate into our business protocols. It helps tremendously in keeping us organized and limits the need for tons of paperwork and binders.

Nachteile

Missing Features:- Capability to take swiped card transaction- An easier way to track the difference between make-up lessons that were given due to teacher absence versus student absence in the student profile. Currently all issued make-up credits are grouped together in each student's profile, but since we have our studio policies set to where the students aren't penalized for teacher absences and they have a set limit of make-up credits they can receive for student absences per year it is very hard for us to track.

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Vorteile

The best part of the system, and by far the most used for us is the scheduling. Not only does in make keeping track of our lessons very simple and straightforward, we can very quickly make changes, and even provide our teachers with access so they can stay on top of their schedules. In addition, being able to synchronize the MMS calendars to Google Calendar or Apple Calendars means that I can see an updated schedule on my phone at any moment. I also love their automated payment system which has removed the need to chase down students/parents for tuition payments; everything goes through automatically at the end of the month and we can rely on a consistent stream of income to cover expense and make sure everyone is paid on time.

Nachteile

The only thing I don't like about MMS is the recent GUI change. I'd been using the earlier system for many years and have become quite comfortable with where everything was located. The GUI updated moved some features around which has been somewhat annoying - however I'm gradually getting used to the new layouts.

Vorteile

The support is amazing, quick and precise.

Nachteile

There is no online booking at the moment. Sometimes, people just want to book 1 lesson online without emails or phone calls. They don't have an App. You have to open a window in your phone, which makes it harder to read.

Vorteile

The flexibility and customization features stand out the most. Many businesses have slightly different approaches to the way they run their businesses and I have never found a circumstance where the needs of my businesses quirks were able to be implemented. It's very easy to use, understand and has always been exceptionally reliable. I rarely come across a bug in the system.

Nachteile

I don't really dislike anything but I also don't use the invoicing portion of the system as I don't invoice clients. I do direct debit.

Vorteile

Overall ease of use. It's well organised, has a great facility for students and parents, and keeps our studio running without error (only our own human errors!). It was a breath of fresh air when we joined several years ago and it's been great to see the product grow and develop. Couldn't be without it.

Nachteile

1. That it doesn't integrate with Xero2. That new students can't see current availability and book themselves in.

Vorteile

Before, I was planning everything through Google Calendar which was fine with a small studio. As I grew, I needed to juggle more students and this was a shift necessary to look more professional. I felt so organized once moving to MMS. I love there is a login system for the parents to use, whenever they do use it, which makes me seem professional. My most used features are student management, calendar, attendance, and invoicing.

Nachteile

A direct way for parents to register for specific events. I don't like needing to direct them to login, go to calendar, find the event, then click to register. Seems too much work for them and they'll never do it.

Vorteile

I enjoy that I can schedule students, personal and professional on my calendar. The automated system for reminders and invoices are a Godsend and I couldn’t live without it! 8+ years of using MMS and it’s been a game changer.

Nachteile

The updates, it’s not super user friendly and I have to go through trial and error to understand the new features vs having a clear explanation of things that changed. The site does trip up at times and doesn’t show what I am looking for, like the calendar won’t open to the following week and I’ll have to try multiple times.

Vorteile

The ability this website has given me to track student payments and schedules has freed up my time formerly spent on a ridiculous number of admin duties so that now I can TEACH during that time! I can't say enough how much MyMusicStaff is 1000% worth it!!! It's a no-brainer! I appreciate that they keep their prices so low (have you looked at the competition?!!), but I would honestly be happy to pay more! The service they offer my studio is absolutely invaluable. And the customer service! They are so kind, friendly, and eternally patient, lol! I'm grateful!

Nachteile

I feel like these guys are constantly improving the site and responding to requests for even better features... no complaints here!

Vorteile

Convenience. A one stop administration platform.

Nachteile

I work from a place with poor connectivity so I think it would be helpful if it was in an app and all the info just stored on my phone through the app. Sometimes I can access info when I need to because of this.

Vorteile

All aspects were very easy to use except the Webpage setup. Most of that is due to my inexperience. I love how easy it is to timetable students, create resources for them to access, and keep lesson notes.

Nachteile

I wish there was more consistency on the notes page and it was easier to imbed images (graphics).

Vorteile

Invoicing, tracking attendance, and the calendar are among my favorite MMS features. It was easy to input all of my students into the system, and I love how the calendar helps keep me on track!

Nachteile

I do not like how it organizes make up credits issued, used, and available on the student info page… this is so confusing! I would appreciate if it simply told me the amount of make up credits I owe, and the amount I have on my schedule.

Vorteile

Easy and intuitive inner face. Very easy to train schools' managers and staff. Teachers love My Music Staff. Especially transparency of payroll.

Nachteile

Student setup has too many steps and too much going back and forth between steps.

Vorteile

I discovered MMS when covid hit. It has been a god send. The monthly fee is more than saved in the time I save and what I offer to my pupils. The calendar means I can check my day at a glance despite several teaching venues which I can colour differently. Billing pupils is so easy and keeping track of their accounts is a doddle as MMS does it all for me. I log notes during the lesson which I send to parents or pupils, or both, at the end of the lesson by clicking a box. When it comes to the end of the tax year, I press a couple of buttons and there is my income and expenditure. I appear more professional to my customers and my working life is more streamlined and efficient.

Nachteile

Very minor gripes like being limited as to the email I can send with an invoice. I like to customise the invoice email based on school or private teaching. Whilst I can do this by changing the invoice or invoice reminder default emails, I can’t use any others so have to change the emails repeatedly by the time I invoice everyone.

Vorteile

I love the calendar feature, the families and invoices feature to keep track of payments, send reminders, and sort out the book fees from lesson fees.

Nachteile

I guess I'm not too picky as there's nothing I really don't like, usually I can find what I'm looking for after a search or contacting customer support.

Vorteile

It’s easy to use for our teachers and clients. The interface is clean and straight forward. We have almost never had to teach someone the interface.

Nachteile

Where it counts most my music staff fails. The most critical failure is in their financial ledger. It is possible to entirely mess up a client ledger if a lesson is accidentally removed from the calendar. Or if a rate is changed. It’s a rule of finance that you NEVER make changes to a ledger after the end of the month is closed out and an invoice created. My music staff happily goes back in time and makes changes to billing that are nearly impossible to find. Zero stars in that category.

Also they’ve made design decisions that are absolutely backwards of what you would expect. Such as needing to edit every single lesson to change the time zone of the studio.

Vorteile

The ability to schedule multiple teachers in multiple locations and at a glance to see where everybody is, makes it possible to run my company effectively.

Nachteile

Invoicing for me is challenging but my own fault because I haven't set up automatic invoicing yet...I have a feeling my life is about to change once I do.

Vorteile

We rely on this software for our day-to-day tasks managing our music studio of 15 teachers and 200+ students. It's great to have software that is designed for the particular needs of a studio; we especially love the practice tracking feature!

Nachteile

The one thing I would love to see is some features with billing; for instance, we should be able to send late reminders en masse. I also think that having a date range on reports would make a lot of sense. For instance, if I ask it to send me financial reports, it will include the next month as well, which does not make sense.

Vorteile

I love using MMS to keep track of students information and scheduling. The calendar is very well constructed.

Nachteile

There are certain aspects I don’t use due having other options that I like better. For example the online resources center and practice tracking. Great features, I just don’t use them

Vorteile

Easy to set up and use, integrates with Squarespace and PayPal easily. I also love the ability for students to self-register for lessons.

Nachteile

Website builder is very outdated but apparently being upgraded in the future. I also would like the ability to charge students before they self-register for a lesson.

Vorteile

Everything I need is in one program! There are so many automated features, which saves me a lot of time.

Nachteile

I'm still adjusting to the new website, being able to locate certain information in student profiles, but it's coming! I'd love to be able to add payroll items like income taxes, vacation pay, and paid admin time based on lessons taught each week - perhaps that's possible and I haven't figured it out yet.

Vorteile

I have been using MMS since 2020 when my whole studio went online. Their customer support is fantastic and their team is always available to talk over the phone. Emails are responded to quickly and they always have a solution for my issues.My favorite feature is the auto-invoicing and auto-payment. The website has saved me countless hours of invoice logging, tracking down payments, and scheduling since I can automate everything.I schedule all my lessons through MMS and It's nice that my students can launch their Zoom lesson right from the portal.

Nachteile

I really want to make MMS my ultimate hub for my students to access all their materials and video lessons, as well as send me videos and track their practice. However, I think this is where MMS is really lacking. The last couple of updates have been great but the system still feels like it is stuck in the early 2000's. I'm fairly techy so I haven't had a problem figuring out how to navigate MMS, but students and parents who are not techy at all really struggle, so these features end up being neglected by them. I really struggle to get any of my studio members to use the practice log and send me videos of their practice because it's just not intuitive or easy to access. The Online Resources is an improvement, but even then the filing system is really clunky. I would love to especially see an update of how files are delivered to students. Right now you can email students to notify them that a video or file has been added to their Online Resources. However, when they click the file link in their email they are taken to their home page and not directly to the file I have shared with them.

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Vorteile

I signed up for My Music Staff so help me with payment tracking. With 25+ clients, it was becoming difficult to keep track. I love that I can credit lessons, give discounts, invoice parents - all the features I need for running a music studio. After a few months, My Music Staff became my primary scheduling tool. At the beginning of a lesson season, some lesson times are more sought after than others. Using the registration tools, students can sign up on their own and it's a fair and square process!

Nachteile

The only issue I've come across is when I do a one-time-only lesson. I don't necessarily want to add the student to my active student list. But still need to get them on the calendar. I'm not sure what the solution would be though!

Vorteile

MMS is overall very easy to use, has an attractive, well-thought through design, and is very reliable. I use it for registering new students, tracking attendance, billing and receiving payments. The customer service team are responsive, honest, open to suggestions and overall simply very helpful. I use it every day, it is the core software of my business, and it has significantly reduced my admin work.

Nachteile

Just a couple of minor niggles. I’d like the lesson notes to copy through automatically to a student’s next lesson; usually they do this, but they don’t if it’s not a repeating lesson. It’s not a big deal. I don’t love the Milage function, which is a bit unwieldy to use.

Vorteile

The features I most use are invoicing, scheduling, birthday reminder emails, and maintaining student information. I am now converting from QB to the management process in MMS.

Nachteile

I would like payments from my accounting process to automatically integrate into the accounts. At this time I have to manually input everything.It is also inconvenient sometimes to come back to a landing page instead of resuming where I left off.

Vorteile

Manages all aspects of my music school including scheduling and invoicing! I couldn’t carry 50+ students without My Music Staff!

Nachteile

Some things are tricky to find or figure out. But the customer service is so good, it doesn’t take long before my problem is solved!

Vorteile

Easy to useFull of featuresWorks on all my devicesGives me the info I needGreat reportsSuperb support every single time

Nachteile

Nothing really all works well for me and the support is great when it doesn't yet

Vorteile

Intelligent thinking has gone into this platfrom - invoicing + payment reminders, calandar managment, waitlist management, CRM for students and families, integrates with credit card payments if you want to do this, lending library (which you can set a date for return and that goes out with the reminder to the student/parent). Love the automation with emailing invoices - so easy!So well priced!

Nachteile

Future development wishlist possibility - would love to integrate with Rockoutloudlive for online lessons if possible and with MYOB.

Vorteile

I needed a program which would cater specifically for a music teacher’s needs. My favourite features are the attendance report, lessons notes (which can be emailed immediately after the lesson to the student and/or their parent) the calendar which keeps me organized all term, and the professional looking invoices.

Nachteile

Any issues I had initially have already been improved.

Vorteile

That it has a multitude of different features. Makes it easier to keep track of schedules, students, payments, invoices, etc.

Nachteile

There is nothing that I dislike. It is an amazing program.