Services, appointments, payment requests and a store
Not everything a homeschool group offers is a class. A portfolio review, a reading assessment, a week of packed lunches, a printable unit study. Those used to mean a string of emails, a payment link and a reminder to chase it.
Now organizations can offer one-on-one services families book and pay for in one go, ask a family to pay for an extra right in Messages, send part of a payment back, and sell downloads and videos from a store.
Services families can book
Services is a new place in the console for anything you do one-on-one with a family. It's on every Famlo plan.
Each service works one of two ways:
- Instant booking: "They pick an open time and pay on the same page."
- By request: "They message you first. You reply with a price and a time they pay in Messages." Useful when the price depends on what the family needs.
You set your weekly hours once, block the days you're away, and choose how late families can move or cancel online, from any time before to a week before. Anything already booked stays booked when you block a day. Appointments sit on the Services page in tabs, and you can move one, cancel it with a full, part or no refund, or mark it done.
Booking an appointment, for families
Services show in their own section on an organization's page. Select Book, pick a day and a time, and the time is yours for 10 minutes while you finish. You fill in the details and pay on the same page.
The confirmation email comes with a calendar invite. If plans change, open the appointment and move it or cancel it yourself, up to the time the organization allows (24 hours before, unless they chose something else). The page tells you the exact moment.
For a By request service, you describe what you need and the organization replies in Messages with a price and a time. Nothing is charged until you pay.
Asking a family to pay
Extras used to be the hardest thing to collect. A payment request asks one family to pay an amount you name, and it arrives as a card in your conversation with them and by email. They pay by card when they're ready. Famlo never charges a saved card on its own.
- Saved charges. Keep the things you bill for often, like a packaged lunch, under Money › Charges. Each one becomes a one-tap button on the request form.
- Late pickup. Set a late pickup rate, and the attendance register offers Pick up · late once the class has run over. One tap sends the family a request. As the register puts it: "They pay when they're ready; nothing is charged to a card."
- Follow-up in one list. Money › Requests & refunds shows what's waiting, what's overdue and what's been paid, with a reminder button.
Refunds without cancelling
Sometimes a family should get some money back but keep their place: a missed session, a class cut short, an overcharge. Send refund returns part or all of a card payment and leaves the booking as it is. The form shows what the refund costs you before you send it.
Families have a way to ask, too. Once a paid booking has started, Request a refund appears on it. The family says why and how much, and the request arrives in your Messages, where you approve it, send a different amount, or decline with a reason.
A store for downloads and videos
Store in the console sells guides, printables and recorded workshops. Add a download, a video or a bundle of both, set a price or leave it free, and tick Free for your members if members should get it without paying. Families buy with the same checkout as your classes.
What a family buys stays under Library & resources on their Famlo Dashboard, and in the Parent portal if you have a website, ready to download or watch again whenever they need it. Your Store items show on your website's shop and through their direct links.
Getting started
Organizers: open Services or Store in your console. You need School settings access to manage them, which owners and co-leaders have. Sending a payment request or a refund needs Money access, which owners and bookkeepers have, and card payments set up.
- Services and appointments
- Ask a family to pay: payment requests and saved charges
- Refunds: sending one, answering a request, and cancellations
- Sell downloads, videos and bundles in your Store
Families: there's nothing to switch on. Look for Services on an organization's page, or Shop on its website.