If you’d rather not tap Pay every term, you can set up a Direct Debit and let your studio’s invoices be collected as they fall due. It’s the same idea as any other Direct Debit: you give your bank permission once, and the money goes out when it’s owed.
Set one up
- Open the parent portal and go to Invoices.
- At the top of the page you’ll find the Direct Debit card. Choose to set one up.
- You’re handed over to Stripe, the payments provider your studio uses, to enter your bank details on their secure page. Neither LessonLoop nor your studio ever sees them.
- Come back to the portal and switch autopay on.
That’s it. The card now shows an active mandate and the autopay switch.
Only you can set this up A Direct Debit is your authority to your bank, so your studio can't create one on your behalf — no matter how helpful they're being. If they've asked you to set one up, this page is the whole job.
What gets collected, and when
With autopay on, LessonLoop collects:
- Invoices you owe, once they’re due.
- Payment plan instalments, one at a time as each due date arrives.
Nothing is ever taken before its due date, and your mandate confirmation and advance notice of each debit come from Stripe directly — those are the notices that matter, and they’ll arrive by email.
”Collecting” — what it means
Once a debit is on its way, the invoice shows Collecting and the Pay button steps aside. That’s on purpose: the money is already in motion, and nobody wants to pay the same bill twice.
The wait is the bank’s, not the app’s — the portal says so plainly: “Bank debits take up to 4 working days to confirm.” When it clears, the invoice marks itself paid.
Turning it off, or starting again
Switch autopay off at any time and collections stop; you’re back to paying each invoice yourself with the Pay button.
If the mandate itself is cancelled — by you, or at your bank — the card in the portal says so plainly, rather than quietly failing, and offers you the way to set up a new one.
If a collection doesn’t go through, your studio can see it and try again. If you think something has gone wrong, message them from the portal — they can see the invoice and its whole history.
Was this out of date or unclear? Tell us — we keep these guides matched to the live app.