Choosing Tutor Scheduling Software

Recently I've been looking at some options for scheduling tutors in my company.  Up until now I've been using Google Calendar to manage my own tutoring schedule, but now that I'm beginning to hire some other tutors I'm looking for something a little more robust. I've created a list of some of the requirements I'm looking for in a tutor scheduling system and I've listed them below.  This list helps me evaluate each system using the same measures. 

Is it easy to use? I'm looking for a system that's easy to use.  I don't want it to take a long time to learn how to use it and I don't want too many steps involved in adding tutoring sessions. 

Can students and tutors access the tutor scheduling system? Having a system that is web-based so that it can be accessed easily by students and tutors is a must-have feature.

Does it record key details of tutoring sessions?
The key details I need to record are the tutor, student, location, time, date and if possible lesson notes or other details.  Some calendars I've looked at do not provide enough space for all of this information.

Is it easy to make changes to tutoring sessions? Tutoring sessions often get canceled or rescheduled, so it's important that the tutor scheduling software lets me easily change tutoring sessions and displays the updated results to students and tutors.


Does the tutor scheduling system let you record details about lesson attendance? Keeping track of missed, canceled and attended tutoring sessions in the calendar could be very useful, especially when calculating billing and revenue each month.


Does the tutor scheduling system tie into the rest of my company's administration system? I've been keeping track of everything in Excel since my finances are very simple, but it would be great to use tutor scheduling software that ties in directly to a system for billing and accounting.  Having the ability to track tutor hours based on the tutoring schedule is also an asset.

I've looked at a few different types of tutor scheduling software so far.  The one that really stands out from the rest is TutorPanel.  This is a full tutoring business management system.  It does everything from managing student information, to setting up recurring tutoring schedules, billing, accounting and tracking tutor hours.  Each tutor, student or parent can be given access to their own account that lets them access their tutoring schedule as well as billing info.  TutorPanel has a free 30-day trial so I'll sign up and give it a try.