Run classes, levels, exams, costumes and the end-of-year recital from one student record.

A dance studio sells a place in a class for a term. Ballet, hip hop, contemporary, jazz and ballroom each run at their own level, in a room with its own floor and mirrors, taught by a named teacher. Parents pay by term or by pack. Adult students drop in.

Most of this sits in a timetable on the wall, a fee notebook at the desk and a spreadsheet for the recital. Work that touches all three, such as a costume order for forty students, has to be rebuilt by hand each year.

The front desk answers enquiries for trial classes. New students are recorded with a guardian’s contact, a date of birth and any injury or medical note. Each child is placed in a class by age and level. Teachers take a register at the start of every class and mark who is absent, who joined late and who is ready to move up.

Rooms are shared between group classes, private lessons, rehearsals and hire to outside groups, so a change to one slot moves three others. A teacher who falls sick needs a cover found the same morning, and every parent in the class needs to hear.

Mid-year the studio opens exam entries with an outside examining body, then plans the recital. That means a running order, rehearsal dates, costume sizes by student, shoe orders from a supplier, ticket sales and a hall booking. Fees for the term, the exam and the costume are collected separately from each family.