Studio settings

Find any setting with searchWeb dashboard

You never have to remember which tab a setting lives on. Click the Search box at the top of the dashboard — or press ⌘K (Ctrl+K on Windows) — and type what you are after: 'logo', 'billing date', 'timezone', 'payment alerts'. Every studio setting is in there; choose a result and Ida opens Settings on the right tab, scrolls to that exact setting, and highlights it briefly so you land right where you need to be.

Studio details

On the Studio tab, set your studio name, email, phone, and address. These appear across the app and on every email your families receive.

Canadian studios also get a GST/HST number field here — and on the Profile screen of the iPhone app's Studio settings. Save your number (it looks like 123456789RT0001) and it is printed on your families' payment receipts and passed to Stripe so future autopay invoices carry it too; leave it blank if you are not registered. Saving tells you plainly when the number is set to appear on future invoices — and if Stripe cannot take it, your details still save, receipts still carry the number, and the message says the invoices will not. Clearing the field takes it off future invoices the same way. Studios outside Canada never see the field.

Your timezone

Also on the Studio tab, tell Ida OS where your studio is located by picking its timezone — the picker is searchable, so typing a nearby city like Toronto or Chicago finds it fast, and your choice saves the moment you pick it. Every class and event time — on the calendar, in the mobile app, in booking emails, and on your public trial form — is shown in that timezone, so families always see times that match the clock on your studio wall. That holds through daylight-saving changes, too: a weekly class you set for 5 PM meets at 5 PM every week of the year, before and after the clocks change. Monthly autopay also bills at midnight in your timezone.

For studios in Alberta and British Columbia: starting November 1, 2026, Alberta and most of B.C. stay on summer time year-round — clocks there no longer fall back. Ida follows the new rules automatically everywhere a time appears — the calendar, the iPhone app, reminders, payment records, workshops, and Ida's answers — so a 5 PM class stays at 5 PM even on devices that have not caught up with the change yet. There is nothing for you or your families to adjust.

Your locations

Also in Settings, the Locations card is where studios that teach in more than one place put each site on record. Adding a second location switches on location pickers and filters across the calendar, the roster, and the trial widget — the Multiple locations page of this guide walks through how it all works. Studio settings in the iPhone app has a Locations screen too, so you can manage locations from your phone as well.

Logo and colors

The Branding tab is where you make Ida OS look like your studio. Upload your logo — PNG, JPG, WEBP, AVIF, or SVG up to 2MB — and a crop tool opens so you can frame it just right: drag to reposition, zoom with the slider, and pick the shape that fits. Square sits as a neat tile beside your studio name; Wide suits logos that read as a banner and gives them the width of the sidebar header. SVG files skip the cropper and upload exactly as they are. Once saved, your logo appears across the dashboard sidebar, the family portal, your login screen, and the emails families receive — and the Crop button lets you re-frame the saved logo whenever you like, no re-upload needed.

If your logo already spells out your studio's name, flip off the 'Show studio name next to the logo' switch and the sidebar shows just your logo, without the text label beside it.

Then pick a color scheme — choose one of the curated themes or set your own exact brand color as a hex value — and it applies app-wide for every staff member and family: buttons, accents, links, and highlights all follow. A live preview of the real branded invitation email shows exactly what families will receive, so you can check your logo and colors in context before sending anything.

Admins can look after branding from the iPhone app as well: Branding & appearance in the app's Studio settings uploads or replaces the logo, removes it to go back to the default mark, carries the same 'Show the studio name next to the logo' switch, and picks the color scheme from the same presets or a custom color. The app screen also holds an App icon — a small square mark used in tight spots, like the app's Ida button; upload one there, replace it, or remove it to use the standard Ida mark.

Your login screen

The Login screen card lets you design the page families land on when they sign in at your studio's address. Set a custom background (hero) image, write your own headline and supporting text, and choose a layout. A live preview — shown in both a desktop browser frame and a phone frame — updates as you edit, so you always see how it will look.

There are four layouts to choose from: Image left (hero on the left, sign-in on the right), Image right (the mirror), Full background (a full-bleed image with the sign-in card centered on top), and Centered (no image — a clean centered card on a themed background). On the split layouts, the hero image and copy show on larger screens; the Full background and Centered layouts carry your message down to phones too.

• Background image: upload a PNG, JPG, or WEBP (landscape images look best) — large photos are optimized automatically, so a full-size phone photo uploads without fuss; 'Reset to default' restores the standard image.

• Headline and supporting text: leave a field blank to show the default copy, or tick 'Hide' to show no text at all for that line.

• Layout: pick the arrangement that fits your brand — the preview reflects your choice instantly.

Your web address

Every studio gets its own web address on Ida OS — a subdomain like yourstudio.idaos.co — and your logo, colors, and login screen all show there. If you'd like families to sign in on a domain of your own, you can also connect a custom domain (for example portal.yourstudio.com); reach out and we'll help you set it up.

Your Instagram, shown to familiesiPhone app

Studios that post on Instagram can bring those posts into Ida. In the iPhone app, open Studio settings → Integrations → Instagram and tap Connect Instagram: sign in with your studio's Instagram — it needs to be a professional account (business or creator) — and you land back in the app, connected. From then on Ida keeps your 8 newest posts on hand, checking for new ones every hour.

At studios on Ida's newest look, families see them in two places: last on every family's Home — on the web and in the app — and on your join page, under the sign-up form, while you take online sign-ups. The card carries your handle, your newest posts (each opens on Instagram, and videos wear a play badge), and a Follow on Instagram button. The Instagram screen in Studio settings shows the same card the way families see it, and its 'Where families see it' list names both places — with a link straight to your join page.

Ida only ever reads what you've already shared publicly — your posts and profile. It can't post, comment, or like for you, and it never opens your messages. A studio without Instagram connected, or without any posts yet, shows families nothing at all — no empty box — and disconnecting from the same screen deletes Ida's copies of your posts, so the card disappears for families too.

Your dance levels

Studios teach differently, so you define your own dance levels rather than using a fixed list. Under Settings → Classes, the Dance levels card is where you name the levels your studio uses and set their order. Those levels are what you assign to students and tuition plans, and they're what the calendar can color-code by — so the whole app reads the way your school actually works.

Every level in the card can be renamed or recolored, hidden, or deleted. Hiding is for a level with history: it disappears from the pickers you use for new assignments, while students, plans, and classes already on it keep their label. Deleting is permanent, so it only works when nothing uses the level anymore — if students, plans, or classes are still attached, the confirmation tells you so and asks you to reassign them first or hide the level instead.

Your levels travel with you, too: Levels in the iPhone app's Studio settings is the same list for admins — add a level, rename or recolor it (with a preview of how the calendar will color it), move it up or down the order, hide or show it with its Shown in pickers switch, or delete it under the same rules as the web. A rename never disturbs anything: the dancers, plans, and classes on the level simply carry the new name.

Calendar event types and colors

Also on Branding, the calendar's building blocks are yours to shape. The Calendar event types card lets you rename any of the six built-in types — call rentals 'Studio hire', workshops 'Masterclasses' — hide the ones your studio never uses so they drop out of the legend and the new-event picker, and set each type's color. Classes are always shown (though you can rename them too), and a class tagged with a level uses the level's color instead, set alongside your dance levels. The workshop color reaches beyond the calendar, too: it tints the category badges on the Workshops page, for staff and families alike. Use 'Reset all to defaults' to start over.

Your own free event types

Right below the built-in types, the Custom free event types card lets you add calendar types of your own — Performance, Show rehearsal, whatever your studio runs — each with a name and a calendar color. A custom type is always free: its events carry no prices, and families sign up at no charge. The types you add join the end of the calendar's type picker and its legend, on the web and in the iPhone app.

Each type in the list can be renamed or recolored, hidden, or deleted. Hiding a type takes it out of the picker for new events while events already using it keep their name and color, so it is the right choice for a type with history — deleting only works when no calendar events use the type.

You can look after these from the iPhone app as well: Custom free event types in the app's Studio settings lists your types, adds a new one with its name and calendar color, and lets you rename, recolor, hide, or delete them under the same rules as the web.

Your week start

In Studio details, 'Week starts on' chooses the first column of week and month calendars — Monday by default, Sunday if that is how your studio thinks, or any other day. It applies to staff and family calendars alike, on the web and in the iPhone app, and saves the moment you pick it. Staff can also change it from Settings → Calendar in the app.

Letting parents Join past classes

Out of the box, parents can only Join or drop in to upcoming classes — once a class starts, adding a dancer to it is up to staff. 'Allow parents to Join past classes', on the Studio tab near your calendar settings, opens a window for the family who forgot to sign up: with it on, a class can still be Joined or dropped in to after it has started — up to the number of days back you pick — and the Join starts on that class's own day, so the dancer is on that date's roster, attendance can be recorded, and billing covers the class they attended.

Turning the switch on sets the window to 14 days, and the picker beside it offers anywhere from 1 to 90. Classes older than the window stay staff-only — and staff can always add a dancer straight to a class's roster, whatever this is set to. The setting saves as you change it and applies to families on the web and in the iPhone app alike. Staff can also change it from Settings → Calendar in the app.

Birthdays on Home

On the Customizations tab, 'Birthdays on Home' shows a small Birthdays card at the bottom of the staff Home screen — web and the iPhone app — listing dancers with a birthday today or in the next 7 days. Open Calendar on that card for a month view of every birthday on the roster. It uses the birthdates already on each dancer's record. The card is on by default; flip the switch off if you would rather not see it. Staff can also change it from Studio settings → Customizations → Birthdays on Home in the app.

Your team

The Team tab manages your staff — the instructors who teach and the people who help run the studio. Add each person to the roster, then invite them to their own staff login when you want them working in the app.

The roster reads as a members table: each row shows the person's email, name, role, the family they book as (if any), and a status chip — 'Not invited' until you send their sign-in link, 'Joined' once they have a login, 'Inactive' when you have marked them so. Anyone who also books as a family wears a Student chip next to their role, so you can see at a glance who is both staff and a student — no need to open their menu. People still waiting on an invite sort to the top, so who to invite next is always in view, and a count above the table keeps track of how many members you have. Everyone who runs the studio is on it too: anyone with owner access appears automatically as an Owner, already marked Joined — you never need to add yourself.

When you add or edit a member, the role picker explains what each role can do as you choose: Owner is full access — revenue, payments, and studio settings included; Front desk covers the welcome desk — adding families and students, enrolling them, taking payment with a receipt, viewing a family's portal as they see it, and running the shop, with no studio revenue, banking, or financial reports; and Teacher and Junior instructor cover the day-to-day without any of that. Changing someone's role later updates their existing login to match the moment you save — no new invite needed. Adding and removing team members is for owners, like editing and inviting. Removing someone asks you to confirm — it takes them off the roster and out of every class they are assigned to — and someone who still holds a staff login can't be removed until you take that back with Remove access, so a login never outlives its place on the team. The iPhone app adds team members with the same role list, starting on Teacher, and follows the same removal rules — and its Team screen shows each member's role on their card, with the same access chip as the table here. Owners can also just ask Ida who's on the team — each member's name, email, role, and access; the Ida AI assistant section covers it.

Instructors get a scoped view: they can see the schedule, family and student rosters, attendance, documents, and competition entries (Comms — announcements and email groups — is the owner's alone, for front desk too), and they can edit the details of an existing class — its title and description, date and time, room, level, size, trial bookings, and who teaches — though adding or deleting classes and dates, prices, and blackouts stay with owners and front desk. What they never see is money: no revenue, no payments ledger, no tuition, no studio settings. Those stay admin-only everywhere — on the web and in the iPhone app alike, family tuition, billing status, and registration fees are simply not shown to instructors, a booking request waiting for approval shows them everything but its dollar amount, and prices stay out of sight across the schedule too — the calendar and Workshops show instructors the events, packages, and who has signed up, never the rates, fees, or what anyone paid — so you can hand a teacher day-to-day access without exposing the studio's finances. Opening an owners' page by accident is never a dead end, either: at studios on Ida's newest look, an instructor or front desk member who lands on an area that isn't theirs — Payments, Data and Insights, or Comms, say — sees a friendly page naming whose area it is, why, where their own work lives, and which owner to ask, on the web and in the iPhone app alike, and Ida answers with the same words when a chat request needs an owner. Instructors get Ida too, with the same boundaries — the Ida AI assistant section covers what a teacher can ask and change.

Front desk sits in between — the role for the person who greets families and takes payments without running the books. Someone on front desk gets everything an instructor sees, plus the roster's family actions and a household checkout: they can create and edit families and students, keep contacts current, set a family's trial status to Trialing or Full member, invite a family to the portal or share the studio's family sign-up link, add a walk-in trial to a class, send a registration-fee payment link or record the fee as paid, and take a payment on a family's record — billing the family or logging cash, a cheque, or an e-transfer they have collected — with the family getting the usual receipt. Time suggestions come to the desk too: when a family proposes a practice, private lesson, or rental time, front desk sees it waiting — with the cost the family was quoted — and can approve or decline it from Home, the Calendar, or the iPhone app, just as an owner would. Because the desk is who a parent calls, front desk can also View as family: step into a household's own portal to see exactly what the parent sees on their screen, then Exit family view to come back to the roster. When your studio's shop is on, front desk runs that too: My Shop — products, orders, and inventory — appears for them on the web and in the iPhone app, and a new order alerts them just as it does owners. While helping a household they see that family's tuition and balance, but the studio's books stay closed: no revenue, no payments ledger or reports, no tuition plans, and no studio settings, on the web and in the iPhone app alike. The desk gets Ida too: front desk staff can ask the assistant about families, a household's tuition and balance, the schedule, rosters, orders, and messages, and make the desk's own changes from chat — the Ida AI assistant section covers it. Archiving or deleting families and students, changing billing or plans, waiving fees, and voiding or refunding payments stay with owners.

A team invite only ever goes to an email that is free for your studio. If the address can't be used for your team, the invite stops before anything is sent and Ida says so in plain words: invite them with a different email, or ask them for the email they teach with. Ida never tells you why or where else an email is used — a studio only ever hears about its own people. Their other login is never touched. The same check runs when you resend a sign-in link, when you invite from the iPhone app, and when you ask Ida to send staff invites or reminders — Ida simply skips that person and says the same plain words. An email already on your own studio — your staff, or a parent at your studio who also teaches — is always fine.

When the email you invite already has its own Ida login — a parent at your studio joining the team, say — their sign-in link goes to that person's inbox only: the confirmation says so, and there is no link for you to copy or share. The link is only ever in your hands while nobody has accepted it — a new team member's first invite, or a resend while theirs still sits unopened. And if that inbox-only email could not be sent, Ida says so and asks you to try again in a minute, rather than leaving you thinking it went out. This works the same on the web, in the iPhone app, and when Ida sends invites for you.

Changing a team member's email happens on the same sheet: fix the address on Details, then send their sign-in link again. The invite goes to the new address, and in the same moment the login behind the old address loses its staff access at your studio — exactly as if you had pressed Remove access — so a former address can never still open your dashboard. Your studio is never left without an Owner along the way. One address is off limits here: your own. A team invite that would move your own seat to a different login is refused — change your own sign-in email from your account settings instead, and Ida checks the new address first.

1. 1

   On the Team tab, add the person with their name and email.

2. 2

   Open their actions menu and choose Manage — or tap the Student chip if they already book as a family. The sheet has two tabs. Details is name, email, role, whether they are active, and their staff login: send or resend a branded sign-in link (you can also copy and share it while nobody has accepted it — once they hold a login of their own, the link goes to their inbox only), or Remove access to revoke their login while they stay on the roster.

3. 3

   They click the link, set up their account, and land in the staff dashboard with the view their role allows.

4. 4

   If they also take class or have kids at the studio, switch to the Family profile tab to link that login to their family.

Instructors who are also dancers

Sometimes an instructor is also a student at your studio — an older dancer who teaches a junior class — or a parent whose own children dance. Ida OS lets the same login be both: keep their instructor access and also let them book, join classes, and register as a family.

From the instructor's actions menu choose Manage — or tap the Student chip on their row, which opens the Family profile tab. Details and Family profile are the two tabs on that sheet. Details is where you change their name, email, role, or mark them inactive, and where you send or revoke their staff login. Family profile only links their login to a household — pick an existing family, or create a new one and tick 'This teacher also dances' if they take class themselves. Picking a different household later moves the login over: they book as the new family from then on, no longer as the old one, and the old family keeps its dancers, bills, and history. Add their children on Students and Families, the same place you add any other dancer. The roster shows a Student chip next to their role plus the family they book as. The same two tabs live in the iPhone app under Studio settings → Team.

Once linked, they keep their full staff view and gain the family side of the calendar: they can book slots for themselves, and with dancers on their family they can also join weekly classes straight from the calendar, exactly as a parent would — opening a class offers the same Join for their dancers, with the same tuition preview, the same approval step when the studio reviews joins, and the same Leave. This works on the web and in the iPhone app alike. They can also switch into the parent side of the same login — Switch to your family in the header (to the left of the cart) on the web, or the button at the top of More in the iPhone app — to see their household's home, payments, card, and autopay exactly as a parent does, then Switch to staff — the same header button on the web, or the banner or More button in the app — to come back. That switch is only their household: teachers never get View as family on anyone else.

A teacher with dancers on their linked family also gets your registration form. Registration appears for them — under My Studio in the sidebar on the web, under Your family in the iPhone app's More tab — as the same family form every parent completes: confirm dancers, accept policies, pay the fee. They only ever see it as a family; designing the form and reading responses stay with admins.

A linked instructor can also register their family for workshops and camps. A Catalog page appears for them — in the sidebar on the web, under More in the iPhone app — showing the same workshops, packages, prices, and checkout every family sees, and opening a workshop or camp date on the calendar offers the same registration in place. Paying and changing their mind work like any family's too: they pay at checkout — or settle a workshop charge they saved for later from Payments in the iPhone app — and backing out on the payment page, or cancelling a registration while it is unpaid or free, releases the dates just as it would for a family. This only covers their own family: registering for any other family stays an admin action, and cancelling another family's booking stays with admins and front desk. Instructors whose login is not linked to a family see the Catalog entry too, but it simply points them back to Workshops until you link them.

Payments and booking rules

The Payments & Bookings tab is organized as two short lists of settings. Under Payments, connect Stripe to receive payouts — the row shows whether your account is connected and ready, and where Stripe Tax stands: 'Tax configured' once GST/HST is being collected, or 'Finish tax setup' / 'Add tax registration' while something is still missing in Stripe. Buttons open your studio's Stripe Tax dashboard and, once you have finished setup there, Refresh tax — which starts collecting on everything by bringing your existing autopay subscriptions and open payment links up to date (a family whose tax location Stripe cannot determine shows Blocked in your roster's Autopay column — their card is not charged until they add their address from Manage autopay, and a month whose card charge had to be stopped returns to Pay now so the family can pay it online, where checkout collects the address). The same list manages your billing currency, your tuition billing date, and the registration fee. Under Bookings, choose Book and pay instantly, Staff approve, then parent pays manually, or Staff approve, then auto-charge (charges the family's card on file — usually from AutoPay — when you approve; families can turn auto-charge off on Payments, and failed charges stay outstanding) for each type of studio time already on the calendar — private lessons, open practice slots, rentals, workshops, and your custom free event types, which start on Staff approve, then parent pays manually so sign-ups come to you first — set the non-student practice rate (the hourly fallback used when a booker has no matching tuition plan rate), set the private lesson and rental prices families see when suggesting their own time, and choose whether families see which instructor is assigned to each class. Bookings also holds the Cross-level class enrollment switch — off by default — which lets families Join a weekly class at a dance level other than the dancer's own; see 'Letting families join weekly classes' on the Tuition plans page of this guide. Suggesting a brand-new time — practice, a private lesson, or a rental — always needs staff approval; you can choose parent pays manually or auto-charge after approval for those suggestions.

In the private lesson and rental prices, leave a duration blank to hide it from the suggestion form — leave both prices for a type blank and that type can't be suggested at all.

Private lesson prices can also depend on the dancer. Turn on 'Lower price for some dancers' in the same card (it is off until you turn it on), set the lower 30- and 60-minute prices, then choose who pays them: everyone on the tuition plans you tick, dancers at their plan's maximum (for example, an Unlimited tier — read from the dancer's tuition bill for the month the lesson falls in, so a lesson booked for next month follows next month's bill), or both. Everyone else pays the prices above. Only tick a plan if every dancer on it should pay less. While it is on, these prices also set the price of the private lesson slots you publish (for lengths you have priced; any other length keeps the slot's own price), and families choose which dancer a private is for before they book. Saving needs a lower price and at least one choice of who pays it. The same settings are in the iPhone app's booking settings.

Most of these save the moment you change them — pick a new value and a small confirmation appears — while amounts like the rates have their own Save button. The tuition billing date row chooses a fixed day of the month to bill recurring tuition, or leaves it on each family's own signup day. With a fixed day set, First tuition bill chooses whether someone who joins mid-month also owes this month in full or waits until next month, and a 'Parents can choose their day' switch lets families pick their own autopay day from a list of days you control — your default day is always on the list, and is used when a family does not pick. Changing these settings never moves families already on autopay. For tuition billed straight from a family's plan, the fixed day applies to monthly plans only. Autopay on quarterly, 6-month, and yearly plans charges once per period, and Stripe sets each run. Studios that price tuition by each dancer's classes open every period's bill on the billing day, however long the period. When a quarterly, 6-month, or yearly bill there is on autopay, Stripe sets each run. A fixed day also brings a 'When families see the next bill' choice on the same row — post next month's charge as soon as this month's is billed, hold it to a set number of days before it's due, or to a fixed day of the month, with a plain-language preview of what families will experience — and an 'Early bird discount' switch that takes a dollar amount or a percent off monthly tuition for families who pay by a cutoff day you pick. The Payments page of this guide covers how billing days, bill timing, the early bird discount, and late fees work together.

Your own one-off charges

Also under Payments, the Other charges card holds reusable names for the one-off fees your studio bills that are not merch or tuition — Costume fee, Recital, Photos, whatever you charge. Each has a name and an optional default amount that fills in when the charge is recorded (the amount can always be changed on the spot). You can also add a name from the Type list when you create a payment — it lands here too. Other charge is always in that Type list if you just need a one-off without saving a name. Families see the name you pick on the charge, at checkout, and on their receipt, and pay it online like any other open charge — the Payments page of this guide walks through recording one.

Each row's menu lets you edit a charge type, move it up or down the list, hide it, or delete it. Hiding takes it out of the picker for new payments while keeping it on hand to bring back later, and renaming or deleting never touches payments already billed — they keep the name they were billed with. Renaming, reordering, hiding, and deleting are for admins; anyone who can take a payment can use the names when recording one — and add a new one from the Type list right there. Adding a name you had hidden brings that name back rather than refusing it as a duplicate — unless a visible type already carries that name, in which case the visible one is used and the hidden twin stays hidden, so the same name never lands on two different types with different tax; and when more than one hidden type shares the name, an owner shows the one you mean again first. A name that only comes close to one of your types — 'Costume' next to 'Costume fee' — is suggested, never matched for you: the Type list asks Did you mean 'Costume fee'? and waits for your answer before adding a new type or bringing a hidden one back. Admins can manage the same list from the iPhone app, under Studio settings → Charge types.

At Canadian studios collecting GST/HST, adding or editing a charge type also asks whether it charges GST. It starts on, which is right for a fee of your own — a costume, a recital, photo day — so the applicable tax is added when a family pays it online. Turn it off for money you are only passing along, like another organization's fee, and that charge is paid exactly as billed, with no tax added — while tuition and the rest of your billing keep collecting tax as usual. The choice appears once Stripe Tax is collecting for your studio, and deleting a name never changes it for charges already on the books — each keeps the setting its name had.

Passing card costs on: the Online fee

Also under Payments, the Online fee switch lets your studio pass card processing costs on to families who pay online. With it on, every family payment collected through Stripe — a registration fee, an open charge, a workshop or camp, a shop order, a booking, tuition on autopay — adds its own 'Online fee' line at checkout, sized to fully cover card processing of 2.9% plus $0.30 on the card total, so the processing on the fee itself is covered too and the listed amount is what reaches you. Your listed prices don't move: they become your cash prices, and a family who pays by cash, cheque, or e-transfer pays exactly the listed amount. On a $100 charge, for example, the fee is $3.30 and the card total $103.30 — processing on $103.30 comes to exactly $3.30, leaving you the full $100.

Families always see the fee — before and after they pay: an open charge on their Payments page notes the fee under the listed amount, a priced calendar booking spells out the fee and the card total right in the booking dialog before the payment page opens, checkout itself carries the Online fee line, and once a card payment settles, the paid charge keeps naming the online fee it actually included, on the web and in the iPhone app. Tuition on autopay includes the fee on each invoice, and flipping the switch brings families already on autopay up to date on their next cycle — the fee joins or leaves their invoice without touching the tuition itself. Your ledger keeps the listed amounts throughout, so your revenue reads the same however each family chose to pay.

Your currency

The Payments & Bookings tab also sets your studio's currency. Every price in Ida OS — tuition, trials, workshops, the payments ledger, on web and in the mobile app — displays in it. Before Stripe is connected you can pick any supported currency; once Stripe is connected, the currency is locked to what your Stripe account settles in, so charges always match your payouts.

Raising your prices

Also under Payments, the Raise prices setting increases every family-facing price — tuition, bookings, trials, and fees — by a percent or a fixed amount in one move. The amounts you set in plans, bookings, and fees stay as your base prices; families simply see and pay the raised price everywhere. An example under the fields shows what a price becomes before you save, and turning the switch off returns families to your base prices.

Once your tuition billing is live, a price change becomes something you schedule rather than flip. Pick the new raise (or turn the raise off), choose the month it starts from the 'Starts with the period from' list, and press Schedule. The change goes by the period a bill covers, not the day the bill is sent: tuition for your chosen month onward uses the new price — even when that bill goes out the month before — while earlier months keep today's price, and bills already sent never change. Quarterly, 6-month, and yearly plans change from their first period starting on or after the date, autopay collects the new amount from that period with no proration, and other family prices — bookings, trials, and fees — change on the date itself. Families with a custom tuition rate get the raise on top of their rate, the same as always. The earliest month you can pick is the first with no bill out yet, and a note under the picker explains why when earlier months are off the table.

Before you schedule, the card lays the change out: the rules in plain words, an example, and a 'Who pays what' table showing real families' latest tuition bills today and from your chosen month, so you see exactly what each household's amount becomes. Scheduling charges nothing by itself. One change can be scheduled at a time — Cancel this change takes it back any time before its bills go out, and a History list keeps track of past changes. Families are not sent an automatic notice; they see the new amounts on their bills and at registration once the change takes effect, so announce a raise in your own words first.

The same setting lives in the iPhone app under Studio settings → Money → Raise prices — the row shows today's raise and any scheduled one at a glance — and at studios with Ida's studio-wide change cards, you can ask Ida to schedule or cancel a price change from chat, with the same rules and preview on the change card.

Your business country

The Payments list also carries your business country — where your studio legally operates, and therefore where Stripe registers your payment account. Confirm it before connecting Stripe: Ida asks rather than assumes, because Stripe fixes the country permanently once your account starts processing payments. Until then you can still change it — Ida discards the unfinished Stripe setup so you can start over in the right country; after payments have begun, a country change goes through support.

Your Ida OS subscriptionWeb dashboard

The Subscription tab holds your studio's own Ida OS plan — what your studio pays for the software, entirely separate from what families pay you. The card always shows where you stand — a Free trial badge with the days remaining, Active with your next renewal date, or a notice when a payment needs attention — and offers the one right action for that moment.

During your free trial, Add payment method opens the secure Stripe billing portal to save a card, and your plan continues automatically when the trial ends. Once a card is on file, the card says so — we'll charge it when the trial ends — and the button becomes Update payment method in case you need to change the card; the reminder that appears at the top of the dashboard in your trial's last days follows suit, so you are never asked to add a card you have already saved. A studio heading toward the end of its trial with no plan set up also gets one plain email about three days out — 'Your Ida OS trial is ending soon', with the exact end date in your own time zone — and never a second one for the same date. And subscribing early never shortens anything: start your plan mid-trial and your remaining trial days carry over, with nothing charged until the day the trial was always going to end. On an active plan, Manage billing opens the same portal to change your card, switch between monthly and annual, or cancel. You can also switch Ida OS billing currency (USD, CAD, GBP, or EUR): on a trial it switches immediately, and on a paid plan the confirm spells out the money before you agree — nothing is charged today, the time you have already paid for carries over, and your first charge in the new currency lands on the day the confirm names. Switching needs a plan in good standing with a card on file: if a payment is past due, no card is saved, or a credit or discount sits on your billing, the card says so in plain words — and what to do instead — and nothing changes. You are never billed twice for the same time: even if a switch is interrupted part way, your studio keeps running on the time already paid for, and the card offers one action — Finish switching — to complete it in the plan and currency you picked. If a renewal payment fails, the card flags it and Update payment method puts it right. Only when you have no live subscription — the trial ended without a card, or you cancelled — do you pick a currency and a plan, then press Subscribe (or Resubscribe).

Your Ida OS subscription from your phoneiPhone app

Your studio's Ida OS plan is in the iPhone app too, for admins: open the More tab, tap Studio settings, and Ida OS subscription sits at the top of the Money group — the row shows your plan's status (Free trial, Active, and so on) before you even tap. The screen mirrors the web Subscription tab: where you stand, your billing currency (USD, CAD, GBP, or EUR), and the one right action for the moment.

With no live subscription — your trial ended without a card, or you cancelled — pick a currency and choose Monthly or Annual (each shows its price, and annual saves 10%), then tap Subscribe or Resubscribe: the same secure Stripe checkout as the web opens in a browser sheet and brings you back to the app. On a trial or an active plan, the button opens the billing portal instead — Add or Update payment method during your trial, Manage billing on a paid plan — to change your card, switch between monthly and annual, or cancel. Switching currency works like the web too: immediate on a trial, and on a paid plan the app shows the same confirm as the web — nothing is charged today, your paid-for time carries over, and it names the day your first charge in the new currency lands.

When your subscription needs attention — your trial is in its last days, a payment failed, or the plan has ended — a reminder card also appears at the top of the app's Home screen for admins, with a button straight to this screen.

Ask Ida where your plan stands

Owners can also just ask Ida — "where does our Ida OS plan stand?" in chat, on the web or in the app — and she answers with the same facts the Subscription tab shows: your plan, where it stands, and what switching currency would mean. Changing anything stays in your hands: adding a card, subscribing, and switching plan or currency always happen on the Subscription tab, never through chat.

If your trial ends without a plan

When a studio's free trial ends without a subscription — or a subscription is cancelled — Ida OS pauses access rather than carrying on quietly. The dashboard and the iPhone app close behind a single locked screen that says exactly where things stand. Owners see it with a way back in: pick your currency and Monthly or Annual right on the screen and Subscribe (or Resubscribe) opens the same secure Stripe checkout as the Subscription tab — and a 'Need more time? Talk to us' option books a call with the Ida team, with your details already filled in. Instructors and front desk see a note to ask the studio owner; families see a short message that the studio's portal is paused — booking and paying there are off, while autopay continues as usual — with the studio's contact details when they are on file, and a Sign out button.

Nothing is deleted — your families, classes, calendar, and payment history are all kept — and subscribing from the locked screen brings you straight back in, with everything as you left it. The lock covers signing in, not your money or your public pages: any family autopay already running keeps collecting on schedule, and your trial booking forms, registration links, family sign-up links, and calendar embeds all keep working.

Email notifications

Open Notifications from the user menu to control email alerts. Four studio-wide categories email every admin: payment alerts — a 'New payment received' summary whenever a payment lands, online via Stripe or recorded manually, on the web or in the iPhone app, dated the day the family paid on your studio's calendar, with a part payment's alert naming what is still owed on the bill; time suggestion alerts — when a family suggests practice, a private lesson, or studio rental, and likewise when a family cancels one of those bookings themselves, so a freed slot never goes unnoticed; event note alerts — when a family adds or updates a note on a calendar event; and registration alerts — when a family submits your registration form. Each is on by default and can be turned off for the whole studio. Below the studio switches, each admin can mute a category for their own inbox without affecting anyone else — though a category turned off studio-wide stays off for everyone until the studio switch is back on. Families use the same page to manage their booking approval and cancellation emails and their workshop and registration fee confirmations. Mobile push for the same events is managed separately in the iPhone app.

Admins can flip the same studio-wide switches from the iPhone app, too: the Studio-wide email alerts card on the app's Notification settings screen carries Payment, Practice request, Event note, and Registration emails, and a switch flipped on your phone means exactly the same thing as one flipped on the web.

Lesson sign-ups for teachers

When a family books a private lesson, practice or rental that you teach, Ida tells you right away: a push on your phone, an email, and a row in your Activity inbox, with the dancer's name and the time. Tap it to open that lesson on the calendar. If the booking is cancelled, you hear that too, so you never show up for an empty room. A booking that's still waiting on the studio's approval or on its payment doesn't count until it goes through, and you never see what the family paid.

Only the teachers assigned to that slot are told. To turn these alerts off, open Notifications and switch off Lesson sign-ups & cancellations for email, push or both, or just ask Ida: "stop emailing me lesson sign-ups." You can also ask Ida "who's booked my privates this week?"

Push alerts on your phoneiPhone app

Admins can also get push notifications the moment things happen: a 'New payment received' alert when a payment lands, and a new-request alert when a family suggests a time — the alert names what was asked for, whether practice, a private lesson, or a studio rental. The same switch also covers the alert when a family cancels their own practice, private lesson, or rental — it names who cancelled and when the slot was, so the freed time can be offered to someone else. Tapping an alert takes you straight to the right place — a payment alert opens Payments, a time suggestion or a cancellation opens the Calendar — even when the app was closed. Turn each alert on or off in the iPhone app under More → Notifications (admins can also reach the same screen from Studio settings): the Studio-wide alerts switches save as you flip them and apply to every admin on the studio, and a Preview button sends a sample notification so you know exactly what an alert looks like. A Your preferences card on the same screen lets you mute either alert for just yourself — your choice follows your account to every device you sign in on, while other admins keep receiving theirs. Push and email are independent: each channel has its own switch, so you can keep the email summary and skip the ping, or the other way around.

At studios on Ida's newest look, the newest version of the app also dresses these alerts so they read at a glance. A 'New payment received' alert leads with the amount — press and hold it on an iPhone and a card opens with the family, what was paid and how, and, once Stripe has settled the charge, exactly what reaches your studio after Stripe's fee. A family's new registration arrives as a card of its own — the family's name, with each dancer's face and level — and an event note alert wears its author's face and the class's date. On an Android phone the same alerts expand to show the detail, in Ida's green.

Each phone also has to allow notifications once. The first time you use the app, the Home screen offers an Enable notifications card — accept it, or tap Not now and the app will not ask again. You can always set it up later from the This device card at the top of More → Notifications: it tells you whether this phone can receive alerts, enables them with one tap, and if your phone has notifications blocked for Ida it sends you to the system settings to allow them.

The This device card doesn't stop at permission — it tells you whether this phone is actually set up to receive alerts. Once notifications are allowed, it confirms 'This phone is registered and will get push notifications', and if something is in the way it says what, in plain words, with the fix right there: a Try again button when the connection or Google's services hiccuped, or an Update on Google Play button when the version of the app on an Android phone can't receive notifications at all. The card checks again every time you visit, so once the problem is fixed it says so. An Android phone still on one of those too-old versions hears about it without opening Settings, too: a card on the app's Home screen says this version can't receive notifications, and its Update on Google Play button opens the store — update, and alerts start arriving.

On the iPhone appiPhone app

Studio settings travels with you: open the More tab and tap Studio settings. It works like your iPhone's own Settings app — a menu of grouped destinations rather than one long page: your studio's Ida entry up top, then Studio (profile, branding & appearance, locations, levels, seasons, timezone, calendar, and your custom free event types), Customizations (like Birthdays on Home), Money (your Ida OS subscription, billing, currency, raising prices, the registration fee, the online fee, late fees, booking, class enrollment, the Competitions page wording, and autopay & cancellation), Alerts (notification settings), Integrations (Stripe and Instagram), and Team (instructors). Each row shows where things stand before you tap — your studio name, timezone, and currency, whether Stripe and Instagram are connected, which push alerts are on, your current season, and how many locations and instructors you have. Tap a row to open that one setting on its own screen, make the change, and save; the back arrow returns you to the menu, and the back arrow on the menu itself takes you back out to More. Studio settings is for admins — instructors and front desk don't see these rows. Notifications also has its own row right on the More tab, under Settings — one tap away for everyone, families included.