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It’s been a very busy few weeks for us over at TC HQ! We've been in the workshop continuing to whip up some handy new features, eliminating pesky bugs, and boosting performance across all fronts. Below, I’ve broken down some of the notable strides we’ve taken this month.
Chicago Office 🏢
We're excited to share the news that we're opening a new office in Chicago! This project has been in the works for a while now, and we're delighted to finally see it come to fruition. Expanding our presence across the pond has been something we've been working towards over the past few months and we're really looking forward to getting started in a brand new location!
Changes to Client Payment 💳
You may have already received an email detailing the recent changes to our Client payment process. However, if you haven't, I’ve included the details for you below 👇
We've revamped the payment process to provide your Clients with a variety of payment methods to choose from, including Card, Bank Transfer, or Direct Debit.
Now, when your Client opts for Card Payment, they'll notice a slight change in the payment screen. Instead of filling in their card details first and then deciding whether to save the card, they'll now be prompted to save their card first before proceeding with the payment, akin to the user experience on platforms like Amazon.
This update not only streamlines the payment process but also enhances our underlying code base, paving the way for faster development of new features and overall improvements to TutorCruncher. Additionally, it lays the groundwork for introducing more payment options in the future. Keep your eyes peeled! 👀
Here's an example of our new payments page from the perspective of an Administrator:
Below is what your Clients will see:
Adding flexibility to the Employment Agency workflow 💼
The below is only relevant to UK-based companies operating as Employment Agencies.
We've introduced a change to give you greater control over client billing. Previously, all Clients who have saved their card details are automatically charged by default when the company is acting as an Employment Agency. This change will allow you as the company to decide who is automatically charged using the "Auto Charge" setting, which was previously outside of your control.
We strongly advise opening TutorCruncher and navigating to System > Settings > Accounting Settings > General > Auto Charge. Here, you can check whether Auto Charge is currently enabled or disabled for your company account as a whole. This setting will become relevant for the first time to any and all EA work you do when these changes are made live. Another thing to mention is the "Auto charge and deferred payment delay" setting just below; now you can adjust it to suit your needs. It used to be set to 2 days by default, but now you have the flexibility to shorten or lengthen that timeframe according to your preference.
Once you have done that, you will also need to check the per-client toggle for any clients who you want to make separate consideration for. You can do this by navigating to the client's profile, then clicking Actions > Edit > Accounting Settings > Auto Charge Override.
Tutor Survey 📃
Following the theme of continual improvement, we've introduced a new Tutor survey right on the login page. This survey is designed to gather insights directly from Tutors about their priorities and needs when using TutorCruncher. By understanding what matters most to your Tutors, we can tailor platform improvements with Tutor feedback in mind. If you'd like to share this with your Tutors, or you are one yourself, please feel free to fill out or share the survey here.
Changes to Documents on Lessons 📄
We've moved Documents from the main summary on Lesson pages to the Activity tab within Lessons. This adjustment was made after noticing that having documents on the main summary page was noticeably slowing down loading times. We also realised that Documents were/are not utilised as frequently as anticipated. Since making this adjustment, we've seen some really positive results in loading times! More on that below.
This has also allowed us to move “Reports” to the main summary page on Lessons for much quicker and easier access.
Speedups⚡
Continuing our efforts to improve loading times on TutorCruncher, we've seen a 20% increase in speed compared to last month. Despite the growing number of users and requests, we're proud to be able to maintain this momentum. It's rare for websites to run faster as their traffic increases, making this achievement even more remarkable!
More Countries added to Stripe! 🌍
We always look for ways to make TutorCruncher an easily accessible option for Tutoring Agencies across the globe. A large part of that is allowing for seamless access to payment gateways. We’re pleased to say that the following countries are now able to use Stripe via TutorCruncher: Cyprus, Liechtenstein, Brazil, Hungary, Thailand, Switzerland, Spain and Romania.
What should we update next?
As always, the TutorCruncher team wants to know what improvements you want to see in our system! If you have any suggestions or questions, please feel free to get in touch via email at Info@TutorCruncher.com, through our in-app chat or by going to the Support tab within your TutorCruncher system.
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