What to prepare before you move your academy online: a checklist

Before you move your academy online, gather six things: your teaching content in a usable form, clean student records, a clear fee structure, a list of who on your team needs access to what, your own policies, and a plan for telling students about the change. Preparing these in advance turns the move into an organised project rather than a rushed scramble during term time.

Content and curriculum

Start with an honest inventory. Many academies discover that their best material lives in scattered notebooks, old slides and a teacher's head.

• List every course, batch or programme you currently run, with its duration and outcome.
• Collect existing notes, worksheets, question papers and presentations into one shared folder.
• Mark which material is ready to use, which needs updating and which is missing.
• Decide where your videos will be hosted and check you have the rights to everything you plan to publish.
• Choose which programme goes online first. Moving one well is better than moving all of them badly.

Student records

Clean data saves hours later. If your records sit in registers, spreadsheets or group chats, bring them into a single, consistent format before importing anything.

• One row per student, with name, email, phone number, programme and batch.
• Remove duplicates and fix obvious errors such as missing email addresses.
• Note each student's fee status: paid, partly paid or due.
• Keep a separate list of open enquiries and trial-class requests so none are lost in the move.
• If you are coming from another platform, check exactly what it lets you export, and in which format, before you cancel it.

Fees and payments

Money is where confusion causes the most friction with students and parents, so settle the rules first.

1. Write down the fee for each programme and whether it is paid upfront, in instalments or monthly.
2. Choose an online payment gateway and complete its business verification early, because it can take time.
3. Decide how cash and bank transfer payments will be recorded and receipted.
4. Agree the format of your invoices and who sends reminders when a payment is due.
5. Confirm how you will handle refunds, and make sure the answer matches your written policy.

People and access

An academy with more than one person needs clear roles online, just as it does in the office. Make a simple table on paper: each team member, what they need to see and what they must not see. A teacher may need attendance and course content but not revenue. An office manager may need fees and enquiries but not course editing. Deciding this in advance makes it easy to set up proper logins rather than sharing one password among the whole team, which is a common and risky habit.

Also decide who will be the main administrator for the online academy, and who covers when that person is away. Someone should own the setup, answer staff questions and keep an eye on enquiries during the first few weeks. Write this down so the responsibility is clear from the start.

Policies and legal basics

Once you take enrolments and payments online, your academy needs its own written policies. At minimum, prepare terms of use, a privacy policy and a refund and cancellation policy that describe how your academy actually works. If you teach minors, think carefully about parental consent and how you communicate with parents. These documents should be in your academy's name and reviewed by someone qualified if you are unsure.

Check, too, that your contact details, business name and address appear consistently across your policies, invoices and website, since students and payment providers may compare them.

A communication plan for students

Existing students will judge the move by how well it is explained. Plan the announcement as carefully as the setup.

• Pick a switch-over date away from exams and busy periods.
• Send a short message explaining what is changing, what stays the same and why.
• Include clear instructions for logging in for the first time, and a named person to contact for help.
• Run a practice live class or a walkthrough session before regular classes move.
• Keep the old arrangement running briefly in parallel if you can, so nobody is left without access.

Where MBSGuru fits

MBSGuru gives you one place for the items on this checklist: courses and live classes, batches and attendance, fee demands, reminders and invoices, lead import by CSV, and staff roles with an activity log. Assisted migration is available for supported platforms and data, with the scope confirmed in writing first. You can ask about migration or start a free trial.