Skip to main content
All CollectionsProduct Updates
Spring 2020 Release Notes
Spring 2020 Release Notes

An overview of the updates we've released this spring.

R
Written by Ryan Neill
Updated over 4 years ago

As you've probably noticed, spring 2020 brought many updates, large and small, to the Clark platform.

But before I dive into those, I want to recap the changes leading up to the spring:

Noodle Pros Acquires Clark

In September 2019, Noodle Pros acquired Clark. That led to a different approach to Clark in general. Clark's staff managed this first phase of the transition into Noodle Pros, but they chose to leave as this first phase neared its end.

As with any departure, historical knowledge, policies and procedures, and other common Clark practices were lost.

I know this loss has been felt by Clark's loyal customers, and I am working daily to find new ways of solving problems under the new team structure.

Platform Updates

The platform updates began shortly after Clark joined the Noodle family, but we didn't see many results of that work until the early spring. This first phase of the transition is now complete.

The first phase focused on specific enhancements that Noodle Pros felt essential to a tutoring business. Below is a brief overview of each update. Eventually, I plan to have specific support articles on all of these subjects, if they do not exist already.

Improvements

1. Enhanced Tutor Access

This can be turned on in "settings." It will give tutors access to all of the following admin-level features in order to decentralize these tasks:

  1. Add/Edit Clients (can only see clients they enter)

  2. Add/Update Client credit card on file

  3. Add/Edit Engagements (Enhanced Tutors cannot edit earnings or distributions after the engagement is created.)

  4. Invoice Clients (cannot cancel an invoice once created)

  5. Charge for an individual session.

  6. See the tutor's own payment screen (only displays the tutor's clients).

  7. Download Tutor-specific Session Report

2. Prepaid Sessions

  1. Sessions are only added to an engagement once an invoice is paid.

  2. Deducts from balance as sessions are logged in the past, or a scheduled session occurs (if a scheduled session isn't deleted, it is assumed the session occurred).

3. Stripe Security Protocol Enhancement

We've implemented Stripe's most recent security enhancements to verify identity of business owners.

4. Tutor Employment Status

Tutors can now be classified by their employment status, either W2 (full time) or 1099 (contractor). This classification also allows a different default earning amount for each employment status. The employment status will also show in the Sessions report.

**This is not a required field.

5. Tutor Default Revenue Distribution

When creating or editing a tutor profile, you can set the tutor's default hourly rate, the default earnings percentage, and the default earning amount per hour.

**These are not required fields.

6. Tutor Subjects

This subject list is for currently for reference only, but was built with future updates in mind.

When creating or editing a tutor profile, you can select a list of subjects the tutor teaches (based on the subjects/engagements in Clark).

**This is not a required field.

7. Engagement Revenue Distribution

Business Admins can now set different revenue distributions per engagement. These can be based on a tutor's employment status or the referral source of the client. Referral sources include from the tutor (self referral), from the business itself, from another tutor (you can select the tutor via a dropdown), or via an external partner.

You can enter then change the distribution based on the selections.

8. Engagement Subject List

The engagement subject list is used by any business or tutor that uses Clark. To maintain quality for everyone, the list was cleaned up and should now be fairly comprehensive. We tried to remove any redundant listings.


We've implemented a review process to make sure we do not bloat the subject list again:

  • If you find a subject that you would select in the past is gone, first check if there is a similar listing that accomplishes the same thing. If you do not find anything that meets your needs, please reach out.

9. Toggle a session "Payable to Tutor"

You can now log a session and toggle off the tutor's pay, for specific situations when applicable. This can be useful if you need to "transfer" prepaid hours in one engagement and add to another. When toggled off, the session is marked as $0 earnings for the tutor in the sessions report.

  • The default is set to always pay the tutor, since that is the most common scenario.

10. Charge for an individual session

When logging a session, a business admin or enhanced tutor can bill for that individual session immediately, regardless of Autopay status.

11. The user will see a schedule in their own timezone.

Fairly straightforward, but a user's location will now also impact their schedules: They will always see a scheduled event in their timezone.

12. New fields in reports

Invoice Report

New fields:

  1. Subtotals for post-pay sessions, prepaid sessions, and line items.

  2. The total post- and pre-paid sessions on the invoice.

  3. The Stripe charge ID for easy cross-referencing when troubleshooting.

Session Report

New fields:

  1. Tutor Employment Status

  2. Engagement ID

  3. Session ID

  4. Invoice Date

  5. Referral Source

  6. Referral Distribution Percentage

  7. Prepaid Package ID (if applicable)

13. Sort using columns on the Payment and Session screens.

Bug Fixes

1. Calendar Sync

Google Calendar Sync should be working again.

2. Prepaid Sessions

We've fixed a bug that added sessions to an engagement before the invoice was paid. Now prepaid sessions will only be added once the client pays the invoice.

3. Log-In Error

When logging in, users would be greeted with "bill not found," and be blocked from using Clark. If this occurs, users are now greeted with a message to refresh or click a link, and to then log in again. This will clear the error.

Other Changes

Clark previously had different support services and programs (ie. Clark Build), in addition to the platform. What is the status of those services now?

While in the past Clark had a variety of services, we will now exclusively focus on the platform itself.

On the Horizon

Improvements

  1. A new report summarizing all prepaid hours by engagement.

  2. A new welcome email will send when creating a new client, which will allow them to enter payment information ahead of tutoring sessions.

  3. Business admins and enhanced tutors can invite a client to enter payment information, if they haven't after the initial welcome email.

  4. Autopay will be the standard setting for all clients. Client can opt out when entering payment information.

  5. Business admins can toggle autopay for a client. When toggled on, any outstanding invoices will be set to autopay.

  6. Payroll stamp: A new payroll date column will be included in the sessions report. Business admins will be able to choose to run the payroll stamp. This will sweep through all session data and stamp the selected payroll date on any session that was logged and paid for, and the payroll date field is empty.

Bugs

  1. Session report currently updates all historical data if you change the distribution.

  2. The invoice report is incorrectly calculating post-pay session tally and subtotal.

  3. Engagements can't be edited after prepaid hours are added, even if the hours are all consumed.

Did this answer your question?