Choosing dance studio management software: the questions to ask before you sign

Most bad choices come from watching a demo without a checklist. Take an hour to write down how your studio actually works, then ask each vendor to walk through YOUR cases, not theirs.

Be specific. “Lots of students” is useless; “180 families, about forty of them with two or more children” tells you whether sibling discounts are calculated automatically or by hand.

• Your calendar: fall session, winter session, summer camp, full-year or per-session classes.
• The number of families and students, and how many families register more than one child.
• Your families’ languages: French only, or a mix of French and English.
• The year-end recital in June: costumes, rehearsals, tickets, seating plan.
• Your teachers: how many, paid by the hour or by the class, and who takes attendance.
• What you currently do in a spreadsheet and want to stop doing.

Most parents register in the evening, on their phone, often in between other tasks. During the demo, ask to complete a full registration yourself on your own phone: a mother registering two children in two different classes, with a sibling discount, then paying.

Count the screens and note where you hesitate. Check what happens when a class is full (waitlist or error message), whether the parent gets a confirmation email, and whether they can later find their schedule, payments and receipts without calling you. Also ask whether the class listing can be displayed on your current website or whether families have to go somewhere else.

This is the most important question and the one least often asked. There are two models. In the first, payments go through an account with a processor (Stripe, Square or another) opened in your studio’s name: the money lands in your bank account and you keep the relationship with the processor if you switch software. In the second, the vendor collects on your behalf and pays you back on its own schedule.

The second model is not necessarily bad, but you need to know before you sign. Ask these questions and get the answers in writing.

• Is the merchant account in your name or the vendor’s?
• What transaction fees are added to the subscription, and who sets them?
• Can you offer instalments (for example, a $450 session in three payments), and what happens when a card is declined?
• How are refunds handled, and is there a record of them?
• If you leave, what happens to the pre-authorized payments already in place?

Parents will ask you for receipts, especially in February. Check that the software produces clear receipts, with the child’s name, the amounts paid during the year and your tax numbers, and that families can download them on their own.

Be careful not to promise more than the rules allow. At the federal level, the Canada Revenue Agency says child care expenses are amounts paid to have someone look after a child so the parent can earn income or go to school. It accepts day camps whose primary goal is to care for children, but excludes fees for leisure or recreational activities, such as tennis lessons. A Saturday ballet class looks more like a lesson than child care; a one-week summer dance camp may be a different case.

If you run a day camp in Quebec, also check Revenu Québec’s rules on child care expenses, which this article does not cover. Ask the vendor which documents it produces for your camps, and have your accountant confirm what your studio must provide to families and to the tax authorities. Software helps you prepare documents; it does not decide what is eligible.

Your software will hold the names, birth dates, allergies and contact details of hundreds of children and parents. Quebec’s Commission d’accès à l’information points out that anyone who operates a business is responsible for protecting the personal information it holds: handing the data to a vendor does not remove that responsibility.

Three points of Law 25 deserve a direct question. Since September 2023, before communicating personal information outside Quebec, an organization must carry out a privacy impact assessment; ask where the data is hosted and processed, and talk to your advisor if it is outside Quebec. Organizations must also notify the Commission and the people concerned of any confidentiality incident that presents a risk of serious injury; ask how the vendor would let you know. Finally, since September 22, 2024, a person can request their computerized information in a structured, commonly used technological format; check that you can easily extract a family’s file.

The same logic applies to the whole studio. Before you sign, ask how to get all your data back (families, students, payments, history) if you cancel, in what format, and how long it remains accessible after the subscription ends.

Language is not just the menus. Check that automatic emails, receipts, the registration page and the family portal exist in French, and that an English-speaking family can receive theirs in English. Also ask in which language and during which hours support answers: the last Sunday of August, during back-to-school, that is what will count.

For the migration, bring a real file to the demo, duplicates and empty cells included. Ask who does the import (you or them), what is carried over (families, students, balances, payment history) and whether it is included or billed separately. Avoid migrating in the middle of registration season: summer or the holidays leave more room.

On the contract side, read the commitment period, the cancellation terms, possible price increases and what happens to your data at the end. A three-year contract signed in August also binds the studio you will be two years from now.

Print it and tick it off for each vendor. A vague answer counts as a no.

• I completed a full registration, with two children, on my own phone.
• The payment account is in my name and I know the transaction fees.
• Instalments, declined cards and refunds were demonstrated.
• Receipts are clear and families download them on their own.
• I know where the data is hosted and how I would be notified of an incident.
• I can export a family’s file and all of my data.
• Emails, receipts and the portal exist in French, and in English when needed.
• I know the contract length, the cancellation terms and who does the import.

We build Cadanse for dance studios, so hold it to the same checklist as the others. Cadanse helps you manage online registration with one account per family and several children, collect payments through Stripe or Square connected to your own merchant account (funds are paid directly to you), produce PDF receipts and, for day camps in Quebec, prepare the RL-24 slip. The interface, receipts and emails are available in French, English and Spanish, data is hosted in Canada, support is offered in French and English, and there is no long-term contract. Cadanse does not file your slips with Revenu Québec and does not replace your accountant or your lawyer.