Working with In-Home Tutors

If you're tutoring on our behalf...

In-Home Tutors operates in a competitive environment, which means we need to be operationally efficient if we are to offer our services at reasonable rates. You can help us by following the processes we've set up.

Reporting your hours worked

Please submit your hours worked promptly each week, preferably by midnight Sunday. Although we accept fax or regular mail, we request that you use this online form. You will need to set yourself up in the system with a username and password the first time you report hours. When you report your hours, remember that the minimum session is one hour (unless a short lesson is your fault, i.e. you were running late). After one hour report in in 15 min increments as a decimal, i.e. report a one hour fifteen minute session as 1.25.

Invoicing In-Home Tutors

As contractors, you may want to invoice us for payment on your own letterhead. However, to make it easy for both of us, we consider your report of hours worked to be your invoice and we will pay promptly on the basis of this submission.

Our payment schedule

In the interests of efficiency, we try to limit the administration side of this business to one day every two weeks for payment of tutors and mailing of invoices to clients. Our admin day is every second Monday. (That's why you need to get your hours to us by midnight Sunday.)

Use of the timesheet

Please use our generic Lesson Sheet that you can download here at any time. Please ensure that you always get a parent or guardian to sign off on this document before you leave each lesson. You do not need to turn this in to me but please, please, you must keep it safe for at least a year, in case we need to resolve payment queries from clients, or, worse, need to provide documentation to the IRS.

Meeting a new student

In-Home Tutors does not micro-manage its tutors. You are all independent contractors who have been hired because you already have tutoring skills. However, we are pleased to reprint some tips for tutors when they accept a new assignment, as well as our business procedures.

First impressions are important! Call ahead to introduce yourself and confirm directions. Arrive on time and allow time afterwards to speak with the parents. Take some time to establish rapport with the students and parents. Dress professionally.

Introduce yourself to your students and let them know how they should address you. Students are used to addressing their teachers formally; if you prefer to have them call you by your first name, give them permission to do. If you do not make it clear to your students what you wish to be called, they may not ever use your name which creates an awkward situation.

Bring lesson materials to your students' homes. At the elementary level, it is always handy to have a few extra activities planned. At the high school/adult level, it may give you confidence if you have appropriate materials to refer to, if necessary.

At the end of your first lesson with a student, have the parents sign the Lesson Record Sheet. Ask the parent if he or she would like to sign the sheet personally after each lesson or if the student can sometimes sign it.

Keep notes on every session. This is useful for keeping track of progress and areas that need more work. Your notes are also an important record of your tutoring sessions--if a parent is unhappy with their child’s progress, we can explain what was accomplished at each lesson.

Call us immediately if there is a No Show, or any other serious problem. If you arrive at a student's home and the student is not home, wait at least 20 minutes before leaving. If you have a cell phone, call me right away. I may have heard from the parent and been unable to reach you.

After seeing a new student, we will call you to follow up. But we’d appreciate it if you’d be proactive and call me. After speaking with you, we will call the client. At the time of the first lesson, the client is under no obligation to continue. Assuming that the client wishes to continue with the tutoring, the client will then sign an Instructional Agreement. However, we do not require a long term contract for our students. They may cancel their agreement with us at any time (giving at least 24 hours notice before the last lesson).

Call us whenever you wish to discuss any concerns or if you have suggestions. We are committed to providing our students with an opportunity to excel, and are always open to your suggestions. We greatly appreciate your referrals for teachers, and I offer a referral payment for new students.