From the Mat to the Spreadsheet: Smart Record-Keeping Strategies for Yoga Professionals
Video + Transcript with Heather Agnew, ERYT-500, Lead Trainer. Watch the discussion video, or read a few discussion notes below.
Paperwork! Record-keeping for Yoga Teachers
As yoga teachers we focus a lot on developing our knowledge and skills, and on sharing amazing classes with our students, but there is another side to building a teaching practice, and that is paperwork! It might not be as fancy as guiding students through a sweet Vinyasa Flow class, but it’s critical for the health of your teaching practice, so let’s learn to do it efficiently and with confidence.
In order to develop a successful teaching practice, whether that’s a few classes a week, or running a full-time yoga studio, it’s essential to develop a routine for maintaining logs, records, and paperwork. If you’re currently in teacher training, these habits you are building through your coursework will set you up for a successful transition into the world of yoga instruction.
Our discussion will look at practical strategies on maintaining the various types of records you’ll need for maintaining your professional memberships, efficiently managing your yoga teaching business, and keeping a clear record of your finances.
Today we’ll talk about…
During teacher training you begin to get into the habit of creating and maintaining logs and records, and these are great habits to build now so you can carry on once you are out in the world teaching yoga. Record management is a skill that takes time and focus to develop, and key to this is understanding it’s importance.
To maintain and upgrade professional memberships, efficiently and accurately run your business, and record and report your finances, today we’ll dig into all the administrative tasks that you’ll need to make a habit to flow into a successful teaching practice.
During Teacher Training
During your yoga teacher training program you keep a few logs that I recommend maintaining after you’ve completed your course:
Practice Log – as a provisional teacher (200-hour) you may be required to maintain a practice log. It’s a great idea to do this anyway and keep brief notes on what your practice consists of, cool new sequencing ideas, prop uses, and anything else that will support your ongoing learning. The minimum is tracking date, style of practice, length of practice, and location/teacher.
Ongoing Learning Log – keep track of mentoring, coaching discussions like these, books you read, podcasts you listen to, courses you attend. This will help with renewing your yoga memberships, updating study hours, and help you to track the progress of your learning.
Teaching Hours – right now start logging your teaching hours, even when it’s just to folks in your household. This is going to be important during training and after – especially if you want to upgrade your professional membership level at some stage.
How to Keep a Log?
Excel is a good program to maintain all of these records in one place.
You can also use a word processor (Word), a handwritten journal (less easy to upload to systems), or use google sheets or numbers on your Mac.
You’ll find templates in Word in your training manual which you can use during and after training, or use these as a model to build your own spreadsheet or other logs.
Once you are teaching, a few records you’ll want to keep:
Professional Memberships
Depending on your membership – Yoga Alliance, Yoga Australia, or AUSactive – you’ll need to submit your ongoing learning, and in some cases your practice and teaching logs to renew and/or update your membership, so keeping track of these things now is a good idea. Perhaps the calendar you use will suffice, otherwise maintaining a log of practice hours, teaching hours, and study hours is important.
Keep a file of all the courses you attend, including receipt, certificate of completion etc., for submitting to your membership body, and in the case of specialty trainings like prenatal and kids’ yoga, you’ll need to submit these to your insurance company as well.
And, as mentioned before, keep track of all of your teaching. This is important to renew some memberships, and essential if you want to upgrade your membership at any point.
You might also keep a record of feedback and testimonials. You might not use this right away, but in future they can be useful in your website, social media, and other marketing. As well, feedback helps to you keep an eye on your teaching evolution.
Efficient Business Management
As you transition into teaching yoga professionally, you’ll find that a well-organized approach to administrative tasks is pivotal. Keeping track of class schedules, student attendance, marketing efforts, and client communications are just a few examples of the records that will contribute to the smooth operation of your yoga business. These records will enable you to streamline your business processes, maintain a positive reputation, and ensure that you’re delivering exceptional service to your students.
Financial Accountability
Maintaining financial records is another vital aspect of a successful yoga teaching practice. By maintaining accurate records of your income, expenses, and tax-related information, you’ll not only stay compliant with financial regulations but also gain an understanding of your business’s financial health. This clarity will empower you to make informed decisions, set financial goals, and manage your resources efficiently.
Track all your yoga income, including teaching for others, your own classes, and maintain a record of all yoga-related income.
If you run your own classes, you’ll need to track how much each student pays, for how many classes, when they expire etc. If you are using a system like Acuity or Mindbody online this will do it for you. In many cases your payment gateway gives you options to track these things, like Square, PayPal etc., or your website helps you track all these things like Wix and Offering Tree. If you are working more analog, these records need to be updated with each class, and for this you can use systems like Xero, QuickBooks, FreshBooks.
Expenses: especially if this is going to be more than a hobby income (usually around $5k/year), track all of your yoga-related expenses, including this course, books, attending classes, online subscriptions, website expenses, equipment like props, professional memberships, subscriptions, venue hire, anything you use for your business is an expense.
You’ll also need to log your use of your car, and they like you to track how much you use your computer and phone for business if you are using these as business expenses as well.
If you plan to run your own business, it’s worth talking to an accountant to get set up for success.
Taxes & Savings
So, all this recording of income and expenses is going to be useful when it comes time to report your tax. Depending on your income, you might be reporting income and taxes like GST/HST on a yearly or quarterly basis. If you plan to teach full time, I recommend having a consultation with an accountant to get set up for smooth record keeping and reporting. Knowing your tax obligations will help you to set aside funds to pay your taxes so it doesn’t come as a surprise down the road. At the same time, you can be tracking what you’ll put into your superfund or retirement or savings funds.
Incident Reporting
This won’t come up often but be prepared by having a template on file to record and report any injuries or incidents in your classes. Your insurance company can provide you with a template, or you can find one online. In the case of injuries, these documents need to be submitted to your insurance company and kept in your own files.
Client Files
Depending on what systems you use, you’ll be gathering personal information on your students, and the first rule of client information is that it has to be kept safe, secure, and confidential. If your students are signing paper intake forms, they need to be kept under lock and key. If your students are registering online, you need to be up to date on the security of your systems.
Put Into Your Calendar
You will almost certainly get updates and reminders for all of these, but sometimes systems fail, and you are ultimately responsible, so put all these renewal dates into your calendars:
- Membership renewals
- Domain/website renewals
- Insurance renewals
Note: this is also useful if you have to change credit cards, to go through your calendar and be sure to update all these automated payments.
In Closing
A professional yoga teaching practice extends far beyond the mat. To thrive in this profession, it’s important to develop habits of thorough record-keeping. It’s the key to sustaining professional memberships, ensuring the seamless operation of your business, maintaining financial accountability, and supporting your students. As you embark on your yoga teaching career, these records will be your trusted companions, guiding you toward success in the ever-evolving world of yoga teaching.