Lesson Lineup

Guide · switching

How to switch from MyMusicStaff without losing a term.

There is no importer. Lesson Lineup will not read a MyMusicStaff export, and nothing on this page pretends otherwise: moving a studio of one is an afternoon of typing plus a month of running both. What this guide adds is the order, so the afternoon happens once and no family is invoiced twice.

  • Four weeks, start to finish
  • One afternoon of typing
  • Cut over on an invoice boundary
  • Move balances, never history

The checklist

Seven steps, over four weeks.

MyMusicStaff keeps billing until step seven. Lesson Lineup's 30-day trial covers this whole sequence, so nothing here costs anything until you are already sure.

  1. Pick the cut-over date. Week 0.

    The first day of a billing month, at least four weeks away, and if you can manage it the first day of a term. Everything below is timed from it. Nothing moves until then, and MyMusicStaff keeps doing what it does.

  2. Export what MyMusicStaff will give you. Week 1.

    MyMusicStaff's help centre has an article titled Can I download (export) my student data; follow it and keep the file open beside Lesson Lineup. It is your typing sheet, not an import — and it is also your record of who was on the books the day you left, which is worth keeping whatever happens next. Export any report you will want later too: the balances especially.

  3. Set the policy before the people. Week 1.

    In Lesson Lineup, before adding anyone: the attendance statuses and which ones are billable or issue a make-up credit, the invoice layout and numbering, the studio's locale for currency and date format, and how names are shown. These are the decisions every later record inherits, and changing them with twenty students in is the one thing that makes the afternoon a weekend. The cancellations guide is the policy half of this step.

  4. Type in families, then students. Week 2 — the afternoon.

    One family account per paying household first, then each student under it, so siblings land on one balance and one invoice. Contact details, the instrument, the lesson length. Twenty students is an afternoon; forty is a day. Do not enter anything about money yet — that is step seven — and do not enter a lesson yet either.

  5. Build the timetable as recurring series. Week 2.

    One recurring lesson per student, starting on the cut-over date and running to a repeat-until date at the end of term. Lesson Lineup warns before a save double-books you, so build it in one sitting from your MyMusicStaff calendar. No history: Lesson Lineup's calendar starts the day you cut over, and the lessons already taught stay in MyMusicStaff's exports.

  6. Run both for one month. Weeks 3 and 4.

    Mark the register in both, every lesson. At the end of the month, raise the month's invoices in Lesson Lineup — they are built from what the register says was taught — and put them beside MyMusicStaff's. Where they differ, the cause is a status or a rate you set up in step three, so fix the setup and raise them again; do not edit a number. When the two agree, you know the money side holds, which is the only thing the trial is really for.

    This is also the month to decide honestly whether you use anything from the "stay" box — online payments, the portal, sent reminders. If a family paid through the portal this month and you had nowhere to put that in Lesson Lineup, that is the answer, and it is a cheap one to have got.

  7. Cut over: opening balances, then cancel. The date.

    Send the last MyMusicStaff invoices from MyMusicStaff, covering up to the day before. Then, in Lesson Lineup, enter each family's outstanding balance as one opening charge dated the cut-over day — one line per family, not the history behind it. From here every charge and payment is one entry in Lesson Lineup's ledger and the balance is added up from those. Then cancel MyMusicStaff; their pricing page describes a 90-day money-back guarantee if you are inside it. Keep the exports.

What never moves: lesson history, old invoices, old practice logs, notes. They live in the exports. Re-keying a year of history buys nothing an exported report does not already give you, and every re-keyed number is a chance to disagree with the invoice the family already paid.

Questions

Can I import my MyMusicStaff students into Lesson Lineup?

No. Lesson Lineup has no student importer; only expenses import from CSV. Students, families and the timetable are typed in, which for a studio of twenty is about an afternoon — step four above.

Should I move my lesson history and old invoices?

No. Keep the old invoices as exports from MyMusicStaff and start Lesson Lineup's ledger on the cut-over date with one opening balance per family.

When in the year should I switch?

On the first day of a billing month, ideally at the start of a term, so the last MyMusicStaff invoice and the first Lesson Lineup invoice cover whole months and no family is billed for the same lesson twice.

Does this guide work for TutorBird, Duet Partner or Teachworks?

The sequence does — export, set policy, type, run both, cut over on an invoice boundary — because none of it depends on the other product. What you export and how is theirs to document; the comparison pages say what each does that Lesson Lineup does not, which is the "stay box" check in step six.

Before and after the move

Start my 30-day trial

30 days free, no card. $6.99 a month for your first 12 billed months if you sign up on or before 25 December 2026, $9.99 after that.