TurtleDock
TutorDesk · Feature

Batches that start when they fill, not in April

TutorDesk models the batch as the unit rather than the academic year: each batch has its own start date, duration, capacity, faculty and fee plan. A student can sit in more than one batch, and a batch that fills opens a waitlist rather than being quietly over-enrolled.

Capacity only helps if it reflects the room. A batch listed at sixty in a hall that seats forty will fill to sixty.

This is the assumption that separates coaching software from school software. A school promotes everyone in March; a coaching centre starts a batch whenever enough students have paid, runs it for its own duration, and may have four batches of the same subject at different stages simultaneously.

Fitting that into a system built around an academic year produces workarounds within the first intake, and abandonment by the second.

Unit
The batch, with its own dates
Enrolment
A student may be in several batches
Capacity
Enforced, with a waitlist
Attached
Faculty, fee plan, test series
01

What a batch carries

  • Its own calendar. Start date, end date, and the days and times it actually meets, which is what the attendance register is generated from.
  • Capacity and a waitlist. When it fills, further enrolment goes to a waitlist that offers freed seats in order rather than to whoever calls.
  • Faculty allocation. Who teaches it, visible against their load across every centre they teach at.
  • A fee plan. Attached to the batch, so a student joining in week three is billed pro-rata rather than by hand.
  • A test series. Scheduled against the batch calendar so ranks are comparable within it.
02

Mid-batch joiners are the ordinary case

In a school, a student joining in week three is unusual. In a coaching centre it is most of the intake — parents decide after a school result, after a competitor disappoints, or after a neighbour recommends you.

So the join date drives the fee calculation, the attendance denominator and which tests count toward the student’s rank. Treating a mid-batch joiner as an exception requiring manual adjustment is how fee ledgers stop reconciling by December.

FAQ

Questions people ask

Phrased the way they arrive, answered so each one stands on its own.

Can a student be enrolled in two batches?

Yes. A student taking physics in one batch and chemistry in another is one student record with two enrolments, so attendance and fees stay coherent rather than requiring a duplicate record.

What happens when a batch fills?

Enrolment closes and further interest goes to a waitlist. Seats freed by withdrawal are offered in waitlist order, which removes the awkward conversation about who got in and why.

How are mid-batch joiners billed?

Pro-rata from the join date against the batch fee plan, computed rather than negotiated case by case. Their attendance denominator also starts from that date rather than the batch start.

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Provenance

Who checked this, and against what

Accountability

Checked by the Implementations desk on 1 September 2026. Corrections go in the page, dated, rather than quietly.

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