Correct a Prepaid Lesson Balance Without Erasing the Original

A corrected lesson duration changes the remaining prepaid time. Keeping the original and the correction together makes that change easier to explain than silently editing a balance.

Start with the recorded allocation

Imagine pack A had 30 minutes left and pack B had 300. You recorded a 90-minute lesson using 30 from A and 60 from B. Pack B now has 240 minutes left. You later confirm the lesson actually lasted 60 minutes.

Record a reversal linked to the original lesson: return 30 to A and 60 to B. Then record the corrected 60-minute lesson, using 30 from A and 30 from B. The final balance is 270 minutes in B. The record explains why the previous statement showed 240.

Keep decisions separate from arithmetic

A cancellation, complimentary lesson or disputed duration needs a decision based on the agreement with the student. Record the decided adjustment and a short reason. Do not treat absence as an automatic charge or silently remove remaining time. Avoid putting private teaching notes in a balance statement.

Compare the tools you already have

Tutor Planner already connects lesson history, prepaid packages and payment status. A standalone tutor spreadsheet explicitly says it does not identify which individual pack funded each lesson. Those are different scopes; neither establishes that a new app is necessary.

The proposed LessonTrace would focus on those explicit allocation and correction rows, with a local export. Try the process in your current spreadsheet first. If you rarely need to explain a split or correction, a separate tool may add more work than it removes.