Customer Stories
From Complex Transactions to Confidence: PLANT, Inc. Saves Staff Time and Costs
3 years
on Jumbula
240+ hours
saved annually
100% increase
in on-time payments via auto-charge
About Parent Led Academic Network Team, Inc. (PLANT, Inc.)
Parent Led Academic Network Team, Inc. (PLANT, Inc.) is a network of teachers, tutors, coaches, and mentors who team up to share the costs of administration while maintaining independence in program and class design. Each teacher is an independent business, but PLANT provides a centralized platform for parents to find various learning opportunities for children aged 3–19.
Programs reflect the skills and passions of each individual teacher. Families can choose from creative alternatives such as aerodynamics taught by a retired pilot, cooking led by a caterer, photography taught by a professional photographer, art taught by professional fine artists, nuclear science taught by a retired engineer, and writing taught by a published author. PLANT also offers core academic and enrichment classes — including math, history, science, literature, reading, PE, civics, and government — taught by former teachers and experienced homeschool parents.
The Pain Points That Led PLANT, Inc. to Jumbula
Before switching to Jumbula, PLANT, Inc. used a registration system that was functional on the back end but severely limited their ability to attract new customers and streamline finances because of its lack of front-end features.
Key challenges included:
- The registration interface lacked a calendar view and filters for parents.
- The team was unable to offer incentives such as coupons, early bird discounts, sibling discounts, or multi-class discounts.
- PLANT incurred higher processing fees when accepting donations through external platforms such as PayPal.
These limitations restricted the front-end experience for families and made it harder to achieve the financial efficiency PLANT needed.
The Switch to Jumbula and What Changed
The transition to Jumbula provided immediate solutions to PLANT’s front-end limitations. The organization gained access to modern scheduling and discount features that help attract new customers and better present their programs to families.
On the back end, however, the transition had to account for PLANT’s highly specialized financial model: each teacher is an independent business, and every refund can affect an individual teacher’s check. The team needed a way to use Jumbula while still reconciling this complexity accurately in QuickBooks.
Over time, increasing confidence in the accuracy and completeness of Jumbula’s reporting helped PLANT refine how it handled this accounting work.
Accounting Transformation and Teacher Payments
PLANT’s accounting evolution with Jumbula followed a clear path:
- Initial challenge: Because each teacher operates as an independent business, any refund affects individual teacher checks, making reconciliation with QuickBooks more complicated.
- Initial solution: PLANT purchased an expensive import tool to manually import every transaction from Jumbula into QuickBooks each month. This ensured QuickBooks reflected all activity but required ongoing effort and oversight.
- Final solution: After several years of using Jumbula, the team gained confidence that all necessary data was secure and accurate within the platform. This allowed them to abandon the transaction import tool and rely on Jumbula’s reporting instead.
The impact of this streamlined process was significant:
- PLANT eliminated three volunteer bookkeeping positions.
- A single part-time bookkeeper now manages accounting more quickly and efficiently.
- Teachers are paid sooner and receive detailed reports showing the transactions reflected in their checks.
What began as a front-end upgrade ultimately led to meaningful back-end efficiencies in PLANT’s accounting and teacher payment processes.
“We were able to abandon the importation of transactions and streamline our accounting procedures… to pay teachers each month.”
Flexible Financing for Families
For PLANT’s families, the ability to offer flexible financing is critical. Many parents register several students for multiple independent classes, and spreading payments out is important to them.
Jumbula’s payment plan capabilities support PLANT’s ability to provide this kind of flexible financing to families who need to manage multiple registrations at once.
Communication, Support, and Future Plans
PLANT values the ongoing support and product development they receive from Jumbula.
- Customer support: The Jumbula team is described as prompt, courteous, and knowledgeable, and can usually address problems or offer practical workarounds when needed.
- Email communication: The ability to email parents and participants directly from Jumbula is helpful, particularly with the built-in unsubscribe feature that supports legal compliance. Email reports help PLANT track engagement and show that less than half of parents currently read their emails.
Looking ahead, PLANT is eager to make fuller use of new communication tools within Jumbula — especially text messaging and the family app — as these channels align with how many parents prefer to interact today.
“Payment plans are invaluable to our customers… and having the ability to spread the cost over the length of the class makes it possible for them to choose more.”
Conclusion: From Fragmented System to an All-in-One Platform
By migrating to Jumbula, Parent Led Academic Network Team, Inc. (PLANT, Inc.) moved from a fragmented, labor-intensive registration system to a powerful, all-in-one platform. Initial front-end gains — such as modern scheduling and discount features that help attract new customers — were matched by unforeseen back-end efficiencies.
By leveraging Jumbula’s robust reporting to simplify complex accounting tied to independent teachers and refunds, PLANT eliminated the need for three volunteer bookkeeping positions and now provides faster, more accurate payment services to its teachers. Jumbula’s commitment to constant improvement helps PLANT stay focused on its mission: fostering the skills and passions of its teachers to provide high-quality, creative learning opportunities for children.
