While many coaches work with fully independent adults, and others with corporate entities as their customers, many CoachAccountable users work with students. Whether it’s tutoring in a particular subject, college study habits, or ADHD focus points, coaches often ask: how can I involve parents in the coaching process without breaking confidentiality?

Use Companies.

It may seem weird to use CoachAccountable Companies for relationships that aren’t… well… companies. However, the Companies feature is exactly what you’ll need. Each family will be a company. 

Clients and Personnel

In this case, the student is the client within CoachAccountable. They’re the ones doing all the coaching work – completing assignments, viewing files, showing up for appointments, and so on.

The parents, on the other hand, usually have a less direct role. They’re generally paying for the coaching, perhaps with a view into some of the work that’s going on, but not all.

You can use the permissions levels for personnel to allow the parents to:

• View and pay the invoices (or not)
• View and sign agreements (or not)
• View appointment reports (or not)
• View the actual work of their student (or not)

And more. For some parents, it might make sense for them to see Actions but not Worksheets, Metrics but not Whiteboards, and so on. All of that is accomplished with Companies, using the permissions for Personnel users (parents).

Company Engagements for Regular Payments

If you bill the parents on a regular basis, or use package pricing (i.e. 10 appointments for $2500), you’ll want to use Engagements. Company Engagements allow you to automatically bill the parent, rather than the student.

Other Common Questions

What about appointments with both parent and student?

If you plan to do any coaching stuff with parents, including Agreements (contracts), appointments, intake forms (Worksheets) and so on… the parent must be a client as well.

For joint appointments, you’ll put parent and student into a Group, then create a Group Appointment.

What about double-notifications?

If you want the parent to get notified of the student’s appointments, Actions, and so on, the student can set that up using forwarding rules within their email account. It’s not possible to have reminders go to more than one SMS text number or email address UNLESS, like above, you put the parent and student into a Group and create Group Appointments (which, for certain relationships, is exactly the right solution).

What about additional students or family members?

No problem! Use the same Company, add any additional parents/responsible parties as Personnel, and set up different Engagements if desired for additional students in the same Company. You can also add school administrators, therapists, or anyone else who should see part or all of the coaching relationship as personnel, so they’ll have their own login to the system and customized visibility based on how you set them up.

Any other tips?

Like you would with any client, take the time to customize the page for the students and eliminate any unnecessary tabs. That way, you’ll ensure they see only what they need.

And that’s the gist of working with families using CoachAccountable! As tutors, teachers, and independent instructors, rest assured that your business model is well-supported within the system.