For Lexis, sending a payment request once meant working across spreadsheets, paper records and separate databases. Today, staff can review a student’s information and classes in OneLearn, then send a payment link through LINE or email.
The school began with billing and parent communication, introducing changes gradually while continuing its daily operations.
A long-established school with growing administrative demands
Lexis has spent 30 years teaching English to children with different learning backgrounds, from beginners to students returning to Japan after living overseas.
Supporting those students means coordinating class placements, schedules, payments and communication with families. During the busy March and April period, 20 new enrolments might coincide with another 20 students changing classes—each requiring updates across the school’s records.
For years, that work relied on a mixture of paper, spreadsheets, separate applications and knowledge held by individual staff members.
The work itself was not unusually complicated. The system around it made it complicated.
When one update meant several steps
Billing was one example. Moving from cash to online payments removed the need for families to come to the school to pay, but the payment service did not connect to Lexis’s existing records.
Payment information arrived in spreadsheets. Staff then had to check it against other records and update customer information manually.
Similar handoffs happened elsewhere. An enquiry could pass from email to an offline database, then to a notebook and another record for enrolment and payment. Attendance was recorded on paper before being copied into other documents.
Information was entered two or three times. And when a process depended on one or two people knowing every step, their absence made it harder for colleagues to understand what had happened or what needed attention next.
Starting with how Lexis actually worked
Lexis explored several school-management and general business platforms. Some covered billing but lacked communication tools. Others did not support the combination of English-language use, LINE, scheduling and payment practices the school needed.
After three decades of operation, Lexis wanted to improve its processes without asking staff and families to change everything at once.
OneLearn began by mapping the school’s existing operation: the applications it used, the work completed manually, and the steps from a family’s first enquiry through to class placement and billing.
They built a map of our business, something I had never really seen laid out that way before. I felt they were actually paying attention to what we needed.
That map gave both teams a shared understanding of where information moved, where work was repeated and what to address first.
Connecting billing and parent communication
Lexis made billing its first priority, alongside clear communication with families.
Customer records moved into OneLearn early in the implementation. Staff worked through older and current data, learned where to find information and introduced the workflows the school was ready to use.
Today, a staff member can open a customer’s account, review the student’s history and current classes, select the relevant payment type, and send a payment request through LINE, email or both. The family can complete payment through the link in the message.
Student information and the payment request are now part of the same workflow, replacing the earlier chain of separate records and manual handoffs. Lexis also uses the platform for contracts, renewals and related communication.
The rollout remains gradual. Staff and families become familiar with the workflows already in use before the school introduces more features.
Support through the transition
As staff learn the system and encounter unusual situations, Lexis can work directly with the OneLearn team.
It is a completely different experience from buying software off the shelf and being expected to figure it out alone.
Jared describes usually receiving a response the same day or the following day. That ongoing contact has helped the team work through questions and build confidence during the transition.
A practical change, with more to come
Lexis is still expanding its use of OneLearn. The clearest change so far is in an everyday task: staff can move from a student’s record to a payment request and parent communication within one platform.
The school has started with a defined part of its operation, while keeping the wider transition manageable for staff and families.
For Lexis, that is the foundation for continued improvement: connected information, a gradual rollout and a team that understands how the school works.
Does your school manage student records, billing and parent messages in separate places? Talk to the OneLearn team about your current workflow and where we might help.