12 CutTime Features to Make Your School Year Amazing
Another school year is starting. If you’re a veteran teacher or director, perhaps you are considering changes for the better in your music, theater, or dance program’s operational routine. If you are new to the classroom, first of all, congrats! Take a deep breath; you have an incredible opportunity to create a fresh and steady set of routines and order with your students and their families that brings the arts into their daily lives.
As a former high school band director, I’ve fought the tough daily time management fights and suffered the paperwork struggles that can get in the way of teaching, performing, and advocating at the highest level. That’s why I am eager to show you a more effective way to tackle your inventory, financial, and communication tasks this next season. Check out my top 12 amazing CutTime features that can set you up for even greater success with way less stress.
1. Document eSignature
I remember all too well sitting on the floor of my office going through stacks of paper, sorting by ensemble and updating my spreadsheet in the first weeks of the school year. The mountain of documents that my students and guardians needed to sign, became my ascent to Mt Everest! Even worse, I spent time chasing signatures that added extra stress to me and the families. That’s why I love how you can upload PDFs and request eSignatures from students, guardians, or both, which they can view and sign right on their CutTime dashboard. It’s simple, secure, and a true lifesaver when it comes to netting a signature for a vital permission slip from a guardian while you are loading the bus for a class trip. Learn more about how it works here. Not sure what documents your members should be eSigning? You can read a terrific blog article about those here.
2. Attire Assignment by Barcode Scan
No more long lines waiting to receive garments and other attire items! You, your volunteers, and students will LOVE the speedy assignment by barcode scanner experience in CutTime. You can learn more about how to use it here.
3. Locker Assignment via Equipment Inventory
Next to attire, assigning lockers and managing combination information with my students was a seriously HUGE hassle. CutTime’s equipment inventory enables you to add lockers, include the combination details, and assign them to each student. Now you don’t have to be the one fetching a forgotten or miskeyed combination at the drop of a hat! Read more about our Equipment Inventory functions here.
4. Members’ Assignments View
Foster student and guardian accountability! Instead of sending home paper inventory assignment lists, all of the musical instruments, attire, library, and equipment item details are at your members fingertips in CutTime. This especially comes in handy for students who want to recall their locker combination info in a hurry. More tips on this and other Member features can be found here.
5. Online Fundraising
Raising precious funds for your program even online can consume tons of your ‘extra’ time. Setting up teams and individuals with goals, building out promotions, and reconciling donations back to accounts is a LOT simpler thanks to an integration we’ve been working on with our new sister platform - Simple Raise. Keep your focus on encouraging students to expand their giving circles and make a personalized ask for support. Stay tuned for our launch announcement. Watch our sneak peek video to learn more here.
6. Payment Allocation Reporting
If you are the person following the money trail for your program, you’ll love being able to view how each payment is applied to your program costs, including 'split payments'. You can also export this financial data. Learn more about how to do this and see other financial reporting goodies here.
7. Angel Fund
Do you need a better way to track and handle money that does not yet belong to a specific student? Transfer extra program credits and overpays more easily between members through the Angel Fund. Manage scholarship funds. Track and allocate community-at-large donations towards your students’ program expenses. Now you can give a little extra financial love where it matters most. Read more here.
8. Public and District Calendar Sharing
Getting the word out about your program’s rehearsals, performances, and other events can feel like a full time job! Thanks to our new shareable calendars, your alumni, supporters, and other community fans can easily stay in the know. Copy and paste your program’s Public Calendar link into any external email, SMS, social post, or website. Fine Arts Administrators and Coordinators can similarly promote a District Calendar to showcase all of their fine arts program events. See how to use them here.
9. Magic Link Bookmarking
The best part about this feature is that you don’t have to lift a finger! At the start of the season, encourage your students (and their guardians!) to add a bookmark for their personal CutTime Magic link to their desktop or mobile device. This will save you countless extra minutes of looking up their last CutTime notification or having to resend it whenever they want to go see the latest with your program. Check it out here.
10. Music Library Sharing
Have you ever found yourself needing to borrow an extra score for an upcoming performance? I completely relate! But finding a loaner can easily balloon into an all Friday or even weekend scavenger hunt depending on your local network. Now you can gain access to the wider CutTime community's vast music library universe. Go to your Settings and opt in to share and search literature gems with others. Read more here.
11. User Permission Management
I was fortunate to have a solid group of people helping me throughout the year. But keeping track of who had access to what information in my program wasn’t so simple. In CutTime, you can invite your booster volunteers, student leaders, and other helpers as users and then designate individual permission levels for within your CutTime account. Manage who can get access to financial, communication, and student contact information from the Program Users Dashboard under 'Settings'. See it in action here.
12. Send Automatic Volunteer Job Reminders
Volunteers are a gift to your program! But in this crazy busy world of ours, the hardest part is making sure they know where to be when it matters most. Instead of you having to make phone calls, send emails or text the night before - CutTime automagically does this for you. Nice, right?! Check it out here.
I hope reading this list gets you and your program pumped for your next season ahead! We’re equally excited to dive into the next cycle of feature development and design enhancements for CutTime. Be sure you regularly open and read our monthly Product Update newsletter to stay current on the latest and greatest additions. Got a challenging workflow or task that we can potentially help with? Get in touch with us via our online chat or email and let us know more about what you’re struggling with on a daily basis. Solving your biggest headaches and putting more smiles on your faces is what drives us each day. Have an amazing year ahead!
Discover More Awesome Tools from CutTime
For sure, CutTime is the place to manage your fine arts inventory, communication, and student financials. But that’s just the beginning. More awesome tools to help you teach and advocate more are continuously in the works. Check out our latest moves.
