How billing works in AerScheduler
The path a flight takes from booking to paid invoice, the four things you have to set before any of it runs, and where the money shows up afterwards.
For owners, admins, dispatchers, instructors, students and renters
A flight is priced when its close-out finishes. AerScheduler takes the hours off the aircraft's meter, adds the instruction time, splits the total between the people on the booking, and raises one Stripe invoice per payer.
From booking to paid invoice#
Every flight invoice follows the same path.
The flight is booked
Nothing is priced yet. The booking just decides which aircraft and which people are involved, and both of those feed the invoice later.
Ramp out, then ramp in
The pilot records Hobbs and tach at the start and at the end, plus instruction time if a CFI was teaching. See Close out a flight so it invoices.
Every pilot confirms with their PIN
The invoice does not exist until the last assigned pilot has signed off. This is the most common answer to "where is my invoice?".
The invoices are raised
One per payer, in Stripe and in AerScheduler. Each payer gets an email and a push notification with a pay link.
The member pays
By card in the app, or automatically if they have saved a card and turned on autopay. An admin can also mark it paid after cash or a check.
What AerScheduler prices, and what it does not#
It prices four things:
| Charge | Where the number comes from |
|---|---|
| Aircraft or simulator time | Hobbs in minus Hobbs out, or tach in minus tach out, times the aircraft's hourly rate |
| Instruction | The instruction time entered at ramp-in, times the rating's rate or the school's default instructor rate |
| Overnight minimum | A floor under the aircraft time when the booking is away overnight |
| Service fee | An optional percentage of the invoice that your school adds, with a label you choose |
It does not price anything else. There is no fuel line item, even on a dry rate, so a school on dry rates bills fuel separately on a manual invoice. Rooms have no rate and are never charged for time, and maintenance bookings are never invoiced at all.
One invoice per payer#
A booking with one payer produces one invoice. A booking with several produces one each, priced at that person's own rate, with a memo naming the others on the flight and line text quoting that person's own hours. How the cost divides is set once per booking type in Cost splitting.
Where invoices show up#
| Screen | Who sees it |
|---|---|
| WebBilling | Owners and admins. Every invoice in the organization, plus revenue, outstanding and unbilled totals. |
| WebInvoices under the personal section | Every member, for their own invoices only. |
| The close-out section on the booking | Staff, and anyone rostered on that flight. |
| WebDashboard | Staff see recent invoices, admins also see the outstanding total. |
| WebReports → Financial | Admins only. Revenue, payments received, items sold, memberships and dues. |
On a split booking, the summary on the booking itself shows one person's share, labelled "(one of N shares for this booking)". It is not the flight's whole bill.
What you have to set up first#
Four things, and nothing bills until all four are done.
| Setting | Where | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Stripe payouts connected | WebSettings → Billing, Payouts card | Organization owner only |
| Billing enabled | WebSettings → Billing | Organization owner only |
| A rate on each aircraft | WebAircraft → edit the aircraft | Owner or admin |
| An instruction rate | WebSettings → Billing or WebSettings → Instruction rates | Owner for the default, admin for a rating |
Start with Turn on invoicing and card payments, then Set your aircraft and instruction rates.
What billing cannot do#
Worth knowing before you plan around it.
- No refunds. There is no refund action anywhere in AerScheduler. Refunds are done in your own Stripe dashboard, and they are not reflected back here: the invoice stays Paid and stays in your revenue figures.
- A paid invoice cannot be voided. Voiding is for an invoice that should never have been raised, not for undoing a payment.
- An invoice cannot be edited once raised. You can mark it paid or void it, nothing else.
- No credit notes or account credits.
- No per-instructor rates. Every CFI teaching a given rating bills the same hourly figure.
- You cannot invoice a guest from the web console. The New invoice dialog only picks a member; a guest invoice is raised from the app's Generate Invoice screen. If a close-out's invoice never appeared, Create invoice on the booking is the fix, on either surface. See Why a flight was not invoiced.
Where to go next#
Connect Stripe, switch billing on, and set the fees every invoice is built from.
Hourly rate, wet or dry, and whether the invoice measures Hobbs or tach.
Ramp out, ramp in, confirm with a PIN, and the invoice is raised.
Every billing action by role, including the owner-only ones.
Still stuck on this?
Email support@aerscheduler.com and tell us what you were trying to do. We answer.