Setting Up Your Studio

When you first sign in to Trio as a studio owner, an onboarding wizard at the onboarding page walks you through the initial configuration. The page greets you with "Welcome to your studio!" and takes about five minutes end to end. Most steps can be skipped, and your progress is saved automatically, so you can return at your next sign-in to pick up where you left off.

The Onboarding Wizard

A numbered progress bar tracks your position. The label above each step reads "Step X of Y" with the step name. The steps are:

Studio Profile
Weekly Availability
Add First Student
Getting Paid

If your account does not have a verified phone number yet, a Phone Setup step is added as the first step and the remaining steps shift down by one.

Phone Setup

This step appears only when no phone is on file. Enter your Phone number, check the SMS consent box, and click Send code. Enter the 6-digit verification code and click Verify & continue. Adding a phone lets Trio send you text alerts. Click Skip to move on without one.

Studio Profile

Enter your Studio Name (required), pick the instruments your studio teaches with the Instruments Taught combobox, and select a Timezone (Eastern, Central, Mountain, Pacific, Alaska, or Hawaii). Set your timezone correctly before scheduling anything - every lesson time and recurring-lesson rule is computed against it.

Weekly Availability

Add the time slots for each day of the week when you are available to teach. Parents see these times when booking, and the slots drive conflict detection when you schedule lessons. Click Set up later to skip this for now. You can refine it any time from Availability.

Add First Student

Enter the student's First Name and Last Name, choose an Instrument, and add the Parent First Name, Parent Last Name, and Parent Email. Providing the parent email sends an invitation so the parent can reach the parent portal. Trio saves the student as one unit, so if you come back to this step it shows a Created summary with an Edit button instead of asking again. Click Skip for now if you would rather add students later from the Students page.

Getting Paid

The final step helps you start collecting tuition. What you see depends on your plan:

On the Free plan, Trio shows a short overview of Trio Pro: online card and bank (ACH) payments, autopay for recurring tuition, automatic reminders and late fees, unlimited students, and staff invites, for $5 per month or $50 per year. Choose Upgrade & set up payments to move to Pro and begin payment setup, or Continue on Free to finish now. You can upgrade later at any time.
On a paid plan, choose Set up payments to start Stripe Connect, where you confirm a few business details and link the bank account for payouts. Choose Do this later to finish without it.

You set lesson rates and cancellation policies later in Billing, not during onboarding.

Skipping and Resuming

Only the Studio Name is required. Weekly Availability and Add First Student each offer a Set up later or Skip for now choice, and Getting Paid lets you finish without setting up payments. Your progress is saved as you go, so if you close the browser mid-wizard, Trio brings you back to the same step at your next sign-in.

Finishing Setup from the Dashboard

You do not have to do everything in the wizard. The teacher dashboard shows a Get set up card at the top for owners and admins. It tracks the setup tasks still left - set your weekly availability, add your first student, set your lesson rates, create a cancellation and makeup policy, invite a family to the parent portal, schedule your first lesson, and turn on online payments - with a running progress count. Each row links straight to the right place, items check themselves off as you finish them, and you can dismiss the card once your studio is ready. The card also helps an established studio spot anything it has not set up yet. See Your Dashboard for more.

After Onboarding

Once the wizard finishes, you land on the teacher dashboard. Fill in any gaps from these areas:

Owner Settings - studio identity, branding, localization, payments, and subscription
Studio Settings - instruments, skill levels, locations, rooms, and lesson defaults
Billing - lesson rates, cancellation policies, and makeup rules
Availability - full weekly grid and one-off date overrides
Students - add more students any time