Personal training studios sit in an awkward accounting middle ground: revenue is per-session but clients pay in bundles, trainers are often independent contractors paid per session or on commission, and some clients carry multi-month balances. Wave handles this structure well for studios under $500K annual revenue. A fitness virtual assistant with Wave experience can take over the entire billing and bookkeeping workflow with minimal hand-off time.
Wave Setup for a PT Studio
The first task for your VA is building a chart of accounts that mirrors how your studio actually bills. Generic Wave defaults don't account for the PT model.
Income categories for a PT studio:
- Session packages (5-pack, 10-pack, 20-pack - separate accounts if you want volume breakdowns)
- Single sessions
- Semi-private training
- Online coaching or remote programming
- Nutrition consulting (if offered separately)
- Corporate wellness contracts
- Fitness assessments and onboarding fees
Expense categories:
- Trainer pay (contractor splits or per-session rates)
- Studio rent or facility lease
- Equipment purchases and maintenance
- Liability insurance
- Software (Trainerize, TrueCoach, PT Distinction, scheduling tools)
- Marketing and advertising
- Continuing education
- Merchant processing fees (Stripe, Square, etc.)
Client profiles in Wave:
Create a customer profile in Wave for each client who receives invoices. For clients on auto-pay through Stripe, the Stripe integration handles payment recording but you still want the client profile for tracking outstanding balances and payment history.
Bank and processor connections:
Connect your business checking account and any payment processors (Stripe, Square) directly in Wave. Transactions pull automatically. Your VA's daily or weekly task is categorizing uncategorized transactions - which is fast once the chart of accounts is set correctly because Wave's auto-categorization learns patterns over time.
Session Billing and Trainer Payout Tracking
The operational finance workflow for a PT studio has two parallel tracks: what clients owe and pay, and what trainers earn and get paid.
Client billing workflow:
For package clients, the cleanest approach is to invoice at the point of purchase for the full package amount. When a client buys a 10-session pack at $1,200, your VA creates a Wave invoice for $1,200 with the item line "10-session training package." When payment lands, it marks the invoice paid. No per-session invoicing needed unless the client is billed retrospectively.
For corporate clients billed monthly for a set number of sessions, Wave's recurring invoice feature works well. Set the recurrence date, the amount, and Wave sends and tracks it automatically. Your VA reviews unpaid invoices weekly and follows up on anything past 7 days.
Tracking overdue balances:
Wave's Accounts Receivable report shows every unpaid invoice by client and age. Your VA reviews this weekly. For anything 14+ days overdue, they send a follow-up using Wave's built-in reminder or a manual email. Some PT studios let session packages run into deficit - a client uses sessions before paying for the next pack. Wave can track this if you set it up as a customer credit, but it requires discipline in recording.
Trainer payout tracking:
Each trainer is a vendor in Wave. When you pay a trainer, log it as a vendor payment to their profile with a memo noting the pay period and session count. If trainers are on a revenue split (e.g., 50% of session revenue), your VA calculates the split from your booking system's revenue report and enters the payment in Wave.
For studios with multiple trainers, maintain a Google Sheet that mirrors Wave - columns for trainer, sessions delivered, rate, gross pay. Your VA cross-checks this against Wave vendor payments monthly. Discrepancies get flagged immediately.
Stripe fee reconciliation:
Stripe charges per-transaction fees that appear as deductions in your bank account. Your VA needs to reconcile gross invoice amounts in Wave against net deposits in the bank. Set up a "Payment processing fees" expense account and log the difference monthly using either Stripe's monthly fee report or by calculating from individual transaction reports.
Client Invoice Management and Reporting
A clean client invoice system protects cash flow and reduces awkward conversations about money.
Invoice templates:
Build Wave invoice templates for each package type your studio offers. Your VA uses these templates - they don't build from scratch each time. Template fields to standardize: item description, quantity, rate, payment terms (due on receipt vs. net 7), and your cancellation/refund policy in the invoice notes.
Monthly reporting package your VA produces:
- P&L for the month (revenue by category, expenses by category, net income)
- Accounts receivable aging (who owes what)
- Trainer pay summary (vendor payments by trainer, month-to-date and year-to-date)
- Any expense categories that exceeded 10% variance from prior month
This takes a competent VA about 60-90 minutes per month to compile once the Wave setup is solid.
Tax prep support:
Wave generates a P&L that your accountant can use for tax filing. Your VA exports this annually as a PDF and compiles the vendor income summary for 1099 preparation. For a studio with 3-8 independent contractor trainers, this is straightforward.
See how to hire a fitness VA if you're ready to hand off your bookkeeping workflow.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Wave handle session-by-session billing instead of package billing?
Yes. Create an invoice for each session after it occurs. This is more work for your VA but some PT models require it, especially for insurance reimbursement clients. Wave supports it.
How does Wave handle trainer commission on new client referrals?
Wave doesn't calculate commissions automatically. Your VA tracks referral commissions in a spreadsheet and logs the payment as a vendor bill in Wave when paid. Simple but manual.
Is Wave suitable for a PT studio with five trainers?
Yes. Five trainers as vendors in Wave is entirely manageable. The limit you'll hit isn't Wave's capacity - it's the manual reconciliation time if each trainer has complex pay structures. Streamline pay structures first, then Wave handles the rest.
What if a client requests a partial refund for unused sessions?
Issue a credit memo in Wave against the original invoice for the value of unused sessions. This reduces the revenue recorded. Then log any actual cash refund as the credit memo being applied to a refund payment.
How does Wave compare to HoneyBook or Dubsado for PT studios?
Wave is accounting software. HoneyBook and Dubsado are client management and CRM tools. They serve different functions. Some PT studios use HoneyBook for contracts and proposals while using Wave for bookkeeping. They're not direct alternatives.