Pilates studios carry a financial profile that most generic accounting guides ignore: high equipment costs, a mix of private and group sessions, class packs that span months, and instructors often paid differently for privates versus equipment group classes. Wave handles all of this adequately at no software cost. A fitness virtual assistant who knows the platform can take the books entirely off your hands.

Configuring Wave for a Pilates Business

Before your VA touches a single transaction, the chart of accounts needs to match how a Pilates studio actually earns and spends money.

Income accounts to set up:

  • Private sessions (mat and reformer, separate if volume warrants)
  • Duet sessions
  • Group reformer classes
  • Group mat classes
  • Class packs
  • Introductory offers (Intro to Reformer, new client specials)
  • Workshops and intensives
  • Teacher training programs
  • Retail (grip socks, props, branded items)

Expense accounts to set up:

  • Instructor pay - privates
  • Instructor pay - group
  • Equipment maintenance and repair (reformers, cadillacs, chairs, barrels)
  • Equipment leases or financing payments
  • Studio rent and utilities
  • Software subscriptions (Pike13, Mindbody, or similar)
  • Music licensing
  • Liability insurance
  • Continuing education reimbursements

The equipment line items matter more in Pilates than in most fitness niches. A single reformer runs $3,000-$7,000 new. If you financed equipment, Wave can track the loan principal versus interest split manually through journal entries. Your VA should set this up at the start.

Connecting payment systems:

Wave connects to Stripe and PayPal natively. If you run billing through Pike13 or Mindbody, your VA will export monthly revenue reports from those systems and enter summary journal entries into Wave. Build a simple template in Google Sheets for this - columns for date, income category, and amount. Your VA pastes values monthly. This takes under 20 minutes once the template exists.

Session Billing and Class Pack Revenue

Pilates billing is more complex than yoga because the product mix varies more per client. A client might buy a 10-pack of privates, use three in one month, and none the next. Tracking this correctly matters for both revenue recognition and client communication.

How to handle class pack sales in Wave:

Record the full pack payment as income in a "Class packs sold" income account when collected. This is the simpler approach for small studios that don't need audited financials - recognize income when cash is received. If you want stricter accrual accounting, record the pack as a liability and recognize each session as income when it occurs. Your VA can do either, but pick one method and stick to it.

Private session invoicing:

For clients billed per session (common with corporate or insurance clients), Wave's invoicing does the job cleanly. Your VA creates a client profile, builds a recurring or one-off invoice, and sends it. Wave logs when the email was opened and when payment lands. For auto-pay clients, direct them to pay via Stripe link attached to the Wave invoice.

Tracking cancellations and credits:

Late cancellations where you keep the session credit are income. No-shows where you waive the fee are a revenue loss. Your VA should log both. In Wave, a credit memo against an invoice handles refunds. For forfeited cancellations, no action needed - the income was already recorded.

Equipment costs and depreciation:

Wave doesn't automate depreciation schedules, but your VA can maintain a separate Google Sheet for equipment assets with purchase date, cost, useful life, and annual depreciation amount, then post a depreciation journal entry in Wave monthly or annually. Talk to your accountant about which depreciation method (straight-line is most common) and whether to expense small items directly.

Month-End Reporting for Pilates Studios

The P&L structure you set up determines how useful your monthly reports are. With proper income categorization, you can see at a glance whether private sessions or group classes are carrying the studio.

Monthly close process for your VA:

  1. Reconcile bank statement against Wave - every transaction matched
  2. Confirm instructor payments are logged against the correct pay category (privates vs. group)
  3. Pull P&L for the month - review against prior month
  4. Log any equipment repair invoices received
  5. Send month-end summary to studio owner: revenue, major expenses, net income, any anomalies

Quarterly checks:

  • Review class pack liability balance if you track deferred revenue
  • Confirm equipment maintenance costs are trending within budget
  • Run the vendor (instructor) transaction report to verify year-to-date pay amounts

Year-end prep:

Wave generates a vendor income summary that covers 1099 obligations. Your VA runs this report in January, exports it, and gives you a clean list of contractor pay by instructor. Combined with the year's P&L and a bank statement, this is what your accountant needs.

For more on what to delegate beyond just finances, read what tasks a fitness VA handles.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can Wave handle both mat and reformer class revenue separately?

Yes, with separate income accounts. Your VA sets these up in the chart of accounts during initial configuration. After that, every transaction gets tagged to the right category.

Does Wave work for Pilates studios using Pike13 for scheduling?

Wave and Pike13 have no direct integration. Your VA exports a monthly revenue summary from Pike13 and enters it as a journal entry in Wave. It adds about 15-20 minutes to the monthly close but is not complicated.

How should a VA track reformer equipment financing in Wave?

Set up a liability account for the loan balance. Each payment splits between principal (reduces the liability) and interest (goes to an interest expense account). Your VA posts this split manually each month based on the amortization schedule from the lender.

Is Wave secure enough for studio financial data?

Wave uses 256-bit SSL encryption and is PCI-DSS compliant for payment processing. For accounting data access, use Wave's built-in user roles to give your VA accountant access without exposing payment settings or payroll.

When does a Pilates studio outgrow Wave?

Wave works well up to moderate complexity - one or two locations, under 10 instructors, no in-house payroll for W-2 staff. If you run payroll through Wave Payroll it costs a monthly fee. Once you need multi-currency, advanced inventory for retail, or multi-entity consolidation, move to Xero.

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