How we approached it
The challenge
A live tutoring marketplace needed to handle real financial complexity: collecting payments from parents, calculating tutor commissions, deducting tax at source, processing group/academy class bulk payments, and generating the Excel files that go to the bank for weekly tutor payout runs — while keeping the platform available to 600+ active learners.
Our approach
We built VirTutor Online as a multi-role marketplace with 6 distinct portals: student/parent, tutor, coordinator, finance, marketing, and super admin. Each portal has role-appropriate views and permissions with no cross-role data leakage.
The payment architecture uses Paystack with webhook-verified payment confirmation (never trust client-side payment status). Refunds go through the same server-verified flow. Tutor payouts are calculated automatically based on completed sessions, with commission and tax deducted at source and an Excel export generated for the bank run — replacing a manual monthly spreadsheet process.
Group and academy cohort classes support bulk enrollment payments with automatic per-student fee splitting. Time-boxed live lessons auto-close at the scheduled end time with automated reminder notifications sent before session start.
What we delivered
- 6 role-based portals (student/parent, tutor, coordinator, finance, marketing, super admin)
- 80+ database tables
- Live Paystack payment integration with webhook-verified confirmation
- Automated webhook-verified refund processing
- Automated tutor payout calculation with commission and tax computation
- Excel export for bank payment runs
- Group/academy cohort classes with bulk enrollment payments
- Time-boxed live lessons with auto-close and pre-session reminders
The result
VirTutor Online is live and revenue-generating, serving 600+ active learners. The automated payout system has eliminated the manual monthly reconciliation process. The platform handles the full tutoring lifecycle from booking through payment to session delivery.