Not every month has exactly four weeks. Depending on how your calendar falls, some months contain a fifth week — which can create a billing question: do you charge more in those months, or keep billing consistent year-round? This article walks through the three approaches for handling 4-week vs. 5-week months in Playground and helps you choose the right setup for your center.
💡 Playground's recommended approach is a standardized averaged monthly rate. It simplifies billing for both providers and families and ensures consistent cash flow year-round. See Option 1 below.
Which Months Have 5 Weeks?
A "5-week month" occurs when the calendar's day-of-week alignment causes a given month to contain five occurrences of your program's operating days. Depending on your school's schedule, this typically affects two to three months per year.
Because your weekly rate stays the same, a 5-week month technically generates more tuition revenue than a 4-week month — and how you handle that difference is what determines your billing setup.
Option 1 (Recommended): Standardized Averaged Monthly Rate
Best for: Programs that want simple, predictable billing for families and consistent revenue every month.
How It Works
Instead of billing different amounts each month based on how many weeks fall in that month, you calculate one flat monthly average that covers the entire year. Families pay the same amount every month, and the math balances out over the course of the year.
How to Calculate Your Averaged Monthly Rate
Determine your weekly tuition rate (e.g., $300/week).
Multiply by the number of weeks your program operates in the year (e.g., 52 weeks × $300 = $15,600).
Divide by 12 to get your flat monthly average (e.g., $15,600 ÷ 12 = $1,300/month).
Use that figure as the amount in your monthly billing plan.
💡 This is the simplest and most predictable option for both providers and families. It avoids manual adjustments each month and keeps billing consistent all year long.
How to Set This Up
From your admin dashboard, navigate to the Billing tab and click Overview.
Click Create debits.
Select the student(s) you want to create a billing plan for.
Add a billing item and enter your calculated averaged monthly amount.
Set the billing frequency to Monthly.
Set the plan to recur for the full program year (start date through end date).
Click Create debits.
No further adjustments are needed month to month — the rate stays flat all year.
💡 Recurring billing plans can be created for up to one year at a time. You can extend the plan from the student's profile if needed.
Option 2 (Alternative): Edit the Installment Plan for 5-Week Months
Best for: Programs that prefer to bill the exact weekly rate each month, but want to keep everything under a single billing plan.
How It Works
You create one billing plan for the year using your standard monthly rate, then manually adjust the installment amounts for months that contain a fifth week.
How to Set This Up
From your admin dashboard, navigate to the Billing tab and click Overview.
Click Create debits and build your standard monthly billing plan as normal.
Once the plan is created, navigate to the student's Billing tab.
Open the existing billing plan and click into the Installments tab.
Locate the months that fall in a 5-week period.
Click the installment for each 5-week month and edit the amount to reflect the additional week of tuition.
Click Save to update the plan.
🚨 This approach requires you to manually track which months have 5 weeks and adjust the installments accordingly each time they occur. We recommend auditing your calendar at the start of each program year to identify 5-week months in advance.
💡 Editing installment amounts within an existing plan keeps all billing consolidated under one plan, which is easier to manage and review than maintaining multiple separate line items.
Option 3 (Alternative): Create Each Month as a Separate Line Item
Best for: Programs that want precise control over exactly what is billed each calendar month.
How It Works
Rather than using a single recurring billing plan, you create a separate billing line item each month with the exact tuition amount for that period — four weeks of tuition for 4-week months, and five weeks of tuition for 5-week months.
How to Set This Up
From your admin dashboard, navigate to the Billing tab and click Overview.
Click Create debits.
Select the student(s) you are billing.
Add a billing item with the correct tuition amount for the upcoming month: a. For a 4-week month: Weekly Rate × 4 b. For a 5-week month: Weekly Rate × 5
Set the billing schedule to Paid all at once or One-time with the correct post date and due date for that month.
Click Create debits.
Repeat this process each month.
🚨 This approach requires 12 individual billing entries per year per student. While it gives you precise control over each billing period, it involves significantly more setup and ongoing management than Options 1 or 2.
Compare the Three Options
| Option 1: Averaged Monthly Rate | Option 2: Edit Installments | Option 3: Separate Line Items |
Setup effort | Low — set once for the year | Medium — adjust 5-week months | High — create entry each month |
Monthly billing amount | Same every month | Varies in 5-week months | Varies every month |
Family experience | Most predictable | Slightly variable | Most variable |
Manual adjustments needed | None | A few times per year | Monthly |
Playground recommended | ✅ Yes | — | — |
Next Steps
Once you've decided on an approach, follow the step-by-step in Create Billing Plans to build your plan, or see Billing Plans Overview for a refresher on how billing plans work. For broader configuration of your billing settings, see Configure Billing Settings and Adjust Debits.