These terms cover studios posting openings and booking substitute teachers. This is version 1. Teachers sign a separate document — you can read it in full at the teacher waiver.
The short version
- StudioShift is a marketplace. It introduces you to independent teachers. It does not employ them and it does not supply them.
- You pay the class total plus half of a 6.4% fee — 3.2%. The teacher pays the other half out of their payout.
- Sales tax is charged on the platform fee at your province's rate, as its own line.
- Everything on a teacher's profile is declared by the teacher, not verified by StudioShift, unless it says verified.
- Screening and hiring decisions remain yours. So does responsibility for who is in a room with your students.
- Cancel before the class and you are refunded in full.
- Bookings that start on StudioShift stay on StudioShift.
1. What StudioShift is
StudioShift is a marketplace at shift.studiobeat.io where dance studios find substitute dance teachers. It gives you a place to post an opening, be found by teachers near you, agree terms, and pay for the booking with the money held until the class has happened.
It is not a teacher agency and not a staffing agency. StudioShift does not supply teachers. It does not employ them, and it does not send anyone to your studio. You choose who to book.
2. Your account
- A studio account is for a real dance studio or dance program, opened by someone authorised to act for it.
- Your business name, street address and phone number are shown publicly. That is deliberate — you are a retail business and people need to find you.
- Keep your postings accurate: what is being taught, the level, the ages, the dates and times, where, and the rate. A teacher accepts on the strength of what you wrote.
3. What you are buying
The right to post openings, be found by teachers, make and receive offers, and book and pay a teacher through the platform.
You are not buying a teacher's time from StudioShift. The agreement to teach a class is between you and the teacher. StudioShift's part is the introduction, the booking mechanics, and holding and moving the money.
4. What it costs, and tax
- You and the teacher agree the class total.
- On top of it you pay half of the fee. The fee is 6.4% of the class total — 3.5% to StudioShift plus 2.9% card processing — split evenly between you and the teacher. Your half is 3.2%; the teacher's half comes out of their payout. Where the split leaves an odd cent it goes to you as the payer.
- Every offer shows the exact figures before you accept, and they are frozen onto the booking. There is no fee that appears later.
- Sales tax is charged on the platform fee at the rate for the province your studio is in, and is shown as its own line — never folded into the fee.
- Whether the teacher's own charge for teaching carries GST/HST depends on whether that teacher is registered for it. If they are, it is shown separately too.
- You pay by card. Stripe handles the payment; StudioShift never sees or stores your card number.
- StudioShift holds the money until the booking is marked complete, and only then releases the teacher's payout.
- Part-time and full-time contracts arranged here are settled directly between you and the teacher. No money passes through the platform and no platform fee is charged on them.
5. Teachers on StudioShift are independent contractors
- Teachers on StudioShift are independent contractors. They are not employees or agents of StudioShift. StudioShift does not employ, supervise, train, schedule or direct them.
- StudioShift does not guarantee any teacher's skill, qualifications, punctuality or conduct.
- Whether your own arrangement with a particular teacher makes them your contractor or your employee is a question about your relationship with them, and getting it right under the employment, tax and workers' compensation law that applies to you is your responsibility.
- If a class requires a specific certification, syllabus or level, say so in the posting and confirm it yourself with the teacher.
6. Screening is yours — read this one
This is the most important paragraph on this page.
- Everything on a teacher's profile — qualifications, training bodies, years of experience, styles, and any vulnerable sector check — is declared by the teacher.
- StudioShift records those declarations. It does not verify them, and it says so on the profile, in those words: *"Self-declared — not verified by StudioShift"*.
- The single exception is where a StudioShift operator has actually seen a document, in which case the profile says it was verified by StudioShift. Even then, that means one thing only: someone saw that document on that date. It is not a character reference, not a background investigation, and not a guarantee about the person.
- You remain responsible for your own hiring and screening decisions, and for meeting the law, your own policies and your insurer's requirements about who is in a room with your students. Ask to see the check. Ask for references. Meet the person. StudioShift is a place to find candidates; it is not a substitute for your own process.
- Teachers sign a waiver committing to their independent contractor status, their own insurance position, their conduct, and the safety of the class. You can read it in full at the teacher waiver. It is a commitment the teacher makes to you. It is not a warranty from StudioShift.
7. Cancellations and refunds
- Either side can cancel a confirmed booking before it is marked complete. You are refunded in full — the class total and your half of the fee. StudioShift keeps nothing on a cancelled booking.
- The date reopens on your posting so another teacher can take it.
- After a booking is completed the teacher's payout is released, so there is no automatic refund past that point. If something went wrong, open a case from the booking page: it is private, both sides can put evidence in, and if 72 hours pass with no agreement either side can escalate it to a StudioShift operator.
- Mark a booking complete only when the class has actually happened. That is the action that pays the teacher.
The full policy is at Cancellations & refunds.
8. Keep bookings on the platform
- Do not arrange or pay for substitute teaching off the platform with a teacher you met here, for 12 months after your last booking with them.
- Do not ask a teacher to move a booking off the platform.
- Contact details are held back until a booking exists, and public text is scanned for them. That protects both sides.
What happens if you do it: your account can be closed, and StudioShift may invoice you for the platform fee it would have earned on the bookings that moved off it.
Hiring a teacher you met here into a genuine part-time or full-time position is not circumvention — it is one of the good outcomes of this marketplace, it carries no platform fee, and you should tell us so the contract is recorded properly.
9. Conduct and reviews
- After a booking, you and the teacher review each other. Neither review is visible until both are written or the window closes.
- Reviews must be about the booking that actually happened. Reviews are not editable once published, by either side.
- Discrimination and harassment end an account. Your postings must comply with human rights law: describe the class and what it requires, not the person you picture teaching it.
- If something serious happened, file a report. It is private and goes to a StudioShift operator.
10. Your information
How your information is handled, who processes it, and how to get a copy or have it deleted is set out on the privacy page. Your studio's public profile is public by design; your email address, payment details and dispute records are not.
11. What StudioShift promises, and what it does not
- StudioShift will make reasonable efforts to keep the platform running and to hold and move money correctly. It does not promise uninterrupted service.
- It does not warrant any teacher's performance, qualifications, or conduct, and it is not responsible for what happens in your studio.
- To the extent the law allows it to be limited, StudioShift's liability to you in connection with a booking is limited to the platform fees you paid on that booking. Nothing here limits liability that cannot be limited by law.
12. Suspension and closing an account
StudioShift can suspend or close an account that breaches these terms, that puts students at risk, or that is being used to take bookings off the platform. You can close your account at any time; see the privacy page.
13. If these terms change
A revision is a new version of this document, not an edit to this one. When a new version takes effect, the date at the top changes and account holders are told by email. Bookings already made stay on the terms that were in force when they were made.
14. If we disagree
Start in the Resolution Centre, from the booking page. Nothing in these terms takes away your right to go to a court or a small claims tribunal.
