“We’re going on a trip!”  Congratulations! You recognize the benefits of traveling with your group, and you’ve taken the time to wade through endless options to create the itinerary that meets all the needs of your program.  Mission accomplished, right? Not so fast…. Now that your trip is planned and approved, it’s time to collect money from every single person traveling, making sure your payments are met on time. This is not only a daunting project, but it’s also time-consuming and potentially risky.  

Before becoming a travel consultant at Director’s Choice, I was a band director, traveling with my groups on overnight trips. I’ll never forget the most sage advice I received from a mentor, even before I had my first teaching job: 

“Don’t mishandle the money. It’s one of the easiest ways for a teacher to lose their job.”  

I was not prepared to manage money as a band director, yet it was was a very real part of my job.  If you’re like me, you probably didn’t take classes on how to handle finances and successfully manage tens of thousands of dollars, but that’s what I was required to do.

I became a band director because of my love for music, and I wanted to do for others what had been done for me: teach and inspire. Managing my budget for school was daunting enough, but I was even more terrified to deal with money coming in and out of the program through individuals.  Like you, I ran fundraisers and collecting money from students. The money kept coming in, and my mentor’s warning kept playing in my head. I had to create my own method of keeping track of all the dollars and cents, but I signed up to be a teacher, not a bill collector!

So, as a former educator, I am really excited about the Director's Choice Individual Billing Program (IB).  Now there is an easier way to collect and manage your travel funds. Rather than having to collect all of that money, and deposit into a school or booster account only to have to go through the process of getting that money back out to pay for this exciting trip you’ve planned for your students, there is a better way.

Unlike other programs, Directors Choice IB was custom developed in-house by our Technology Team based on your needs and wants. Our IB product is a comprehensive billing, collections, and financial reporting tool for traveling educators.  

• Eliminates the need to handle cash, reducing liability
• Offers secure, online credit card payment with encrypted numbers by a third-party security provider who is PCI DSS Level 1 certified.
• Reporting features keep you up to date on participant payments
• Allows you to apply group fundraising dollars to your trip
• Keep track of who is attending the trip
• Gives you complete control of finances

With IB, you to set up your travel participants with individual accounts to pay for their trip.  Our online system will allow each person to make payments via credit card toward their trip balance on a scheduled basis, so you have the 

money collected and applied towards your group’s package without having to be a middleman.  IB also processes deposits and manages totals and deadlines for you. Payments and schedules are flexible for each trip, and we will assist you in making the best choice for your individual program needs.

Our goal is for you to have complete control of your trip finances. IB’s reports feature allows you to know many people have committed financially or who are falling behind on payments.  IB even enables you to send in a group payment that needs to be split and applied to multiple, individual accounts.

We believe IB is the future of financial management for traveling educators. If you are planning to travel with Director’s Choice, ask your travel consultant how IB can be applied to your package.  This continually evolving payment tool allows us to give you the very best experience and value for your money.

Afterall, #itsjustwhatwedo.