Case study · Luton, UK

    Masjid Irshad Luton: from paper registers to a maktab parents notice

    Masjid Irshad in Luton was running its maktab the way most maktabs still do — paper registers, an Excel sheet, WhatsApp reminders, and Word documents for exams. It worked, but it took a real toll on staff time and on the trust parents had in the admin. Since moving to Labbaik, admin time has dropped, revenue has become predictable, and the maktab looks and feels more professional — with almost no technical skill needed to run it.

    ~133%
    Increase in collected revenue after switching to automatic Stripe collection.
    ~80
    Active students across the Luton maktab.
    £0
    Monthly platform fee — Labbaik only earns when the maktab collects.
    1 afternoon
    Self-serve setup, with no dedicated IT support.

    Below is the honest before-and-after across six areas the Masjid Irshad team dealt with every week. The facts and numbers are drawn from the maktab's own experience running Labbaik in production.

    Attendance

    Before

    Teachers tracked attendance on GoodNotes or an Excel sheet. Marking a class quickly was awkward, and physical or ad-hoc digital records were easy to misplace between sessions.

    After Labbaik

    Mobile-first, one-tap attendance from a phone. Every session is stored in a full digital history, so nothing gets lost and past weeks can be reviewed at a glance.

    Payments

    Before

    Missed payments, incorrect amounts, and constant WhatsApp chasing. Staff had to personally ask parents for money, which felt uncomfortable and took real time each week.

    After Labbaik

    Fees are collected automatically and reminders are sent by the system. No more chasing, no more awkward conversations — the platform does the asking, not the teacher or admin.

    “Before, half my evening was spent chasing parents on WhatsApp about payments, or trying to remember who still owed what. Now the system does that for us. I can just focus on teaching.”
    — Teacher, Masjid Irshad Luton

    Teacher attendance & cover

    Before

    No reliable way to record which days cover teachers actually worked, which made pay reconciliation slow and error-prone at month end.

    After Labbaik

    When a teacher marks student attendance, the system automatically logs the teacher as present. That produces a clean, accurate teacher register with no extra admin work.

    Exams

    Before

    Exams were built in Word documents. Formatting was fiddly, papers looked inconsistent, and every term required rebuilding the same layout from scratch.

    After Labbaik

    Professional, branded exams generated in minutes. Marking can be done per question or by total, and the same paper works for printed or online sittings.

    Donations & concessions

    Before

    It was hard to keep track of which funds were tied to which children on concessions, who was actually paying, and who was on a monthly plan versus a one-off gift.

    After Labbaik

    Concessions, sponsors, and recurring vs one-off donations are all tracked in one place, so nothing falls through the cracks and every child on support is accounted for.

    “We're not a big organisation with an IT team. Labbaik was the first thing we tried that just worked — we set it up ourselves in an afternoon, and parents noticed the difference straight away.”
    — Admin, Masjid Irshad Luton

    Registrations

    Before

    New registrations were handled manually. There was no easy way to spot siblings for family discounts, and no visibility into where a given application had reached.

    After Labbaik

    Smart forms auto-detect siblings and apply the right discount. A single tap approves a student and sends the payment link, and every application sits in a queue with a clear status — interviewing, reviewing, approved or denied.

    The headline result: ~133% more revenue, without raising fees

    After moving fee collection onto Labbaik's Stripe-based flow, Masjid Irshad saw collected revenue rise by roughly 133%. That growth didn't come from charging families more — it came from removing the gaps: missed payments, forgotten reminders, part-payments that were never reconciled, and the awkwardness that stops staff from following up.

    Labbaik itself charges no monthly platform fee. The maktab only pays a small percentage on money it actually collects, so cost scales with success rather than sitting as a fixed monthly overhead.

    Just as importantly, the maktab became instantly more professional in how it appears to parents — clear invoices, receipts, portal access, and branded exams — without adding admin burden on the team running it.

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