Fees and finance

Structures, then invoices

A fee structure says what a class pays and when. Invoices are raised from it. Getting the structure right before raising a term's invoices is much less work than correcting them afterwards.

Open Finance → Fee structures. Every class in the selected year is listed; a class marked No fee set has nothing to invoice from. Set fees opens the class's structure: one row per fee head (Tuition, Transport, Lab…) with its amount, how it is charged, and how many installments it is split into. A head the school does not have yet can be added from the same panel, and Start from another class copies a structure you have already priced, which is the quick way to set twelve classes that differ only in tuition.

Enter each fee the way the school quotes it. Per says what the amount covers: a Monthly fee of ₹3,500 is charged for every month of the academic year (₹42,000 for April–March), a Per-term fee for every term set up in Academics, and Annual and One-time fees once. Collected in says how the year's total falls due, spread across the year from the first due date: 4 is quarterly, 2 half-yearly. A Monthly fee left at Each month falls due every month; a One-time fee is always due on the first due date. Fees of different heads due on the same day become one installment for the family.

A Per-term fee needs the year's terms. If Academics has none, the structure is marked Set up this year's terms and invoices cannot be raised from it until they exist.

A structure can be edited until the first invoice is raised from it. After that it is locked: an issued invoice keeps the lines it was issued with, so changing the structure would only make it disagree with the bills already sent. Use Revise instead — it starts a new structure from the old one's rows, and the new amounts apply to invoices raised from it.

Raising a class's invoices

On Fee structures, Raise invoices bills the year to every student enrolled in the class. Before anything is billed it shows how many students are enrolled, how many already have an invoice from this structure, how many will be invoiced now, and what each is charged. Choose the first installment's due date — the rest are spread across the year from it — and confirm.

It is safe to run again: a student already invoiced from the structure is never billed twice, so after new admissions the same button bills only the newcomers. A student who has withdrawn or transferred is not billed.

Students who join mid-year

By default every student is billed for the whole year, whenever they join. To bill a student who joins mid-year only for what is left, switch on Settings → Fee policy → Students who join mid-year.

With it on, a student admitted on 20 September pays monthly fees from September, per-term fees for the term under way and those ahead, and one-time fees in full. Annual fees are charged in full, or — if you choose By the months left — for the share of the year that remains. The invoice lines say where the billing starts ("Tuition (from 20 Sep 2026)"), and the first installment falls due on the day they join.

It uses the admission date on the student's record. A student promoted from last year, or one with no admission date, is billed for the whole year. Raise invoices shows how many of the students it is about to bill joined mid-year, and its total already reflects it. Only invoices raised after the setting is saved are affected.

Sibling concession

Switch it on in Settings → Fee policy → Sibling concession, and set a percentage for the second child and for the third and every later child. Children are siblings when they share a guardian on their records and are enrolled this year; the child admitted first pays in full, the next the second-child percentage, and so on.

The concession comes off tuition fees by default, or off all fees if you choose. Which heads are tuition is listed under Which fees are tuition on the same page — mark or unmark any head there. It shows on the invoice as a discount on those heads, and Raise invoices says how many of the students it is about to bill get it. Invoices already issued do not change when a sibling joins or leaves.

Children admitted under RTE

A child admitted under the Right to Education quota (§12(1)(c)) is not billed tuition. This is on from the start — it is what the Act requires, not a school preference — and it applies to a child whose record says Admitted under: RTE. That comes from the enquiry when the family applied under RTE, or the registrar can record it on the student's profile.

Their invoice still shows the tuition, with a full discount, so what the school did not charge is on record. Settings → Fee policy → Children admitted under RTE sets whether the exemption covers tuition or all fees, and your state's reimbursement ceiling per child.

Finance → RTE claim lists every RTE child enrolled in the year, the tuition not charged, and what can be claimed after the ceiling — the list to file the state's reimbursement claim from. Opening it is recorded in the audit log, because it names children.

Paying the year upfront

To reward families who pay the whole year at once, switch on Settings → Fee policy → Paying the year upfront and set the discount — usually a few percent off tuition, or off all fees if you choose.

It applies to a family's first payment on an invoice, when that payment is exactly the discounted amount for the year and arrives on or before the first installment's due date. At the desk, Finance → Collect shows the offer — "Paid in full by 10 Apr: ₹48,000 — ₹2,000 off" — and Use fills in the amount. A family paying online is asked for the discounted amount automatically.

The discount is recorded against the invoice as an adjustment, so the invoice, its lines and its installments all show the lower amount, and the discount appears in the ledger. A family who pays the full undiscounted amount, pays in part, or pays after the first due date pays the normal fee. Fees that carry GST are never discounted this way.

Collecting fees ahead

Some states' fee regulation rules limit how far ahead a school may collect fees — often a term or a quarter. To follow yours, switch on Settings → Fee policy → Collecting fees ahead and set the number of months your state's rules give.

With the limit on, a family can pay anything overdue plus whatever falls due within that many months of today, and nothing later. At the desk, Finance → Collect shows what can be collected now — "Can be collected now: ₹30,000, for what falls due by 15 Dec" — and Use fills in the amount; recording more is refused with the reason. A family paying online is asked only for that amount, and their fees page says what it covers. Set the limit to 0 to collect fees only once they fall due.

The limit and the upfront discount cannot both be on: the discount exists to collect the whole year in advance, which the limit forbids. Switch one off before switching the other on.

An online payment is credited in full when the bank confirms it, even if a cashier took part of the same installments in the meantime — the family has already been charged, so the ledger records it.

Returned cheques

When the bank returns a cheque or demand draft unpaid, find it under Finance → Find a receipt or cheque — by the receipt number, the cheque/DD number, or the invoice number — and choose Cheque returned…. Enter the bank's reason and record it.

The payment is taken back: its receipt is marked cancelled (receipts are never deleted), the money comes off the family's installments starting with the latest, and the invoice is open again for what is now owed. If that cheque had earned the upfront discount, the discount is withdrawn — the year was not paid on time after all. If the school charges for a returned cheque (Settings → Fee policy → Returned cheques), that charge is raised as its own line. Everything is recorded in the ledger and the audit log.

Only a cheque or DD can be recorded as returned, only once, and not while a refund is pending against it.

Late fees

Late fees are off until the school switches them on in Settings → Fee policy. The rule is the school's: a flat amount or a percentage of what is overdue, for every so many days late, after a grace period, optionally capped per installment. Once on, late fees are charged automatically, each as its own small Late fee charge naming the installment it is for, so the family sees exactly why.

A late fee is charged once per late period — checking again the same week charges nothing more — and a late fee never earns a late fee of its own.

To waive one, open it from Finance → Collect and choose Waive. A reason is required and is kept in the audit log. Only an unpaid late fee can be waived; one that has been paid is a refund.

An invoice is not edited

Once issued, an invoice stands. A change is an adjustment against it, so the original bill and the correction are both on the record.

This is not awkwardness for its own sake: a school has to be able to show what it billed and what it then agreed, years later.

The ledger is append-only

Every payment, adjustment and refund is an entry. Nothing is overwritten and nothing is deleted. If a figure looks wrong the answer is in the entries, not in a corrupted total.

Money is held to the paisa — never as an approximate number — so totals reconcile exactly.

Dues from earlier years

An unpaid invoice from an earlier year is still owed when the school moves on to a new one. With the new year selected in the header, Finance still shows it:

• Owed from earlier years — the total still unpaid on earlier years' invoices for this campus, with how many students and invoices that is.
• The Defaulters list includes those invoices, marked with their year, beside this year's.
• Raise invoices says how many students in the class still owe from earlier years, and how much.
• A student's profile lists each invoice with its year.

The amount is shown, never moved. It stays on the earlier year's invoice — collect it there, from Collect on the defaulters list — so each year's figures still add up to what that year billed and collected. This year's Billed, Collected and Outstanding do not include it.

Receipts

Every payment issues a numbered receipt. To print one again, find it under Finance → Find a receipt or cheque and choose Receipt. It downloads as a PDF with the receipt number and the date it was issued, the amount in figures and in words, the invoice and fee heads it paid, and how it was paid. A family downloads the same receipt from their own fees page.

A receipt whose payment was taken back — a returned cheque — still downloads, marked CANCELLED across the page with the date and the bank's reason, so it cannot pass for proof of payment.

Every download is recorded in the audit log: who took a copy of which receipt, never the amount on it.

Tuition fee certificate

Parents claim a tax deduction for their children's tuition fees and ask the school for a certificate of what they paid in the financial year, 1 April to 31 March. Open the student's profile: the Tuition fee certificate card lists each financial year with a payment, every payment behind the figure, and the total. Certificate PDF downloads it. Families can download the same certificate themselves.

What counts:

• Only fee heads marked as tuition (Settings → Fee policy → Which fees are tuition). Transport, examination, development and other fees are left out.
• A payment that covered tuition and other fees together counts in proportion: ₹30,000 paid on an invoice that is 80% tuition counts ₹24,000.
• A returned cheque counts for nothing. A refund is subtracted in the financial year it was made.
• Dates are the school's dates: a payment made at 12:30 am on 1 April belongs to the new financial year.

The certificate states the amount; it does not cite a section of the Income-tax Act.

Reminders

Fee reminders are sent on the milestone, not daily — a family is chased when something changes, not every morning until they pay. That is deliberate; a daily chase is how a school teaches families to mute it.

Refunds

A refund is asked for on the payment it comes from. Find the receipt under Find a receipt or cheque, choose Request refund…, and give the amount and the reason. The amount offered is what is left of that payment: anything already refunded, or still waiting for approval, is taken off.

Someone else then approves it on Finance → Refunds. The person who asked cannot approve their own request; that is the control on money leaving the school. They can withdraw it instead. Approving reopens the invoice and records the refund on the student's ledger. Rejecting tells the family.

Approving does not send any money. When the money has actually gone back, open Approved — not paid, choose Record payment…, and give the date on the bank statement, how it was paid and the UTR or cheque number. Until then the refund shows in the cash position as committed, not as money out. Once recorded, it counts in the month the money moved.

If the money comes back, for example because the family's account was closed, choose Came back… beside Paid and give the date on the bank statement and the reason. The refund stays approved, reads Approved — not paid again, and Record payment… pays it to a corrected account. Nothing is deleted: the payment stays in the month it was made, and the return is counted in the month it came back.