Termly bills, monthly payments, one spreadsheet
Your school offers a monthly payment option. About a third of families use it. Each term, the bursary works out each family's instalments from their bill, sets up or adjusts their direct debits, and records it all in a spreadsheet. When a bill changes mid-year, perhaps because of an extra or a bursary adjustment, the instalments need recalculating by hand.
A parent calls to ask what they still owe for the year. The answer needs the bill, the spreadsheet and the bank statement side by side.
Plans sit beside the fee system, not inside it
The fees module bills termly. The payment plan lives outside it, in a spreadsheet and the direct debit provider's portal. The two are reconciled by hand each month. Every change to a bill needs a corresponding change to the plan, made by someone who remembers.
- Instalments are calculated by hand from each term's bill.
- Bill changes do not update the instalments.
- Failed collections are seen in the provider's portal but not on the fee account.
- Parents cannot see how instalments relate to their bills.
- Month-end reconciliation takes a day or more.
What manual plans cost
Bursary time every month. Instalments that do not match the bill, leading to a balance at the end of term that parents did not expect. Failed collections that go unnoticed for weeks. And questions from parents that take time to answer because the information is in three places.
The spreadsheet also becomes a single point of failure. It has formulas only one person understands, tabs for each year, and colour coding that means something to its author. When that person is on leave during a collection date, the others in the bursary either wait or guess, and neither is comfortable when the money involved is a family's school fees.
Whether you offer plans, on what terms, and whether any charge applies, is the school's decision with its own advisers.
Payment plans we build
- Families choose a plan when they accept a place or at any time you allow, and sign a direct debit mandate online through a provider such as GoCardless.
- Instalments are calculated from each family's fee account and your plan rules, for example ten or twelve payments across the year.
- When a bill changes, the remaining instalments are recalculated and the family is told before the next collection.
- Collections are reported back automatically; a failed collection is recorded on the fee account and the family receives a message.
- Parents see their bills, instalments paid and instalments due in one statement.
- Month-end reconciliation is a report, not a task.
| Event | Before | With linked plans |
|---|---|---|
| New term's bill | Instalments recalculated by hand | Instalments set from the bill |
| Extra added mid-term | Plan often not updated | Remaining instalments adjusted, family told |
| Collection fails | Seen later in the portal | Recorded on the account, family messaged |
| Parent asks their balance | Three sources checked | One statement |
One balance, the same for everyone
Families on a plan always know what they have paid and what is due. The bursary sees plans and bills together, and a failed collection prompts a quick, polite message rather than a surprise at term end. Month-end reconciliation shrinks to reviewing a report.
On a normal day, a bill changes because a pupil started extra tennis coaching. The plan recalculates the remaining instalments, and the family receives a short note explaining the change a week before the next collection.
Signs you need this
- Payment plans are tracked in a spreadsheet.
- Instalments are recalculated by hand when bills change.
- Failed direct debits are noticed late.
- Parents ask what they owe and the answer takes time.
- Month-end reconciliation takes a day or more.