Student Billing is one student’s fee account: what they owe, what has been paid and what is outstanding. From here you open their invoices, record receipts against particular fees, add one-off charges and request discounts, waivers, scholarships or refunds.
- Where Finance & Billing → Student Billing
- Who can use it Anyone whose role includes Student Billing.
- Set up first Class Fees, then invoices from Class Billing
Open a student’s account
- Choose the Class, then the Student.
- Four cards show Total Expected, Total Paid, Outstanding Balance (or Fully Paid) and their Class.
- Below are the Fee Breakdown, every Receipts entry for the student, and their Invoices.
- Click the eye icon on an invoice to open it. You see each item with its Amount, Paid and Remaining, and the PDF button to print or send it.
Before a student has an invoice, the breakdown simply lists their class’s fees once each. Once they are invoiced, the figures come from their invoices, which include weekly or monthly fees for the whole term, extras and approved discounts.
Record a receipt
Open the invoice, then use Record a receipt at the bottom.
- Set the Payment Date and the Method: Cash, Mobile Money, Bank Transfer or Cheque.
- Under Received Into, choose the bank or cash account the money went into.
- Optionally add a Reference / Description, such as a MoMo transaction ID.
- Under Apply to, each unpaid item is filled with what is still owed. Change the amounts to match what the parent actually paid, and set anything they didn’t pay towards to 0.
- Click Record Receipt. A receipt number (starting RCT-) is given, the balances update, and the payment is posted to the school’s accounts.
Example: Yaw Darko’s invoice has Tuition GHS 450.00 and Feeding GHS 650.00. His mother pays GHS 600.00. Enter 450.00 against Tuition and 150.00 against Feeding; GHS 500.00 of Feeding stays outstanding.
No item can be given more than it still owes. When everything is paid the form is replaced by This invoice is fully paid.
Add a one-off charge
Under Add a custom charge on the invoice, type a Name (for example Replacement uniform), an optional Category and the Amount, then click Add Charge. It is marked Custom and adds to the invoice total. Only custom charges can be deleted from an invoice.
Discounts, waivers, scholarships and refunds
- On the invoice, click Request Adjustment.
- Choose the Type: Discount, Waiver, Scholarship, Credit Note or Refund.
- Type the Amount and a Reason, for example Sibling discount. For a refund, also choose Refund From (Bank/Cash Account).
- Click Submit for Approval. It is listed as Pending approval.
- Someone then clicks Approve or Reject on it.
An approved discount, waiver, scholarship or credit note is added to the invoice as a minus line, so the balance goes down straight away. An approved refund is posted to the accounts as money paid out of the chosen account; it doesn’t change the invoice lines. Both are posted to the ledger as soon as they are approved.
Note: anyone who can open Student Billing can approve a request, including the person who made it. If you want a second person to sign off, agree that as a school rule.
Fix a mistake
- Wrong receipt: click the bin icon next to it in the invoice’s Receipts list and confirm. Its accounting entry is reversed. Then record it again correctly.
- Wrong custom charge: click the bin icon on that line and confirm.
If the receipt is dated in an accounting period that has been locked, it can’t be deleted, and new receipts can’t be dated inside it either. Ask an administrator to reopen the period.
Good to know
- Invoices are created in Class Billing. There is no button on this screen to create an invoice.
- To record and track fee receipts across the whole school, use Payments.
- The outstanding balance can also print on report cards if the school ticks that option in School Setup.
- For an overview of billing across the school, see the Billing Dashboard.