Fee structures

When you need this

A fee structure is the list of fees a school charges, and who pays each one. A common way is one structure for the year (2027 school fees), billed once at the start of each term. Make it after your fees are set up and every student is in their class and residence (Classes and residences).

How "who pays" works

Each fee line has an Applies to list of groups: classes, residences, or other groups.

• No groups: every student pays it (the line shows Everyone).
• Several classes: a student in any of them pays it. A student is in one class at a time, so Form 1, Form 2 means "Form 1 or Form 2".
• Several residences: the same, any of them.
• A class and a residence: the student must match both: (Form 1 or Form 2) and Boarder.
• Any other kind of group: the student must be in each of them.

For example:

Fee	Applies to	Unit price
Tuition	Form 1, Form 2	450.00
Tuition	Form 3, Form 4	480.00
Boarding	Boarder	300.00
Development levy	Everyone	50.00

A Form 1 boarder gets one invoice for 800.00. A Form 3 day scholar gets one for 530.00. To charge the same fee at different amounts, add it twice with different groups, as Tuition above.

A student no fee applies to gets no invoice. A student in none of the groups only gets the Everyone fees.

Steps

Make a fee structure

1. Open Billing, then the Fee Structures tab, and press New Fee Structure.
2. Name: for example 2027 school fees.
3. Frequency: how often it bills: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly or Annually.
4. Start date, and End date if it should stop (optional).
5. The line under the dates says how invoices will be dated and when they fall due, for example Invoices dated on the run date · billed in advance · due by your invoice terms. Press Change only to alter it (Billing mode, Invoice date, Terms in days).
6. The switches:
   • Bill automatically on each billing date: leave it off if you will bill each term yourself with Run Billing. It is available for Monthly, Quarterly and Annually only.
   • Email the invoices: on to email each invoice when it is made.
   • Post to accounts: see the note under What you should see.
7. Who it's for: Everyone the fees apply to (the usual choice), or One student and pick the student.
8. Add the fees. Type in Search fee... and pick a fee, or press + Add fee item for a line of your own. On each line:
   • Check the description and the Unit price.
   • Press + Group and tick the classes, residences or other groups it applies to, then Done. The number beside each group is how many students are in it. Leave a line without groups for everyone.
   • The ⋮ button opens Quantity, Tax and Discount for that line.
9. Check the bar at the bottom: it counts the invoices and the total. If it says need a look, click it (see Before you save below).
10. On the invoices (optional): + Add a note for a note on every invoice; Show banking details to print the school's bank details.
11. Press Save fee structure.

Before you save: the summary

Click the count in the bottom bar to open What this run will bill:

• Invoices and Total to bill, before tax and discounts.
• Per item: how many students each fee reaches. A fee reaching 0 students has the wrong groups.
• A warning that some students no item applies to will be skipped: they will get no invoice. Usually they are missing from a class or residence.
• A warning that some students are in none of the fees' groups: they will only get the fees for everyone. Check their class and residence.
• Sample invoices: what a few students will receive, line by line.

Bill from a fee structure

1. Open Billing → Fee Structures and click the structure.
2. Under Actions, press Run Billing.
3. The confirmation says how many students will be billed. Press Yes, create them (for a structure for one student: Yes, run billing).

Each run appears under View Activity and in Billing → Bill Runs. Read Bill a term for checking the result and retrying failures.

The other actions

• Pause: stops this structure billing, including automatic billing, until you press Resume.
• Resume: starts it again.
• View Activity: every bill run made from this structure.
• Delete: removes the structure. Invoices it already made stay as they are.
• Automatic: the switch on the structure's page turns automatic billing on or off after saving. The message that appears says when it will next bill.

What you should see

The structure's page, with its Items and their Applies to, its Next Billing Date and its Target (Everyone the fees apply to, or the student's name).

A fee structure can't be edited once saved. To change its fees or amounts, make a new one and delete or pause the old one. Invoices already made keep what they were billed.

Post to accounts: invoices made by a run are always recorded on the students' accounts, whether this switch is on or off.

If something goes wrong

• "Give the fee structure a name", "Please add at least one fee item", "Give every fee item a price above zero": fix the field it points to and save again.
• "Please select a student": you chose One student; pick the student.
• Bill automatically is greyed out: Automatic billing is available for monthly, quarterly, termly, biannual and annual profiles only. Change Frequency to Monthly or longer.
• Run Billing: "Already billed this month": this structure already billed this month. Open that run from Bill Runs; if some students failed, retry it there. Press Bill again only if the earlier invoices were wrong and have been cancelled: every student is billed a second time.
• A group shows "Group no longer available": the group was deleted. Remove it from the line.