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Record a payment at the desk ​

When you need this ​

A parent pays school fees at the desk in cash or by EcoCash, or comes in with proof of a bank transfer or deposit. Receipt it the same day, while the parent is there.

A payment you only find out about from the bank statement (nobody brought proof) is receipted from the statement, not here: see Work through a statement's lines. Card payments on the school's machine have their own page: Receipt a card payment.

Steps ​

  1. Open Receipts in the menu and press New Receipt.
  2. Student: start typing the student's name and pick them. Their unpaid invoices load under Allocate to Unpaid Invoices.
  3. Amount: what the parent paid. Check the currency in front of the amount (for example USD) and change it if they paid in another currency.
  4. Payment Method: how they paid, for example Cash, EcoCash or a bank transfer. The names are the ones your school set up. The app remembers the last one you used.
  5. Cash account: the app fills it in from the payment method. Leave it unless the bursar has told you otherwise. If it says Pick a cash account — the selected payment method's default doesn't match this currency., choose the account for the currency the parent paid in.
  6. Date: the day the parent paid. It starts on today.
  7. Reference: for EcoCash, a bank transfer or a deposit, type the reference from the proof of payment (the EcoCash transaction ID, or the bank's reference on the slip or transfer confirmation). For cash, leave it empty. The reference is what links the payment to its line when it appears on a bank statement, so the student isn't receipted twice.
  8. Description (optional): a note for the receipt, for example Term 1 fees.
  9. Choose what the payment pays, under Allocate to Unpaid Invoices:
    • Leave every invoice unticked and the payment pays the student's oldest unpaid invoices first.
    • Or tick the invoices the parent says it is for. Each ticked invoice gets an amount under Allocate, which you can change. Pay Selected in Full fills each ticked invoice's whole balance.
    • If the payment is more than the ticked invoices, the rest shows as Credit to student and stays on the student's account.
  10. Send receipt via email and Send receipt via SMS: switch on to send the parent their receipt. It goes to the email addresses or phone numbers saved for the student.
  11. Attachments (optional): Click here to attach files to add a photo of the proof of payment.
  12. Press Save.

What you should see ​

The Receipts list opens with the new receipt at the top, for the right student and amount. The student's balance goes down by what they paid, and the invoices you ticked (or the oldest ones) show as paid or part-paid.

If the payment later appears on a bank statement, its line shows as already linked to this receipt, with no student to choose.

If something goes wrong ​

  • Save stays greyed out: the Student, Amount or Payment Method is missing, or the invoices are over-allocated.
  • "Allocation exceeds tendered by …" / Over-allocated by: the amounts under Allocate add up to more than the Amount. Lower an allocation, or press the calculator button next to the amount to set it to the total allocated.
  • "Each selected invoice must have an allocation greater than zero": a ticked invoice has 0 under Allocate. Untick it or give it an amount.
  • "Selected invoices span multiple currencies. Please allocate to invoices in one currency per receipt.": tick invoices in one currency only. Record a second receipt for the other currency.
  • "No unpaid invoices for this student.": the student owes nothing right now. You can still save: the payment stays on the student's account as credit.
  • The parent didn't get the SMS: an SMS is only sent when the student has a phone number saved and the school's SMS balance can pay for it. The receipt is saved either way. Use Send via email on the receipt instead: see Send, print or refund a receipt.
  • The statement line for this payment still wants a student: the receipt was saved without the reference, or with a different amount. On the line, ⋮ → Already receipted? and Link your receipt. Never create a second receipt for the same payment.
  • You picked the wrong student or amount: see Send, print or refund a receipt before doing anything else.