Jackrabbit allows you to post tuition fees and process ePayments in batches, saving time and reducing manual work! Posting Fees should be completed prior to processing payments to make fee linking easy.
No matter how often your tuition billing cycle occurs (weekly, monthly, session, or custom), you should have an established routine.
Checks and Balances Prior to Posting
Before you post tuition fees, take a few minutes and use the following searches to confirm that all Fixed Fees and Family Discounts are set up correctly.
- Student Fixed Fees - In the Filter Drawer on the All Students page, go to Financial Details > Fee arrangements > Has Student Fixed Fee? > select Yes and click Apply to view all students with Fixed Fees.
- Family Fixed Fees - In the Filter Drawer on the All Families page, go to Financial Details > Fee arrangements > Has Family Fixed Fee? > select Yes and click Apply to view all families with Fixed Fees.
- Family Discounts - In the Filter Drawer on the All Families page, go to Financial Details > Fee arrangements > Has Family Discount? > select Yes and click Apply to view all families with Family Discounts.
Next, run an All Families search to identify families with expired or missing credit cards. This helps ensure successful ePayments and fewer follow-ups.
- Email families with missing or expired credit cards using the pre-made email template.
- Include a link to your Parent Portal so families can update their card details easily.
Expand each section below for the recommended steps to post and collect fees efficiently.
Step 1 - Post Tuition Fees
Post tuition fees based on total hours, class fees, fixed fees, or a combination - whatever fits your fee structure.
Some organizations post tuition fees a few days early to give staff time to review accounts before payments go out. Want to save time? Schedule tuition postings to post automatically.
Helpful tips:
- Turn on duplicate fee detection to avoid posting the same fee twice.
- Use the preview page to check for duplicates and verify all special circumstances have been considered before posting the tuition batch.
- Set up Favorites if you bill a combination of classes by total hours, class fee, or different billing cycles to simplify future postings.
Step 2 - Link Unapplied Credits
After posting tuition fees, it is a good idea to look for unapplied payments (full or partial) that have not been linked to fees.
- Run a transactions search to find the unapplied payments.
- Link any unapplied payments to the new fees before processing.
Step 3 - Check Family Balances
Use the following searches to quickly spot-check family balances to catch missed fees or odd balances.
- All Families - In the Filter Drawer, go to Financial Details > Find problem accounts > Has Not Had A Fee Posted Since? (select a date) and click Apply.
- All Students - In the Filter Drawer, go to Financial Details > No tuition posted since (select a date) and click Apply.
Use To Do Tasks on your Executive Dashboard to keep track of any special billing considerations per billing cycle.
Step 4 - Communicate with Your Parents
Before processing payments, notify families to alert them of newly posted fees in case they need to update billing information.
- Send an email with a link to your Parent Portal so families can log in and make adjustments.
- Print or email statements to multiple families at once.
- Include your billing policies in your Online Registration Form to set expectations.
Step 5 - Process Payments
All ePayments (credit cards and bank drafts) are initiated either by a Jackrabbit User or by the account holder through the Parent Portal.
- Process ePayments now using batch processing to run payments efficiently, or schedule payments to run later if you prefer to automate ePayments.
- Print the summary screen to keep a record of all approved and declined transactions and Trans IDs.
- Check with your payment processor to verify bank draft results. If you use Jackrabbit Pay, draft declines are automatically updated in Jackrabbit.
- Enable automatic decline emails so families are notified without manual outreach.
Not using ePayments? Check out our ePayments webpage for more information. If you have additional questions, check out our article Process ePayments or email our team directly at ecommerce@jackrabbittech.com.
Billing Checklist
Streamline your billing process, no matter how often you bill. Create a billing to-do list that works for you.
Checkout out our sample billing checklist below!
