Parent Payment Schedules webinar

Any billing period is fine, but parents will need to re-enrol in a payment schedule each time. Most schools choose annual billing when they implement automated payment schedules, and let the schedules run across the year.

School Fee Statements can be annual or termly.

It divides the account balance by the number of instalments in the payment period.

Yes. The school decides which frequencies families can choose from, for example monthly payments on the second Thursday of each month.

Yes. Set the ‘last instalment date’ to the end of Term 3, so the account balance is fully paid by then.

Depending on your billing setup, you would usually offer an extra payment schedule option with a ‘latest start date’ later in the year, so late starters can select it.

Not currently. Parents need to enrol in a payment schedule through the Parent Portal.

No. With Payment Schedules you do not need to set up NAB, ANZ or any other bank gateway. You just activate your School EasyPay merchant profile, and payments are processed by School EasyPay, with no separate bank-charged merchant service fee (MSF) or transaction fees to the school.

No, it is not compulsory, but many schools are benefiting from the integrated payment solution. Email getstarted@schooleasypay.com.au if you would like to activate integrated payments.

New charges can be generated and absorbed into existing payment schedules, which then recalculate to include the updated account balance.

Yes.

See the TASS Payment Schedules documentation.

Yes. The School Shop is linked to payment schedules, and any new charges are absorbed into the existing schedules.

Commercial Debtors is not linked to payment schedules.

Not at this stage.

Use the Bulk Update function.

Yes. The school can maintain and adjust a parent’s schedule from within the Parent Record.

Yes, but only with manual intervention from the school. Once a payment schedule has started, parents cannot adjust it without contacting the school.

No, not without manual intervention from the school.

No.

Parents enrol in a payment plan at the start of each year. This lets them choose the plan that best suits their financial circumstances at the time.

Yes, this is supported. Split families need to be set up as complex splits so each parent can choose their own schedule.

Yes. Parents can pay from a savings account (using their BSB and account number), as well as by debit card and credit card.

No. Payment Schedules does not support Centrepay. It enables credit card, debit card and bank account payments.

They can keep paying that way, or the school can manually build a payment schedule for those parents in the background.

No. Parents can make a one-off payment using the “Make a Payment” function in their account details. This does not need a payment schedule.

Parents choose how much, if anything, they want to contribute to the building fund when they set up their payment schedule.

It is processed across the year’s schedule, as a small portion of each instalment. Receipts for the total contributions can be generated.

The only charge for Payment Schedules is a bank or card processing fee, which differs by card type and payment method. The fees are set out on the School EasyPay Activation Form and range from 0.46% (bank account) to 1.68% (cards), excl. GST. The school decides whether to pass some or all of the fees on to families, or to absorb them. Email getstarted@schooleasypay.com.au if you would like to activate integrated payments.

School EasyPay will confirm the fees for each card type. The school is not charged separately by banks or Amex for Payment Schedules. The only fee is the School EasyPay processing fee, which the school can pass on to families or absorb in part or in full. Email getstarted@schooleasypay.com.au if you would like to activate integrated payments.

There is a small failed payment fee when a first payment fails. If the retry also fails, the parent isn’t charged again. By default, the parent is charged the fee. For more information, email getstarted@schooleasypay.com.au.

No. Discounts cannot be calculated automatically from the payment schedule selected. To apply an automatic discount, configure ‘discount structure rules’ or the ‘early payment discount’ on a single transaction made before the cut-off date.

TASS has a native ‘early payment discounts’ function. It is applied automatically to once-off transactions made through the Parent Portal, as long as the parent pays the entire account balance before a set date. This does not need a payment schedule, and those families can be managed without setting up a schedule.

Not through the integrated solution, but schools are welcome to apply discounts or credits to family accounts. One suggestion: if the school absorbs the payment processing fees for Payment Schedules, that is a good incentive for families, and it helps the school get paid faster and more efficiently.

It notifies the parent and alerts the school, then retries the payment after a set number of days (defined by the school). This repeats until a set number of failed attempts is reached, at which point the school is notified and needs to contact the parent.

TASS recognises that the transaction failed and re-raises it after the number of days defined by the school.

One day is the minimum interval between retries.

All unsuccessful payments are shown in the TASS Dashboard.

Receipting takes place the day after the transaction occurs.

School EasyPay operates on a cleared funds model. Once the funds have cleared from the parent’s bank account, they are deposited into the school’s bank account.

Yes, there is a dedicated Receipting program.

Emails generated automatically by an event to do with Payment Schedules are captured in the ‘Communication Log’ tab of the Parent Record.

Yes. Contact School EasyPay and our marketing team will tailor something for your school to help you roll out Payment Schedules to families. You can also start with the parent letter template above. Email getstarted@schooleasypay.com.au if you would like to activate integrated payments.

Tell parents early that a new payment method is coming, send a step-by-step guide when invoices are issued, and follow up with a reminder a few weeks into the first term.

It differs for each school, but most schools have brought the majority of their families onto Payment Schedules within a year or two of implementing it. School EasyPay helps schools with communication to encourage uptake, so you get the most out of the solution.