When it comes to tuition management and billing, there’s a decades-old, universal truth known by anyone who has ever managed school finances. 

Billing can be a real pain in the neck for school administrators.

Collecting payments continues to be a thorn in the colloquial side of countless CFOs and controllers who spend far more time than they would ever care to on managing multiple third-party systems. 

CFOs, controllers, and student billing specialists are the financial superheroes of your school. They sort through hundreds or maybe even thousands of transactions every year. They juggle hundreds of tuition payments, late fees, miscellaneous student account charges, refunds, and more. And the entire process is often as needlessly time-consuming (and expensive) for many schools as it was during the days of actual ledger book entries and manual data uploads. 

We know our friends in finance are responsible for keeping the lights on and the school running. It’s no small task and most finance folks often find themselves wondering, wouldn’t it be nice if we could increase our business office’s efficiency and make the job a bit easier?

With those goals in mind, we’ve distilled what tuition management and billing software would offer to make that possible:

• Customization
• Easy-to-use
• Seamless integration with admissions and enrollment processes

In this day and age, parents expect your private school’s tuition management software to be as simple and straightforward as managing all the rest of their household expenses. Organizing finances and making billing payments has universally become a quick and effortless process, most with one-click payments or the ability to set up auto-payments to completely eliminate manual processes — making it easy for parents to make school payments was the primary driver when we developed Finalsite’s SchoolAdmin tuition and billing module for schools.

What makes the SchoolAdmin Tuition and Billing solution different?

Finalsite's SchoolAdmin Enrollment Management System is an integrated solution that provides a seamless experience from the first time a family inquires through the very last tuition payment. In other words, Finalsite’s SchoolAdmin system is a true all-in-one admissions, enrollment, and student billing solution.

With other payment software solutions, you might be going to one system to apply, another system to enroll, and maybe even signing into a third system for your student tuition payments. You may even be logging into another system for your incidental payments. It shouldn’t be that difficult for families to pay their school bills.

Everything you need to manage student tuition and billing, either as a parent or a finance manager can be done within SchoolAdmin. We’ve made it easy for families to see and pay their tuition and other school bills from right inside the same system where they manage their child’s enrollment at your school.

• Want to pay that bill from your phone? It’s 100% mobile friendly. 
• Do families need to authorize multiple payers? We’ve made that easier too. 

Because it’s so easy for parents to manage payments, it means your finance office spends significantly less time managing (or chasing!) them.

Creating more efficiencies with SchoolAdmin Tuition and Billing

Efficiency is key

Whether you’re managing tuition billing, adding incidental charges, splitting payment responsibilities, generating reports for your Board, or reconciling the general ledger- there never seem to be enough hours in the day. Recognizing efficiency and reducing the workload means you can save time and focus on more strategic efforts.

Protecting your revenue stream

Tuition revenue is likely the largest line item in any school’s operating budget. Protecting that revenue stream and predicting your monthly and annual cash flow requires that you ensure families make their payments in a timely way. Having a system that enables this, all while providing you with real-time insight into every transaction and automation to guarantee nothing falls off your radar is critical.

Your families, your money, your relationship

Families place their trust in your school because they believe in the value of that investment. We believe that the money your families pay belongs to your school. We do not charge families any fees for the benefit of making payments to your school. Yes, you read that correctly. We do not assess any payment plan fees (that doesn’t mean you can’t), we do not assess any ACH fees, and we do not hold on to payments any longer than you ask us to. You are in control of charges, fees, and payouts. 

Revolutionizing the tuition and billing process with our trusted school partners is iterative and we continue to expand our system capabilities each year. The feedback from these forward-thinking schools helps inform the development of features that help us achieve our goals of efficiency for finance offices, transparency for enrollment management, and ease of use for schools and families.

Some of the most notable features schools appreciate:

• Automatic Payments (with options for schools to enable or disable
• Dynamic Enrollment Contracts with customized payment plan offerings
• Pre-Authorized Debits in Canada (ACH payments in Canada)
• The ability to shorten or extend payment plans (post-contract submission)
• Revenue recognition reporting
• Automatic late fees 
• Customized frequency for automated billing emails and reminders
• Support for continuous enrollment (aka- evergreen or perpetual enrollment contracts)
   

Key takeaway

When your school’s admissions and business offices are happy — you’re happy. Finalsite’s SchoolAdmin tuition and billing solution empowers schools to develop a more efficient process that shifts tuition and billing back to a school-first mentality. 

With convenient payments, easier reporting, and enhanced security and compliance all under one roof, your school's entire enrollment process is made simpler for both your offices and your families. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

As Finalsite’s Product Marketing Specialist, Andrew writes blogs and creates videos to share information about all the latest and greatest Finalsite products. Andrew has more than 10 years of video production experience and a journalism education from the University of South Carolina. He is excited about bringing his experience and expertise to Finalsite.