Fees, invoices & payments

Admin guide

1. Before you start

Set up academic terms, year groups, classes and active students first. Then open Admin → Fees → Households and group siblings who should share discounts and a balance. A child without a household can still be invoiced, but household payment allocation and sibling rules work best after every child is placed.

2. Billing settings

In Fees → Setup, choose the number of days parents have to pay, reminder offsets, an optional household cap and the billing contact address parents should use. Reminder numbers are relative to the due date: -3 means three days before; 3 means three days after.

3. Plans, assignments and sibling rules

• A plan has a name, amount and cadence: annual, termly, monthly or one-off.
• Assign a plan to the whole madrassa, a year, a class or one student. The most specific recurring assignment wins; one-off plans are additional and can overlap it.
• New one-off plans exclude sibling discounts and the household cap by default. Turn on “Apply sibling discount” when a particular one-off charge should use them.
• Sibling positions are calculated within the household. A rule for the second child carries forward until another rule replaces it.
• A household cap limits the combined total created by one invoice run.

4. Waivers and reductions

Add a fixed reduction, percentage reduction or full waiver to a student, with start and optional end dates. The reason is management-only. Teachers see only whether a child has fees pending; they never see amounts, waivers, reasons or payment history.

5. Preview and issue

Choose a plan and billing period on the invoices page, preview the run, then issue it. The preview uses the same calculation as issuance and shows sibling reductions, waivers and caps. A one-off plan uses its issue date instead of an academic period. Issuing the same recurring period or one-off plan again skips students already billed, so a retry does not duplicate invoices.

6. Automatic issuance

Turn on Issue scheduled invoices automatically only after checking plans and assignments. Annual, termly and monthly invoices are created when their billing period begins; one-off plans are never automatic. The job catches up recent missed run dates, but enabling automation partway through a period does not back-bill that period. Issue it manually if required.

7. Offline payments

Use Record paymentfor cash, bank transfer, cheque or another offline method. Allocate it to the household's oldest invoices or adjust the allocation. Any remainder stays as household credit. Never record a Stripe card or Bacs payment manually; its webhook creates the authoritative ledger entry.

8. Stripe onboarding and online payment methods

Complete Express onboarding from Fees → Setup. Stripe may ask the madrassa for identity, business and bank-account evidence. A Pay button appears only after Stripe confirms the account can accept charges. The initial release supports cards and one-time Bacs Direct Debit through Stripe-hosted Checkout. Reusable Bacs mandates are not supported.

Stripe receives the payer's card or bank details directly. Makatib.App receives the payment outcome and reconciliation fields, not full payment credentials.

9. Reminders, receipts and statuses

Issued, due-soon and overdue notices are queued to the family, and successful payments generate receipts. A due invoice has time left; overdue is past its due date; part paid has a balance; paid is settled; exempt had a zero total; cancelled is void; written off closes a balance without claiming it was paid.

10. Cancellations and write-offs

Cancel an invoice that should not have existed. Write off a legitimate balance the madrassa has decided not to pursue. Both require a reason and remain in the audit history. Do not use either as a substitute for recording money received.

11. Refunds

Management can request a full Stripe refund from Fees → Payments. Stripe remains authoritative, so the request is shown as pending until its webhook confirms the cumulative refunded amount. Partial refunds started directly in Stripe are reconciled safely and reopen invoice allocations in reverse order. Refund and dispute decisions belong to the madrassa as merchant.

12. Reports and reconciliation

The fees report filters by issue date, class, year, student and status. Its billed, collected, outstanding, overdue and written-off figures cover the full filtered result, not only the visible page; CSV uses the same filters. The payments ledger shows gross, Stripe fee, net, refunded amount and provider reference. Compare net settlements with the madrassa's Stripe dashboard and bank account, and investigate any missing fee, refund or webhook promptly.

Parent guide

Reading an invoice

The parent portal shows each child's invoices, due date, current status and amount outstanding. A receipt appears after a successful payment. If the charge, discount, waiver or child assignment looks wrong, contact the madrassa office: the madrassa creates and owns the invoice.

Card versus Bacs Direct Debit

Card payments normally confirm quickly. Bacs Direct Debit is not instant and generally takes several working days to process, so an invoice may remain open while the bank payment is pending. Stripe-hosted Checkout collects the payment details and Stripe sends the required Bacs scheme notices in live mode.

Receipts, failures and refunds

A successful payment generates a receipt. If a card or Bacs payment fails, the balance remains due and Stripe may send an update. Refunds are decided by the madrassa. After Stripe confirms a refund, the portal balance and payment history update; bank posting times can still vary.

Privacy and payment details

Stripe receives and processes your card or bank information under its own privacy notice. Makatib.App stores invoice and payment outcome records for the madrassa but does not receive full card numbers or bank-account details. Teachers see only a pending/up-to-date fee flag for children they teach, never balances or payment history. See the privacy policy and payment terms.

Hardship or a payment query

Contact the madrassa's billing address or office as early as you can. Only the madrassa can change a due date, agree an arrangement, apply a waiver, cancel an invoice or approve a refund. Makatib.App and Stripe cannot decide whether a fee should be owed.