Your SMS comes with financial management features that allow you to create payment plans, issue invoices and accept payments for your student enrolment. In the SMS, there are multiple ways to create invoices for your student fees depending on how you have set up your Program Instances. This could be through adding a Payment Plan in a Program Instance, which automatically creates invoices based on the payment rule. However, there may be instances where you would need to manually create fees and issue invoices or make revisions to existing invoices to accommodate the varying needs of your students.
Step Tutorial
Creating Student Fees (applied at a Student Level)
An enrolment may already have student fees created in the Program Instance level and this is automatically applied for any student enrolment in that program instance. However, there may be instances where you would like to manually create fees that is applicable only to a specific student. Manually creating student fees in the SMS allows you the flexibility to adjust and accommodate this requirement.
Step 1. In the SMS, go to Students > Select student by entering at least three characters of the student's name.
Step 2. Go to the Financial Tab > Fees tab. Click New to add your Student Fees.
Step 3. Complete the details in the New Enrolment Fees Modal.
- Enrolment ID No. - Select from the dropdown the enrolment ID for the related student enrolment you would like to create fees for. The Enrolment ID is used to identify the student enrolment to a specific program instance.
- Description - Enter a description for the student fee
- Fee Type - Select from the dropdown field the fee type. There are three options to choose from:
- Tuition
- Resources
- Others
- Amount - Enter the amount the student will pay for the selected fee type.
- GST - This field identifies if the related fee has GST charged or not charged. The GST selection defaults to what is set in your Settings page. If you would like to override this, select a new GST option from the dropdown.
Step 4. Click Save to save the fee created.
Repeat this step if you would like to create additional fees for this enrolment (e.g. Resource fees or Other fees).
Once all required fees are created, users may refer to the fees data table for additional information. The table will list all the information in the enrolment fees modal, along with two additional columns: Amount used and % Used.
- Amount Invoiced - this column will display how much of the related fees was already included or used in an invoice. This column automatically calculates and updates based on available invoices for the related enrolment.
- % Invoiced - this column displays the % equivalent of the Amount invoiced from the total fees for that row. This column automatically calculates and updates based on available invoices for the related enrolment.
In the image above, Tuition fees and Administrative fees are displaying as $1000.00 in the Amount invoiced and 50% in the Invoiced column for Tuition fee, while the Administrative fees do not have any Amount Invoiced or % invoiced, meaning there is no invoice created that includes the Administrative fee in the invoice line item. Create an invoice to include the administrative fees or edit/delete as needed.
Manually Creating an Invoice
Step 1. To create an invoice for your different fees, Go to the Invoices subtab. Click New.
Step 2. Complete the fields in the New Student Invoice modal.
- Enrolment ID No. - Select from the dropdown list the related Enrolment ID number for this invoice.
- Due Date - from the date picker field, select the Due Date for this invoice.
- Rule Type - select the Rule type for the invoice. Refer to the tutorial on Creating Payment Plans for more information on the different rule types. Paid - Select from the dropdown field for the payment status.
- Amount - the amount field auto calculates from the fees table. This is the total fees specified for this invoice.
- Fees table - the fees table provides users with information to create invoices accurately. There are three columns in this table.
- Fees - displays the name of the fees available for this enrolment.
- Amount Available - displays the amount fees available for invoice. This field calculates and updates automatically based on the amounts already invoiced for the related fee.
- Amount to invoice - specify the amount for this invoice. This field will only accept values less than or equal to the Amount Available.
The Invoice Amount will automatically calculate based on the total amount in the Amount to Invoice column.
Click Save to save the invoice.
The Invoice data table also provides users with additional information related to the invoice, while the expand button provides information on the breakdown of the fees in that invoice.
Once the invoice is created, the Fees data table also calculates and updates based on what was already invoiced. Users can refer to this table and the New Student Invoice Fees table to assist with creating additional invoices to cover the full amount of student fees for this enrolment.
Making changes to an Invoice
The following actions are available for an invoice in the Action button.
- Edit - Allows you to edit an existing Invoice. The Edit action will only be available when the following conditions are true:
- The Invoice is not yet exported to either MYOB or XERO (applies for systems with integration to MYOB or XERO)
- The invoice is NOT YET PAID.
- Delete - Deletes the related invoice. When selected, a confirmation window will ask if users would like to continue with the deletion of the invoice. It is important to ensure that deletions are done only when necessary.
- View - Opens a new browser tab that allows users to view the invoice.
- Email - Use this action to manually issue the invoice to the student. Opens the Send Student Email modal, allowing users to create an email from scratch or use an existing template. The related invoice will be included in the email as an attachment.
- Payment - Process payment through a Make Payment modal either using a stored card for the student or entering new card information.
- Set as Paid - This option will only be available if the related invoice has an UNPAID status. This allows users to set the related invoice as paid. If the invoice has a PAID status, this action will be replaced with Set as Unpaid.
When editing an Invoice, the following information will be available in the Edit Student Invoice Modal:
The invoice amount below the due date will automatically calculate and display with the total amount in the Amount to Invoice column.
Click Save to save changes.
Important Note: The data tables in the Fees subtab and the Invoices modal provides information that updates and calculates based on available invoices created. This feature can assist users when creating or updating any invoices.
Accurate Invoice creation is essential in the management of student fees and accounts consolidation, as well as enhancing the overall student experience. Information provided in the data table such as Amounts available and amounts to invoice, allows your finance administrator to easily create a manual invoice and reduce the risks of discrepancies.
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