The beginning of the school year marks the time when parents are tasked with payments and tuition processing. This can be stressful for them, especially if they have gone through some snafus in their school’s payment process.

Here are some tips to ensure efficient payment processing on your end:

 

Make Payments & Tuition Processing Easier

Parents have different methods of sending in payments to their children’s tuition fees. Some prefer to go directly to the school and hand-deliver it, while others would rather pay through online banking or through automated teller machines (ATMs).

Once you have enrolled a parent into your school’s payment processing system, make it easy for them by creating templates that they can use to facilitate the payment process.

Creating templates will not only allow parents to access your school’s payment portal easily, but it will also speed up the transaction since they don’t have to input all the necessary information each time they make a payment.

 

Ensure Optimal Usage of Systems and Processes

If a parent has created a template, make sure it is constantly being used.

Do an audit of their enrolled accounts and check if the payment portal is still active – this means that they have not forgotten about enrolling themselves in the system.

The success of your automated payment process also depends on how parents can easily access your school’s online portal.

If parents have a hard time navigating their way through your payment portal, they might give up on using it and go for other options instead, such as going to the school every time they need to make a payment or going to an ATM to perform a cash withdrawal. If you want your system to be effective, make it accessible and easy to use.

 

Be Proactive in Communicating Updates to Parents

Some schools assume that parents will never forget the deadlines and schedules of their tuition payments and thus fail to notify them about updates.

It’s best to contact parents through phone or email, letting them know about any changes in the due date, automatically reminding them about the due date through text messages, or setting up an alert on their account dashboard.

Communicating these changes to parents will help your school avoid last-minute payment issues and allow parents to make more informed decisions about how they want to send in payments to meet deadlines.

 

Be Optimistic About Changes in Tuition Processing Systems

If there’s one thing that parents dislike the most about school transactions, it is changing the payment process.

Are you making changes to your school’s payment and tuition processing system? If so, make sure you do a proper information campaign about these updates – inform parents of all the changes and how this will impact them through emails, newsletters, announcements, etc.

If you are changing providers or upgrading your system, don’t assume that the new system will work well for your parents right away. Give them time to adjust and make sure you have a support team in place who can answer questions and provide information.

 

The Easiest Way to Send in Payments is Through a School’s Payment Portal

Payments using banks and ATMs might be the most straightforward option for parents, but these transactions can take a long time to process. The best way for your school to receive money from its parents is through an online banking portal that you have set up specifically for tuition payments. Once parents have accessed the payment portal, they can either make a transfer or upload a scanned copy of their proof of payment (for example, their ATM receipt).

Having your own payment portal not only saves parents time since they don’t have to go through other third-party sources, but it also allows them to upload their proof of payment within the same portal. If you are planning to change your school’s system, ensure that parents can still pay in the way that works best for them.

 

Schools need to make payments & tuition processing as smooth and efficient as possible for parents. To improve your school’s payment processing system, consider implementing aspects such as an online portal to upload payments. Other ways you can improve the payment process are by automatically communicating with parents about changes to the schedule or deadlines through email, SMS, or phone calls and being proactive about communicating these updates to parents through emails, newsletters, and announcements.

Remember that the most effective way for your school to receive payments is by having a dedicated portal where parents can upload their proof of payments and make transfers.

If you want to avoid last-minute issues and keep your parents informed about any updates, make sure to use these tips when improving your school’s payment and tuition processing system.

SchoolCues is an all-in-one school management system for small schools with limited budgets and resources. Our solutions include admissions and enrollment, online payments, student information system, gradebook, communications, parent engagement, donations and fundraising, alumni management and more. Schedule a demo with us today.