Fee collection best practices for schools and coaching centres
A daily, weekly, monthly and yearly checklist for running fees in Pathshala — billing, collection, reminders, cheques and closing the books.
Good fee offices run on routine. This checklist shows how institutes that run Pathshala Fees well spend their day, week, month and year. Use it as it is or adapt it.
#Set up once
- Fee heads named the way parents talk ("Tuition Fee", "Transport Fee"), with the right frequency each.
- A fee structure for every class, with due days and a sensible late-fee grace period.
- A collection plan only if you bill other than monthly.
- Payment methods for every way you take money, with your UPI ID or QR.
- Discount types with Requires Approval on for scholarships and large concessions.
- Parents' WhatsApp numbers correct on every student record.
- Staff given the right jobs: Cashier for the counter, Accountant for fee setup — see Who can do what.
- Your own WhatsApp number connected, so receipts and reminders carry your name.
#Every day
- Record every payment the moment it is taken, with the correct method and the UPI/bank reference or cheque number.
- Confirm or reject parents' reported payments in Parent Payments.
- Glance at Fee Collection › Follow up and call the top few families.
- At closing time, open the Day-book and count the drawer against How it came in › Cash.
#Every week
- Send reminders from Fee Reminders to families due within 7 days and to those overdue.
- Fix the No phone number list.
- Mark cheques Cleared or Bounced in Cheques; chase anything over 30 days old.
- Owner: read Worth a look (Pro).
- Approve or reject pending discounts.
#Every month
- Enter new admissions and activity enrolments before generating bills.
- Generate the month's (or instalment's) bills with Bills for a whole class, class by class, on the same date each month.
- Check Collection rate and This month against last month.
- Give the accountant the month's Tally file (or each day's).
- Look at Collections (Pro) for the 30- and 60-day forecast.
#Every year
- Set the new academic year and promote students, ticking Copy this year's fee structure into the new session.
- Review fee amounts and late fees per class before the first bill of the year.
- Expire discounts that should not carry over, and give the new year's.
- Check your collection plan's dates sit inside the new session.
#Habits that prevent trouble
- Never delete, always reverse. Cancel a wrong payment or refund it with a reason; do not try to edit history.
- Fix a wrong bill by cancelling and regenerating, not by giving a discount to cover it.
- Mark optional charges as optional. A mandatory head is billed to every student of the class; a head marked Optional (Opt-in) only to the students you tick under Students on Fee Heads. Paid clubs and sports can also be Activities.
- One person, one login. Shared logins hide who took which payment in the Day-book and in Worth a look.
- Write reasons. Discounts, cancellations, refunds and bounces all ask for one — it is your audit trail.
#Questions people ask
What is the single most useful habit?
Close every day against the Day-book. If the cash drawer and the Day-book agree each evening, most fee problems never start.
How do I reduce late payments?
Bill on the same day every month, send a reminder a few days before the due date and again after it, and phone the families the Follow up card puts first.
Should the cashier and accountant be different people?
Where you can, yes. Give the Cashier job to whoever takes money and the Accountant job to whoever sets fees and gives discounts, so no one person both decides and collects.