Set up fees first: bill parents in about 20 minutes
Start with what your school needs most: your classes, your students and what each class pays. Send every parent a bill they can pay from their phone, and add the rest of the school later.
When you set up your school, edunile asks What do you want to set up first? Choose Fees and payments if the job in front of you is getting school fees in. You add your classes, your students and what each class pays, then every parent gets a bill on WhatsApp with a link to pay. Classes, subjects, attendance and results wait until you want them.
Steps
Choose Fees and payments
After the two short questions about you, the setup asks what you want to set up first. Tap Fees and payments, then Continue. Nothing here is permanent: the rest of the school is always one tap away. If you signed up from edunile's page for bursars, you won't see this question: your school already starts with fees and payments.
Pick your classes
Tap what your school has (for example Primary School and Secondary School), then tap each class you bill. If you split classes into streams like A and B, type them in the streams box; otherwise leave it empty. To add a class with your own name for it, type the name and tap Add. Tap Save when every class is there.
Add your students
Paste your list, upload your register, or type the students in. The simplest sheet has four columns: Name, Class, Parent name and Parent phone. Tap Templates to download a blank one. You can write a whole name in one column: edunile splits "Adaeze Okafor" into first name and surname, and shows you the result so you can fix any it got wrong. If a class name in your sheet doesn't match one of your classes, pick the right class for that row from the list.
Say what each class pays
Add each fee once, with its amount, and pick the day it is due. If some classes pay a different amount, switch on Different amounts per class and change just those. Use Same as on a class row to copy another class's amounts, then change the one that differs.
Add the school's bank account
Choose the bank and type the account number. edunile checks the account name with the bank before anything is saved, so you can see it is the right account. Every payment a parent makes online goes straight into this account. If a payment charge applies, the payment page shows it before they pay, and your school still gets the full bill.
Check and send the bills
You'll see how many students are being billed, the total, and how the bills will reach home: how many parents get theirs on WhatsApp, how many by email, and how many can't be reached yet. If a child gets a sibling discount or a scholarship, open Adjust for one student, find the child and add it; it comes off this bill and every term's bill after it. Then tap Send. If you're not ready, tap Save and send later; your fees wait for you under Finance.
When you want the rest of the school
Classes, subjects, attendance and results appear in your menu as soon as a teacher joins your school. You can also turn them on yourself: go to Settings, open Your school, and tap Turn them on. Everything you have already set up stays exactly as it is.
Common issues
- Some parents can't be reached
Their bills are still made; they just have no phone number or email on file yet. Add a parent's phone number from the student's page, then send their bill from Finance.
- It says some parents will get theirs tomorrow
WhatsApp lets us send a limited number of new messages a day. The rest go out first thing tomorrow, on their own. Email goes out straight away for parents who have one.
- The bank account name doesn't look right
Check the account number and the bank you picked. The name shown is exactly what the bank has on record, so if it isn't your school's account, don't save it.
- I gave a sibling discount by mistake
Open the student's page, go to Finance, find the discount under Discounts and tap Stop. It won't come off any bill after that. A bill it already reduced stays as it was.