Multi-currency school fees, invoicing and receipts
Classbell bills each campus in its own currency and never presents a group figure without saying how it was converted. Fee structures are versioned and effective-dated, so changing next year's fees cannot reprice an invoice a family has already been sent.
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What happens to invoices already issued when fees change?
A fee structure is a version with a date it takes effect from. Issuing a new one does not touch invoices already raised — those keep the terms they were issued under. This is the difference between a system you can answer a parent's question from and one you cannot.
- Fee structures are versioned and effective-dated
- Issued invoices are never retroactively repriced
- Per-fee-head tax treatment and refundability
- Discounts and scholarships carry the approval each requires
How should receipt numbering work for an audit?
Receipt numbers are sequential and gapless within a campus. Writes that must not collide are serialised so two cashiers taking money at the same moment cannot be issued the same number. A voided receipt keeps its place in the sequence, marked void, rather than leaving a hole.
- Gapless, sequential receipt numbers per campus
- Duplicate payments detected before the ledger is written
- Payments are reversed with a compensating entry and a mandatory reason — never deleted
- A reversal requires a group administrator
How do you chase unpaid school fees across currencies?
A payment is applied to specific invoices, oldest first by default, with a live summary of what is allocated, what is not, and the balance afterwards. Collections work from ageing buckets and an arrears workflow with a recorded stage and next action per family.
- Oldest-first allocation you can override per invoice
- Ageing buckets from current to ninety-plus days
- Bank reconciliation flags cash recorded on site that has not cleared
- Cashier sessions close with a count
Should exam results be withheld when fees are unpaid?
No — and Classbell ships that way by default. Withholding a child's report card for an unpaid balance is available as a setting and is off unless a school turns it on. Report cards carry no fee information and no medical information at all.
When is the exchange rate applied, and which one?
The rate is applied when a group figure is produced, and the date of the rate used is printed beside the figure. That is deliberately more information than most systems show, and it is the only way a converted total can be checked: a number labelled only "USD" cannot be reconciled by anyone, whereas one labelled with its conversion date can. Invoices themselves are never converted — a family is billed and receipted in their campus's own currency.
- Invoices are raised and receipted in the campus's own currency
- Conversion happens for group reporting, never for billing
- The exchange-rate date is stated beside every converted figure
- Each campus's local figure is shown alongside the converted one
What does a receipt need to contain to be usable?
More than an amount and a date. A receipt that a family can submit to an employer or a school can hand to an auditor needs the school's legal entity and tax identifiers, its registered address, a sequential number, the payer identified separately from the pupil (they are often not the same person), an itemised net, tax and gross breakdown, the total paid, the balance remaining afterwards, and who received the money.
- Legal entity, tax identifiers and registered address
- The payer identified separately from the pupil
- Itemised net, tax and gross, with the balance remaining
- Emailed, printed or downloaded from the family's own portal
Common questions
Can we invoice in one currency and report in another?
Yes. Invoices are issued in the campus currency; group reporting converts to the group's base currency and states the exchange-rate date used alongside the figure.
What happens to old invoices when we raise fees?
Nothing. A fee change creates a new version with an effective date. Invoices already issued keep the version they were issued under.
Can a payment be deleted if it was entered wrongly?
No. It is reversed, which writes a compensating entry with a mandatory reason and requires a group administrator. The original entry and its receipt number both remain, with the receipt marked void.
How are two cashiers taking money at the same moment handled?
Writes that must not collide are serialised per campus, so two cashiers cannot be issued the same receipt number. The receipts register states its own range and confirms there are no gaps in it.
Can a parent pay part of an invoice?
Yes. The payment panel offers paying in full or paying a different amount, and a partial payment is allocated against specific invoices with the remaining balance shown.