Term invoicing is mostly preparation. If fees, discounts and enrolments are right before you start, the invoices are a check rather than a rebuild.
Most invoice errors start somewhere else: a student who left but was never withdrawn, or a discount agreed at the front desk and never written down.
Settle fees and discounts
Before the term, confirm:
- The price of each course.
- Any class or family on a different fee, and why.
- Your discount rules, such as siblings or early enrolment.
- Whether two discounts combine, or only one applies.
- Whether your prices include GST.
Write the rules down. Staff then give the same answer to every parent who asks.
Get enrolments right
An invoice is only as good as the enrolment list behind it. Check that:
- New students are billed from their first class, not the term start.
- Students who left are withdrawn.
- Students who changed class are billed once.
- Make-up classes are not charged again.
Run this check a few days before you invoice, so there is time to fix what it finds.
Preview before sending
Look at each family’s invoice lines and the term’s total before anything goes out. Check large families, new students and anyone on a special fee first.
A wrong invoice costs far more to fix once a parent has seen it.
Send, then follow up
Send the term’s invoices together, with a clear due date. Record payments as they arrive.
Pick one day a week to check who still owes. Call before you send a second email. A call is harder to miss than a third reminder.
Keep credits visible
Credits are where term invoicing quietly goes wrong. A missed class, a cancelled session or a withdrawal can each leave a family owed money.
Record each credit with its reason as soon as it is agreed. Apply it to the next invoice, and check it appears there before you send.
Common mistakes
- Invoicing too early. Wait until the enrolment list is final for the term.
- Promised credits. A credit agreed in conversation and never applied becomes a dispute.
- Fee changes in someone’s head. Tell families about a new fee before the invoice does.
- Typing invoices twice. Retyping them into accounting software leaves two records that drift apart.
Invoicing in Atrium
- Set a course price or a class rate, or agree a fee for one enrolment.
- Add discount rules, such as siblings or early bird. Credits issued with a reason come off the family’s next term invoice.
- Preview each family’s lines and the term’s totals before any invoice is made.
- Invoices stay drafts until you send them, one or many.
- Invoices go across to supported accounting software, and payment status comes back.