Record a payment made in cash or by transfer
A parent paid at the school office, by bank transfer or on the POS. Here is how to put that payment on their account so the balance is right.
Plenty of parents still pay at the school office, by bank transfer, or on the POS machine. Edunile only knows about those payments when you tell it. Recording them keeps every parent's balance correct, keeps your collection figures honest, and stops the system chasing somebody who has already paid.
Steps
Open Finance and stay on the Collection tab
From your dashboard menu, click Finance. The hub opens on the Collection tab, which is where you track who has paid and who hasn't.
Check the Term selector at the top is showing the term the payment is for. If a parent is settling last term's arrears, switch to that term first — otherwise you'll record the money against the wrong term.
Click Record Payment
Click Record Payment near the top of the Collection tab.
A small window opens asking you to select a class. Pick the student's class, and you'll get a list of the students in it who still owe something.
Pick the student
Click the student who paid. Edunile opens the payment form and shows you their bill number, the total, what they have already paid, and the balance still outstanding — so you can check you have the right person before you enter anything.
Enter the amount and how they paid
Fill in:
- Amount — how much they actually handed over. If a parent is paying in instalments, enter just this instalment, not the full bill. Edunile works out the new balance.
- Payment Method — Cash, Bank Transfer, or POS.
- Notes (optional) — the teller number, transfer reference or POS slip number. This is the field that saves you during a dispute months later, so it's worth the extra few seconds.
Click Record Payment.
Check it landed
The student's balance updates straight away. The Collection tab's totals and the class figures move with it.
For a full list of everything taken in — across cash, transfers, POS and online payments — switch to the Records tab. That is where you go at the end of a day or a week to reconcile against your own book.
Common issues
- The student isn't in the list when I pick their class
The picker only lists students who still owe something for the selected term. If they aren't there, one of three things is true:
- They have already been recorded as fully paid — check the Records tab.
- They were never billed for this term. Fees have to be sent to the class before a payment can be recorded against a bill.
- You're on the wrong term. Change the Term selector at the top and look again.
- I typed the wrong amount
Don't record a second, negative payment to cancel it out — that leaves two confusing entries on the parent's account.
Open the bill itself (from the student's profile, or from the class list on the Collection tab), find the payment you entered, and correct it there. If you can't undo it, message us on WhatsApp with the student's name and the bill number and we'll sort it out.
- A parent paid for two children in one transfer
Record it as two separate payments, one against each child's bill, splitting the amount as the parent intended. Put the same transfer reference in the notes on both so they can be tied back to the one transfer later.
- A parent paid for next term in advance
Switch the Term selector to that term before you record it. A payment always attaches to the term that is selected, so recording an advance payment against the current term will make this term look overpaid and next term still unpaid.
- The parent says they paid but I can't find the money
Check the Records tab first — if they paid through the Edunile link it will already be there and no action is needed from you. If it isn't, ask them for the teller or transfer reference and confirm with your bank before recording anything. Once recorded, a payment counts as received.