Most parents pay on time, but every term you'll have a handful who need a nudge. Edunile lets you send a WhatsApp (and email at the same time, where you have the address) reminder for an unpaid bill in a couple of clicks. You can do them one by one, or send a batch to everyone in a class who hasn't paid yet.

Steps

Step 01

Open the Invoices tab

From the dashboard, go to Finance → Invoices. This is the list of every bill you've sent, along with the status — Paid, Partially Paid, or Unpaid.

Finance → Invoices, with status for every bill

Step 02

Filter to the parents who haven't paid

At the top of the list, use the filters to narrow down:

Status — pick Unpaid or Partially Paid.
Class — pick the class you want to focus on (e.g. JSS 2 A).

You'll now see only the bills that genuinely need chasing. This is the cleanest starting point — no risk of sending a reminder to a parent who has already paid.

Filter by status and class to see who's outstanding

Step 03

Send a reminder for one parent

For any single bill, click the three dots on the right and pick Send Reminder. Edunile sends a WhatsApp message (and an email, where the parent has one on file) immediately. The wording is a friendly reminder of the unpaid amount, the bill name, and the due date.

You'll see a green confirmation toast when it goes out. The bill gets a small Reminder sent tag with today's date.

Three dots → Send Reminder

Step 04

Send reminders to a whole class at once

For a class-wide chase, tick the checkbox at the top-left of the filtered list to select every visible bill. Then click Send Reminders at the top of the page. Edunile asks you to confirm — Send reminders to N parents for ₦X in outstanding fees?

Click Confirm. The reminders go out one by one in the background; for a class of 25–30 unpaid bills this takes about a minute.

Step 05

Check who got the reminder

Once the batch is done, you'll see a Reminder sent tag next to each bill you included. Refresh the page to see the latest tags. Parents who pay after receiving the reminder will show as Paid on the next refresh — usually within a few hours of them clicking the payment link.

To see your full sending history, go to Communications → History. You'll see every reminder, broadcast, and notification that's left the system, with a status (Delivered, Read, Failed) for each one.

Common issues

A parent says they didn't receive the WhatsApp

First, check Communications → History for that parent's message. If the status is Failed, the most common reason is that the phone number on file isn't a real WhatsApp number — open the parent's profile and check it.

If the status is Delivered but the parent insists they didn't see it, ask them to check the WhatsApp Business inbox or any "spam" folder in WhatsApp. Some parents have WhatsApp on a different phone than the number you have on file.

I sent a reminder by mistake

You can't un-send a WhatsApp message, but you can send a follow-up correction. Open the bill and use Send Custom Message to send a short apology — "Apologies, that reminder was sent in error. Your fees are paid in full."

The Send Reminder button is greyed out

This happens when the bill is fully paid — no reminder is needed. If you're sure the bill is still outstanding, refresh the page; the status may have just updated when the parent paid.

I want to write my own message, not the default reminder

For a custom message to one parent, open their student's profile, click Message Parent, and type your own text. For a custom message to a whole class, use Communications → Broadcast — you can pick WhatsApp, pick a class, and write whatever you like.

Can I schedule reminders to send automatically?

Yes. When you set up the original fees in Send Fees, there's a switch called Payment Reminders — Auto-send reminders before due date. Turn it on and Edunile sends gentle reminders to unpaid parents in the days leading up to the due date, without you having to lift a finger.