Welcome to the comprehensive product guide for the Fee Collection module. This robust billing engine is designed to empower administrators and coaches to effortlessly manage the financial lifecycle of their students. Simultaneously, it provides a transparent, secure, and user-friendly payment portal for students and parents.
Introduction and Purpose
Managing finances in an educational or coaching environment can be complex. From tracking who has paid for this month's classes to managing one-time registration fees and handling cash payments, administrators often spend hours on reconciliation.
The Fee Collection module eliminates this administrative overhead by:
Automating Billing: Generating invoices precisely when they are due based on flexible schedules.
Streamlining Payments: Offering seamless online payment integration alongside manual tracking for offline payments.
Providing Financial Clarity: Surfacing real-time metrics on revenue, pending dues, and overall organizational health.
User Roles and Perspectives
The module serves two distinct audiences, each with tailored interfaces:
1. Administrators and Coaches
Admins have full visibility and control over the financial operations. They can create pricing templates, assign them to students, pause or cancel ongoing plans, monitor dashboards, and reconcile offline payments. Their goal is to ensure revenue flows smoothly and overdue accounts are followed up on.
2. Students
Students log into a simplified, focused dashboard. They do not see the organization's total revenue; instead, they see only what is relevant to them: their active plans, upcoming dues, overdue warnings, and a historical ledger of their past payments. Their goal is to understand what they owe and pay it quickly and securely.
Core Concepts & Terminology
To master the Fee Collection system, you must understand three foundational pillars: Fee Plans, Subscriptions, and Invoices.
Pillar 1: Fee Plans
Think of a Fee Plan as a "pricing template." It defines the core rules:
What is the service?
How much does it cost?
Does it include GST?
How often should the student pay?
There are two primary types of Fee Plans:
Recurring Plans: Designed for ongoing services (e.g., "Premium Chess Coaching"). You define a billing cycle (Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly, or Custom interval like every 6 months).
One-Time Fees: Designed for single, non-repeating charges (e.g., "Summer Tournament Entry Fee" or "Initial Registration Fee").
Pillar 2: Subscriptions
While a Fee Plan is a template, a Subscription is an active enrollment.
When an administrator assigns a Recurring Plan to a specific student, a Subscription is born.
The Subscription acts as a state machine for that student:
It knows when the student started.
It calculates exactly when the next bill should be generated.
It can be Paused (if the student goes on a long holiday) or Cancelled (if the student leaves the academy).
Pillar 3: Invoices
An Invoice is the physical (digital) bill generated requesting payment.
For One-Time Fees: An invoice is generated instantly the moment the admin assigns the fee to the student.
For Subscriptions: The system automatically generates a new invoice at the beginning of every billing cycle, without the admin having to lift a finger.
Invoices have their own lifecycles:
Unpaid: Generated, but the due date hasn't passed.
Overdue: The due date has passed without payment.
Paid: Successfully settled either online or manually recorded offline.
Cancelled: Voided by the admin due to an error or waiver.
The End-to-End Workflow: A Real-World Example
To illustrate how these concepts interact, let's walk through a typical user journey.
Step 1: Template Creation
The academy introduces a new program. The administrator navigates to Fee Plans and creates a Recurring Plan named "Advanced Tactics Class" priced at ₹3,000 per month, with an 18% GST rate automatically applied.
Step 2: Student Enrollment (Assignment)
A student, Alex, decides to join the program. The administrator clicks "Assign Students" on the "Advanced Tactics Class" plan, selects Alex, and confirms.
Step 3: Automation Takes Over
Behind the scenes, a Subscription is created for Alex. The system instantly generates the first month's Invoice (₹3,000 + GST = ₹3,540) and sets it to "Unpaid".
Step 4: The Student Experience
Alex logs into the Student Portal. On the My Fee Plans page, an orange banner highlights a Pending Payment for ₹3,540. Alex clicks Pay Now.
Step 5: Secure Checkout
Alex is taken to the secure checkout page. Since this is a recurring plan, the system prompts Alex to set up an "Automatic Recurring Payment". Alex enters card details securely via the Razorpay gateway.
Step 6: Reconciliation
The payment succeeds. The invoice status instantly flips from "Unpaid" to "Paid".
Step 7: Next Month
Exactly one month later, the Subscription automatically triggers. A new invoice is generated, but because Alex set up a recurring mandate in Step 5, the payment is automatically deducted from Alex's card. Both Alex and the admin receive successful payment notifications, and the organization's Finance Dashboard updates its "Total Collected" metric automatically.