Collecting tuition is central to the successful operation of a private school. Without it, the lights don’t stay on, the staff doesn’t get paid, and things go wrong fairly quickly. Having the right system that allows you to collect tuition, fees and incidental charges can make all the difference, but do you know how to shop for it?
Here are some things to look at if you’re considering signing up or switching providers:
- Go with data. Know what you’re currently paying for fees and transaction charges, what your payment plans are, how much you’re paying for each plan, and who’s paying those fees.
- Consider how many logins your families have. Sometimes sticking with the same system your SIS provider offers to simplify logins is worth the drawbacks if there are no other major issues.
- Look at the fees. Make sure you’re paying attention to whether fees are per student or per family. Have a strategy for who will cover those fees (parents or school) and if the school is covering them will you raise tuition or fees to offset.
- Don’t forget transaction fees. What are the fees, and will you pass those along or cover them?
- How involved do you want to be in the day-to-day aspects of parents? Some providers will be the point of contact for your parents if there are problems, freeing your staff to handle other responsibilities. Other providers expect you to be that point-of-contact. Also consider how your community would respond to discussing payments with an outside provider and not a school employee.
- Think about your incidental charges. Do you frequently collect money throughout the year for field trips, t-shirts, athletic fees, or other ancillary expenses. Then look at the providers and how easy it is to input these charges and attach them to a student. Ask if you can upload from a spreadsheet or have to key data in.
- Ask about flexibility. How many payment plans can you use? Can parents pay for different children with different accounts or different schedules? Can you pay tuition and incidentals separately? Is auto-pay an option? How are split families handled?
- Look at the payment processor. Do they process payments themselves or outsource the payments? If they outsource, who is the provider and how do you interact with the provider, if at all? Can you bring your own processor if you want?
- Negotiate! Fees per payment plan are often negotiable, especially if you’re purchasing a larger software package and not just Tuition Management. Look at all the options and don’t be afraid to go to your current provider and give them a chance to fix things.
With familiarity with Tuition Management, we have the expertise to help you assess, select and implement a new tuition management platform, either independently or along with a more comprehensive software package. We work with your business office, technology team, communications team, and leadership to get you where you need to be and in the right timing.
Contact LeadershipOne Technologies today and let us get your Tuition Management system to work for you and your community!
