What is an invoice?

Every student now gets a proper monthly bill (invoice) instead of a single running balance. Each invoice shows:

• Who it's for (student) and which fee type applies
• What period it covers (e.g. "Fees for October 2026")
• How much is owed, in pounds and pence
• When it's due (the last day of the billing period)
• Its status: Unpaid, Partially paid, or Paid

Invoices are created automatically each month (we no longer reset outstanding fee) for every enrolled student — including quarterly, half-yearly and yearly fee types, each on their own cycle. You can also create one manually at any time (see below).

The monthly cycle (what happens and when)

Understanding invoice statuses

• Unpaid — nothing received yet.
• Partially paid — some money received (only possible via a manual cash/card payment), balance still owed.
• Paid — settled in full. Paid bills can't be re-charged or edited.
• Overdue — anything still owed (unpaid or partly paid) past its due date. Since monthly bills fall due on the last day of the month, an unpaid October bill becomes overdue on 1 November.

When nothing is owed on a bill, the Pay now and Log payment buttons disappear automatically.

Administrator Guide

Viewing and finding invoices

Open Invoices from the sidebar (the calculator/Fees icon). Bills display newest-first in a searchable table with Due Date, Amount, Still Owed, and Status columns, plus a red Overdue flag where applicable.

Filter by: Status (including an Overdue option), due-date range, Academic Year (defaults to the current year, showing the current plus last two), Classroom, and fee Type. Click any row for the full bill.

The invoice detail page

Opening a invoice shows it laid out like a proper invoice: your maktab's details, bill number, issued/due dates, billed-to parent, student/fee-type/year, the fee line, Total invoiced / Total paid / Balance due, and every payment recorded against it (date, reference, method, amount, status, and the Stripe intent ID for Stripe collections). A View PDF button prints the same layout.

Creating an invoice manually

Invoices → New Invoice. Pick the student (searchable), enter the amount, billing period, due date and description. The fee type is taken from the student automatically, and the bill always starts Unpaid. You can't create a duplicate bill for the same student, type and period.

Editing an invoice

Only unpaid or partially-paid bills can be edited, and only the amount — via Edit on the bill or in the list's action menu. Paid bills are locked (the buttons don't even appear).

Logging a manual payment ("Log payment")

For cash, card, bank transfer or cheque taken outside Stripe — on the bill or per-row in the list:

1. Click Log payment; the amount is pre-filled with the balance owed.
2. Lower it for a part-payment, or leave it for full settlement.
3. Choose the method, confirm — the payment is recorded, the bill flips to Paid or Partially paid, and Stripe will never collect that bill (no double-charging).

After saving you're returned to the invoices list or the invoice that was paid.

Failed Stripe collections

When a Direct Debit fails you'll be notified, and the bill stays unpaid with no automatic retry. Chase it using the Overdue filter or the admin Call Parent / Send Email actions on overdue bills, then record whatever the parent pays manually. If the parent fixes their mandate (re-authorises Direct Debit), use the parent-facing Pay now on that bill to trigger a fresh Stripe attempt.

Finance overview (Payments dashboard)

The Payments dashboard is built from invoices for the whole academic year:

• Headline figures: total invoiced, collected, outstanding (with unpaid vs partly-paid split), overdue — plus collected-% of invoiced.
• Charts: bills paid per month (count) and amounts collected per month — these load live.
• Tables: recently paid bills and the most overdue bills, each linking through to the filtered invoice list.

Student and parent pages

• The student list's Fee column shows each student's true total owed — all unpaid/partly-paid bills across all academic years.
• A student's profile tab and a parent's profile tab each show that child's (or those children's) recent bills with status and PDF receipt links.

Parent Guide

Where are my bills?

Log in to the parent portal and open Invoices. You'll see one bill per child per month, each showing the amount, due date and status — green Paid, amber Unpaid/Partially paid, red Overdue flag if past due.

How do I pay?

• Pay now on any unpaid bill collects the full amount owed by Direct Debit from your saved mandate. That's the only thing Stripe ever does, full amount or nothing, one charge per bill.
• To pay by cash, card or bank transfer instead (including part-payments), contact the maktab office and they'll record it, the bill updates to Paid or Partially paid immediately.

What if a payment fails?

Usually this means insufficient funds or a cancelled bank mandate. Nothing is retried automatically. Check with your bank, re-authorise the mandate if needed, then either tap Pay now again on that bill or pay the office directly.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will I/my parent be charged twice for the same bill? No — three separate guards prevent it: an invoice is flagged the moment collection starts so the automatic run never picks it twice; any manual payment opts that bill out of Stripe entirely; and the Pay/Log buttons vanish once nothing is owed.

Can Stripe take a part-payment? No — Stripe always attempts the full remainder. Part-payments are manual only (cash/card at the office).

What happens to leftover pence or overpayments? Any amount collected beyond the bill is recorded as its own standalone payment record so it's fully traceable, rather than silently vanishing.

Can I change a bill after it's paid? No — paid bills are locked (no Edit button, and direct links redirect away). Raise a credit/refund through the office instead.

Can I change a bill before it's paid? Admins can edit the amount on unpaid/partly-paid bills only.

What if a student leaves mid-year or joins late? Their existing bills remain exactly as they are (owed amounts stay owed); no new bills generate once they're no longer enrolled. Adjust or cancel a specific bill with the Edit flow or office processes.

We have three children — one payment or three? Three — one charge per bill, so each child's account stays clean and traceable.

The bill amount looks wrong. What now? Contact the office before paying: an admin can correct the amount on any unpaid bill. Never pay a bill you believe is wrong and "sort it later" — paid bills lock.

How do I update my Direct Debit details? Through the Stripe mandate flow in the parent portal. If a collection failed with a mandate error, you'll be emailed automatically with what to do.

Do old balances from before this system still count? Yes — they were converted into "Outstanding balance at rollout" invoices, payable and visible exactly like monthly bills.

Where do I see what I've paid this year? The Invoices list filtered to Paid, or each bill's payment history (every attempt listed with date, method, reference and Stripe ID).

A parent paid cash but Stripe also collected. What happened? This can't happen through normal use (manual payments block Stripe on that bill). If you see it, it means the Stripe collection was already in flight before the cash was logged — contact support with the bill number and both payment references.

Who can create, edit, or log payments on bills? Office staff with payment permissions. Parents can view their children's bills and trigger Stripe collection only — they cannot edit bills or log manual payments.

What does "Still Owed" mean vs "Amount"? Amount is the original bill total; Still Owed is what's left after any part-payments.