School Feesby Warmkeys

School Fees app documentation

A practical guide to using Warmkeys School Fees for term billing, recording payments, and keeping parents informed through the Parent Portal.

Overview

School Fees helps schools bill by term, record office payments, and share balances and history with parents. You can work with fee types, generate bills, track payment status, and produce receipts and reports.

  • • Bill by term, with clear balances per student.
  • • Record cash payments and online payments (Hubtel integration).
  • • Share parent-facing balances and payment history via the Parent Portal.
  • • Produce receipts, reminders, and exportable transaction data.

Key terms

This documentation uses a few consistent terms. Once you understand these, billing and payment workflows become much easier.

Class / Section

A way to organize students. Sections are useful when a class is split into groups.

Student

The person enrolled in a class/section for the current billing period.

Fee type

A defined charge category (for example, school fee or extra fees) that you reuse across terms.

Bill

The generated charges for a student for a specific term based on your fee setup.

Payment / Adjustment

Payments reduce what a student owes. Adjustments (such as scholarships or discounts) update the bill so the correct net amount is shown to parents.

Initial setup (schools & staff)

Before you bill, set up the basics for your school so every class, student, and fee item rolls up into accurate bills and statements.

1) Create / open your school workspace

After signing up, create your school workspace (or open your existing workspace) and confirm the school profile details.

2) Add staff and assign roles

Invite staff who will manage fees, record payments, and handle reporting. Use role permissions so each user can access the correct parts of the app.

3) Configure payment and reminders

If you plan to use online payments, configure your Hubtel integration. Also confirm how receipts and reminders should be sent to parents.

Done with setup when…

  • You can access the school workspace with the right permissions.
  • You have the classes/sections you need ready for enrollment.
  • You know how payments and reminders should be communicated.

First term runbook

Use this as a high-level checklist for your first billing term. The goal is not just to “make bills” — it’s to ensure balances, receipts, and parent visibility all line up.

  1. Set up your structure: classes, optional sections, and correct student enrollment for the term.
  2. Define your fees: create fee types and apply school fee amounts to the right classes/sections.
  3. Run term billing: generate bills for the term and review that expected students have bills.
  4. Record payments: record cash/manual payments and (optionally) Hubtel online payments as they come in.
  5. Verify balances: confirm that bill balances decrease as payments are recorded (including partial payments).
  6. Share via receipts + Parent Portal: ensure receipts are produced and parents can view balances/history.
  7. Reconcile with exports/reports: export transactions and reconcile for end-of-period reporting.

If something looks wrong at any step, jump to Troubleshooting.

Classes, sections & students

School Fees tracks students through classes (and optionally sections). This makes it easy to bill and report at the class/section level.

  1. Set up classes: define the class name(s) used by your school.
  2. Add sections (if needed): use sections when you split a class (for example, by stream or timetable).
  3. Enroll students: add students to their class/section for the current term.
  4. Maintain changes: when students move, update their enrollment so bills and balances remain accurate.

What “correct enrollment” means

For billing to be accurate, each student should be enrolled under the class/section you expect for the term you’re billing. If balances look off later, enrollment is one of the first things to verify.

Fee types & school fees

Fee types are the building blocks of term bills. They let you define what you charge (for example: school fee, extra class fees, and other fee items) and keep those charges consistent.

1) Define fee types once

Create the fee types your school uses (for example: school fee, extra fees, other items). Keep names consistent so reports stay clean.

2) Set school fees for each class/section

Apply fee types to the relevant classes and sections and set the amounts that apply for the term. This is the source of truth for what term billing will generate.

3) Apply adjustments (scholarships/discounts)

When discounts or scholarships apply, use adjustments so that student bills reflect the correct net amount. That way, parents see what they actually owe.

Term billing & bills

Term billing generates the bills for each student based on the fee setup you applied. After bills exist, payments reduce balances and receipts document what was paid.

  1. Create the term billing run for the classes/sections you’re billing.
  2. Review generated bills to confirm fee items and amounts match what you intended.
  3. Confirm opening balances before recording payments (especially if you’re using adjustments).
  4. Track payment progress using the bills view to see unpaid and partially paid students.

Record payments (cash & Hubtel)

Record office payments so the system keeps student balances up to date and produces receipts automatically.

Cash / manual payments (office)

  1. Select the correct student and bill for the term.
  2. Enter the payment amount and confirm the method.
  3. After saving, verify that the bill balance decreased by the recorded amount.
  4. Keep the receipt/audit trail for reconciliation.

Online payments (Hubtel)

  1. Ensure Hubtel is configured for your school workspace.
  2. Match the online payment to the correct bill as the system links it (via payment references).
  3. Confirm that balances update and receipts become available.
  4. If the status is delayed, check troubleshooting and share the reference with support.

Receipts, reminders & statements

School Fees is designed to reduce disputes by keeping an audit trail of who paid, how much was paid, and what remains.

  1. Receipts: after each payment is recorded, receipts document what was paid and by which method.
  2. Reminders: use reminders to follow up on overdue balances, typically after you’ve recorded what came in for the day.
  3. Statements: export or generate statement views so you can reconcile and respond to parent questions.

Parent Portal

The Parent Portal gives guardians visibility into balances and payment history without relying on paper notes.

1) Enable and confirm access

Make sure the Parent Portal is enabled for your school workspace, then generate or resend access for guardians as needed.

2) Verify what parents see

Test access with an example guardian account and confirm they can view balances and payment history for the term.

3) Share updates (optional)

Publish announcements for parents (for example, general billing notices) so you reduce repetitive explanations.

Reports & exports

Reports help you reconcile accounts and prepare term documentation. Exports let you move data into spreadsheets or finance tooling when you need it.

  1. Reconcile: use reports to check that what you recorded matches what you expect for the term.
  2. Export transactions: when you need spreadsheet-style reconciliation or internal finance workflows.
  3. Track payment status: verify which students are unpaid, partially paid, or settled.

Daily operations checklist

Use this as a repeating checklist during the billing period.

  1. Review bills: identify who is unpaid or partially paid for the day’s follow-up.
  2. Record payments as they happen so receipts and balances stay correct.
  3. Send reminders after you’ve recorded today’s payments, so parents aren’t reminded for amounts already received.
  4. Export/reconcile when you need reporting or end-of-period reconciliation.

FAQ

Do parents see bills and payment history?

Yes. When the Parent Portal is enabled, guardians can review balances and payment history from their account or invitation link.

Can we mix cash payments and online payments?

Yes. Record each payment using the appropriate method so the student’s balance stays accurate and receipts remain consistent.

How do discounts or scholarships work?

Apply them as bill adjustments so the net amount billed to the student is what parents see.

What if a student changes class/section mid-term?

Update enrollment so future billing and balances are associated to the correct class/section. If you’ve already billed, confirm what should happen to existing bills with your school’s billing policy (then reconcile balances).

Troubleshooting

Online payment doesn’t reflect immediately

If you’re using Hubtel payments, confirmation can take some time. If a payment is still not matching after a short delay, capture the payment reference and share it with support.

Balances look off after term billing

Re-check enrollment (student → class/section), then confirm fee setup and adjustments were applied to the correct student bills for that term.

Parents can’t access the Parent Portal

Confirm portal access is enabled, then resend or regenerate access for the guardian.

Support & getting help

If you get stuck, share what you are trying to do and where you are in the workflow (setup, billing, payments, Parent Portal, or reporting). Our team can help you unblock quickly.

Prefer email? Use the support contact in the footer of this page.