Friday 3 PM. Accountant re-types Excel rows into Tally. SchoolDeck does it in 30 seconds.

Online payments & gateway setup

SchoolDeck integrates with four RBI Payment Aggregator (PA-O) license holders — Razorpay, BillDesk, PayU, and Cashfree — all PCI DSS v4.0.1 compliant. Parents pay via UPI, Credit Card, Debit Card, Net Banking, RuPay, or Wallet directly from the SchoolDeck Parent App or the school's website payment button.

When a parent pays online — even at 11 PM via UPI — the system does three things instantly: generates a digitally signed receipt, updates the student's fee ledger, and maps the UTR number to the transaction for reconciliation. No accountant intervention required.

Key configuration options:

• MDR Configuration: Set transaction charges to be borne by the parent (passed through at checkout) or absorbed by the school (hidden from parents).
• Partial Payments: Enable or disable installment payments per fee head. System tracks running "Due Balance" and generates valid receipt only for amount paid that day.
• Smart Split Routing: A single parent payment automatically splits at the gateway — Tuition to the Trust account, Transport to the Fleet account — without manual allocation.
• Website Integration: A "Pay Fees Online" button embeds on the school website. Parents enter admission number and are routed to a branded payment portal — no login required.

Cashier POS counter & PDC cheque tracking

In most Indian schools, cash and cheques account for 40-60% of fee collection — especially in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. The cashier module is a purpose-built POS for the accounts office, not a generic billing form.

Cashier POS workflow:

1. Accountant scans student ID barcode (or searches by name/admission number).
2. Student's outstanding invoices appear — accountant selects which dues to collect.
3. Accept payment in cash. System calculates change if needed.
4. Receipt prints via thermal printer or is sent digitally to parent WhatsApp — under 10 seconds total.

PDC (Post-Dated Cheque) tracking:

• Logging: Log PDC with cheque number, bank name, MICR, amount, deposit date. The cheque is held as "Pending" — the student's due is not marked paid until cleared.
• Deposit Alert: On deposit date, accountant receives dashboard notification listing every PDC due for bank submission that day.
• Bounce Logic: Mark a cheque as bounced. SchoolDeck instantly: (a) reverses the payment entry, (b) re-opens the full due amount on the student's ledger, and (c) adds a configurable Cheque Bounce Penalty to the student's next generated invoice.

Concession rules & automated late fine engine

Fee structures in Indian schools are rarely simple. A student may pay standard Tuition, zone-discounted Transport, sibling concession, and RTE-isolated invoice — all in the same month. The Rule Engine handles every combination at bulk invoice generation, without manual intervention per student.

Concession Rule Engine:

• Sibling Detection: Define rule — "10% off Tuition for second enrolled sibling, 15% for third." System scans family database, identifies siblings via Family ID, applies correct tier automatically.
• Staff Ward Concession: Tag staff in HR module. Children of staff receive configured fee waivers on designated heads — applied automatically at invoice generation.
• OTP Approval for Ad-hoc Waivers: If an accountant tries to apply a non-standard "Principal's Discount" beyond their authority, the system sends an OTP to the Principal's registered mobile. The concession is blocked until OTP entered — and the approval is permanently logged in the audit trail.

Automated late fine rules: Configure logic once — system enforces without staff involvement. Example: "Add ₹50 per day after the 10th of the month, up to ₹500 maximum." The fine accrues automatically. Parents see the live updated amount in the Parent App. No manual calculation, no counter negotiation. Multiple fine types supported: daily, monthly flat, or percentage-of-due fines per fee head. Grace periods configurable. Fine waivers follow the same OTP approval workflow.

Automated bank reconciliation

Reconciling bank statements with student fee ledgers is one of the most time-consuming tasks in a school accounts office. The platform eliminates it for online payments and reduces it to a one-step process for offline.

Online payments — zero reconciliation step: Every UPI, card, or net banking payment through the integrated gateway is automatically matched to the student's ledger by UTR number at the time of payment. The accountant never manually matches a bank statement entry to a student record for online collections.

Offline payments — CSV upload reconciliation: For NEFT transfers, manual UPI payments sent directly to the school account, or branch deposits: the accountant downloads the bank statement CSV (available from every major Indian bank's internet banking portal) and uploads it to SchoolDeck. The system scans the CSV, matches transactions by amount and date against pending student ledger entries, auto-reconciles. Unmatched entries flagged for manual review (typically 2-5 per week vs hundreds in pure manual workflow).

End-of-day cash report: At counter close-time (typically 5 PM), the accountant generates a "Cash-in-Hand" report showing total cash collected minus any cash paid out — giving the exact physical cash balance that should be in the drawer. Discrepancies flagged immediately.

Tally ERP 9 / Tally Prime XML export

The platform acts as an operational sub-ledger that feeds Tally — not a replacement. Your CA continues working in Tally Prime or Tally ERP 9 as normal. SchoolDeck handles the operational layer (collection, invoicing, reconciliation) and exports clean, correctly structured data into Tally with one click.

What gets exported:

• Day Book: Every fee receipt for the selected date range, formatted as Tally voucher entries with correct ledger names, amounts, narration.
• Fee Registers: Head-wise collection summaries (Tuition Fee Income / Transport Revenue / Lab Fees / Hostel Fees) mapped to your Tally chart of accounts.
• Bank Receipts: All gateway and offline bank deposits formatted as Tally receipt vouchers with UTR references.
• Concession Journal Entries: Approved concessions export as debit notes — maintaining income ledger integrity even where waivers were applied.

Import process in Tally: Gateway → Company → Import Data → Vouchers → select the SchoolDeck XML file → Import. All entries appear in the Day Book correctly. No mapping step required if Tally ledger names match your SchoolDeck Head of Accounts configuration. End-to-end Tally export under 5 minutes — vs 3-4 hours of manual re-entry in legacy workflow.

Head-wise ledgers & GST-compliant invoicing

SchoolDeck tracks every rupee by Head of Account — not as a lump-sum fee collection. This is the foundational requirement for both meaningful P&L analysis and statutory audit compliance.

Standard fee head types: Mandatory heads (Tuition — billed to every student), optional heads linked to modules (Transport — billed only to enrolled route students, Hostel — only to boarders, Lab — by class), and one-time heads (Caution Deposit — on admission, Uniform — annually). Each head has its own ledger, its own Tally mapping, its own collection report.

GST tax invoices: While core education services are GST-exempt, schools frequently collect GST-applicable amounts — uniform sales, textbook sales, third-party transport charges, canteen revenue. The platform generates GST-compliant tax invoices with correct HSN codes, CGST/SGST splits, and invoice serial numbers — without requiring separate invoicing software for taxable transactions.

Mid-session pro-rated billing: When a student joins mid-year via the Admissions CRM, SchoolDeck calculates the pro-rated fee based on remaining months and the school's configured billing policy — annual, quarterly, or monthly — without manual calculation.

Fee Lock + handoff to the rest of the fee cluster

Fee Lock — block academic access for defaulters: The fee module integrates natively with Academic Management and Examination Management. The Principal configures which documents are withheld from the Parent App for students with outstanding dues: digital report cards (blocked until cleared), exam hall tickets (withheld from student portal), Transfer Certificate (cannot generate while dues open). Lock lifts automatically when payment confirmed.

Cluster handoff — predict then act:

• To Fee Prediction: Every payment event in this module feeds the PTP model. Past payment history, payment modality, sibling status, and attendance correlation become features in the RFM-ST classifier. Predictions feed back as PTP scores per family.
• To Auto Fee Reminders: When invoices generate and parents don't pay, the dunning workflow takes over per PTP segment (High → single polite reminder; Medium → 3-stage cycle; Low → human escalation). This page doesn't run the reminder cycle; it provides the data that drives it.
• To Finance Management: Daily, weekly, and monthly collection totals feed the consolidated P&L. Trustees see live income side without waiting for the CA's month-end close.

Excel/Manual vs SchoolDeck Fee Management