Payment
Choose how the student will pay for each program, set the date their payments count from, and preview every bill before you submit.
The Payment tab decides how the student pays for each program: how many bills they get, how much each is, and when each one is sent and due. You don't type the bills in one by one. You pick a payment plan, which is a ready-made pattern of bills, and an anchor date that the pattern counts from. XPortal works out every bill for you and shows them in a preview.
New to payment plans?
If words like anchor date, offset and issue date are new, read How payment plans work first. It explains them from the very beginning, with a worked example.
What's on the tab
The tab has one section, Payment Plans, with one card per program on the application. The first is the Primary program payment plan; packaged programs get an Additional program payment plan card each. In the top right of the section is the Create Deposit Invoices button.
Each card has:
| Part | What it does |
|---|---|
| Payment Plan Template | The payment plan to use for this program. Only plans made for this program are listed. The program's default plan is marked (Default) and chosen for you automatically. Required. |
| Custom Plan | Opens a window to make a one-off plan for this student. See Custom plans. |
| Anchor Date | The date the plan counts from: Payment due dates will be calculated from this date. Required. |
| Schedule Preview | Every bill the student will get, with its Name, Amount, Due Date and Issue Date. |
Step by step
- Check the Payment Plan Template. XPortal picks the program's default plan. If this student should be on a different plan, choose it from the list.
- Pick the Anchor Date. This is the date everything counts from. Use your organisation's rule for which date to choose.
- Read the Schedule Preview. Until you pick a template and an anchor date, it says Select a template to see schedule or Select an anchor date to see schedule. Once both are set, it lists every bill.
- Check the bills make sense. Is the first one due when you expect? Do the amounts add up to the course fee? Are the issue dates sensible, not in the past?
- Take a deposit, if you're collecting one. Select Create Deposit Invoices. See Deposits.
- Repeat for every program card.
Reading the Schedule Preview
Each row is one bill, which is an installment of the plan:
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Name | What the bill is called, for example Deposit or Installment 2. |
| Amount | How much the bill is for. |
| Due Date | The day the student must have paid by. It's the anchor date plus the installment's number of days. |
| Issue Date | The day the invoice is sent to the student. It's the due date moved earlier (or later) by the plan's issue offset, so students get the invoice before it's due. |
If you change the anchor date, every date in the preview moves with it.
What the Payment tab needs before you can submit
Every program must have:
- a Payment Plan Template, and
- an Anchor Date.
If either is missing, the readiness bar shows it and won't let you submit.
Changing the program resets the payment plan
If you change a program on the Enrollment tab, its payment plan and anchor date are cleared, because plans belong to a program. Come back to the Payment tab and set them again.
What happens to the plan later
- When you submit, the bills are worked out and locked in with the application. If you set up deposits, a deposit invoice is created for each one then.
- When the application is approved, the whole schedule, plus any deposit invoices and any payments already made against them, moves across to the student's enrolment for each program.
- Once the student is oriented, their payment plan becomes active, and XPortal starts sending invoices on their issue dates.
The detail is in How payment plans work.