Custom plans

Make a one-off payment plan for one student on the spot, from scratch or by copying an existing plan.

Sometimes one student needs a different arrangement from everyone else: smaller installments, a different number of payments, a discount, a later first payment. You don't have to ask finance for a new payment plan and wait. You can make a custom plan on the spot, right inside the application.

Open the custom plan editor

On the application's Payment tab, next to Payment Plan Template, select Custom Plan. The Create Custom Payment Plan window opens. You can make it full screen with the button in its corner, which helps with long plans.

Choose a starting point

The window first asks where to start:

Starting point	When to use it
Start from scratch	Define installments and line items yourself in the editor below. Use it when the arrangement is nothing like your normal plans.
Details from existing template	Copy amounts, due rules, and lines from a saved payment plan template, then adjust if needed. Use it when the arrangement is mostly normal with a change or two. It's the quickest and safest option.

With Details from existing template, pick the plan to copy from the list. Its installments, offsets and lines are copied into the editor, ready to change.

With Start from scratch, the editor starts with a single installment called Deposit, marked as a deposit and due on the anchor date, with one Tuition Fee line. Change it and add to it as you need.

Build the plan

The editor is the same one used for normal payment plans. How payment plans work explains every setting in plain language. In short:

Setting	Notes
Template Name	XPortal suggests a name such as Custom Plan - Certificate III in Carpentry. Change it to something that says who it's for. See Name it clearly.
Program	The program on this application.
Issue Date Offset (days)	How many days before or after each due date its invoice is sent. Negative means before.
Installment Schedule	Each bill: its Name, Offset (days) after the anchor date, whether it Is Deposit?, and its lines.
Lines	What each bill is for, with Amount (cents), the accounting codes, and Commissionable.

XPortal won't save the plan until it makes sense: at least one installment, at least one line in each installment, no negative offsets, and each installment's amount equal to the total of its lines.

Remember: amounts are in cents

Type 50000 for $500.00. Check the dollar amounts in the Schedule Preview once the plan is saved.

Save it

Select Save Custom Plan. With Details from existing template, it stays disabled until you've picked a template. XPortal shows Custom payment plan created, closes the window, and selects your new plan for this program automatically. Then:

Pick the Anchor Date, as with any plan.
Read the Schedule Preview to check every bill.
Set up a deposit with Create Deposit Invoices if you need one.

A custom plan is never made the program's default.

Name it clearly

A custom plan is saved against the program and marked as custom. It also appears in that program's Payment Plan Template list on other applications. Someone could pick it by mistake for another student.

So give it a name that makes its purpose obvious, for example Custom – Jane Citizen – Oct 2026 hardship arrangement. Never leave it as the suggested Custom Plan - … if more than one custom plan exists for the program.

When to use a custom plan, and when not to

Use a custom plan for a genuine one-off: a single student with an agreed, unusual arrangement.

Don't use a custom plan when the same arrangement will be used again for other students, such as a new standard 6-month plan. Ask whoever manages Financial → Payment Templates to create it as a proper plan, so everyone uses the same, checked version.

Custom plan checklist

Started from an existing template where possible.
Named clearly, so it can't be mistaken for another student's plan.
Amounts entered in cents; the preview shows the right dollar amounts.
Anchor date set, and the Schedule Preview checked.