Guide for the bursar

Who this guide is for

You run the school's money: fees coming in and salaries going out. By default your role can set the fee items, generate and view invoices, record payments, look up students and their invoices, clear or block students' exam permits, see the staff directory, set salaries and build payroll runs. You can also see the school's sessions, terms and class levels, which fee items and invoices are set against.

You build payroll but do not approve it. The principal, or an administrator, approves each run, so that no one person both prepares and signs off the school's pay.

Before you start

1. Open your school's portal and go to the sign-in page. It shows your school's name.

2. Enter your Email Address and Password, then select Sign In. You arrive on the Dashboard.

If you would rather not use a password, select Sign in with an email code. If you have forgotten your password, select Forgot password?.

Read the Dashboard

1. Open Dashboard, at the top of the menu. On a phone it is the Today tab.

2. Students enrolled is the number of students on the register, and External exam entries the entries for this calendar year's sittings.

3. Fees collected is the share of this term's invoices that has been paid, with the amounts, and the chart below compares what is collected with what is outstanding.

Find your way around on a computer

1. The menu is down the left side, in groups. Your pages are mostly under FINANCE (Fee Structure, Invoices, Payments, Salaries, Payroll Runs and My Payslips); Exam Permits is under EXAMS, and Students is at the top, under OVERVIEW.

2. Select a group's name to fold it away. On a tablet, the same menu opens from the menu button at the top left.

3. At the top, EN and FR switch between English and French wherever a page has been translated, and the sun or moon button switches between light and dark. Until you choose, the app follows your device's setting.

4. To sign out, select your picture at the top right and then Sign out, or the sign-out icon beside your name at the bottom of the menu.

Use it on your phone

1. Open your school's address in your phone's browser and sign in as above.

2. The first time, a message may offer to install the school's app: select Install app, or Not now to carry on in the browser. On an iPhone or iPad it tells you to tap the Share button, then Add to Home Screen. The message is shown only once. The installed app opens from your home screen with your school's name and icon.

3. Use the bar along the bottom of the screen: Today (the Dashboard), Invoices, Payments and Fee structure.

4. Select More for every other page, such as Salaries, Payroll Runs and Exam Permits. At the bottom of it are Appearance (System, Light or Dark), Language (English or Français) and Sign out.

On a phone, lists are cards instead of tables, with every column labelled.

Change your own name, phone or photo

1. Select your picture at the top right, then My profile. On a phone, select More, then your name at the top.

2. Change your First name, Last name or Phone number, and select Save changes. The name and phone number on your staff record change with it, so colleagues see the same name.

3. To add a photo, select Add a photo (or Change photo) and choose a JPEG, PNG or WebP image of up to 3 MB. Remove photo takes it off. If there is no photo button, photo uploads are not set up for your school.

Your email address and password are how you sign in, so they are not changed on this page. Under Email and password, Change password opens the page where you set a new one. To change the email address you sign in with, ask your school's administrator.

Set the fee items

Fee items are what an invoice is made of: tuition, levies, examination fees and so on. Each belongs to the current session, and can apply to every class level or to one, and to every term or to one.

1. Open Fee Structure under FINANCE, or the Fee structure tab on a phone. The page lists the current session's items. Choose a Class level to see the items that apply to it.

2. Select Add Fee Item. Enter a Name and the Amount, in your school's currency, which is shown beside the label.

3. Choose the Type: Tuition, Levy, Examination, Development or Other.

4. Choose the Class level it applies to, or leave Every level, and the Term, or leave Every term of the session.

5. Select Save.

To change an item's name, amount or type, select its edit icon. Its level and term cannot change: delete it and add another. Deleting an item stops it being charged; invoices already issued keep it.

Generate the term's invoices

1. Open Invoices under FINANCE, or the Invoices tab on a phone. The page shows the current session and term.

2. Select Generate Invoices, read the confirmation and select Generate.

3. Every student enrolled in the session gets one invoice for the term, made of the fee items that apply to their class's level. A message says how many invoices were made.

You can generate again after adding students or fee items: students who already have an invoice for the term are left as they are, and the message says how many.

Follow fee collection

1. On Invoices, the figures at the top show Total billed, Total collected, Outstanding and Fully paid for the term.

2. Each invoice shows the student, their class, the total, the amount paid, the balance and a status: Paid, Partial, Unpaid or Overdue. Search by name or admission number, or filter by status. Tick Show every term to include earlier terms.

3. Select the eye icon on a row to see the invoice's lines. On a phone each invoice is a card with the student, their admission number and class, the amounts and the status; select View on it. The invoice opens as a panel from the bottom of the screen: tap outside it, or the close button, to go back.

Send or print an invoice as a PDF

Every invoice is also a PDF with the school's name, the family's details, each item, the payments received and the balance, stamped PAID, PART-PAID or UNPAID.

1. Select Invoice PDF on an invoice's row, or use the buttons in the invoice's own panel. On a phone, the panel shows them as a row of buttons: WhatsApp, Email, Download and Print.

2. Download PDF saves the PDF. Print prints it; on a phone it opens the PDF so you can print it from there.

3. Share on WhatsApp sends the PDF itself where your device can share files. Otherwise it opens WhatsApp with a short message and a link to the PDF, addressed to the parent when their number is on file with its country code. The link works without signing in for 30 days.

4. Email sends the PDF as an attachment. The parent's email on file is filled in under Send to, and you can type another address; select Send. If your school has no email set up, it says so and nothing is sent.

Record a payment

Use this when a family pays at the office or by transfer.

1. Open Payments under FINANCE, or the Payments tab on a phone.

2. Under Select Student Invoice, search by name or admission number and select the student's invoice.

3. Check the Amount Due and choose how they paid: Cash Payment, Bank Transfer or Card at the desk. Choosing Pay online instead, when your school takes payments online, changes the button to Open the online checkout, which opens the checkout for the balance.

4. Enter the Payment Amount, in the invoice's currency. It starts at the balance due; change it for a part payment. Add the Reference / receipt number if you have one, and any Notes.

5. Select Record payment. The receipt appears under Payment Recorded. Select Download receipt or Print receipt for a PDF copy, use Invoice PDF to send the updated invoice, or select New Payment to record another.

Invoices that are part-paid are listed too, so you can record the next payment against them.

Fees paid into students' own accounts

Where your school takes school fees by bank transfer, each student has an account number of their own for fees. It is opened the first time the family pays, stays the student's and does not expire. Families can send any amount, in instalments if they like. There is nothing to record at the office:

1. Open Invoices and the invoice of a student whose family paid by transfer. Money that arrives is recorded once and applied to the student's oldest unpaid invoices first: each piece is a payment against the invoice it went to.

2. One transfer can therefore clear one invoice and part-pay the next.

3. Money that arrives when nothing is owed waits, and is applied to the next invoice generated.

Admission fees still get an account for that payment only, for the exact amount.

Look up a student's fees

1. Open Students, under OVERVIEW.

2. Type the student's name, admission number or a guardian's phone number in Name, admission number or guardian phone…, and select the student.

3. The Fees tab on their page lists their invoices with the total, the amount paid and the balance.

Set salaries

1. Open Salaries under FINANCE (under More on a phone). Everyone with a salary is listed with their grade, basic, gross and net pay.

2. Select Change on a row to update that person's salary. To add someone, select Set a salary and choose the Member of staff.

3. Enter the Grade (optional), Step (optional) and basic salary. Under Allowances and Deductions, select Add for each line and give it a name and an amount. The gross, deductions and net update as you type.

4. Select Save salary.

Changing a salary closes the old one and opens a new one. Payslips already issued keep the figures they were issued with.

Say where each member of staff is paid

Where your school is connected to the payments service, salaries can be paid by bank transfer from the school's own fee collections instead of by hand. Each member of staff needs a salary account first.

1. Open Salaries under FINANCE (under More on a phone).

2. Select Pay to beside the member of staff.

3. Select Add an account (or Change account). Under Pay into, choose A bank account or Their 9PSB wallet.

4. For a bank account, choose the Bank. Enter the ten-digit Account number (or the wallet number) and select Check and save.

5. The bank returns the Name at the bank. Check that it is this person before you rely on it; nobody types the name.

Anyone with neither a wallet nor a salary account is left out of a transfer and must be paid by hand.

Build the monthly payroll run

1. Open Payroll Runs under FINANCE (under More on a phone).

2. Choose the Month and select Build the run. The run is built from the salaries standing today, as a draft.

3. Select Payslips on the run to check each member of staff's basic, gross, deductions and net.

4. If something is wrong, fix the salary, select Delete on the draft and build it again.

5. When it is right, tell the principal. They approve it and, once the money has gone, mark it paid.

A run's payslips are a snapshot: raising a salary later does not change a month already paid. Your own payslips are under My Payslips.

Clear an exam permit

A student may sit their external exams once their fees for the term are cleared.

1. Open Exam Permits under EXAMS (under More on a phone). It lists every student entered for an external exam with what they still owe this term and their permit: Cleared, Blocked or Cleared by override.

2. To let a blocked student sit although fees are owed, select Override on their row.

3. Enter the reason, at least 20 characters, and select Confirm Override. The override is recorded with your name, and the permit shows Cleared by override.

See the staff directory

1. Open Staff under COMMUNICATION (under More on a phone).

2. Search by name, ID or designation, or filter by department or status.

3. Select a member of staff to see their profile.

See your payslips

1. Open My Payslips under FINANCE (under More on a phone).

2. Every month you have been paid for is listed with its net pay.

3. Select Breakdown on a month to see its basic pay, allowances, gross, deductions and net.

Tips and common questions

• One run per month. Build each month once.

• A family says Pay Now does not work. If your school does not take payments online, or not in the invoice's currency, the page tells the family to pay at the office. Record their payment on Payments.

• Can I send fee reminders by text message? Not yet. The Invoices page lists who owes what; filter by Overdue to see who to contact.

• Does Mark paid send the money? No. It records that the money has left the school's account. Paying staff happens at your bank.

• How do I check what one student owes? Open the student on Students and use the Fees tab.

Getting help

Open a support ticket

1. Open My Support under COMMUNICATION (under More on a phone) and select Open Ticket.

2. Enter a subject, describe your issue and select Open Ticket.

3. Replies from the support team appear in the ticket.

Ask the AI Chat

1. Select the support button at the bottom of any page. On a phone it sits above the tab bar.

2. Ask the AI Chat assistant a question about using the portal.

3. Or open a Support Ticket from the same panel.

Watch the help videos

1. Open Help videos. On a phone it is under More.

2. The videos for your role are in three groups: Start here, Every day and Now and then, each with its length.

3. Select one to play it. Where there is a phone version and a computer version, you can switch between them. A line marked Coming soon is not recorded yet.