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Create payment plan templates (with or without discount templates) and assign them to classes
Create payment plan templates (with or without discount templates) and assign them to classes

How to transform your payment plans into ready-to-use templates that you can repeatedly use and even link them to specific classes

Cláudia Duarte avatar
Written by Cláudia Duarte
Updated over a week ago

As the name suggests, it's possible to create payment plan templates in the platform, the point being that whatever plans or scholarships your school provides be readily applicable to every profile. Time spent curating these templates will be amply rewarded by the sheer ease with which you can multiply them across several profiles and how much time this will save you, not to mention that creating a template is also a breeze!

In this article

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What's a payment plan template and how do I edit or create one?

A payment plan template is essentially a group of payment installments. As such, firstly you need to create the plan – which is gonna be empty –, and then add the phased payments that make up the installment agreement, for which you'll also have to establish a fulfillment timeframe and perhaps add discount templates.

So, to get started:

     1) Press the gear at the top right-hand corner and choose General settings
​     2) Click the tab Institution
​     3) Go to Payment plan templates

This will take you to the list of payment plans of your school:

To view or edit an existing plan, click the gear at the end of each line. Alternatively, clicking the X will prompt you to confirm that you want to discard the template, and if you proceed, it'll be irretrievably deleted:

To create a brand new payment plan template:

​     1) Click Add plan template
​     2) NAME your plan
​     3) Click Create plan

You'll automatically be redirected inside of it:

To learn how to set up payment installments, continue to the next topic.

How can I add fees to a payment template?

When it comes to fees, you can be as flexible as you wish: establish an initial deposit and follow up with timely installments, divide into several installments from the get-go, or request that the balance be paid in full by a certain date in the future. To do any of these, access a payment template (as instructed above), click Add fee and fill in the fields:

DESCRIPTION — Succinctly describe or name the fee.

TYPE — Define what type of fee it is, namely:

  • AMOUNT — A fixed amount (500€, for instance).

  • PERCENTAGE OF PRODUCT PRICE — A percentage of the product price minus the sum of fixed amount fees, using the formula:

    P% fee = (product price – sum of fixed amount fees) * percentage split

    Where:

    • The split is the agreed percentage rate between 0 and 100%;

    • The product price and fixed amount fees are given.

    The goal of this type of fee is twofold: to enable using product prices to build payment plans, and to easily produce payment plans for different products with different prices and installments instead of having a payment plan for each one. Percentage fees work in combination with fixed amount fees to ensure that the values correctly add up, which would be unlikely if we were just to take the product price straight up.

    To give an example, let's suppose the product price is 1600€ (as defined in the class), and the plan already contains a fixed amount fee worth 300€ (such as a deposit). 1600€ minus 300€ equals 1300€. By applying a percentage split of 50% across, say, two payments, the resulting fees would be 650€ each.

    Product price ➝ 1600€
    Fixed fee ➝ 300€
    P% split ➝ 50%

    So:
    (1600 - 300) * 0,5 = 650€
  • PERCENTAGE OF SUM OF SELECTED COURSE PRICES — Please click here to read about this fee type.

  • FEE FOR EACH SELECTED COURSE — Please click here to read about this fee type.

PERCENTAGE/AMOUNT — Set the value for that fee in accordance with the previous selection.
CURRENCY — Choose a currency.
DUE DATE TYPE — Choose whether the due date should be fixed or distance-based:

  • Fixed — Determine a fixed date for payment, regardless of when the payment plan was generated for that applicant or any other factor (meaning that all applicants must pay by a given date). This being your choice, you'll also have to schedule a DUE DATE in the calendar.

  • Distance — Designate a length of time in calendar days from the payment plan creation date or the class/course start date for the due date. 30 is the default number of days for the distance and there are three possible reference points: After payment plan creation, Before class/course start date, and After class/course start date. Suppose, for example, that you input 45 under DAYS and select After payment plan creation: this will define that the student must pay the fee 45 days after their payment plan came into force.

Once the form is filled out, click Create payment and your template will be finished. Need more installments? Click Add payment again and repeat the form! This is all there is to creating a payment plan template! 😃

How can I incorporate discounts into a payment plan template?

Along with creating payment plan templates, you're also given the option of creating discount templates inside payment plan templates to decide the discounts that are available for a particular payment plan. The same application plan template may have multiple discount templates. As we'll see shortly, the discounts can be applied automatically by the system or manually through a code.

To create a discount template for a payment plan template:

1) Open a payment plan template and navigate to the tab Discount templates

2) Click the button Add discount template

3) Fill in the fields:

DESCRIPTION — Succinctly describe or name the discount.

TYPE — Define what type of discount it is, namely:

  • AMOUNT — A flat value.

  • PERCENTAGE — A percentage to be deducted from the total fee amount.

APPLICABLE FEES — Which of the existing fees the discount template should affect (can be more than one).

METHOD — Whether the application of the discount should be AUTOMATIC (whereby it'll go instantly into effect once the discount template is completed) or MANUAL.

If MANUAL is chosen, the discount will be obtainable solely through the addition of a discount code to the application, either by a staff user or by the respective applicant. Accordingly, you'll have to enter a CODE:

How can I associate a payment plan with a class/course and why should I do it?

As the following article will discuss in greater detail, one of the ways that a payment plan can be generated for a profile is by setting up a Payment plan tab inside an application template where candidates are allowed to choose a suitable payment plan for their class or course of choice. To put forth a specific payment plan as a selectable option in the Payment plan tab, you'll need to link it to the relevant classes and/or courses. To accomplish that:

1) Access the Details tab of a payment plan template

2) Select the appropriate classes and courses in the field Select which classes or courses are associated with this payment plan:

TIP: Hold the Control (CTRL) or Command (CMD) key as you click to multi-select.


PUBLISHED: August 21, 2018
LAST UPDATED: November 7, 2022 at 12:08 p.m.

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