How to associate a Payment Plans to Students or Applicants | Help

Once your payment plan templates are ready, it’s time to put them into action! Associating payment plans with individual profiles or applicants is essential for effective financial management. This allows for customization, such as applying unique scholarships or discounts, and can be done in several ways—manually by staff, through automated workflows, or directly by applicants during the application process.

Ways to Associate Payment Plans

Staff Manually Add a Payment Plan on the Profile →
Lifecycle Workflow to Associate Payment Plans →
Applicant Selecting Their Payment Plan on the Application →

It is vital that a payment plan is associated with the same Classes/Courses that the profile has a journey with in order to associate it with a profile. Learn how →

1. Staff Manually Add a Payment Plan on the Profile

To manually associate a payment plan with a profile, ensure that the payment plan is linked to the same classes or courses that the profile is enrolled in. Here’s how to do it:

Steps to Add a Payment Plan Manually:

Enter a Profile: Navigate to the specific applicant's profile.
Click on Financials Tab: Select the Financials tab and then click on Payment Plans.
Add Plan: Click the Add Plan button.
Fill in Required Fields:
- Product: Select the program and class for which the payment plan is intended.
- Payment Plan Template: Choose the most appropriate payment plan template.
- Name: Assign a name to identify that student's payment plan.
Create Plan: Click Create Plan.

This action will automatically migrate the setup of the template to the student’s new payment plan, including sums and due dates. If no changes are needed, simply leave it as is. However, you can edit details such as deadlines, amounts, or apply specific discounts as necessary.

2. Lifecycle Workflow to Associate Payment Plans

Automating this process through workflows can significantly speed up operations. A lifecycle workflow consists of a trigger and actions that automatically create a payment plan when certain conditions are met.

Learn more about Automated workflows →

Steps to Set Up a Lifecycle Workflow:

Go to General Settings (Top right corner).
Click on the Institution tab.
Select the Lifecycle Workflow tab.
Click Add Lifecycle Workflow Group and give it a name.
Click on the Workflows tab and then click Add Workflow.

You can link this automated workflow to multiple classes by selecting them in the Details tab.

For Class-Specific Automation:

Go to General Settings (Top right corner).
Click on the Institution tab.
Select the Programs & Classes tab.
Choose the relevant program (click on the gear icon).
Select the specific class (click on the gear icon).
Click on the Automation tab and then click Add Workflow.

Workflow Setup:

Define Trigger: Set when profiles transition between lifecycle states (e.g., from "Prospective" to "Enrolled").
Define Actions:
1. Add actions by clicking the button Add Action.
2. Select on the dropdown Action: Create payment plan
3. Choose the suitable Payment plan template
4. Define the Publish automation (learn more about publish Payment plans →):
  1. No, Don't publish automatically: The payment plan is associated to the profile but is not published
  2. Yes, publish the payment plan as soon as it gets created: The payment plan will be associated with the profile and immediately published.Click Add Action, select “Create Payment Plan,” choose your template, and decide whether it should be published immediately upon creation.

This method trades some customization for speed, allowing for faster processing while still enabling post-creation edits.

3. Applicant Selecting Their Payment Plan on the Application

Applicants can also select their preferred payment plans directly during their application process through an enabled Payment Plan tab.

How to Activate the Payment Plan Tab:

Open the class's application template.
Go to the Payment Plan tab.
Switch from Disabled to Enabled.

Setting up the Payment plan tab

Instructions to the applicant

Ability to provide useful information, such as how to make payments and when to expect invoices (just to mention a few examples)

Automatically publish the payment plan on application submission?

Define whether the payment plan should be automatically published upon submitting the application.

Allow discount codes?

Allowing or not allowing applicants to apply the discount codes.

Applicant Experience

Applicants will see the Payment Plan tab only after selecting a program and class linked to at least one payment plan template. They can then choose from available options and view associated fees, due dates, and amounts.

The Payment plan options criteria:

Display only the Custom Payment Plans added to the applicant for the Program & Class selected (Manually added by the Staff);
Display all the Payment Plan Templates associated with the Program & Class;

Conclusion

Associating payment plans with profiles or applicants is vital for effective financial management within your institution. Whether done manually by staff, through automated workflows, or directly by applicants during application submission, each method offers unique benefits that streamline processes and enhance user experience. Implement these strategies today to optimize your payment management system!