The ways money reaches a student's account
However a parent pays, CloudNotte ends up recording the same thing: a payment against one or more of that student's bills. What differs is who types it in, and whether the money also reaches your school's online balance.
| How they pay | Who records it | Reaches your online balance? |
|---|---|---|
| Cash at the front desk | Your staff, by hand | No — you already have the cash |
| Bank deposit / teller | Your staff, by hand, with the bank reference | No — it went straight to your bank |
| Transfer to the student's dedicated account | CloudNotte, automatically | Yes |
| Card / online payment | CloudNotte, once the payment confirms | Yes |
| From the student's wallet balance | Your staff, or a wallet run | No — it arrived earlier and was counted then |
Your Accounting Summary shows all fee income, however it was paid. Your online balance only knows about money that actually passed through CloudNotte. They are supposed to differ — a school that collects mostly cash will have a large income figure and a small online balance, and nothing is wrong.
Find the student
Accounting → Fee Payments.
Choose the Select Session and Select Term(s) you're working in, then use Select Student to find the person. Their fees and what's still outstanding are listed together.
The same information sits on the student's own profile, so you can take a payment from either place.
Record the payment
Click 'Process Outstanding Fees'.
Enter the amount handed over and pick how it was paid:
- Cash — recorded immediately.
- Bank deposit — you must enter the bank transaction reference. This is what lets you match the entry to your bank statement later, so don't invent one.
- Wallet — takes the money from the credit already held for that student. Refused if the balance isn't enough.
- Online payment — produces a payment link. Nothing is applied to the student's account until the payment actually confirms.
A cash payment exists only because somebody typed it in. If it isn't entered, that family stays on your debtors list and will be sent reminders for money they have already paid — which is the fastest way to lose a parent's trust.
Let CloudNotte split it, or choose the fees yourself
Two ways to decide which bills the money clears.
Automatic — recommended
Type the total amount and let CloudNotte spread it. It works down the outstanding bills in a set order, clearing each one fully before moving on, and puts anything left over into the wallet.
Choosing manually
Switch to choosing fees yourself when a parent has asked for their money to go somewhere specific — "this is for the bus, not tuition". Type the amount against each fee.
When you choose fees by hand, any amount over and above what those fees need is not moved into the wallet. Check the figures you type add up to what the parent actually gave you.
The order CloudNotte pays things in
This is the same order for a front-desk payment, a transfer, and a wallet run:
| # | Rule | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oldest session and term first | A family's longest-standing debt is settled before the term you're in now. |
| 2 | Higher Payment Priority first | Tuition before a club fee, if you set the priorities that way. |
| 3 | Smallest remaining balance first | Clears whole bills rather than leaving several part-paid. |
A parent expects their payment against this term's tuition, and finds it cleared last term's outstanding balance instead. Nothing has gone wrong. Open the student's fee list and look at the older terms.
Handle the extra
Money over and above what's owed goes into the student's wallet.
The wallet is a credit balance held for that student at your school. It fills up from overpayments, from refunds when a fee is removed, and — if you've switched that option on — from discounts.
Confirm the payment and enter your Accounting PIN. A receipt is produced immediately.
If a parent's single transfer paid for more than one of their children, the receipt shows the main student at the top and the brothers and sisters beneath, so the whole transfer is accounted for on one piece of paper.
Use up wallet balances later
Accounting → Summary → the 'Total Wallet Balance' card.
Click that card to see every student holding a balance. From there, "Use the money in these wallets to pay fees" lets you clear bills with money already held. Choose what it should pay:
Everything they owe (oldest bills first)— the usual choice, and the one that behaves like every other payment.Only one term— keeps the money inside a single term you pick.
Then either tick individual students and click Process for just them, or click Process All. You can also move a balance from one student to another — useful when a parent paid into the wrong child's account.
That means one of two things, and the screen tells you which: either nobody in the scope you picked actually owes anything, or the people who owe have empty wallets. If you chose Only one term, try Everything they owe — the debt may be sitting in a different term.
Using wallet balances moves real money between accounts, so if your school has two-factor turned on you'll be asked for the 6-digit code from your own authenticator app — not just the shared PIN. That's so the record can say which member of staff did it.
The bank charge on transfers
Every transfer into a student's dedicated account carries a flat charge. Under Settings → Accounting → Preferences, the setting "Who pays the bank charge when someone pays online?" decides who absorbs it:
| Setting | What happens |
|---|---|
The school pays it | The full amount the parent sends counts against their bill. Your school carries the charge. |
The person paying adds it on top | The charge is taken out of what arrives. A parent who sends exactly what they owe is left owing that much. |
Nobody asks the parent for the charge at the time of a bank transfer — it is simply deducted from what arrives. CloudNotte shows the amount on the parent's fees page and spells it out in the payment alert, telling them to add it to whatever they send. Expect some calls anyway in the first term after switching this on, and make sure your front desk knows the answer.
Common questions
- A parent paid, but the fee they wanted to clear is still showing as owed. Why?
- Money always goes to the oldest term the family still owes for, before it touches the term you're in now. If they were carrying a debt from a previous term or session, the payment cleared that first. Within a single term, higher-priority fees like Tuition are paid before lower-priority ones. Open the student's fee list and look at the older terms — the money will be there.
- A parent transferred the exact amount they owed, but they still owe ₦200. Why?
- Your school is set to have the person paying cover the bank charge. A flat charge is taken out of every transfer into a dedicated account, so a parent who sends exactly what's on their bill arrives short by that amount. Parents are shown this on their fees page and in the payment alert, and told to add it to whatever they send. If you'd rather absorb it yourself, change it under
Settings → Accounting → Preferences. - What is a student's wallet?
- It's a credit balance held for that student at your school. It builds up when a parent pays more than they owe, when you refund a fee, or when a discount is set to go into the wallet instead of reducing the bill. It is not the school's money until it's used to pay a fee — think of it as money you're holding on that family's behalf.
- Can one parent pay for all their children in one transfer?
- Yes, if your school has switched that on. Under
Settings → Accounting → Preferences, turn on "Let a parent pay for all their children at once". The transfer clears the first child's fees, and whatever is left over rolls onto their brothers and sisters at the same school before anything goes into a wallet. - Do I need to record cash payments straight away?
- Yes — and the reason matters. Cash and bank deposits exist in CloudNotte only because someone typed them in. Unlike an online transfer, nothing arrives on its own to correct the record later. If a cash payment isn't entered, that family will appear on your debtors list and be sent reminders for money they've already handed over.
- Why does 'Total Fees Received Today' not match my term report?
- They count different things on purpose.
Total Fees Received Todaycounts every payment taken today, whichever term it was for. The term figures count money against the term the fee belongs to, whenever it was paid. A parent settling last term's bill today appears in one and not the other. Both are correct. - Can I take a payment without the extra security code on my phone?
- Yes. Taking a payment deliberately doesn't ask for a code — the front desk is busy and stopping for a phone each time would hold the queue up. The Accounting PIN is enough. The riskier actions inside the same screen, like reversing a payment or using wallet balances, do ask for a code of their own.