How money moves in SqoolHQ
Every finance screen in SqoolHQ is built from five ideas. Learn them once and every other guide makes sense.
The five ideas
Section titled “The five ideas”- Term — one school term (Term 1, 2, 3) with a start and end date. Billing, balances, reports, and payroll all run per term. The current term is the one whose dates include today. (Glossary)
- Fee items — the charges for a term, such as tuition, lunch, or transport. Each item has an amount and who it applies to. Together they form the term’s fee structure. (Glossary)
- Billed — what a student is charged, computed from the fee items that apply to them. You never type billed amounts by hand. (Glossary)
- Payments — money recorded against a student, with a method, a date received, and a fee type. Each payment issues a receipt number. (Glossary)
- Balance — what is still owed:
Outstanding = billed this term + B/F − payments received
B/F (brought forward) means unpaid amounts carried from earlier terms. A student with nothing outstanding is marked cleared. (Glossary)
A worked example
Section titled “A worked example”Sarah is billed UGX 300,000 tuition for Term 2. She still owes UGX 50,000 from Term 1 (B/F). Her mother pays UGX 200,000.
- Billed this term: 300,000
- Plus B/F: + 50,000 → total owed 350,000
- Minus payment: − 200,000
- Balance: UGX 150,000 outstanding
Rules that protect the books
Section titled “Rules that protect the books”- New students start clean. A mid-term joiner is never charged B/F from terms before they joined.
- One-off charges are payments, not fee items. Recording uniform or an annual development fee as a payment charges only that student. Adding it as a fee item would bill everyone it applies to.
- Paid too much? The extra becomes a credit (negative balance) and reduces next term’s amount. Confirm it only when intentional.
- Mistakes are voided, never deleted. A void needs a reason and stays in the audit trail.