TABLE OF CONTENTS
General Billing
Q: When do the bills generate for parents?
- You can get a refresher on your billing automation schedule by going to Billing > Settings > then selecting Cycles. At the bottom of the page, you will see any Billing Cycles that have been created. The column labeled Billed Before Payment will indicate how many days before the due date the bill will generate for parents.
- In the action column, select the three dots, and choose View Info for a full summary of the billing automation schedule.
Q: Do parents get notified of their bill?
- Parents who are listed as a Primary Contact, or have billing permissions as an Authorized Contact with an email address on file will receive their bill via email when the invoice becomes available in their KT Connect App. They will also receive an email to confirm that their payment has been successfully made. The email containing billing information will come from no-reply@kangarootime.com.
- Parents also have the ability to receive a notification when their bill is available if they choose to enable notifications in the KT Connect App.
Q: How can I tell which parents owe money?
- If you'd like to see outstanding balances for each account, head to the Billing navigation menu and then select Account Summary, which will give you the ending balance for each account.
- For aged debt within 7 or 30 day timeframes, you can go to the Billing navigation menu and click Accounts Receivable.
- You can also view account balances by selecting Families > Accounts.
Q: How can I double check that the child contracts are set up correctly for the next period of billing?
- Head to the Families tab, then select Accounts, and click into the first account. From there, select Billing on the account, then History. The Next Bill box allows you to See Details and preview their next bill, which will determine whether the child's enrollment has been set up correctly. To view the next account, select Next Account to the right of your screen.
- You can also head to the Attendance menu in Kangarootime, then click the Finance tab to view a roster of expected children and their total amount billed, either per day for session-based billing, or per billing period (monthly, weekly, etc) for flat rate billing.
Q: How do I prorate the amount for a family with a start date in the middle of a billing period?
- To prorate for a mid-month or mid-week start date, you'll still want to set up the contract with the typical fee, but then you can either just add a credit or create an automated discount with a start/end date just for that period that takes off the necessary amount.
- Either way, you'll have the fee for the full month or week, then a credit/discount will take off the appropriate amount just for that first period.
- Tip: the same logic applies to prorating the last week or month.
Q: I have a child assigned to the wrong Fee or Class on their contract for the next period, how do I fix this?
- Do not edit the contract, but instead end the contract with a date at the end of this billing period and create a new contract with a start date of the upcoming billing period.
- Example: for weekly billing frequency, you would put this upcoming Saturday as an end date and Sunday as the start date for the new contract, so there is no overlap and it's a clean start/stop. As long as you make this adjustment before the next bill generates, you're all set.
Q: What's the cutoff to make sure the child contract details are all correct and make changes for the next bill?
- In order for the next bill to be correct, you will need to end and create the new contract with updated details before the next bill generates.
- Example: if the bills go out on Thursday for the following week, you have to make those changes by end of day Wednesday in order to be correct.
Fees & Transactions
Q: What's the difference between setting up a Fee and a Transaction?
- Setting up a Fee by going to Centers > Fees is where you would create the different Tuition rates, these are typically your recurring weekly or monthly rates, but could also be your daily session rates as well. You would not set up one time fees here.
- Whereas, if you have an amount that needs to be charged to a parent occasionally like a Registration Fee or Field Trip, these would be set up as Transactions, see this article on How to Add Transaction Types
Q: How do I set up recurring Discounts?
- In order to set up discounts like Sibling Discounts or Employee Discounts, go to Billing > Discounts, select Create Discount and complete the required fields.
- Once you've created the discount, then you will need to assign it to the child or family by going to Families > Accounts > select the family, select the Billing tab, then Discounts.
- Best practice is to appropriately end date any finite discount on an account, or the discount will continue to run on the account until it's ended. Keep in mind that when building the discount itself, the end date indicates when that discount will be accessible to add to accounts, it does not end any discount applied to an account.
Q: I see other fees or charges on a parent's account that are not related to their Tuition Fee, how can I identify what these are?
- There are a few potential reasons why your family might have an additional fee. Most commonly, they are service fees, late payment fees, and late pickup/arrival fees.
- While looking at the family's Account, go to their Billing tab, then click Transactions. Here you will see a column labeled Type that will help identify what other charges, fees, or credits may have been generated. You can also filter by the Type and date range.
Q: What is the difference between a Billed Fee and a Standard Fee?
- Every enrollment contract allows for multiple fees to be recorded via the billed fee and standard fee fields. This allows businesses to easily track what is being charged (the billed fee) and compare it to what could potentially be earned (the standard fee) with a reason for the difference easily captured (the adjustment reason).
- An easy example is for a child on subsidy - where the billed fee may be slightly different from the standard fee to show the difference. Scholarship children may also be on slightly different fees from what is standard for their class.
- Note: Most centers do not use this for the majority of their children, but it may come in handy occasionally.
Autopay
Q: When does autopay run?
- Autopay will run for parents on the payment due date as long as they setup autopay prior to receiving their bill.
- Note: If they did not already have autopay enabled prior to receiving the bill, they would need to make a manual payment instead just that once, then going forward they'll be all set for autopay.
- The payment due date is dictated by the Billing Cycle that the parents are assigned to, which was set up in Billing > Settings > Cycles
- Example: If you bill parents on a Friday for the following week, with payments due on Monday, then autopay will run for parents on Monday.
Q: What amount gets deducted when autopay runs?
- The amount that gets deducted for autopay is whatever amount was on the parent's bill that they received.
- Note: If the parent had autopay enabled prior to getting their bill, but still decided to make a manual payment, autopay will also still deduct the full amount that was on their bill, so be sure to warn parents of this and provide them with this helpful article Parent FAQ's.
Q: Can I turn autopay off for a parent?
- You can manage autopay on behalf of parents if they need your support (though they can also manage autopay in the KT Connect App).
- Head to the parent's account, and then select the Billing tab on their account. From there, select Overview, then click the Manage button that is within the Autopay square on this page to manage autopay.
Payments
Q: Where can I view recent payments?
- You can select Billing > Payments, to view a full list of payments and choose to filter by a variety of criteria, like date range or status.
- You can also see Payment data via Billing > Income Report
Q: When can I expect Credit Card and ACH payments from parents made in Kangarootime to be deposited into our center's bank account?
-
Payment Processing takes two business days to deposit into your center’s bank account
- For example: If a payment is initiated by the parent prior to 7:30 PM EST on Monday, it will be deposited into the center’s bank account by end of day Wednesday, but will be delayed by a day if the payment initiates after 7:30 PM EST
- Payments are not processed on weekends or bank holidays
- Note: The very first time your center has a deposit initiated, there is an extra delay that is approx. three days due to standard risk management by the payment processor
Q: Where can I see a breakdown of everything that was deposited into our bank account, including payments, fees, returns, and refunds?
- You can see the full details of your disbursements by going to Billing > Payments, then clicking the tab labeled Disbursements. This will show you the total amount deposited, then you can choose Run Report to see the full details of why that amount was deposited.
Q: How can I double-check that credit card processing fees are being passed onto parents?
- Select Billing from your purple navigation bar, then Settings
- The Surcharges tab within this screen will inform you of whether or not pass-through fees are enabled. You may make an individual selection for each center.
- You can also expand the details of a credit card payment to view the service fee as well as the deposited amount. If the amount deposited into your account matches the charged tuition, the fee was passed onto parents. If the amount deposited into your account is less than what you charged for tuition, you are absorbing the fee.
Q: What does it mean if a parent's Credit Card payment Failed?
-
This status gets updated immediately when the credit card payment is attempted and indicates further action is needed by the parent.
- Most common causes: Inaccurate data was entered, insufficient funds, or exceeding credit limit.
- Recommended resolutions: Delete the payment method and re-enter their credentials to ensure there are no typos; if they continue to have issues, they should reach out to their credit card company.
- Fees: The center is not currently charged a fee for failed credit cards; Kangarootime is absorbing that fee at this time.
Q: What does it mean if a parent's ACH/Bank payment got Returned?
- A parent's ACH payment will still be processed and deposited into your bank within two business days with the assumption it will be successful. However, it may take up to 3 to 5 days to indicate a Returned Status.
-
If a parent's ACH payment gets Returned, it will then have to be deducted from the amount we are scheduled to deposit into your bank.
- Most Common Causes: Inaccurate data was entered or insufficient funds.
- Recommended Resolutions: Delete the payment method and re-enter their credentials to ensure there are no typos; if they continue to have issues and are certain they have enough funds in their account, they should reach out to their bank.
- Fees: The center is currently charged a Returned ACH Fee of $8.95, but if you have indicated you want to pass the Return/Dishonor Fee onto your parents, then that amount will be automatically charged and labeled as a Dishonor Fee Transaction Type.
Please contact helpdesk@kangarootime.comwith any questions.