How to Manage Credit and Payment Allocations in Playground
Playground offers a range of features and tools to help you manage payment and credit allocations, ensuring accurate and efficient handling of student accounts. This article provides an overview of the allocation process, both automatic and manual, and offers solutions to common use cases and troubleshooting scenarios.
Automatic Credit and Payment Allocation
By default, Playground applies payments to charges based on the billing dates. Payments are applied to the oldest unpaid charges first. If the payment amount exceeds the due amount, the system holds the extra funds as a credit that can be automatically applied to future charges. Additionally:
Early or overpayments become a credit balance if no debits exist at the time of payment. The credit is applied as matching debits are created.
Payments made during one billing cycle but intended for an earlier cycle can be aligned by creating debits in the earlier cycle and backdating their post and due dates.
Manual Credit and Payment Allocation
If you need more control over how payments and credits are applied, you can override the default allocation using Playground’s manual tools. These tools include:
1. Map Individual Credits
The 'Map Individual Credits' feature allows you to manually allocate payments and credits to specific charges or invoices instead of following the default sequence:
Enable this feature through Playground’s support team.
Navigate to the appropriate student’s Credits tab.
Select the credit to be mapped, click the options menu (three dots), and choose 'Apply to invoices.'
2. Manually Adjust Charge Dates
For one-time needs, you can adjust the date of a specific charge to ensure it is treated as the oldest outstanding charge. By doing this, the system will automatically apply credits or payments to the intended charge.
3. Correcting Deposit Applications
To manage held deposits:
Locate the deposit in the student’s profile under the Billing tab.
Use the 'Edit held amount' option to select the intended charge and confirm.
Applying Credits to Specific Charges or Groups
Playground provides multiple options to allocate credits in specific ways, which can be especially useful for managing targeted fees or handling bulk processes:
Mapping Part of a Credit to a Specific Purpose You can allocate a portion of a recorded payment or credit (e.g., a security deposit) to a specific charge using the 'Apply to invoices' option.
Bulk Credit Application Use the bulk credit tool to apply the same credit amount to multiple students at once: - Go to Billing -> Transactions, then click Billing Actions -> Bulk record payments/credits.
Adjusting Past Payments Use backdating to ensure that payments or credits align with the correct billing cycle. Create debits with the intended post and due dates, enabling the system to apply payments automatically.
Troubleshooting and Best Practices
Correcting Misapplied Payments If an offline payment is applied to the current billing cycle instead of a future bill: - Delete the payment. - Reapply it with the correct dates to align with the intended charge.
Confirming Fee Applications To verify how application fees are being applied: - Open the student’s Billing tab and review the Ledger for specific fee-to-payment mappings.
Leaving Held Deposits Unapplied Held deposits can remain unallocated if there are no specific charges to apply them to. Once paid, the funds are immediately available.
FAQs
Will applying a credit require the parent to make an additional payment?
No, credits do not result in additional required payments for parents. They adjust the account balance internally.
How are early or overpayments handled?
Early or excess payments are held as credits and applied as debits are incurred. By following the above guidelines and utilizing Playground’s robust tools, you can ensure accurate and efficient credit and payment management within the platform.