Fee Approvals are a powerful, flexible way to bill families outside of a traditional weekly/bi-weekly/monthly payment plan. Fee Approvals are often used in conjunction with a standard recurring tuition plan.
Fee Approvals are found on the Admin Dashboard by navigating to Billing and then Fee Approvals. This article defines all fee approval types and explains how to manage each.
Fee approval types
Fees families incur as a result of staying in provider care after their child's scheduled hours or after the provider's closing time. Often used to track and bill for late pick-ups or early drop-offs. | |
Fees families incur by checking into a program with a flat rate check-in fee. Often used for extra care that's billed at a flat rate, for programs like lunch, or for transportation. | |
Fees families incur based on time spent in a program. Often used for tutoring programs or extra care programs. | |
Fees families incur for a one-time program enrollment or sign-up. This is typically done during enrollment and offered to families who want to pay a flat rate for access to extended care. | |
Fees families incur for attendance based billing. This is used when a program charges based on the child's attendance by the day, hour, or minute. |
🚨 For any fee approval, Playground will generate the charge in advance but will not apply it to the family's balance until it has been approved by an administrator with billing permissions.
Fee approvals will be pending until the charges are billed or forgiven. These are the options that can be taken for a pending charge:
Bill: Charge the student the amount in the Overage fee column. This amount will immediately be added to the student's ledger.
Edit: Edit the amount of the Overage fee before charging the student.
Forgive: Dismiss the charge and do not add it to the student's ledger. This action is typically taken if the guardian simply forgot to check out but did pick up on time.
Select the checkboxes to the left of multiple students' names to charge or forgive fees in bulk.
Now, we'll dive into the setup of each Fee Approval type.
Overages
Playground can automatically track and calculate late pick-up/early drop-off charges, simplifying the billing process for providers.
Playground won't automatically charge guardians for an overage. This protects guardians against cases where they forgot to check out their students but did pick them up on time. To charge students an overage fee, you will need to manually click Bill.
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Set Your Scheduling Settings
Overage fees are calculated based on your Scheduling Settings. Once your rate has been set, Playground will start calculating student overage charges based on their attendance times.
For example, let's take a program that charges $1 per minute of overtime with a 0 minute grace period. This means that for every extra minute beyond a student's regular scheduled time, the guardians should be charged $1 per minute.
Here's how to set your overage policy:
From your Admin Dashboard, navigate to the Settings tab and click Scheduling at the top.
Overage billing type: Overtime charges can begin calculating after a specific time for all students OR after a unique time for each student based on their assigned schedule.
If you chose After Specific Time, enter the required pick-up time for guardians.
Next, enter your rate per minute and add an optional Grace period.
When ready, click Save.
View, Edit, and Bill Overages
From your Admin Dashboard, navigate to the Fee Approvals tab under Billing. At the top of the page, click the Overages tab. Here, you can search for a specific student, select a specific week, or filter by classroom.
You'll be able to see each student's total amount of overtime per day and the fee associated with that time.
Once you've selected your criteria, Charge or Forgive each charge.
💡 Use the cog icon ⚙️ on the table to add columns for early and late overage fees to see the breakdown of the total overage fee.
Advanced tip: If students have multiple schedules per day with breaks in between, interim overage fees will be calculated. For example, if a student is scheduled from 8 AM to 12 PM and again from 3 PM to 6 PM but is not checked out between 12 PM and 3 PM, an overage fee will be applied for that time. You can view interim overage fees in the table using the cog icon ⚙️.
Program Check-in Fees
Playground can automatically track and calculate charges for families each time their child is checked into a specific program.
To avoid accidental charges, Playground won't automatically charge guardians for a check-in. You will have to click Bill to charge students for a program check-in fee.
Set Your Program Settings
From your Admin Dashboard, navigate to the Programs tab under My School and click the blue + Add Program button in the top right corner of your screen.
The Add program window will open with the following criteria to enter or toggle:
Program Name
Active Program Toggle: if enabled, the program will be visible in the app for you to enroll students into.
Guardian Self Check-in Toggle: if enabled, guardians can check their students into a program immediately after signing their student(s) in.
Staff Self Check-in Toggle: if enabled, staff can check a student into a program after the student is signed in.
Select Flat Fee Per Check-in: a one-time price for every time the student is checked into this specific program. For example, hot lunch is $5 every time it is ordered.
When ready, click Save.
Program check-in fees are based on the specific program settings. Once the rate has been set, Playground will start to calculate program check-in fees for students based on their attendance.
Program Time Fees
Playground can automatically track and calculate charges for the amount of time a child is checked into a specific program.
To avoid accidental charges, Playground won't automatically charge guardians for a check-in. You will have to click Bill to charge students for a program check-in fee.
Each program time fee instance is defined by an individual check-in / out.
Set your Program Settings
From your Admin Dashboard, navigate to the Programs tab under My School and click the blue + Add Program button in the top right corner of your screen.
The Add program window will open with the following criteria to enter or toggle:
Program name
Active Program Toggle: if enabled, the program will be visible in the app for you to enroll students into
Guardian Self Check-in Toggle: if enabled, guardians can check their students into a program immediately after signing their student(s) in.
Staff Self Check-in Toggle: if enabled, staff can check a student into a program after the student is signed in.
Select Time Based Rate: dollar amount per minute of being checked into the program. For example, after school care.
When ready, click Save.
Program time fees are based on the specific program settings. Once the rate has been set, Playground will start to calculate program time fees for students based on their attendance.
Program Enrollments
Playground can automatically track and calculate charges for families based on a one-time enrollment of that child into a program.
To avoid accidental charges, Playground won't automatically charge guardians for a check-in. You will have to click Bill to charge students for a program check-in fee.
Each program enrollment fee is defined by an individual enrollment into the program.
Set Your Program Settings
From your Admin Dashboard, navigate to the Programs tab under My School and click the blue + Add Program button in the top right corner of your screen.
The Add program window will open with the following criteria to enter or toggle:
Program name
Active Program Toggle: if enabled, the program will be visible in the app for you to enroll students into
Guardian Self Check-in Toggle: if enabled, guardians can check their students into a program immediately after signing their student(s) in.
Staff Self Check-in Toggle: if enabled, staff can check a student into a program after the student is signed in.
Select Enrollment Fee: a one-time fee for enrolled in the program. For example, soccer club or extracurricular.
When ready, click Save.
Program enrollment fees are based on the specific program settings. Once the one-time rate has been set, Playground will start to calculate program enrollment fees for students based on their enrollment.
Daily Attendance Fees
If your program bills based on attendance, you can set up custom billing rates for kids based on their daily, hourly, or minute attendance.
The attendance-based billing method charges families based on the actual time children are checked in, with bills issued after the service has been provided.
We have a full guide on best practices to set up attendance-based billing here.