Payment mistakes can happen, such as accidentally overpaying or paying for only one student. This article provides a step-by-step guide on adjusting and correcting account balances to address these issues.
Account balances are calculated from invoiced (posted) debits. Adjusting the balance on posted and unposted invoices will change students' balances. This may be necessary if an invoice was created incorrectly or needs to be changed for any reason. Click here to learn more about adjusting invoices.
💡 Debits will be included in the account balance on or after the debit post/invoice date.
Offline Payments and Credits
Offline payments and credits can be used to reduce a guardian's balance.
Offline Payments | Offline payments are additional amounts paid by guardians through methods outside of Playground. These are used to track payments made via check, cash, Zelle, Venmo, and other similar options. |
Credits | Credits do not increase the amount paid by guardians. Instead, they represent funds provided on behalf of a third party for a student's tuition or other charges. Credits are ideal for recording subsidy payments, scholarships, or grant funds received for a student. |
💡 For steps on creating an offline payment, please reference our article on Offline payments.
Reallocating Misclassified Tuition Payments and Correcting Overpayments
Reallocating Misclassified Tuition Payments
If a payment meant as a security deposit is marked as tuition:
Create a debit for the security deposit amount in the account.
Backdate the transaction if the deposit should have been recorded earlier.
The funds from the payment will automatically adjust to this charge without requiring additional payment.
Correcting Overpayments Reflected as Credits
In cases where overpayment is shown as a credit but belongs as a security deposit:
Create a debit to categorize it as a security deposit.
Backdate as needed to assign the correct financial period.
Use the Actions menu to execute the 'Create debits' process, allowing the system to realign the transaction properly.
Ensure no additional payment is required as the paid amount will auto-apply.
Locate the student you wish to create a credit for and check off their name.
Click on the blue Billing Actions button in the top-right of your screen.
Click Record payments/credits
Enter the amount of the credit.
Under the Type option, select Credit
The date of the credit.
Optionally, enter a description for the credit.
Click the blue save button.
Correct Overpayment on a Sibling
💡 To navigate quickly between sibling profiles, click on the Overview tab of the current sibling's profile and scroll down to the Siblings section. Click on the sibling's name to be brought to their Overview tab.
When one sibling is overpaid, it usually means the family's total payment for multiple siblings was applied to just one student. This leads to one student having a credit balance while the others have debit balances.
The best way to resolve this is to create a balance transfer debit on the overpaid student's account and a balance transfer credit on the underpaid student's account.
Follow the steps below to perform a balance transfer:
Prefer to watch a video? Click here
Navigate to the Statements tab under Billing to locate the balances for your students.
Identify any overdue or unpaid student accounts by using either the Overdue or Unpaid tab in Statements.
Locate the sibling with a credit and click on their name. This will direct you to the student's profile. Go to the Billing tab in their profile.
Click the blue Billing Actions button in the top-right of your screen.
Make a note of the amount that is credited. We'll be charging the same amount.
Click Create debits
Name the item Balance transfer from [Sibling 1] to [Sibling 2].
The price should be the amount of the overpayment or credit.
The description should list which charge is being corrected
Ex. Overpayment for April Tuition
Leave the This Charge Should Be dropdown menu set to Paid all at Once.
Set the invoice and due dates to today's date.
Click Add Item
Click Notify Guardians to proceed
On the next screen, select how you wish to notify the primary guardians with one of the provided options (see the table below for further explanation of options).
Click Create Debit.
Do not notify guardians | Does not send any notification to any guardians |
Send an app notification to all primary guardians | Notification will be sent to primary guardians within the application; if the primary guardians have push notifications turned off on their phone settings, the notification will stay in-app. |
Send an email notification to all primary guardians | Notification will be sent directly to the primary guardians email addresses on file |
Navigate to the profile of the sibling with an overdue payment.
Click the blue Billing Actions button in the top-right of your screen.
Make a note of the amount that is overdue. We'll make a credit for the same amount of the charge we created for the overpaid sibling.
Click Record credit.
Enter the amount of the charge created on their sibling
Set the invoice and due dates as today's date
The description should be Balance transfer from [Sibling 1] to [Sibling 2]
Click the blue Add Credit button
Reapply Payments: Credits and Debits
Playground's 'Reapply Payments' feature automatically allocates payments and credits to the oldest outstanding charges, addressing discrepancies in payment applications. This feature ensures that the account balances are kept accurate and eliminates errors caused by invoice or payment adjustments, such as outdated invoices appearing overdue.
Reapplying credits to debits will impact your reporting, as debits will show as paid for by the date on the credits to which they are applied. Additionally, the 'Reapply Payments' can resolve synchronization issues, ensuring that all payments and credits match the historical invoice records and restoring invoice history accuracy.
💡 The 'Reapply Payments' feature is now available to all users. For any questions or further guidance, contact the Playground support team.
Reapply credits one-by-one
Navigate to My School, then hit the Students tab.
Navigate to the student's profile who's payments you want to adjust by clicking on their row in the table.
Under the Billing tab, click the Credits tab.
Select the Three dots on on the top of the table.
Click on Reapply to oldest on the dropdown
You will need to Confirm that you do want to reapply the credit.
You will need to refresh the page to see the changes take affect.
Remap to specific debits
Prefer to watch a video? Click here.
💡 This is currently in beta. Please message us through Playground support chat if you need access to this feature.
Navigate to My School, then hit the Students tab.
Navigate to the student's profile who's payments you want to adjust by clicking on their row in the table.
Under the Billing tab, click the Credits tab.
Select the Three dots on on the top of the table.
Click on Apply to invoices on the dropdown.
On the modal that pops up, you will be able to see a list of debits
Gray rows have no outstanding balance
Orange rows have some amount of the credit applied to them
Red rows means there is an error. There are three reasons for that:
It includes non numerical characters
It is a negative number
The amount is greater than the total amount unpaid
Enter in the correct amounts that the credit should be applied to for each debit.
Once completed, press the Confirm button on the modal.
You will need to refresh the page to see the changes take affect
Staying Proactive with Adjustments
If debit or credit amounts change after reapplying payments, review the adjustments promptly to ensure proper allocation to outstanding invoices. This practice helps prevent unnecessary credit rollovers and maintains account synchronization.
Best Practices for Managing Payments and Deposits
Consistently backdate transactions when reclassifying payments to align with the correct financial period accurately.
Periodically audit account adjustments to identify and address issues like misclassified credits or overpayments.
Maintain detailed records of all changes and updates for transparency and auditing needs.