Configure late fees

Late fees are configured in one place: the Late fee step of the billing policy wizard. There's no separate fee-schedule screen and no standalone late-fee-policies screen: both were folded into the policy you build and publish for your school. Set the rule once, publish the policy, and the school applies it the same way for everyone.

This is for directors and admins only. The wizard lives under the school admin billing area at Billing policy (SOP). For the whole flow, see Set up and publish billing policies.

Where late fees are set

In the policy wizard, Late fee is one of the dimensions in the left-hand list. Open it and fill in the form on the right. You can skip it with I don't have a rule if your school doesn't charge late fees.

The late-fee form

• Type: Flat or Percent.
• Flat fee: a dollar amount, shown when Type is Flat.
• Percent (basis points): shown when Type is Percent. 500 means 5%.
• Grace days: how long after the due date before the fee lands. The default is 5; the range is 0 to 60.
• Compounding: how often the fee re-applies to an invoice that stays unpaid: None, Daily, Weekly, or Monthly.
• Max cap (blank = no cap): a ceiling on the total fee per overdue invoice. Leave it blank for no cap.
• Waiver policy: who can waive the fee: School admin, Director only, or Director + owner.
• Auto-waive on first occurrence: forgive the first late fee for a family that's otherwise on time.

Daily compounding can't be published. If a draft carries it, publishing is rejected with an error and you'll need to switch to None, Weekly, or Monthly first. With None the fee is charged once. With Weekly it re-applies for each full week an invoice stays unpaid past your grace days, and with Monthly for each 30 days past grace. The max cap applies to the total after compounding, not to each re-application.

What about processing fees and one-time charges

There's no fee schedule to configure. Card and bank processing is handled on the Stripe side, and one-time charges like registration or materials fees aren't set on a school-wide schedule. The school-level billing settings now carry just three tiles: Discounts, Scholarships, and Reports, and nothing here adds a surcharge to a family's payment.

For sibling, staff, military, and other recurring credits, see Assign discounts and scholarships.

Putting it to work

Once your policy is published with a late-fee rule, it governs how overdue invoices accrue. To build and publish the full policy, see Set up and publish billing policies. To build the plans the policy applies to, see Create and manage billing plans. Stuck? Email [email protected].