Many times, a student's tuition is based on the count (or hours) of classes. Studioware allows you to create a Tuition Fee Schedule, and then calculate the student's tuition amounts based on the counts/hours of classes.
Tuition Fee Schedule
To get started, we must first create the tuition fees schedule:
- Click on Administrations | Tuition Fees
- Under "General Settings" indicate:
- Tuition fee values are monthly values or "Term" values
- Students in a family are grouped together in the calculation, or remain separate
- Click on "Add Tuition Fee Schedule"
- Enter in the name of the tuition fee schedule, such as "Default" tuition.
- Select "Default Tuition Fee" and set the sort order. Additionally, add a description of this fee schedule.
- Indicate if the tuition fee schedule is based on the count of classes, or the number of hours of classes:
- Click on "Add Row" to add multiple rows to the grid. Enter in the number (or hours) of classes, and the amount of tuition to be charged to the student's account. For example, in the screenshot below, the tuition for 1 class has been set to $30, the tuition for 2 classes is $55, for $80 for 3 classes, and so on.
- Click on "Save" to save the tuition fee schedule
Configuring Class Tuition
To configure a class to use the Tuition Fee Schedule, select "The amount of tuition will vary depending on the number/hours of classes a student is enrolled in" as the "Class Tuition Type":
Calculating Tuition
When a student first enrolls in a class that has been configured to use variable tuition/fee schedule, Studioware does not immediately add the tuition to the student's financial account. It's not added right away because Studioware does not know if the student is finished enrolling in classes. There are 2 ways to have Studioware complete the tuition calculation:
- You need to manually tell Studioware that you are ready for the tuition to be calculated.
- You can set up an Automation Task to have Studioware automatically calculate the tuition on a recurring schedule.
Manual Calculation
When you are ready to have Studioware calculate the tuition for students enrolled in variable tuition classes, follow these steps. Typically, this is completed once a month so the tuition is posted to the student's accounts before the invoices are created and emailed:
- Click on Accounting in the main menu
- Click on the "More" button in the toolbar, and select "Calculate Variable Tuition"
- In Step 1, select the Month and the Year. Click on the "Calculate" button
- Studioware will analyze the class enrollment, and calculate the student tuition. The tuition for each student (or family) will be displayed. You can make any adjustments needed to the calculations.
- When you are satisfied with the tuition amounts, click on the "Process Transactions" buttons. The tuition will be added to the student's accounts
Automation Task
The process of calculating the student variable tuition can be performed automatically by using Automation Tasks. That way, the above steps to calculate the tuition will be performed for you on a specific day of the month.
Learn more about Variable Tuition Automation Task
General Settings
There are 2 settings that affect how the tuition is calculated when you use variable tuition and tuition fee schedules. The 2 settings are:
- Tuition Fee Amount Type: Studioware can calculate the Tuition amounts for each month, or for a custom date range/Term. For example, if your tuition amounts are monthly values, please select "Monthly Tuition Values" below. However, if your tuition values are for a custom date range, such as a 6 week term, please select "Term Tuition Values".
- Tuition Fee Family Type: If a student is part of a family, you can elect to have the tuition fee schedule apply to the individual members of the family, or the family as a whole.
To change these settings, follow these steps:
- Click on Administration | Tuition Fees
- Click on General Settings
- Set the desired values for Tuition Fee Amount Type and Tuition Fee Family Type:
- Click Save. These settings will take affect the next time you calculate the variable tuition
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