This article will guide you through setting up and customising the Fease module to efficiently manage your school's fees. The system is highly adaptable, allowing you to create unique workflows, automate reminders, and integrate with payment gateways.
Upon initial access to the Fease dashboard, schools will be presented with three primary setup blocks: General Setup, School Setup, and Workflow Review. These blocks are designed to guide the initial configuration. Alternatively, all configuration settings can be accessed directly at any time by navigating to Configuration and then Settings within the Fease dashboard.
This section provides a clear, step-by-step guide to configuring the Fease module.
The General Setup section controls the overarching behaviour of the Fease management system.
Recommendation: Schools are advised to disable the global automation feature and enable separate follow-up actions in the workflow. For example, automating the friendly and follow-up reminders but not the Letters of Demand.
Follow-up Time: If automatic follow-ups are enabled, this specifies the exact time of day that emails and reminders will be dispatched.
User Notification: You can select a specific user to receive notifications regarding follow-up actions.
Follow-up Wait Days: This crucial setting prevents over-communication. For example, if set to 7 days, a reminder cannot be sent to an account within seven days of the last reminder, ensuring parents are not inconvenienced by frequent messages
Follow-up Threshold: Define a minimum outstanding balance for reminders to be sent. Accounts owing less than this threshold (e.g., R500) will not receive automated
When this option is selected, a detailed statement will be included with all automated reminders. This statement will provide a “live view” of the outstanding amounts on an account. Parents will also be able to make payment straight from the statement if the cashless integration is enabled.
Emails can be personalised by including the principal's name. This information is pulled directly from d6 Plus Finance; any changes must be made within d6 Plus Finance.
This setting allows you to filter the dashboard view by not displaying accounts with a balance below a specified amount (e.g., R100).
This enables the 'Pay Now' button to appear directly on statements. This facilitates easy online payments for the parents. If this option is not selected, the button will not appear on statements.
Selecting this option will display your school's bank details on the statement.
Choose between two statement formats:
Two-column statement: Displays 'Amount' and 'Balance'.
Three-column statement: Displays 'Debit', 'Credit', and 'Balance'. This is similar to the format available in d6 Plus.
The School Setup section largely pulls information directly from d6 Plus Finance, ensuring consistency.
School Logo: It is vital to upload your school's logo in this section (under Configuration > School Details) as it will prominently feature on all statements.
Website: You can update your school's website address here.
Other Details: All other school details are sourced from d6 Plus Finance. Any amendments to these details must be made within d6 Plus Finance.
The Workflow Setup allows for the customisation of communication sequences for outstanding fees. You can access this section via Configuration > Workflows. The system typically provides a default workflow, but you can tailor it to your school's specific needs.
An example of a standard workflow includes:
Friendly Reminder Email and SMS: Sent to accounts aged between 31 and 60 days outstanding, typically on the 31st day.
Follow-up Reminder: Sent around 45 days outstanding, following up on the initial friendly reminder.
Letter of Demand: A more formal communication.
Section 41 Letter: Registered letter of demand: A statutory letter for overdue accounts, with specific legal implications.
Adjusting Follow-up days: For each step in the workflow, you can modify the number of days outstanding at which a reminder should be sent.
Disabling or Duplicating Actions: Individual actions (e.g., SMS reminders) within a workflow step can be disabled. You can also duplicate existing actions to create new ones (e.g., sending an additional SMS on day 50).
Prerequisite Actions: Some legal letters, such as the Section 41 letter, may have prerequisite actions (e.g., a Letter of Demand must be sent first). This ensures legal compliance, particularly regarding notifications about potential exemptions.
Categories: Schools that make use of different categories, such as bus fees, aftercare etc. will have the option to configure follow-up actions on these specific categories. Please note that if a parent has outstanding school fees and outstanding bus fees, they will get two separate emails / sms’s.
Letter of Demand: This is a legal letter that costs R29.00 per instance. This cost covers tracking technology that confirms when the letter was sent. It is typically sent to accounts 60-90 days outstanding. It also serves to inform parents about their potential eligibility for fee exemptions.
Section 41 Letter: This statutory letter is sent for accounts 91 days and older and costs R49.00 per instance. By default, it is configured to include only school fees, as this is typically the amount handed over for collections.
Recipient Selection: For legal letters, you can specify who receives them (e.g., Accountable Person, Parent 1, Parent 2).
While some workflows can be set to run automatically, certain legal letters may require manual initiation. You have the flexibility to run specific workflows separately as needed.
Once all setup blocks (General Setup, School Setup, and Workflow Review) are completed, they will no longer appear on your dashboard. However, all configuration settings remain accessible at any time via the Configuration menu.
This FAQ addresses common questions regarding the initial setup and configuration of the Fease module within the d6 School Management System.
5. How do I ensure my workflows run automatically?
6. Is it possible to disable a specific action within an active workflow?
7. How can I schedule follow-up actions for multiple accounts at once?
8. Where can I monitor the success rate of my workflows?
9. My workflow indicates missing contact information. How can I resolve this?
10. Can accounts belong to more than one workflow?
11. What reports are available in Fease to monitor financial activities and communications?
Actions Report: For all past and future scheduled actions.
Transactions Report: Details of all financial transactions.
Payments Report: Specifically for payments processed via a Cashless provider.
Notes Report: Lists all recorded notes on accounts.
Promises to Pay Report: Tracks payment promises made by debtors.
Age Analysis Report: For insights into outstanding balances on categories, learners and accounts, it also includes historical account activity.
Financial Metric Report: this report shows the debtor days, meaning how long it takes for the debtors to pay their accounts
Account Activity Report: This is where the user will be able to see exactly which actions the account holders took on the communication that was shared, did the debtor view the statement, made payment etc.
User Activity Report: This is an audit log of everything the admin users did in the system
Communication Statement Report: This is where the user will be able to view the billing details.