This guide takes a school finance administrator through the eight key finance tasks in d6 after implementation: confirming the setup handed over by your implementer, establishing your daily and weekly routine, and running your monthly reconciliation. Work through the sections in order.
Finance > General Ledger > Accounts
The General Ledger (chart of accounts) is the spine of every finance transaction in d6. Your implementer loads it during setup, but confirm it reflects how your school runs before day-to-day work begins — corrections are much easier before transactions start.
Navigate to Finance > Journal and search for the opening balance journal. Confirm it shows the correct finance start date.
Go to Finance > General Ledger > Accounts and verify that all accounts you use are present and correctly tagged as Income, Expense, Asset or Liability.
Confirm that budget categories are linked to the correct accounts.
If any accounts are missing, add them: click Add Account, enter the account code, name and type, link a budget category if applicable, and Save.
Notes: Incorrectly tagged account types report in the wrong financial statement (an Expense tagged as a Liability appears on the Balance Sheet instead of the Income Statement). Any accounts added after go-live carry a zero opening balance by design — this protects your audit trail. If a hostel or aftercare operates under the same entity, prefix GL codes (S for School, H for Hostel, A for Aftercare) and pair them with matching billing categories so reporting splits cleanly per stream.
Finance > Cash Book Accounts
Each cashbook mirrors a real bank account. Opening balances must match your previous system to the cent on your finance start date — discrepancies here affect every reconciliation going forward.
Confirm every bank account you use is set up in d6, including petty cash.
Verify each cashbook's opening balance matches the closing balance on your previous system as at your finance start date. If not, contact your implementer before posting any transactions.
Check allowed payment types: cash only for petty cash; cash and cheques only for the undeposited funds account.
Confirm you have exactly one undeposited funds account — two causes split receipting and complicates reconciliation.
Handling cash through undeposited funds: capture each receipt on the learner account, banked to undeposited funds. When you physically deposit at the bank, go to Finance > Cashbook > Deposit to move the total to your main bank account. When you import the bank statement, match the deposit line — the undeposited funds balance should return to zero after each deposit cycle.
Adding a new bank account later: accounts created after your finance start date are set up with a zero opening balance. Email support@d6plus.co.za with the account name, account number and the date it was opened.
Finance > Billing Categories | Finance > Payment Options
Billing categories define what you charge (School fees, Hostel, Sport levy, Transport); payment options define how much learners pay and over how many months. Both must be fully set up before any learner is linked. For schools sharing a d6 entity across streams, split billing categories per stream so fee structures and reports stay separate.
To create a billing category:
Navigate to Finance > Billing Categories.
Click Add, enter the category name and select the applicable stream.
Save.
To create a payment option:
Navigate to Finance > Payment Options.
Click Add and select the billing category this option belongs to.
Enter the total annual amount and the number of billing months.
Save. Repeat for each fee structure — multiple options can exist under one category (for example, sibling or staff discounts).
Notes: Billing always runs on the 1st of the month. Discounts are managed under Finance > Debtors > Payment Options > Manage discounts and then linked to a payment option. Avoid changing amounts after learners are linked — if a fee must change mid-year, amend the learner's billing under the learner profile or contact support.
Read more: How to set up and manage Billing Categories and How to set up and manage Payment Options
Finance > Debtors > Learner Opening Balances | Finance > General Ledger > Journal
Every learner must have an opening balance, even if it is R0.00, and the total must equal the debtors aging from your previous system.
Provide your implementer with an electronic Debtor Aging Excel sheet. The implementer bulk-imports the balances using a VLOOKUP match; any learners that cannot be matched must be captured manually by the school.
Navigate to Finance > Debtors > Learner Opening Balances and confirm every learner has a balance captured, including zero balances.
Check that the total of all learner opening balances matches the debtors aging from your previous system. If a balance is wrong, adjust the individual learner account — never the debtors control account, which is system-managed.
Journal 1 (the opening balance journal) is posted by your implementer, only once all learner and cashbook balances are verified. Debits must equal credits or the journal will not save.
Notes: You have three months from sign-off to submit your Trial Balance or Audit financial statement to your implementer or implementations@d6.co.za. If implementation starts at the beginning of the year, January fees bill on the new system — prepaid January fees must be carried over as credit opening balances. Family mismatches between old admin and finance systems are resolved on the Learner Profile via New Family (split) or Merge Families.
Risk 1 — Payment reference confusion: d6 uses the family code as payment reference; during handover the old reference shows in brackets after the new code. Parents often keep paying with old references. Spot-check bank statements for the first two to three months, manually allocate old-reference payments to the correct family, and remind parents on the first d6 statement to update their reference.
Risk 2 — Families merged or split during migration: reconcile your full family list from the previous system against d6 before Journal 1 is posted, confirming merged families have the correct combined balance and split families the correct individual balances.
Common pitfalls after go-live:
Posting Journal 1 before all learner and cashbook balances are verified.
Running two undeposited funds accounts — there should be exactly one.
Treating Speedpoint as a bank account: capture card receipts to the bank account where the money will reflect, then bulk-match the receipts against the Speedpoint deposit on the imported statement.
Not linking new learners to a payment option on the same day they are captured — late linking means missed billing months.
Skipping the monthly bank reconciliation — even one missed month makes the next far harder.
Ignoring the suspense account: if the implementer finds differences when posting Journal 1, they go to suspense. It is the school's responsibility to identify and move those amounts to the correct accounts.
Finance > Cashbook | Finance > Debtors
Daily:
Open d6 and scan notices for system notifications.
Capture the day's receipts: cash and cheques to the undeposited funds account; EFTs directly to the main bank account.
Allocate overnight EFT payments to the correct learner accounts.
Respond to parent finance queries before they age into disputes.
Weekly — import your bank statement:
Download the statement in OFX, OFC or CSV format and rename the file YYYYMMDD (for example, 20260630.ofx).
Navigate to Finance > Cashbook > Import Bank Statement, select the correct cashbook and upload the file.
Allocate each imported line to the correct learner account or General Ledger code, then reconcile the lines against your receipts.
When depositing cash, use Finance > Cashbook > Deposit and match the deposit line on the next statement import.
Weekly — debtors management: link new learners to a payment option the same day they are captured; run the age analysis weekly via Finance > Debtors > Age Analysis (flag accounts at 60 days, act at 90); send monthly statements; process adjustments as they arise; and archive leavers immediately — billing is removed automatically and statements can still be sent for outstanding balances.
Finance > Cashbook > Reconciliation
Navigate to Finance > Cashbook > Reconciliation.
Select the cashbook you are reconciling (start with your main bank account).
Select the statement end date (the last day of the month you are closing) and click Open.
Confirm that: cashbook closing balance + outstanding deposits − outstanding payments = bank statement closing balance.
Once the difference is zero, click Save to lock the reconciliation for that month.
Troubleshooting common differences: bank charges not captured (capture as a General Ledger journal, then tick on the reconciliation); duplicate receipts (reverse the duplicate); outstanding deposits (normal if using undeposited funds correctly); wrong cashbook allocation (transfer to the correct account before reconciling).
Notes: Always reconcile one month at a time, starting with the oldest unreconciled month. To reopen a saved reconciliation, contact support@d6plus.co.za — do not post backdated journals to correct it yourself. Reconcile petty cash against the physical cash float at the end of each month.
Finance > Debtors > Payment Options | Finance > Projects
d6 Pay lets parents pay school fees by card directly in the app via a Pay Now button on their statement, with payments allocated automatically to the learner account.
To enable d6 Pay on a payment option:
Navigate to Finance > Debtors > Payment Options and open the payment option.
Set Cashless to Yes and Save. Parents linked to that option immediately see the Pay Now button.
To set up a Finance Project (one-off campaigns such as tours, fundraisers or uniform runs):
Navigate to Finance > Projects and click Add.
Enter the project name, amount and closing date.
Link the relevant learners (individual learners, a class, or the whole school).
Set the status to Active and publish to the app so parents can view and pay.
Notes: Finance Projects are separate from regular monthly billing and are not for recurring fees — use a billing category and payment option for those. Once the closing date passes, the Pay Now button is hidden. Confirm with your implementer that d6 Pay is activated for your school before enabling it — there is an onboarding process with the payment gateway first. Parents can choose not to pay a Finance Project.
Your d6 implementer posts Journal 1, and only once all learner opening balances and cashbook opening balances have been captured and verified.
Monthly, for every cashbook, one month at a time starting with the oldest unreconciled month. The closing balance must agree with the bank statement to the cent before you Save.
Yes. Schools running two streams (for example primary and high school, or a hostel) on one d6 entity must create billing categories separately per stream, preferably with separate control accounts, so fee structures and reports stay accurate. Billing always runs on the 1st of the month.
One-off payment campaigns such as tours, fundraisers or uniform runs — kept separate from regular monthly billing. For recurring or compulsory fees, use a billing category and payment option instead.
Last updated: July 2026 | Version 1.0