Invoices, Payments & Late Fees
Last updated
Once tuition plans are out and families are paying, billing becomes ongoing bookkeeping: charging for the extras that aren't tuition, recording payments that come in offline, and handling the cases where a payment is late or needs to be returned. This guide covers invoices, logging offline payments, late fees, and refunds.
Installments vs. Invoices
It helps to keep two things straight:
- Installments are the scheduled charges of a tuition plan. They're created automatically when a family chooses their payment plan, and they run on that schedule. You manage them from a family's Billing tab in Households.
- Invoices are one-off charges outside of tuition — a supplies fee, a field trip, a materials cost, a fine. You create these yourself, whenever the need comes up.
Both show up on the family's Billing tab, and both can be paid online or logged as offline payments.
Creating an Invoice
From a family's Billing tab, use Create invoice to bill a guardian for a one-off item. You'll set a description (what the charge is for), the recipient (which guardian to bill), an optional due date, and an optional note. Once created, the invoice appears in the family's Charges & Invoices list, where you can track its status.
For charging many families at once — a fee that applies to everyone, say — the Billing page supports bulk invoice creation, so you can raise the same invoice across a group of guardians in one step rather than one at a time.
Tip: Keep descriptions specific and consistent — "Spring field trip" rather than "Fee". Families see the description on their invoice, and clear labels mean fewer "what is this charge?" emails back to you.
Invoice Statuses
An invoice moves through a set of statuses so you always know where it stands:
- Draft — Created but not yet sent.
- Sent — Delivered to the guardian and awaiting payment.
- Processing — A payment is underway (for example, a bank transfer clearing).
- Paid — Settled in full.
- Overdue — Past its due date by your grace period (see late fees below).
- Void — Cancelled; no longer owed.
You can filter your invoices by status to focus on what needs attention — the Sent and Overdue ones are usually where your follow-up goes.
Logging Offline Payments
Not every family pays online. When someone hands you cash or a check, record it so your books match reality. Use Log offline payment (against the installment or invoice being paid) and enter:
- Which installment the payment is for.
- Amount paid — pre-filled to the amount due, adjustable if they paid a different amount.
- Payment method — Cash, Check, or Other.
- An optional note for your own records.
The charge is then marked as paid without going through Stripe. For an invoice, you can similarly mark it paid manually, recording the amount and any notes.
Note: Offline payments are settled directly with the family, so they aren't processed — or refundable — through Stripe. If you need to return an offline payment, you handle that in cash or by check, then adjust your records accordingly.
Late Fees
Lazarus can add a late fee when a payment slips past its due date. Late fees are configured in your settings, separately for two surfaces:
- Tuition installments — late fees are available here and can be switched on for overdue tuition.
- Invoicing — late fees for one-off invoices are opt-in.
For each, you choose whether the fee is a flat amount or a percentage, and the grace period — the number of days past due before the fee applies. An installment or invoice only reads as Overdue once that grace period has passed and a fee would apply. You can also enable email notifications so families are told when a fee is assessed.
When a late fee has been added but you'd rather not charge it — a family had a genuine reason, or you're extending a courtesy — you can waive it. Waiving removes the fee from what the family owes while keeping a record that it was there.
Tip: Start with late fees off or set to $0 while you get comfortable, then turn them on once your families understand the schedule. A grace period of several days absorbs the normal slips — a card that expired, a paycheck timing — without penalizing anyone for being a day late.
Refunds
When money needs to go back to a family — a withdrawal, an overcharge, a courtesy — you can issue a refund on a payment that was made through Stripe. The refund is returned to the card or bank account the family paid with. For a complete record of payments and refunds, use the Billing dashboard and your accounting records, covered in the next guide.
As noted above, only online (Stripe) payments are refunded through Lazarus; anything paid by cash or check is settled directly with the family.
What Comes Next
You can now bill for extras, record every kind of payment, and handle the late and returned cases. The final piece is seeing the whole picture — how much you've collected, what's outstanding, and when the money reaches your bank. That's the Billing dashboard.