To pay a childcare provider online through brightwheel, at least one student contact with parent-level permissions must be associated with a student’s account. This parent contact will need to add a payment method to their account before making a payment. Each parent contact can add as many payment methods as they would like and can only view, modify, or use the payment methods they have added to their account. Generally, a parent contact can choose to add either a bank account or a credit/debit card. In addition, parent contacts can choose to have their balance automatically charged to their default payment method through the autopay settings in their brightwheel account. Never miss a payment’s due date again!

Please Note: There may be processing fees associated with either payment method.

FSA/HSA/Dependent Care accounts are potential options that can be added to a parent's brightwheel account to make payments to a program. It's important to note that each program can choose what type of payments they'd like to accept (ACH and Credit/Debit cards or ACH only), and these settings may limit how certain FSA/HSA/Dependent Care accounts can be utilized.

This is the most common payment method used by student contacts on brightwheel. Any program that accepts payments through brightwheel will allow for bank transfers (checking account only). This payment method is often referred to as ACH, which stands for Automated Clearing House.

There are two ways to add and save a bank account payment method in brightwheel.

This is the simplest & easiest way to add a bank account. This is available for most nationwide banking institutions in the United States and utilizes a secure 3rd party partner called Plaid to connect and verify the information provided instantly.

Please note: If you experience any errors and/or your banking provider is not listed in Plaid, please follow the instructions to Manually Add a Bank Account.

If the banking institution does not appear when using the above option, a bank account can be linked with brightwheel by entering the bank account’s routing and account numbers manually and completing a two-factor (2FA) authentication process. For this option, the bank account must be verified by confirming two micro-deposits. These are two small deposits, typically less than $1.00, that will be deposited into the checking account. These funds will remain in the account for 3-4 days, after which they will be withdrawn from the account. Within that time frame, be sure to log back into brightwheel and verify the account by confirming the exact amount of each deposit.

After receiving the two deposits within 48 hours, log back into brightwheel and enter the exact amounts deposited to verify the account. Be sure to enter them in the exact order in which they were received.

Please Note: If you cannot complete your verification in time or are having difficulty, please email help@mybrightwheel.com to request that your account be removed to start over or get additional assistance.

Each childcare provider that uses brightwheel for their billing platform gets to determine which payment methods are accepted. In addition to ACH transactions, some providers choose to also accept credit or debit cards. If the childcare provider does not allow credit card payments when you attempt to add a payment method, you will only have the option to add a Bank Account.

If this option is enabled, any student contact with parent-level permissions can enter a credit and/or debit card as a payment method after completing a two-factor authentication (2FA) process as an extra security measure. This measure is also commonly referred to as two-step verification, 2-step verification, or dual-factor authentication

Accepted Card Brands: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, JCB, Diners Club, and China UnionPay.

The default payment method will typically be the payment method first added to the account. This will be the payment method that is automatically selected when making a new payment and the one that will be charged if autopay is enabled. If there is more than one payment method added to the account, any one of them can be set as the default at any time.

Parent contacts can remove payment methods as long as there is at least one other payment method attached to their account. If a payment method is both the default payment method and the only method attached to the account, it will not be removable by the parent contact. If this needs to be removed, or if all payment methods on the account need to be removed, please email help@mybrightwheel.com with the request and the last four digits of the payment method, and our support team will be happy to remove it from the account.

If there is more than one payment method added to the account, any one of them can be removed as long as it is not set as the default.

Autopay in brightwheel is a great way to save time and remove any worry about missing a tuition payment. Much like other automated payments that may be familiar, brightwheel’s autopay feature will charge the desired payment method for the full balance due on the due date of each statement. If multiple payment methods have been added to the account and/or if there are multiple students associated with the parent account, each student’s autopay settings can be individually managed, allowing for different payment methods for each.

Autopay always triggers a payment for the total balance due. If autopay is enabled at a moment when a balance has already accrued, the total balance will be paid off on the next statement’s due date.

Some childcare providers choose to enable Mandatory Autopay. This means that the parent contact will be required to accept and enable autopay the next time they add a payment method. If a payment method had already been saved to the account when the program enabled Mandatory Autopay, then brightwheel will display a prompt advising that autopay is enabled whenever the student’s billing account page is visited.

If the provider does not require autopay, the parent contacts can manage its settings anytime. To change the payment method used for autopay, turn off autopay, choose the desired payment method, and turn it back on:

You can contact support at help@mybrighthweel.com and request that your default payment method be removed at any time. Please note that you may be responsible for making arrangements to pay any outstanding balances to your program. We'd recommend that you reach out to your program to find out what alternative payment options may be available to you.

Please allow a two-business-day processing time for a payment method to be removed manually by our support team.

Anytime a transaction takes place online, or when a card is swiped with any vendor, a processing fee is attached to that transaction. This fee is generally dictated by the payment processor that the vendor chooses, not the vendor themselves. In many cases, the vendor pays this, and the customer is unaware that these fees are associated with their transaction. However, depending on the location and other factors, some vendors may choose to pass this fee on to the customer.

Any childcare provider that uses brightwheel as their billing platform has the choice to forward the processing fees for each transaction to the payer. These fees will be different for ACH transactions and credit/debit card transactions. If the provider chooses to forward these fees, brightwheel will notify the payer when the transaction occurs.

If autopay is enabled, these processing fees will still be applied, so be sure to understand what fees may be included before enabling autopay or completing a payment. Processing fees are not refundable, even if the payment has been refunded.

Any questions regarding processing fees should be directed to the childcare provider.