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Set a Student's Starting Balance
Set a Student's Starting Balance

[For Admins] Learn how to record a starting balance charge or credit on a student's billing profile.

Sabrina avatar
Written by Sabrina
Updated yesterday

If this content does not match what you see in your account, you may be on our legacy billing platform.

Setting a starting balance is crucial during the transition to brightwheel billing from another system to ensure accurate account balances. You can do this by adding a one-time charge or transferring outstanding credits from the payer in the student's billing profile.

Issue a Starting Balance Charge

Creating a One-time Charge posts an immediate charge to the student's account for payment by their payers.

  1. Navigate to the applicable student's billing profile

    💡Open the Billing page from the sidebar, jump to the Students tab, and select the student's name!

  2. Once on their profile, click Select an action and choose Add a one-time charge

  3. Click Add charges

  4. Add an existing charge from the library or + Create a new charge to apply the applicable starting balance. When finished, click Save

  5. Add charges from your existing charge list or create a new one and click Save

  6. Click Set schedule

  7. Choose the Desired due date
    💡Only the current and future dates will be selectable

  8. Add optional Dates of Service to reflect the attendance/billing dates the charge represents

  9. Click Preview & confirm

  10. Add an optional message in Notes to be displayed to the payer

  11. Review and make any needed edits and click Create invoice

Issue a Starting Balance Credit

If the student currently has an account credit that they can draw from for future charges, then a standalone credit can be added to the student's account to reflect this.

  1. Navigate to the applicable student's billing profile

    💡Open the Billing page from the sidebar, jump to the Students tab, and select the student's name!

  2. Once on their profile, click Select an action and choose Add a credit

  3. Enter the Credit amount

  4. Choose a Reason from the drop-down

  5. Add Notes if desired

  6. Optionally, apply credits to unpaid/open invoices on the student account by typing an amount under the Amount applied column

  7. Click Save & apply to create the credit and apply to invoices if that option was selected

ℹ️ Credits aren't immediately applied to invoices, and can be manually allocated as needed. If not allocated, the credit will automatically apply to the next invoice for the primary payer. Learn more about Credits.

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