Brightwheel makes it easy than ever to track family payments and monitor student account balances!

This resource is useful for new providers looking to gain a comprehensive overview of family payments in brightwheel, as well as the tools available to track and manage payments effectively.

Types of payments you can track

Families can make payments online through brightwheel or you can track payments made offline, outside of brightwheel (E.g. cash, Venmo). You can customize the types of payment methods you wish to accept in your billing settings.

Online payments

Online payments are automatically tracked when a payer adds a payment method and uses brightwheel to pay an account balance. Payments can be made via credit/debit card or direct bank transfer, each with a service fee specific to your program.

Offline payments

Some programs allow offline payments like cash, checks, or 3rd-party systems (Venmo, Zelle, Interac e-Transfers, etc.).

You can log offline payments in brightwheel for tracking and apply them to the student’s account balance, but note that this is for record-keeping only. Payments made offline still need to be deposited at your financial institution

To learn more, visit Track payments made via cash, check or third party.

View the status of a payment

Providers can easily review the status of a payment to see if it has been paid or not, or if it is still processing. To do this, you'll want to review the Payment status for a given invoice or transaction.

You can check the payment status by running the Payments & credits report or by heading to the student's billing account and clicking All transactions> Credits & payments:

What each payment status means

Pending: The parent has submitted an payment, but it is still processing and has not yet been deposited.
Paid (not deposited): The parent submitted a payment, but the money has not been deposited yet due to processing times
Paid (deposited): The parent's original payment has successfully completed processing and the funds have been deposited into your account
Paid: An offline payment (such as cash or check) is recorded.
Failed: The parent's payment has failed.

How families make payments

Once families add a payment method, they can pay specific invoices, all open invoices, or any amount toward the student balance in the brightwheel app. If they are enrolled in autopay, they will be charged automatically on the invoice due date.

To learn more, visit Understanding the guardian billing experience.

Tips for smoother payments

Require automatic payments (autopay)

Providers can require families enroll in automatic payments, which ensures the families payment method is automatically charged for a invoice on the due date. This avoids families making manual payments and makes it much more likely for you to get paid online.

To require autopay, visit Customize your billing experience in settings.

Share resources with families

Empower your families with the information they need and help them find answers to their billing questions with these valuable resources:

Guardian billing Help Center collection - Payers can explore a variety of helpful guides on how to navigate billing in brightwheel.
Payer's guide to brightwheel Billing - Perfect for those who prefer printed instructions! Covers adding a payment method, making a payment, and FAQs.

FAQs

How do I see which payments have been deposited into my account?

From the student's billing profile, the payment status will show as Paid (deposited), or you can view all of the deposits made into your program's account using the expanded Deposits Report.