The number one goal for brightwheel’s billing platform is to help you get paid on time every time.
An important step in accepting online payments is ensuring that payment settings are properly adjusted - giving you maximum control over your billing process.
🇨🇦 If the provider is located in Canada, all charges and payments appear in the Canadian Dollar, (CAD). Amounts are denoted with a dollar sign ($).
Payment Options
Accept Online Payments
Once a deposit account is added and provider information is verified by the brightwheel team, payers will immediately be eligible to pay their balances through direct bank transfers.
The Accept Online Payments setting will be turned on by default and gives providers full control over when they'd like to begin accepting online payments. This is useful for new brightwheel Billing users who want to set up plans and charges, but aren’t ready to accept online payments from payers.
Log in on the web
Navigate to the Billing tab
Click to open Billing Settings
In the 'Payment Options' tile, manage the 'Accept online payments' setting to toggle ON/OFF as needed
When to Turn OFF 'Accept Online Payments'
When to Turn OFF 'Accept Online Payments'
Turn this setting OFF if providers don't wish for families to pay online through the brightwheel app. When turned off, providers can still add charges and recurring charges will post as usual to students’ billing accounts.
Payers will still be able to add and set up their payment methods but won’t be able to submit online payments. This allows your families to prepare to make payments through brightwheel as soon as they set up their accounts.
When toggling Accept online payments to OFF, you'll have two options: Cancel all pending autopay payments and Collect all pending autopay payments.
If you choose to collect all pending autopayments, autopay will trigger for all upcoming scheduled recurring charges along with any posted charges. However, payers will no longer be able to make manual payments on their student's accounts.
If you choose to cancel all pending autopayments, autopay will not initiate payments.
Providers have full control over which online payment methods are acceptable forms of payment. If providers do not wish to accept online payments through brightwheel at all and simply want to use the billing feature to log payments that are made offline, that’s totally acceptable and free of charge.
When to Turn ON 'Accept Online Payments'
When to Turn ON 'Accept Online Payments'
Turn this setting ON to allow families to pay online. Families will not be able to pay through the brightwheel app if this setting is off so we recommend turning it on as soon as you are ready to accept payments.
Payers who have enrolled in autopay will have payments initiated automatically on the due date.
Accept Card Payments
Brightwheel also allows payers to pay via credit and debit cards. Accepting card payments is disabled by default, but this option can be turned on in the Billing Settings.
Log in on the web
Navigate to the Billing tab
Click to open Billing Settings
In the 'Payment options' tile, manage the 'Accept card payments' setting to toggle ON/OFF as needed
Turn this setting ON if you would like to accept credit card and debit card payments. We recommend turning this setting on if you currently accept card payments in your center or if you would like families to have the option to pay using credit cards, debit cards, or FSA cards online.
Eligible Card Types: The accepted credit card brands are Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, JCB, Diners Club, and China UnionPay.
Autopay Settings
Make autopay required at your school
Brightwheel understands how important it is that payments are made on time as often as possible. One way to achieve this is by requiring payers to enroll in autopay. Autopay guarantees that on the invoice due date, the payer's payment method will be charged automatically for the full balance due, including any past due balance.
By default, making autopay required will be turned on for new schools — we recommend keeping it on to ensure on-time payments from all families within your center. Easily manage this setting at any time by following the steps below.
Log in on the web
Navigate to the Billing tab
Click to open Billing Settings
In the 'Autopay settings' tile, manage the 'Make autopay required at your school' setting to toggle ON
ℹ️ When a payer adds a new payment method and autopay is mandatory, they will see a popup that requires them to enroll as they add their payment method. Payers can not turn autopay off for themselves when it is mandatory.
Turn Off Autopay
Log in on the web
Navigate to the Billing tab
Click to open Billing Settings
In the 'Autopay settings' tile, manage the 'Make autopay required at your school' setting to toggle OFF
Customize Individual Payer Autopay Settings
The ability to further customize how autopay is used at your program is available to you! If you require autopay, you can choose to not require it for certain payers or if you don't require it, you can choose to require it for certain payers. This can be a great option if autopay needs to be stopped/disable for one family or a few families, but not all.
Log in on the web
Navigate to the Billing tab
Click to open Billing Settings
In the 'Autopay settings' tile, locate the 'Customize individual payer autopay settings' option and click Manage
In the "Autopay requirement status' popup use the available filters to locate the desired student(s)
Use the checkbox under the 'Autopay required?' column to select/deselect as needed
When finished, click Save
Processing Fees
These settings allow you to pass payment processing fees for card and direct bank transfer payments along to the person making a payment. If enabled, your organization will not be charged payment processing fees. Instead, payers will pay these fees when they go to make an online payment, and they will see how much the fee is.
Some state restrictions may apply to vendors' ability to charge their customers for these fees. It is your responsibility to determine if your organization can pass along such fees to the payer. Brightwheel recommends that you or your administrator review any applicable regulations that may apply before turning on these settings.
Log in on the web
Navigate to the Billing tab
Click to open Billing Settings
In the 'Processing Fees' tile, manage the available settings to toggle ON/OFF as needed
Pass card processing fee to payers - Turn this setting on to pass the credit card fee to payers when they make a payment for an invoice.
Pass ACH or AFT bank transfer processing fees to payers - Turn this setting on to pass the ACH/AFT fee to payers when they make a payment for an invoice.
💡If either of these processing fee settings is enabled, it is highly recommended that you communicate with your families that there may be fees associated with their selected method of payment. Fees will apply to all online payments, including autopay.
Late Payment Fees
You can set up your Late Payment Fee Policy here to configure how your center will charge families for past-due invoices. These settings are optional but must be configured before you can add late payment fees to invoices.
Navigate to the Billing section in brightwheel on the web
Go to the Settings tab
Scroll down to the Late Payment Fees section and enter in the dollar amount to be charged for late payments (this is a flat rate it does not accrue until the payment is paid), the grace period (how many days past due is acceptable), and how soon the fees should be due once charged.
Click Save to save changes
ℹ️ Applying this setting does NOT automatically charge parents. Learn how to process and/or waive fee charges in our Manage Late Payments resource.
Billing Email Notifications
By default, program Administrators and Billing Only roles receive automatic billing email notifications updating them important student and family billing activities. Additionally, each Saturday, a weekly invoice digest is sent summarizing the invoices scheduled to post for the upcoming week.
To disable these notifications, please visit our Manage Billing Notifications resource.
What’s Next?
Once you've finished configuring your Billing settings, download our Billing Set up Guide below for 3 simple steps to get fully set up with brightwheel Billing! 🎉