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Track payments made via cash, check or third party
Track payments made via cash, check or third party

[For Admins + Billing Only Role] Learn how to document payments made outside of brightwheel, also known as Offline Payments.

Sabrina avatar
Written by Sabrina
Updated this week

With brightwheel Billing, providers can accept payments online through the brightwheel portal and also track any payments made offline, outside of brightwheel such as via cash, check, or a third-party app (E.g. Zelle).

This gives providers greater flexibility in payment methods accepted while still making it easy to stay on top of student balances and make end of year tax reporting a breeze!


What is an Offline Payment?

Any payment that is submitted by a family and processed outside of the brightwheel website or application can be recorded as an offline payment and applied toward a student's invoice or balance, including:

  • cash payments

  • check payments

  • subsidy or agency payments

  • payments processed through a third-party tool, such as Venmo, Zelle, PayPal, or Interac e-Transfer

  • any payment submitted, processed, or collected outside of brightwheel

When recording an offline payment, administrators can opt to send an emailed receipt to parents.

🚩 Logging an offline payment is strictly for tracking purposes of offline payments that you have already received. Any checks or cash payments will still need to be deposited at the program's financial institution.


Who can use offline payments?

Everyone can track offline payments in brightwheel!

Please note that customers outside the U.S. and Canada cannot process online payments or receive deposits through brightwheel, as our payment processor is not compatible with these regions. However, international customers—or those who choose not to accept payments through brightwheel—can still leverage the platform to manage billing plans for families.

These providers can still track cash or check payments as offline payments, post charges to student billing accounts, notify parents of due balances, view what is owed, and issue receipts. This approach centralizes payment tracking, making it easier for providers to manage their finances and prepare for tax reporting.


Track Offline Payments

For steps on how to document offline payments such as cash, check, etc. and apply these payments to specific charges and invoices, visit our Log an Offline Payment resource.

A logged offline payment will be displayed on the student's account as a negative amount in the transaction history until it is applied to invoice. If needed, you can always choose to Void an Offline Payment as well.

ℹ️ Before you can log an offline payment (cash, check, etc.) the billing setup must be complete and at least one payer added to a child's billing profile.


Report on Offline Payments

Accurate reporting is critical for administrators in getting a full visualization of their program's finances.

While the Deposit report will only reflect online payments submitted and processed through brightwheel, all other Billing reports are available and will provide useful insights for programs that don't use online Billing.

Please visit Overview of Billing Reporting Options for more information on the reports available.

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