Administrators and staff with Billing Only permissions will have the ability to add and remove private payers from a student's billing profile, as well as specify which payer should become the primary payer on the account.
Understanding the Primary Payer
By default, the first parent contact to sign up for brightwheel will become the primary payer on a student's billing account. Programs can assign invoices to a specific payer; unless otherwise selected, all invoices will automatically be assigned to the primary payer. All payers can see and submit payments towards these invoices by paying them directly, but the primary payer will become responsible for them (if unpaid). This means the invoices will be visible in the primary payer's account balance and paid for using autopay if enabled. If not using autopay, the balance will be displayed in the account under My Current Balance to pay.
At this time, only a program Administrator and staff with Billing Only permissions can change the primary payer on a student’s billing account. This is easily done from the student’s billing profile on the Account Details page. Learn more about managing primary payers as an admin by continuing on to the section below!
🚩 Parents and Payers cannot update the primary payer on a student's billing account. Payers need to contact their program administrator for assistance with changing the primary payer.
Manage Payers
Add a Payer
When a parent contact is added, and the program uses billing, they will automatically be added as a payer. Learn how to Add Student Contacts. If the parent contact is not automatically listed as the primary payer, an admin can update the parent to be the primary payer by following the Change Primary Payer steps below.
Any additional student contacts (Family or Approved Pickups) added will not automatically be added as a payer, but can easily be designated as one by following the steps below.
🚩 Emergency Contacts cannot be added as a payer.
Open the Billing page
Jump to the Students tab
Locate the student's name
On the profile page, jump to the Account details tab
Under the Payers table, click the ➕Add Payer option
Use the checkbox to select what additional student contacts should be added as a payer
Click Add
Please Note: If this contact should be the primary payer, easily update this by following the Change Primary Payer steps below.
🚩 Staff with Billing Only permissions cannot add/remove student contacts. Please contact a program administrator to add/remove a contact. Once added, the Billing Only staff can modify the list of payers from the student billing profile
Change Primary Payer
Changing a primary payer will automatically assign any future created or any currently unassigned invoices but will not automatically update any existing assigned invoice.
Open the Billing page
Jump to the Students tab
Locate the student's name
On the profile page, jump to the Account details tab
In the Payers table, locate the payer that should be the primary
Click the Actions menu and select Make primary payer
Remove Payer & Primary Payer
Things to keep in mind before removing a payer
If a student has multiple payers, the primary payer cannot be removed as a student contact until a new primary payer is assigned
Any open invoices for a payer need to be reassigned, paid, or voided before removing the payer
Any active bill plans/charges assigned to the payer would need to be reassigned to a new payer or canceled before removing them
How to remove
Log in to an administrator account on the web
Click to open the Billing tab on the purple sidebar menu
Jump to the Students tab
Locate the student’s name
On the profile page, jump to the Account details tab
If there is only a single primary payer:
Click the Actions drop-down menu
Select Remove payer
Click Yes, remove to confirm the action
If there are multiple payers:
Under the ‘Payers’ table, locate the payer to be removed
Locate the payer who will become the new primary and click Actions on their row
Set the new primary payer by selecting Make primary payer
Once the old primary payer is no longer the primary, click Actions on their row
Select Remove payer
Click Yes, remove to confirm the action
Subsidy Payer
To learn more about adding a subsidy payer to a student's account, please review the Getting Started with Subsidies resource.