After adding a payment method, make payments to your child's program right through your brightwheel account on the web or mobile app.
Paying for Multiple Students
Depending on where you are making the payment (web or app) and if you are making payments for a single student or multiple students, the steps can differ slightly.
For students enrolled in multiple programs, use the Change school at the top of the billing profile to access invoices and payments at that specific school
For multiple students at a single school, simplify payments by selecting the "All children" tab on the Payments page. This tab shows the combined balance for all children at that location, allowing a single payment for each of their balances, with only one processing fee if applicable. If you're paying for multiple students, this is a great feature to leverage!
💡 If autopay is active for multiple students with invoices due on the same date and charged to the same payment method, these payments will be grouped into a single combined payment to reduce fees.
ℹ️ If you need to submit an overpayment, or are looking to prepay a student’s account, this can only be done from an individual student’s billing profile. You will not see the option to submit an overpayment from the ‘All Children’ tab.
Make a Payment
Open the Payments page in your account
Click Change school at the top to select your desired program
Navigate the appropriate student's billing profile, or if you have more than one student, open the 'All children' tab to make a bundled sibling payment
ℹ️ If you need to submit an overpayment, or are looking to prepay a student’s account, this can only be done from an individual student’s billing profile. You will not see the option to submit an overpayment from the ‘All Children’ tab.Click the Make a Payment button
💡 If this button is visible but unclickable, the program has not enabled the Accept online payments setting yet!Select All open invoices, Individual invoice(s), or Other amount
All open invoices: this will pay all open invoices
Individual invoice(s): parents can choose which invoice or invoices they want to pay and can indicate how much they want to pay towards it. If they want to see what is inside that invoice, they will need to find it in the Invoice list in the table below the account balance.
Other amount: parents can also pay any $ amount towards the account without paying directly toward a specific invoice. This payment will automatically be applied to any open invoices assigned to the payer based on the due date, starting with any past-due invoices. If there is not an open invoice assigned to the payer, the payment will remain on the account as a credit and automatically apply to the next posted assigned invoice.
💡If you need to submit an overpayment or prepay a student’s account, this is the option that you would select.
Click Next
If paying all open invoices:
Review the payment summary and click Pay now
If paying individual invoice(s):
Use the checkboxes to select which invoice(s) to pay
Use the additional text field to change the amount paid towards any specifics invoice(s)
Click Review and then Pay now
If paying another amount:
Input the amount you would like to pay on your total current balance
Click Review and then Pay now
View Payment Status
Once payment is made, the Payment Status will indicate if it was successful. For questions about statuses and invoices, please contact the program.
Status | Definition |
Paid | The payment was processed and successfully sent. |
Pending | The payment has been initiated via ACH or FSA/HSA card and it is still processing. ACH payments can take anywhere from 5-7 business days to process depending on the bank. |
Partially Paid | A portion of the invoice has been paid.
|
Partially Refunded | A portion of the payment has been refunded to the payer's original payment method. |
Refunded | The amount previously paid has been returned to the payer's original online payment method, or a different offline method. Online refunds may take 5-10 business days to be processed back to the payer's online payment method. |
Unpaid | The invoice has not been paid. |
Voided | The individual invoice has been cancelled and no longer applies to the current balance owed. |
Failed | The payment did not go through. Visit Payer Billing FAQ My payment failed. What should I do? for more information. |
Apply Credits
When guardians pay more than the balance owed, their account will reflect a credit for the amount of the overpayment. These credits will then automatically apply to and reduce the total amount of the next invoice posted for the payer and no action by the payer is required.
If payers wish to apply a credit to a open invoice, only the payer assigned to that specific invoice can apply any available credits. If you are not the payer assigned to the invoice, any payments made will not go towards that invoice and remain on the account as a credit.
If you need to apply credits to a specific invoice, we recommend reaching out to the program to manually apply the credit from the account to an open invoice, or assign you to the invoice.
FAQ
How can I make an overpayment?
How can I make an overpayment?
To submit an overpayment to a student's billing account, you will first need to click on the student's name to view their billing account. If you are connected to more than one student in a program, it's important to note that you will not see the option to submit an overpayment if you're on the All Children tab.
Once you click Make a Payment from the student's tab, you can click the Other amount option to submit an overpayment.
If you decide to make a payment on a student’s account before a charge is posted, or if you choose to submit an overpayment, this will result in a credit on the account. This is because the total amount of payments is higher than the total amount of charges.
Your child's school has a few options on how to process the credit when this occurs. If you are choosing to pay in advance of a known charge then the most likely course of action will be to simply do nothing! The next time a charge is posted, the credit will apply to this charge.
How can I make a partial payment?
How can I make a partial payment?
To submit a partial payment to a student's billing account, you will first need to click on the student's name to view their billing account. If you are connected to more than one student in a program, it's important to note that you will not see the option to submit aa partial payment if you're on the All Children tab.
Once you click Make a Payment from the student's tab, you can click the Other amount option to submit a partial payment.
Once you complete the partial payment, the payment should automatically apply to the oldest invoice on the student's billing account.