Configuring payment plans

Payment plans allow debtors to pay their annual fees and charges in a series of instalments. For example, monthly instalments.

For each payment plan you can define:

• number of instalments
• discounts available
• annual voluntary contribution amounts.

Once payment plans are configured, Community Portal users can select payment plans on the Payment Plans tab.

Note: The Community Portal can only accept payments if SSL (secure sockets layer) is enabled on your IIS server. Contact your IT Administrator.

Important: If instalment billing is not currently used at your organisation, be aware that it is a significant change to the billing process. Refer to manuals or contact Synergetic Support for more information.

Configuring payment plans

To configure payment plans:

1. Configure the Community Portal for payment plans. See Configuring the Community Portal for payment plans.
2. Set the ChargesBeginDate configuration setting to define the start of payment plan charging for the new year. See ChargesBeginDate configuration setting.
3. Set the BalanceThreshold configuration setting to determine whether debtor balances from the prior year are included in new payment plans. See BalanceThreshold configuration setting.
4. Set the IncludeNonInstalmentFees configuration setting to determine whether non-instalment fees (e.g. school diaries) are included in payment plans. See IncludeNonInstalmentFees configuration setting.
5. Set the DisableSinglePaymentDiscount configuration setting to determine whether the single payment discount is available after payment plan charging has begun. See DisableSinglePaymentDiscount configuration setting.
6. Set the LinkInstalmentsAndPlansFlag configuration setting to determine whether instalment charges and payment plan payments are linked. See LinkInstalmentsAndPlansFlag configuration setting.
   
7. Set the DiscountBasedOnFeeCategory configuration setting to determine whether payment plan discounts are calculated based on the total of all instalment fee categories or only fee categories selected to be used for discounts. See /wiki/spaces/SYNMAIN/pages/2378563585.
8. Add payment plan types to the luPortalPaymentPlans lookup table. See Adding payment plan types to the luPortalPaymentPlans lookup table.
9. Create review messages to describe the details of a user's payment plan prior to confirmation. See Creating review messages.
   
   Important: Review messages must be configured to allow payment plan selections to be processed.
   
   
10. Configure settings in Finance Configuration Maintenance for payment plans. See Configuring financial configuration settings for payment plans.
11. Configure debtor fees in Debtor Fee Maintenance to use instalments. See Configuring debtor fees to use instalments.
12. Create voluntary contributions for payment plans, if necessary. See Creating voluntary contributions for payment plans.
13. Create payment plans using automatic tuition. See Creating payment plans using automatic tuition.

Maintaining payment plans

Once payment plans have been configured you can maintain payment plan data. See Maintaining online payment data.