Switching school software mid-year: carrying arrears across cleanly

A principal told us about the week they switched systems. The new software went live on a Monday, the parent portal opened on Tuesday, and by Wednesday the office had three thank-you messages from families who were delighted to see "All paid up" on their balance. Two of them owed money from the previous term.

The system was not wrong. It simply had never been told.

The problem in a Belize school day

A school's finances are not a snapshot; they are a running total. Every family starts the new system somewhere, and for a few of them "somewhere" is behind. If those balances are not entered before families can see their accounts, the school has, in effect, forgiven the debt, and asking for it back is now an argument about whose number is right.

The same is true of the structure underneath: which children belong to which family, which level each is in, what each family's payment schedule is. Get those in first and the fees follow. Guess at them and the first billing run bills the wrong amounts to the wrong people.

How it works in Scholar

We built the onboarding pack to make this a half-day job rather than a term-long worry.

Before anything goes live, the school fills in a spreadsheet with one tab per list: students, families and, deliberately, opening balances. The Students tab's columns match Scholar's importer, so the office can save it as a file and upload it under Students → Import with Import students; children and their families are created together. It is the list you already have, in a slightly tidier order.

Opening balances are entered as charges, because that is what they are. Open each family that owes money under Billing → Families, press Add a charge, choose the month the balance belongs to, write a description such as "Balance brought forward, Term 1", enter the amount and press Add charge. The family's balance now shows the real figure, their portal shows it, and the first automatic reminder, if you enable them, will be for the right amount.

Then set the structure that drives fees: levels and terms under Settings → Academic, one price per level and payment schedule under Settings → Fees (press Add fee for each), each family's schedule on their statement, and any child paying something other than the list price under their record's Fees section. Only then run Billing → Generate for the first month.

The last check is the simplest. On the Billing page, sort families by balance and read the list against the old receipt book. If the top ten match, go live.

What to expect

Keep the old receipt book for one parallel month. Record payments in Scholar and write them in the book too, then compare at month-end. It costs an hour and it is the hour that makes everyone trust the new numbers.

Parents' logins come from the school: when you register a parent, a temporary password is generated and shown once, and the office passes it on. Nothing is emailed by the system. Hand out the logins only after the balances are in, so the first thing a family sees is true.

Mid-year switches have one more wrinkle: the current term's grades. Scholar's gradebook starts from the day the teachers begin entering marks, so a report card generated in the first term after switching should be checked against the marks teachers kept before. Most schools choose to switch at a term boundary for exactly this reason, and the billing side does not care which you choose.

The checklist, in order

1. Fill in the Students tab of the onboarding pack from the list you already keep, with each child's family name spelled the same way for siblings. Upload it under Students → Import and press Import students. Check the count on the Students page matches the roll.
2. Confirm the levels and three terms under Settings → Academic, and set the grading weights under Settings → Grading before any mark is entered.
3. Add one price per level and payment schedule under Settings → Fees.
4. For every family that owes money today, open their statement under Billing → Families and press Add a charge: the month the debt belongs to, a clear description, the amount, Add charge. For a family that has paid ahead, add a Discount-type charge for the credit.
5. Set each family's payment schedule on their statement if it is not monthly.
6. On the Billing page, sort by balance and read the top ten against the receipt book.
7. Run Billing → Generate for the current month and read the result bar.
8. Register parents under Parents → Register parent, copy each temporary password, and hand the logins out only now.
9. Keep the receipt book for one parallel month and compare at month-end.
10. Put the receipt book in the cupboard.

Steps 1 to 3 are an hour. Step 4 is as long as your arrears list. Everything else is minutes.

See it with your own school

Send us your current fee list and we will walk through the opening-balance step with it, so you can see your real families' balances before anyone else does. Book a free demo.

Related: What onboarding looks like: three steps from receipt book to live, Spreadsheets vs a school management system: an honest comparison, and the three steps on the how it works section.