RESOURCE CENTER

Online Payments for Schools

Online payment processors for schools make fundraising & fee collecting easier for bookkeepers, teachers, and parents. Read on for all the information you need on collecting school payments online.

Dorothy Payments

What questions can we answer?

Why should schools use payment software_-1
How can schools start accepting online payments_-2
What is the cost of accepting online payments_-3
How to accept payments  using your school website

 

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Why should schools use payment software?

In this day and age, if your school isn’t offering online payment options, you’re doing your entire community a disservice. Online school payments benefit all of your stakeholders:

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Families

Have an easy and convenient way to pay school fees, donate to fundraisers, and more. They no longer have to worry about having exact change and an envelope to send to school, or to fear that their child is going to lose that money between home and the classroom.

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Teachers

Can focus on their primary responsibility: teaching! No more having to collect T-shirt fees or lunch money in the mornings during first period; with online payments, teachers don’t have to be the middle-man for school payments any more.

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Bookkeepers

Bookkeepers can have confidence in knowing that all the funds are accounted for properly. With accounting software integrations, online payments eliminate steps from the collections process and offer built-in accountability without cash changing hands four times between home and school.

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Athletics & Student Activities

Your athletics and student activities can have an added layer of options for raising funds for their programs. With online ticketing software, you can even reduce the amount of hassle at athletic gates or auditorium doors.

Hear from your colleagues:

“We no longer have to worry about checks getting lost in students’ backpacks! One of our teachers who has worked on several games loved that she didn't have to fill out the sheet at the end of the night and all I had to do was print out the report and add it to my monthly sales report.”

Click here to learn how students use their online store to raise funds for scholarships for graduating seniors!

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How can schools start accepting online payments for schools?

If you want to accept payments online, it all begins with selecting a payments processing company. Finding the right company for your school depends on your needs, but a few questions you should ask are:

  How long does it take to get a school store up and running?

  Can I take payments through my own website?

  What are the fees associated with accepting online payments?

Once you find a school payments company you want to work with, you should easily be able to set up listings online to sell anything from football tickets to Homecoming T-shirts. You can even accept school fees online, to the benefit of your families and school staff members.

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Click here to watch our Webinar on How to Interview an Online School Payments Company!

Hear from your colleagues:

“I would have had to have really long lines to be able to accept all the payments, but with it being online, it’s available 24/7 at any moment that payments are dropping in.”

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Share the love

Do you still ask parents to write checks for school fees? Get all the info you need to get your payments online: https://learn.edlio.com/online-school-payments-resource-hub #Edlio #OSP #SchoolPayments #SchoolStore #SchoolFundraising @Edlio

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What is the cost of accepting online payments?OSP accept credit cards

The initial process of setting up online payments and listing items should not cost your school anything. With some online payment processors, you may encounter monthly or annual fees; however, this is not a standard requirement for every company.

In general, you can expect to pay a fee per transaction, usually about 4% plus some change. This is how the payment processor makes money without having to charge you to establish a school store.

Many schools take advantage of the option to pass these fees on to the purchaser; this way, the school can keep all of the money they raise from fundraisers or event tickets. Most families are happy to pay this fee in exchange for the convenience of online payments at school. However, if you prefer, you should also have the option to absorb the transaction fees at the school level, which you can compensate for by adding a little bit extra to the price of the items you sell.

When it comes to cost, you should also consider the cost of NOT accepting school payments online: how much are you losing in revenue because your families and community members don’t have access to online payment options?

Hear from your colleagues:

"The opportunity that OSP offers by adding the 4% service + $0.35 transaction fee at check out for the purchaser to pay allows the school and students to keep all of the payments and donations we receive."

Click here to read “The Best Way to Raise Money for Your School” Blog

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How to accept payments online using your school websiteDorothy Computer

If you already have a school website that your stakeholders frequently visit, accepting online payments is just a few steps away. When you find an online payments company to work with, they should be able to give you options for selling physical items, tickets, and fees online.

If your website CMS includes the option to create online forms, you can also add a payment option to those forms. This is ideal for things like school fees: you can have your families fill out their registration and pay their annual fees all in one form.

If you need more options for selling physical items, event tickets, and more—and you want these sales to integrate with a robust accounting software, like EPES, then the best option is to set up a school store and fill it with everything you need to sell. Then you can easily link to this store right from your school’s website. For your site visitors, the process is seamless; buying spirit gear or paying fees is only a click away. For your school users on the back end, everything integrates and all the fees are accounted for.

Hear from your colleagues:

“As a public school, we get audited every year, so having exact amounts is critical. We are very vocal about sharing our success with OSP.”

Click here to learn how Imagine Charter switched to online payments to decrease risks involved with cash payments