Sproutary allows you to manage all aspects of taking payments. Whether you want to accept payments online, allowing families to pay with credit cards, debits cards, or a checking account (ACH) OR by way of checks and/or cash. As a center, you can set up these online payment options for families to use; you can also automate invoicing.
Auto invoicing is the process of Sproutary automatically creating charges for your families based on rules you setup. It can be set up to run weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. Using this feature makes sure you never miss a payment from a family. AutoPay allows families to pay their invoices by credit card, debit card, or checking account and can be billed automatically.
Invoices can be created weekly, bi-weekly (even or odd weeks), or monthly.
Tuition can be set to bill weekly, bi-weekly (even or odd calendar weeks), monthly, daily, hourly, or drop-ins.
Weekly/Bi-Weekly/Monthly allow you to bill families at times that work best for you. You may have your default be weekly, but have a few trusted families billed monthly to reduce fees.
The tuition for a Sprout is their weekly rate. If you select bi-weekly it will create 2 items - one for each week at the tuition rate. For monthly it will create the number of weeks in the month - Note: some months have 5 weeks, say if there are 5 Mondays.
Daily is an option if a Sprout drops in and there is a flat rate for each day they attend, regardless of the amount of time. The rate reflects the per-day fee to the family.
Note if a child attends twice in one day, they are not billed for the second checkin since it is still in the same day.
Hourly is an option if the Sprout is charged a fee per hour they attend. The rate reflects the hourly charge to the family. They are billed to the nearest minute.
Drop in is prefect for before and after school programs. It allows you to charge based on the number of AM, PM, or AM & PM attendances. You can set the rates in the Settings section.
Sproutary make it easy for your families to manage their payment options. Families can log in and check their invoices, set up payment options, and pay invoices. They can also print out a payment history for tax purposes.
You have the ability to customize invoicing, tuition, payments, and more for each family.
Under the Families, page once you click into the family, you are able to customize their settings under the Invoicing sections.
Now that auto invoicing is setup and it has ran lets walk through a scenario on how you would manage and balance your accounts.
For this scenario, lets say you have Auto Invoicing setup for Weekly on Sunday at 4pm. Eric has 2 sprouts, Oliver and Steven, and they are each billed $100 per week. Currently their account balance is at $0.00. Eric has also setup eCheck payments and you have opted to pass all auto pay fees to the family.
Once billing has run on Sunday they will have two charges of $100 for the week - one for each child. Their account is now -$200.00.
Since Eric has auto pay enabled and the fee is passed to them, a new charge for the auto Pay fee is added to their account - in this case $1.60. Their account balance is now $201.60.
Sproutary will now automatically debit Eric’s bank account $201.60.
Eric’s account is now $0.00 - all handled automatically by Sproutary!
You will receive an email once the funds clear and are deposited to your business banking account.
For this scenario lets say you have Auto Invoicing setup for Weekly on Sunday at 4pm. Eric has 2 sprouts, Oliver and Steven, and they are each billed $100 a week. Currently their account balance is at $0.00.
Once billing has run on Sunday they will have two charges of $100 for the week - one for each child. Their account is now -$200.00.
Eric comes in Monday but only has $100 cash and forgot his checkbook. He hands you the $100 and you record it in Sproutary by going to Payments and clicking Pay - recording the details of the transaction. His account now shows 3 items - the two $100 charges for the tuition and a $100 cash payment. His account balance now shows -$100.
Eric walks in Tuesday and writes you a check for the remaining $100. You go into Sproutary, click Pay and record the details of the check including the check number.
Now the account is at $0.00 due again until Auto Invoicing runs next Sunday.
For this scenario lets say you have Auto Invoicing setup for Weekly on Sunday at 4pm. Eric has 2 sprouts, Oliver and Steven, and they are each billed $75 a week. They also each receive a $25 subsidy from the state. Currently their account balance is at $0.00.
Once billing has run on Sunday they will have four charges - two $75 charges to the family and two $25 subsidy charges to the state. The balance due from the family is $150.00 and the balance due from the state is $50.00.
Eric comes in Monday and pays $150.00 in cash. You record the payment by clicking Payments and then Pay. The account now shows the family balance is $0.00 - but there is still an outstanding balance of $50 due from the state.
The state pays you on Friday the $50. You enter the Payment into Sproutary selecting Subsidy. Now the amount from the state is at $0.00 as well as the family’s amount due.
Note: Many state subsidies pay on a different schedule then the family. In this scenario the family’s outstanding subsidy may grow until the state makes a payment.
Sproutary needs to verify your business details with our payment processor before you can start accepting payments online.
Families will now be able to log in and add their credit card or debit card details.
Sproutary gives you the best rate possible from the payment processor we use. We do not add a fee on top (that is, we make no additional money from moving your money around).
Here are the rates our payment process sets: - Credit card fees are 2.9% + 30ยข per transaction - eCheck/ACH fees are 0.8% per transaction, with a maximum of $5.00
Yes! You can pass on none, half, or the whole processing fee to your families. This option can be found in the settings of your center.
To view all the past due invoices, go to Payments in the left nav. There will be a button called All Family Outstanding Balance Report. This report will list each family and their account balance.
The Reports page has many options for reporting on your payments. The most common one would be the Family Tax Credit report.