The cash ledger
Every movement of money is written to a ledger as it happens:
Each entry carries the amount, the pupil, the reference, any note, and the name of the member of staff responsible. That last field is what makes the ledger useful at the end of a shift: it is a record of who took what.
Balancing the day
1
Filter the ledger to today
Read the day’s entries rather than the invoice list — invoices tell you what is owed, the ledger tells you what moved.
2
Compare each channel against what you hold
Cash against the drawer. MoMo against the merchant statement. Bank against the deposit slips. Cheques against what is in the safe.
3
Account for voids and refunds
A voided payment is cash you no longer hold and a refund is cash that left. Both appear as their own entries; neither erases the original.
Term collection at a glance
The dashboard reports the term’s position:
Collections are also broken down by how the money arrived, which is the quickest way to see how much of your income now comes through MoMo rather than cash.
Outstanding subtracts credit notes, because a waived charge is not a debt you are chasing. If your outstanding figure looks lower than your arrears list suggests, credit notes are usually the reason — and that is correct.
Chasing arrears
Work from the invoice list, filtered to those not fully paid. For each family you have the fee payer’s name and phone number on the pupil’s record — see Guardians. Keep tuition and feeding arrears distinct when you speak to a family. They are separate invoices for good reason, and a parent who has prepaid meals will not take kindly to being told they owe for them.Who can do this
Viewing the ledger and collection figures needsview_finances. Recording payments needs record_payments.