How schools and Educational Institutions benefit from an online fee collection solution?

Let’s face it, Covid has changed every aspect of our lives, from shopping online to paying bills online, from booking tickets online to net banking, from telemedicine to e-learning.

However, unlike popular belief, this shift in behavior patterns did not occur post-covid.

Sure, Covid was a catalyst but businesses were keenly aware of the changing consumer behavior and preferences much before that.

Just a few decades ago, cards were first introduced and by the turn of 2000, cash was soon being replaced by cards. And today, we are already discussing how card payments will soon be phased out and digital payments will reign roost.

What we cover here

• Traditional payments & its disadvantages
• Online fee collection
• Eduzer- the complete online fee collection solution
• How Schools and Educational Institutes benefit from an online fee collection solution
• Why Eduzer

Traditional Payments and its disadvantages

So, what were traditional payment options? In the traditional fee payment process, there isn’t really much option, is there?
Schools will be closed on weekends, so on a working day, you have to take an hour or two off and go to school physically, before which you have to withdraw the cash i.e., either from an ATM and God forbid you don’t have a card, then go to a bank and withdraw the amount.
Clearly, this is not a very pleasant prospect. Because let’s face it, our lives are running on tight schedules. In today’s world, where in most households, both parents are working, the situation just got a little more challenging.
Apart from the inconvenience, colossal loss of time, money, and effort, the traditional fee payment had other challenges both for parents, and school authorities.

Maintaining proper and transparent communication between parents was nearly impossible. Keeping track of school fees due and the last date was another hassle.

Similarly, it was equally difficult for schools to track the status of fees, whether paid or unpaid. If any parent required deferred payments, or selective sponsorship/ discounts all had to be done manually.

Also, manually tracking these paper receipts posed another struggle.

Paper receipts are easily misplaced, damaged, and are non-durable.

On the other hand, electronic invoices created via digital payments are safe, secure, and easily trackable.

Online Fee Payment – How it began

During the pre-pandemic days, distance education was limited to a few and mostly pursued by higher education aspirants. Covid challenged all existing norms and life as we know it was upended.

E-education was not just an option, but became the only feasible solution in a pandemic-ravaged world.

Countries like the USA, South Korea, Finland, Australia, where E-learning infrastructure was already well established, this global shift to virtual learning posed little challenge. Because for them, it was only a matter of expanding the existing virtual learning ecosystem.

In the US alone, it is estimated that up to 6 million students are studying via online platforms alone.

Also, among the European countries, Denmark and Norway tops the chart with 90% above access to computers.

Additionally, coming close on the list with the best e-learning facilities are Switzerland and Luxemburg.

However, in Asian and Middle Eastern countries, when it became imperative to jettison all traditional mode of education, there was an initial lag.

In the Middle East, the United Arab Emirates was quick to adopt to e-learning and digital payments. This was greatly possible because in the UAE, smartphone penetration stands at an alarming 94% and above.

Anybody with access to the internet and a smartphone could still easily pay bills, make money transfers, pay fees, book tickets, and do much more.

Consequentially, education just became more accessible to a wider group of people, in developed and developing countries because now geography posed little to no obstacle. You can live in the UAE and pursue a master’s degree in the States or anywhere else in the world for that matter. Hence, physically being in a campus was no longer a prerequisite or mandatory.

Waking up every day, getting dressed, walking to a boring lecture hall, sitting there in rapt attention for hours on end, and returning to a bland hostel mess dinner is in a distant past now.

Today, sitting in the comforts of your home, regaling yourself to home-cooked and timely meals, has resulted in better mental and physical health. Not to mention the exorbitant hostel fees that parents have to shell out for years!

Simply put, e-learning has made education more accessible to more people because the internet breaks barriers.

Eduzer- The Comprehensive Online Fee Collection Solution

Now, we have seen how e-learning is increasingly becoming the norm and how it helped us revive the covid-induced slump in the education sector. Consequentially, or should I say collaterally, online fee collection expanded too.

Contactless, paperless, effortless payment modes became the preferred choice of consumers. Similarly, in the education sector online fee collection was in high demand too.

Schools and Colleges realized the need for a proper online fee collection solution, that is engineered to meet the changing and unique demands of the education sector.

A solution that will help them send bulk invoices, export data in one go, keep channels of communication open and transparent, and provide a secure payment portal where parents can pay fees online.

How Schools and Educational Institutes benefit from an online fee collection solution

• Multi-campus management

Probably one of the best features of Eduzer as an online fee collection solution is that it allows multi-campus management via single parent login. For example, a parent with children studying at multiple schools can easily manage, track, and pay fees using a single parent login.

This makes the entire fee management process quick, effortless and seamless.

• Easy Invoicing & Pay-by-Link options

Traditional payments involved paper invoicing. Tracking paper invoices can be quite a hassle. With e-invoicing, tracking both receipts and invoices, payment history, amount due, status of fees paid or unpaid, selective discounts, etc. Can be done in just one click.

The best part is all required data is consolidated in one place making it easy and hassle-free to stay up to date of all events with minimum manual intervention.

Online fee payment link can be shared across multiple channels like mail/WhatsApp/SMS, etc. More and easy payment options will ensure that fees are paid on time and failed or deferred payments are eliminated.

Let’s look at how Eduzer solves the several pain points and challenges of schools, colleges, and other educational institutions.

• Bulk Data Export

Bulk data export via excel is easily done using a feature-rich and user-friendly mobile application.

• Easy Batch Fee processing

Fee processing is a time-consuming and tedious task. The online fee collection solution will make it all automated with its advanced features.

• Payment Reminder Scheduling

Bulk fee payment notifications and reminders can be sent automatically.

• Multi-currency/multi-language support

With e-learning possibilities now more extensive than ever, online fee collection solution must have the advanced ability to accept fees globally.

No mobile application can be user-friendly if it’s not available in the language of the user’s choice.

• Advanced school branding options

Eduzer stands out from the other online fee collection solution in that it is completely customizable with unique and advanced branding options.

Now you can collect fees promptly and create beautiful customized invoices that are completely in sync with your brand’s voice, image, and tone.

• Role based security management

In an enterprise, multiple user logins are imperative. Assigning role-based security management gives a lot of flexibility and complete control in the hands of school authority.