| Task |
Before
Smart |
After
Smart |
| Enrollment of New Students |
We entered all of the family information ourselves, including
names, addresses, phone numbers, students, amounts, fees, scholarships, payment
plan, etc. |
We collect all the enrollment forms from the families and verify
all of the forms that come in. After Smart enters each form, they provide
us with a full electronic copy of every family in the school neatly organized
and entered.
We still have to make some corrections to names due to poor penmanship, but we
considerably cut down the work.
|
| Depositing |
“We would run to the bank twice a week or sometimes weekly – to
deposit parent checks. We then reconcile each deposit.” |
“Smart deposits funds five times monthly like clockwork – we
always know it’s there.
We now only reconcile the deposits, and will occasionally go to the bank with
other money – such as lunch money or the occasional in-school payment.”
|
| Accounting |
“We manually enter data for each payment a parent made. We use an
accounting software to track family payments and balances.” |
“The data entry aspects of our accounting work are done for us.
Smart Tuition files import directly into our accounting software.
We now just verify the information is correct.”
|
| Adjusting Amounts Due |
“We edit amounts due in our accounting software, and notify the
parent via an invoice or letter.” |
“We edit amounts due in Smart’s website for schools to use, and
they update families through a monthly invoice, the website, and emails.
We can also create invoices for families anytime we desire through the school
account site.”
|
| Parent Inquiries |
“Especially during the beginning part of the year, we get a lot of
phone calls from parents asking a variety of questions – about their balance,
how to make payments, due dates, etc.” |
“Smart Tuition is the main place parent call when they have
questions.
Smart can answer the questions amount balances and how to make payments, but
they correctly stop short before telling a parent ‘why’ they owe a certain
amount.”
|
| Fundraising / Development |
“Car washes, bake sales, candy bars, Scrip, credits at
supermarkets, etc.
We handle a lot of checks for gifts and those get processed separately.”
|
“Smart Tuition provided us with a website for donations to be made
through, and we get reports of the activity on that site.
We also get the ability to track our additional fundraising efforts like Scrip
through each family account online.”
|
| Collections |
“We spent so much time after school calling parents and sending
letters to let them know that they were falling behind.
We needed extra help, so we brought in some school board members, which created
a problem because many of those school board members were neighbors or friends
with those same past due families.”
|
“Using an outside company makes sense here, because Smart
Tuition’s phone calls and emails help get families back on track without the
privacy violations and/or embarrassing situations.
We now only have to make arrangements with the families who are having real
difficulties and informed Smart Tuition that they can no longer make regular
payments.”
|
