School Fee Statements: What Parents Should See and How to Send Them
By PayDesk · Updated
What should a school fee statement include, and how do I send it?
A good statement lists every invoice and every payment in date order with a running balance, shows the account reference for paying, and states the amount currently due. Send it as a PDF or by email so parents have a record they can query line by line.
What a good statement contains
- Student name, class and admission number.
- Each invoice with its date, description and amount.
- Each payment with its date, method and M-Pesa transaction code.
- A running balance and the total currently due.
- How to pay: Paybill number and the exact account reference.
Getting it to parents
PayDesk generates a yearly statement PDF for a student: every invoice and every completed payment for the calendar year in date order with a running balance, starting from any balance carried forward from earlier unpaid invoices. Finance staff (principal, finance manager, bursar or admin) can email it to the guardian email addresses on file; if none is on file, the send is refused. Parents with a portal login can also view the statement for their own children.
Common statement disputes
- Payment made but not shown: check for an unmatched payment with the same transaction code.
- Balance different from what the parent expects: check for a waiver, discount or prepaid balance.
- Duplicate charges: check whether the invoice was generated twice for the same term.
Frequently asked questions
- Can parents see their child's fee statement online?
- Yes, parents with a PayDesk parent portal login can view the statement for their own children only.
- Can I email a statement to a guardian directly?
- Yes, if you are finance staff and the student has a guardian with an email address on file. PayDesk emails the yearly statement as a PDF attachment to those addresses.
See it work with your own Paybill
PayDesk matches M-Pesa payments to invoices automatically. Book a short demo and we will show it on a sample school.