Clear receipts mean fewer arguments
Parents pay school fees in instalments, by cash, bank deposit and mobile money, often for several children. When receipts are handwritten or unclear, disputes about balances follow. A good fee receipt shows the full picture every time: what was due this term, any balance brought forward, what was paid today and what remains.
What a fee receipt shows
- The school’s name, logo and contacts.
- The student’s name, admission number and class, and the parent or guardian.
- The term or period.
- The fee breakdown: tuition, transport, meals, activities and so on.
- Any balance from earlier terms.
- The amount paid now, in figures and in words.
- The balance remaining, or a credit carried forward if the parent overpaid.
- The payment method and reference (bank slip or M-Pesa code), the cashier’s signature and the school stamp.
Fast for the bursar
Fee lines are remembered. Press “New” after a receipt and the next one starts with the same fee lines, term and payment method, so you only change the student and the amount paid. Students are saved too: start typing a name and their admission number and class fill in.
Discounts and arrears
Sibling or bursary discounts can be added as a fee line named “Discount” with a negative amount. Only lines named as discounts can be negative, so mistakes are caught. Arrears from earlier terms go in “Previous balance”.
Two receipts per page
Choose two per sheet under Copies and layout to print the parent’s copy and the school’s copy on one A4 page, then cut it in half.
Good practice
- Give a receipt for every payment, including small ones.
- Always record the M-Pesa or bank reference, so payments can be traced.
- Keep the school copy filed by class and term, or download a backup from Advanced settings.
A worked example
Mary pays KSh 25,000 by M-Pesa towards her son Amani’s Term 1 fees. The bursar picks Amani from the saved students (admission number and class fill in), keeps the term’s fee lines (tuition, transport, lunch programme, and a sibling discount), adds last term’s balance of KSh 4,000 and the amount paid now, and pastes the M-Pesa code. The receipt shows the fees, the previous balance, the total due, the KSh 25,000 paid, the amount in words and the balance still owed. Mary gets the PDF on WhatsApp in seconds; the school keeps its copy in Documents.
Setting up your fee structure
- On the first receipt of the term, type each fee line and amount for the class.
- Download the receipt. The fee lines are remembered and suggested as you type.
- For the next student in the same class, press New: the lines, term and method are kept.
- For a different class, change the amounts; the line names stay as suggestions.
Checklist
- Student’s full name, admission number and class.
- Term or period.
- Every fee line due, and any previous balance.
- Amount paid now, method and reference.
- Balance remaining, cashier signature and school stamp.
Fee terms explained
- Admission number
- The student’s unique school number.
- Previous balance
- Unpaid fees from earlier terms, also called arrears.
- Credit carried forward
- An overpayment that reduces next term’s fees.
Who uses fee receipts
Primary and secondary schools, colleges, nurseries, tuition centres, driving schools, music teachers and sports academies: anyone who collects fees in instalments and needs to show parents or students exactly where they stand.
Keeping records straight
Every receipt you download is saved under Documents in this browser and can be searched by student name or receipt number. At the end of each term, download a backup from Advanced settings and keep it somewhere safe, such as your school’s shared drive. If several staff issue receipts, each can use their own device; give each a different number prefix under Numbering, such as FR-A- and FR-B-, so receipt numbers never clash.
Related free tools
- Free receipt generator: for uniforms, books and other sales.
- Free payment voucher generator: for payments the school makes.
One more tip
Send each receipt to the parent by WhatsApp as soon as the payment is recorded. Parents gain confidence when they see the balance straight away, and fewer of them come to the office to ask.
Updated 2026-10-29