Direct Payment in EDUBase's Fee Management lets you take money without going through the challan list, for one-off receipts. For regular monthly or installment fees, pay the challan so the voucher and its balance stay correct.
What is Direct Payment in EDUBase fee collection?
Direct Payment is a feature of Fee Management & Challans. It lets the fee counter take money without going through the challan list, and it is intended for one-off receipts.
Most fee collection in a school is built around the challan, the voucher generated for a student or family. Direct Payment exists for the occasions when money arrives that does not need to be matched to a voucher from the list.
How does paying a challan work?
Fee staff use the Pay or print challans option to take full or partial payment against a voucher. Because the payment is recorded on the challan, the voucher, its balance and the receipt stay together.
Unpaid balances roll into the next challan as arrears, and a month-wise breakdown of old dues can print on the voucher. This is why the challan is the normal route for recurring fees.
- Take full or partial payment against the voucher.
- Print single, family or compact multi-per-page vouchers.
- Use Family-wise payment to collect for all siblings together and print one receipt for the family.
- Print a consolidated receipt when a parent pays several months at once.
When should you use Direct Payment instead of a challan?
Use Direct Payment when you need to take money quickly and the amount is a one-off receipt, not part of the regular billing cycle.
If the money is really a fee that a challan already covers, such as monthly tuition, pay the challan instead. Otherwise the voucher may stay open and the family could be asked again for money they have already handed over.
- Choose Direct Payment for a one-off receipt taken outside the challan list.
- Choose a challan for regular fee heads such as tuition, transport and exam fees.
- Choose Add amount to generated challans if a fine or extra charge should sit on a voucher that already exists.
- Choose Installment challans if a large fee, such as annual charges or admission, should be split across separate vouchers.
How do bank payments fit in?
Bank collection works through the challan, not through Direct Payment. Each voucher prints a consumer number that partner banks and payment aggregators can look up and pay.
When the parent pays, the challan is marked paid and the payment appears in Paid Challans and Payment History. A challan already paid answers as paid to any later inquiry, so a family cannot be charged twice. The school can keep counter payments alongside the bank.
How can finance control and review what was collected?
Finance should be able to trace every receipt, whichever route it took. Discounts and payments can wait for a manager's approval, and Payment History lists every payment a student or family has ever made.
Day Wise Paid Challans is the cash-up report, showing everything collected by day and by user. Fee payments also post to the ledger in Finance & Accounting without re-entry, and User Logging shows who created, changed or deleted a record.
As a rule of thumb for your team: if a student or family has a voucher for it, pay the voucher. If it is a one-off receipt with no voucher to settle, use Direct Payment.
Direct Payment compared with paying a challan
| Criteria | Direct Payment | Pay a challan |
|---|---|---|
| Starting point | Taken without going through the challan list | Opened from the challan list through Pay or print challans |
| Best for | One-off receipts | Regular monthly or installment fees |
| Partial payment | Confirm on your screen | Full or partial payment supported |
| Old dues | Not tied to a voucher | Unpaid balance carries forward as arrears |
| Siblings | Confirm on your screen | Family-wise payment with one receipt for the family |
| Several months at once | Not the intended use | Consolidated receipt prints one receipt instead of one slip per month |
| Bank channel | Not applicable | Consumer number on the voucher for partner banks |
| Where to review | Payment History | Payment History and Day Wise Paid Challans |
Related modules
- Fee Management & Challans — Fee plans, monthly challans, discounts, family payments and receipts, without spreadsheets.
- Bank Fee Collection — Parents pay at the bank, in their banking app or at a kiosk; EDUBase posts it automatically.
- Fee Reports & Defaulters — Know what was billed, what was collected and who still owes, per class, family or month.
- Finance & Accounting — Chart of accounts, journals, ledgers, trial balance, P&L and balance sheet, fed by fees and payroll.