Once tuition plans are out and families are paying, billing becomes ongoing bookkeeping: charging for the extras that aren't tuition, recording payments that come in offline, and handling the cases where a payment is late or needs to be returned. This guide covers invoices, logging offline payments, late fees, and refunds.
It helps to keep two things straight:
Both show up on the family's Billing tab, and both can be paid online or logged as offline payments.
From a family's Billing tab, use Create invoice to bill a guardian for a one-off item. You'll set a description (what the charge is for), the recipient (which guardian to bill), an optional due date, and an optional note. Once created, the invoice appears in the family's Charges & Invoices list, where you can track its status.
For charging many families at once — a fee that applies to everyone, say — the Billing page supports bulk invoice creation, so you can raise the same invoice across a group of guardians in one step rather than one at a time.
Tip: Keep descriptions specific and consistent — "Spring field trip" rather than "Fee". Families see the description on their invoice, and clear labels mean fewer "what is this charge?" emails back to you.
An invoice moves through a set of statuses so you always know where it stands:
You can filter your invoices by status to focus on what needs attention — the Sent and Overdue ones are usually where your follow-up goes.
Not every family pays online. When someone hands you cash or a check, record it so your books match reality. Use Log offline payment (against the installment or invoice being paid) and enter:
The charge is then marked as paid without going through Stripe. For an invoice, you can similarly mark it paid manually, recording the amount and any notes.
Note: Offline payments are settled directly with the family, so they aren't processed — or refundable — through Stripe. If you need to return an offline payment, you handle that in cash or by check, then adjust your records accordingly.
Lazarus can add a late fee when a payment slips past its due date. Late fees are configured in your settings, separately for two surfaces:
For each, you choose whether the fee is a flat amount or a percentage, and the grace period — the number of days past due before the fee applies. An installment or invoice only reads as Overdue once that grace period has passed and a fee would apply. You can also enable email notifications so families are told when a fee is assessed.
When a late fee has been added but you'd rather not charge it — a family had a genuine reason, or you're extending a courtesy — you can waive it. Waiving removes the fee from what the family owes while keeping a record that it was there.
Tip: Start with late fees off or set to $0 while you get comfortable, then turn them on once your families understand the schedule. A grace period of several days absorbs the normal slips — a card that expired, a paycheck timing — without penalizing anyone for being a day late.
When money needs to go back to a family — a withdrawal, an overcharge, a courtesy — you can issue a refund on a payment that was made through Stripe. The refund is returned to the card or bank account the family paid with. For a complete record of payments and refunds, use the Billing dashboard and your accounting records, covered in the next guide.
As noted above, only online (Stripe) payments are refunded through Lazarus; anything paid by cash or check is settled directly with the family.
You can now bill for extras, record every kind of payment, and handle the late and returned cases. The final piece is seeing the whole picture — how much you've collected, what's outstanding, and when the money reaches your bank. That's the Billing dashboard.