School fee management system for Kenyan schools
Fees arrive by M-Pesa, bank and cash, and nobody trusts the total. One balance holds the truth, from the structure to the receipt.
Enaton manages school fees from the structure to the receipt. Build fee structures by class and term, bill a whole stream at once, take M-Pesa and bank payments that record themselves, issue receipts parents can verify, track arrears and close the term without a spreadsheet.
Term 2 fees
Updated just now| Learner | Class | Billed | Paid | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wanjiru Kamau | Grade 6 | 38,500 | 38,500 | Cleared |
| Brian Otieno | Grade 5 | 36,000 | 24,000 | Part paid |
| Amina Hassan | Grade 8 | 42,000 | 42,000 | Cleared |
| Kevin Mutua | Grade 3 | 34,500 | 9,500 | Owing |
| Faith Chebet | Grade 7 | 40,000 | 31,000 | Part paid |
- Wanjiru KamauGrade 6Cleared
- Brian OtienoGrade 5KES 12,000
- Kevin MutuaGrade 3KES 25,000
- Faith ChebetGrade 7KES 9,000
What it does
Enaton manages school fees from the structure to the receipt. Build fee structures by class and term, bill a whole stream at once, take M-Pesa and bank payments that record themselves, issue receipts parents can verify, track arrears and close the term without a spreadsheet.
Fee structures
- Build per class, per term and per group of learners, so boarders, day scholars and scholarship learners are handled without a separate spreadsheet
- Split fees into voteheads such as tuition, transport, lunch, activity and boarding, each tracked on its own so you can see where the money is actually going
- A structure has to be approved before it can bill anybody, which means no accidental term of wrong invoices
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- Change a structure mid term and Enaton shows you exactly who is affected before anything moves
Billing
- Bill an entire class, a hand picked list, or one learner
- Unbill without losing anything: money already paid stays as a credit on the learner rather than disappearing
- Rebill after a correction, with a coverage report showing precisely who was billed and who was missed
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- Extra charges for trips, uniforms and exams, applied to a group or an individual, each with an approval trail and a revert that is recorded rather than silent
- Waivers and bursaries, grouped or individual, so a sponsored learner is handled properly instead of by leaving a balance nobody chases
Taking money
- Six ways to receive, including one receipt covering several children in the same family
- M-Pesa and payments from any bank in Kenya reach the right learner and votehead in real time, with the receipt in about a minute
- Receipts issue immediately, and anyone can confirm a receipt is genuine from a public link without needing an account
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- Opening balances import in bulk when you arrive from another system, so day one is not a data entry marathon
Keeping it straight
- Allocate, transfer, split or cancel a payment, with every action recorded against the person who did it
- Overpayments park safely against the family rather than vanishing into a general pot
- Five reports that all reconcile to the same total: balances, end of day transactions, overpayments, votehead summary and waivers
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- Statements a parent can actually read, showing what was charged, what was paid and what is left
Targets and campaigns
- Set a collection target for the term, for the whole school, a class, a stream or a fee category, with weekly milestones and an owner
- Run a collection campaign against a group before a deadline, with its own notifications, and see what came in against it
- Watch actual against target live, by class, so a class that is behind shows early
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- <a class="k-link" href="/features/school-fee-collection-system-kenya">See collections and clearance</a>
Clearance cards and rules
- Clearance cards for the exam, the report card, transport, meals, the library and admission, plus any you add, each active, warning, disabled, overridden with a reason, or exempt
- Rules on a percentage paid, an amount owing, time since the last payment, a fee category or debt carried across terms, with grace periods and templates
- A disabled card shows the parent the exact amount that brings it back, and it returns on its own when they pay
Pledges and payment plans
- A parent can ask for a pledge or an instalment plan from the parent portal, and you approve it
- A family on a plan that is on track is not chased, and you see pledged against actually paid
Leave the spreadsheets behind
Our own team moves your learners, balances and results across, with your records open on the table.
See how the move works- Learners and guardians
- Fee balances
- Past payments and results
What changes on Enaton
Before
- Two to four hundred payments a term arrive across M-Pesa, three bank accounts, cash and the odd cheque, and every one is matched to a learner by eye off a statement
- The balance on the bursar’s report, the report card and the note sent to the parent are three different figures, and nobody is sure which one is right
- A parent insists they paid, the office cannot find it, and somebody spends the afternoon scrolling a WhatsApp thread for a screenshot
- The wrong class gets billed, the correction means deleting invoices, and a payment goes missing in the tidy up
- A bursary is handled by leaving a balance nobody chases, so the sponsor cannot be shown what was actually granted
On Enaton
- M-Pesa and payments from any bank in Kenya reach the right learner and vote head in real time, with the receipt in about a minute
- One balance, worked out the same way everywhere, so finance, the report card and the parent portal cannot disagree
- The receipt exists the moment the money lands, and anyone can confirm it is genuine from a public link without an account
- Unbill the class. Money already paid is kept as a credit on the learner, then you rebill and check the coverage report
- Waivers and bursaries pass through approval and show separately in reporting, so a sponsor sees exactly what was granted
Who it helps
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Bursars stop reconciling by hand and start checking.
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Principals see collection against target without asking anyone to prepare it.
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Directors get the same figure across every branch, on the same day.
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Parents see the balance and the receipt on their own phone, which is the fastest way to stop them queueing at the office.
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How it works
Build fee structures by class, term and votehead, then approve
Bill a whole stream, a list of learners or one learner
Parents pay by M-Pesa or any bank in Kenya, in real time
Receipts issue and balances update by themselves
Check the end of day report and close the term
Read the full story
The problem schools bring us
A bursar in a 600 learner school handles somewhere between two and four hundred payments a term, arriving through M-Pesa, two or three bank accounts, cash at the window and the occasional cheque. Every one of them has to find the right learner, the right term and the right votehead. Most of that matching happens by eye, off a bank statement, days after the money actually arrived.
The real cost is not the typing. It is that nobody can answer the director’s only question, which is what are we actually owed today, without stopping to add it up first. By the time the answer exists it is already out of date, and the school makes decisions about salaries, supplies and projects using a number from last week.
Then there is the arguing. A parent says they paid. The office cannot find it. Somebody goes looking through a WhatsApp thread for a screenshot. Everybody loses an afternoon and the relationship takes a small amount of damage that never quite repairs.
How Enaton handles it
One balance holds the truth. A learner’s total is what is outstanding this term, plus anything unpaid from earlier terms in the same financial year, plus whatever was carried forward when they joined. Every screen that shows a balance works it out the same way, so the figure on the bursar’s report, on the report card and on the parent’s phone cannot disagree with each other.
That sounds obvious. It is the single thing most schools tell us they have never had.
A payment, end to end
- A parent sends fees by M-Pesa on a Saturday morning. Enaton records it against their child and the right votehead. A repeated notification cannot double count it, and if the network hiccups the payment is still picked up rather than lost.
- Within about a minute the learner’s balance drops, a receipt exists, and the parent portal shows the new figure. If that payment took the family past the school’s clearance threshold, the clearance is restored on its own and the confirmation message goes out. No member of staff opened a screen, and it was the weekend.
- On Monday the bursar opens the end of day report and checks it. That is the job now.
Related modules
- M-Pesa and bank payments Parents pay school fees by M-Pesa or from any bank in Kenya, and the payment reaches the school in real time, on the right learner and the right votehead.
- Collections and clearance Enaton runs school fee collection for you.
- Parent portal One account for a parent, covering every one of their children, even when those children are at different schools in the group.
Related guides
- How to Reduce School Fees Arrears in Your School How to reduce school fees arrears: clear fee structures, reminders that quote the live balance, a sample reminder SMS, lawful clearance and payment plans.
- How to Pay School Fees Using M-Pesa Paybill How to pay school fees using M-Pesa: the Paybill steps, which account number to use, how to find the Paybill, check your fee balance and fix a wrong payment.
Questions we get about this
Can Enaton reconcile bank payments as well as M-Pesa?
Yes. Parents pay by M-Pesa or from any bank in Kenya, and every payment reaches the school in real time through the same path, so the bursar has one list to check rather than one per bank.
Can parents download their own receipts?
Yes, from the parent portal, and every receipt carries a public link so a sponsor, an auditor or a guardian can confirm it is genuine without needing an Enaton account.
How are sibling balances handled?
One payment can be spread across several children in a single action, and the family sees one account covering all of them rather than having to work out which child a payment landed on.
4 more questions
What happens if we bill the wrong class by mistake?
Unbill it. Money already paid is preserved as a credit against the learner rather than deleted, so nobody loses a payment because of an admin error. Then rebill correctly and check the coverage report.
Can we manage scholarships and bursaries?
Yes, as waivers, applied to a group or to one learner. They pass through approval first, they show separately in reporting so a sponsor can be shown exactly what was granted, and reversing one is recorded rather than silent.
Can Enaton help us collect fees, not only record them?
Yes. Set a collection target, run a campaign against a group, and let your rules and clearance cards do the chasing. Pledges and payment plans are accepted from the parent portal, and every payment re-checks the cards on its own.
Does the report card show the fee balance?
It can, if the school wants it to. Because academics and finance read the same balance, the figure printed on a report card is the same one the parent sees in the portal that day.
Bring your own numbers. We will show you this working
Thirty minutes with your classes, terms and fee structure. No slides.