Follow up on overdue fees, the kind way.
The AI Fee Arrears Assistant finds the families who are behind, drafts a respectful reminder from your own templates, and sends it only once a staff member approves. It reads your fee ledger and never changes a cent.
- A staff member approves every reminder before it sends, nothing goes out automatically
- Reads your Parent Fee Ledger, never creates, edits or deletes a financial record
- Email, SMS or parent portal, with a secure link to the family's statement
Four steps, and you stay in control of every one
The assistant does the finding, drafting and sending admin. The decision to contact a family, and what to say, always stays with your team.
See who's behind
A verified queue of overdue family accounts, read straight from your Parent Fee Ledger, with the worst ageing first. No spreadsheet, no guessing.
Review the draft
The AI prepares a friendly, factual reminder from your approved templates, filled with the right figures. You read it, and edit anything you like.
Approve & send
Send by email, SMS or the parent portal, only after you approve. Sends are blocked outside business hours and a duplicate can't go out twice.
Track the outcome
Delivery status, promises to pay, and a full history sit on the account. Disputed or sensitive families can be paused with a hold.
See exactly who's overdue, without a spreadsheet
The assistant reads your Parent Fee Ledger and shows one clean list of the families who are genuinely behind, approved invoices, a real outstanding balance, past the due date. Credit balances and paid-up accounts are left out, so you only ever look at families who actually need a nudge. Each row shows the worst ageing band and the remaining balance, pulled live from the same figures your statements use.
A respectful reminder, drafted in seconds, sent only by you
Set your own bilingual templates once, three gentle stages from a friendly nudge to a firmer final reminder, and let the assistant fill in the right figures. The AI helps shape the wording so it stays warm and factual, but it can never threaten, mention a child's place or attendance, add interest or send a legal notice. Nothing leaves your school until a staff member reads the draft, edits it if they want, and approves it.
Send by email, SMS or portal, and point parents straight to their statement
Reach each family where they'll see it, by email, an SMS, or a Parent Portal notification, WhatsApp is deliberately never used for arrears. Each reminder can carry a secure link that takes the parent to their own statement in the portal, where they sign in to see their balance and your school's payment details. Parents can pay by EFT as they do now, or, if you have switched on online payments, tap Pay now and settle by card, EFT or wallet through your school's own Yoco or PayFast account. EarlyTrack never collects or holds the money: your school is the merchant and the funds settle straight to you.
Handle the hard cases with care, and keep a clean record
Real families have real circumstances. Place a hold on an account that's in dispute or sensitive, and every reminder, AI review and export stops until you lift it. Record a non-contractual promise to pay so your team knows what was agreed, a promise is never treated as a payment. Behind it all sits an append-only audit trail of every approval, send, delivery update and hold, so you can always answer "what happened, and when".
What's included
The AI Fee Arrears Assistant is part of the EarlyTrack Finance Suite, in EarlyTrack Complete. It builds on Fee Management, which is where your billing, payments and debtor ageing live.
Requires Fee Management active underneath, it reads the same ledger. SMS reminders use your own school SMS account.
A follow-up tool you can hand to staff and trust with parents
The whole assistant is built around one idea: the school stays in control, the relationship with the family is protected, and your financial records are never touched.
A human approves every message
Nothing is ever sent automatically. The AI drafts, but a staff member reviews, edits and approves each reminder, and a duplicate for the same family on the same day is blocked. You decide who to contact, and what to say.
It reads your figures, it never changes them
The assistant, and the AI, only ever read the Parent Fee Ledger. They can't create, edit, allocate, refund or write off any invoice, payment or balance, every financial change still flows through Fee Management, with its own audit trail.
Respectful by design, never a debt collector
The wording stays warm and factual, with no threats, no interest or penalties, no mention of a child's place, and no legal notices or WhatsApp. Difficult accounts are routed to a principal or finance admin to handle personally.
Private, audited and POPIA-aligned
Only the fee figures needed for a follow-up are read, never a child's health, attendance, payroll or banking data, and an SMS never carries a balance. Every approval, send and status update is recorded in an append-only audit trail.
AI Fee Arrears Assistant questions, answered
Chase fees the kind way, and get more of them paid
The 14-day free trial gives you full access, including Fee Management and the AI Fee Arrears Assistant, drafts you approve, email, SMS and portal reminders, holds, promises and a full audit trail, with no credit card required.
Start your free trialNo credit card. Full access. Cancel any time.