Many schools utilize a security deposit to prevent families from leaving the school without paying their last week's tuition. SchoolLeader provides an Escrow/Security Deposit function that allows you to hold the security deposit without interfering with the primary guardian's balance.
To define a security deposit:
go to either the Student Folder Payment Account Tab or Guardian Folder Payment Account Tab.
click on the PAYMENT button and enter the amount of the security deposit. Ideally, this should be completed before any charges are posted. Since the payment is made without any corresponding charges, the payment will be a 'prepayment', and will be displayed along the bottom of the window. If charges have already been posted, ensure that there is a payment to offset those charges before posting the payment for the Security Deposit.
now that a prepayment is defined, click on the ESCROW button
The prepayment amount is displayed in 'Current Available Prepayment Funds'.
In the field 'Prepayment Funds Moving', type in the amount of the prepayment that represents the security deposit. In this example, you would type in $120.00.
Click on 'TO ESCROW'.
Click on OK.
The Security Deposit is now represented along the bottom of the Payment Account Tab as an Escrow Amount. It is not considered part of the guardian's current balance. The Security Deposit will be printed on the guardian's statement for informational purposes only.
To apply the security deposit to the guardian's outstanding account balance:
click on the ESCROW button
the amount of the Security Deposit is represented in 'Current Escrowed Funds'
in the field 'Escrow Funds Moving' type in the amount you want applied to the guardian's balance
Click on 'TO PREPAY'
Click on OK.
SchoolLeader has now moved the dollar amount from the Escrow account to the Prepay account, which now allows this money to be used towards outstanding charges, or refunded back to the guardian.
From the Central Report Manager, you can print a report displaying all Primary Guardians with Security Deposit activity.