How do I process deposits?

If you accept deposits for tuition or other fees, here's how to set those up and process them in Populi.

Setup step one: add a liability account

If you haven't already, set up a liability account in your Chart of Accounts.

1. Go to Financial > Accounting > Chart of Accounts.
2. Click Add Account.
3. Fill in the account details, making sure to select Liability as the account Type!

Setup step two: create a deposit fee

You'll next need to create a fee for the deposit in Billing > Settings > Fees.

1. Go to Financial > Billing > Settings > Fees.
2. Click Add Fee.
3. Fill in the fee's details:
   • For the Fee Type, pick Flat rate.
   • Select the liability account you just created.
   • Check next to Is Deposit (this appears only after you've selected the liability account).
4. If you want the deposit to be triggered by fee rules, make sure to add those after creating the fee.

Getting a deposit onto a student account

Now that you've created the deposit fee, you're ready to start adding it to student accounts. Here's how you do that:

1. Go to the student's Profile > Financial > Dashboard and click add a fee.
2. Select the deposit from the list of fees, make any appropriate changes, and Save. (If you're using fee rules to trigger the deposit, it will be added when the student meets the fee's requirements.)
3. The deposit is now a Pending fee. The next step is to invoice it.
   • It is best to invoice deposits separately from other fees; if you include other items on the invoice, the deposit will not be available for the student until the entire invoice is paid off.
4. When the student pays the deposit's invoice in full, the deposit will show on the student's Financial > Dashboard view under Deposits Held; you can also find it in Billing > Unpaid/Unapplied Deposits.

Applying a deposit

Now that the deposit has been paid, you have three ways to use it.

1. Click next to the deposit under Deposits Held.
2. Select how you wish to use the deposit next to Actions:
   • Apply to student's account: This records a student payment, which will then either be applied to existing invoiced charges or become an unapplied payment (in case there aren't any invoiced charges yet).
   • Refund to student: This records a customer refund. It can no longer be applied to the student's charges.
   • Mark deposit as forfeit: This moves the deposit from the liability account to an income account. It can neither be used to pay charges nor be refunded to the student.
3. Enter a percentage or dollar amount if you only wish to use a portion of the deposit.

Billing > Current > Unpaid/Unapplied Deposits

The Unpaid/Unapplied Deposits report keeps track of all the deposits that are currently unpaid or have not yet been applied towards a student's charges. In addition to letting you keep up with the status of these deposits, it also lets you perform some bulk actions (apply, refund, or forfeit) on unapplied deposits (obviously, you can't refund an unpaid deposit...).

1. Go to Billing > Current > Unpaid/Unapplied Deposits.
2. Filter the report, if desired. Next, check the students for which you'd like to perform a bulk action. (Click to quickly check or uncheck the students.)
3. Click Actions and select whether to Apply, Refund, or mark these deposits as Forfeit.
4. Select the date on which these transactions will be recorded and click Save.
5. It can take some time to chew through the process, so usually Populi will email you with a tally of the results of your bulk action.