IN THIS ARTICLE:
Learn about backdating and post-dating payments in iClassPro and how these payments are reflected on the family ledger and financial reports.

• Why Backdate or Post-Date a Payment?
• Backdating a Payment
• Post-Dating a Payment
• Applying Payments on the Family Ledger

Why Backdate or Post-Date a Payment?

Occasionally the need may arise to record a payment in iClassPro before or after its payment date.  Reasons for this could include entering external credit card payments or checks the next morning because you were unable to do so the night before, or agreeing to accept a future-dated check from a customer to pay fees due at a later date.

Let's take a look at how to accomplish both of these tasks in iClassPro.

Backdating a Payment

From the New Payment window, it is possible to backdate a payment.

For example, if you received a cash payment when the Internet or power was out, you can go in the next day and record that payment on the family it came from by simply adjusting the payment date in the New Payment window.

After saving the payment, your financial reports will show the payment as having been received on the entered date. This is the only way in which iClassPro's new ledger will allow you to change a past or historical report.

Note: If you are back-dating payments which already took place on a credit or debit card outside of iClassPro, be sure to use the "External Credit Card Device" Payment Type to avoid double-billing the customer. Entering the payment using any other credit card Payment Type (such as Auto-Pay, Credit Card Manual, Credit Card - Swipe/Insert/Tap or eCheck) will cause the payment be processed through your gateway for the current date.

Staff members must have the user permission "Allow Editing of Payment Dates" set to full to change payment dates. If not, iClassPro will only allow recording payments with the current date.

Post-Dating a Payment

When you post-date a payment, you are usually referring to accepting a check that you already have in hand with a future date written on it. While it is possible to future-date the check payment in iClassPro, we do not usually recommend doing this so tracking the payment in financial reports easier.

If you choose to post-date the payment, it will not show up in reports at all until the date entered for the payment date. Technically the check does not "exist" in iClassPro until that payment date arrives, so it can neither be applied or unapplied until that date arrives.

When accepting payments for future dates, there are a few different items to note:

For Physical Checks

• If you are depositing the check early, your bank may or may not be able to legally take the check. (For U.S. residents, this depends on your state laws.)
• If you are depositing the check early, your bank may or may not be able to withdraw the amount indicated on the check before the date written on it by the customer. Meaning that if your customer did not intend for you to cash the check until that date, your bank may or may not concede to their wishes. (Again, for U.S. residents, this depends on your state laws.)
• If you are holding onto the check to deposit it on the date written by the customer, you should be in the clear. Just make sure that it's okay with your owner/manager and keep the check in a safe place so that it doesn't get lost or forgotten.

We never recommend post-dating cash, eCheck or credit card payments. Any transactions processed through the gateway account connected to your iClassPro software will be processed the same day. There is not a way to schedule these types of payments in advance. 

Applying Payments on the Family Ledger

The date a payment is applied to a charge is important because the payment will not show as associated to a program or charge category until the applied date. If a payment remains unapplied, the charge that the payment was intended to offset will remain outstanding regardless of a family's overall ledger balance, which can lead to families being over-drafted for those charges. 

Because payments are associated with the programs and charge categories indicated by the charges they are applied to, if a payment (created on any date) is applied to a charge with a future charge date, it will not show as applied on financial reports until the charge date.

Example: I have charged a family on the 20th of December for January tuition with a charge date of January 1st, 2021. The family comes in on December 30th to prepay by a different means than their autopay method. I happily take the payment and apply it to the charge. The family's ledger is now balanced and the charge is marked as paid.

However, the payment will show as unapplied on both the December 30th Bank Deposit and Program Deposit Split report. On January 1st, after the charge has become current, the Adjustments section of the new Program Deposit Split report (January 1st) will show the payment being moved from the unapplied payments total (negative change) and placed into the Program for the charge (positive change).