IN BRIEF:
Learn the basics of configuring iClassPro’s Automated Billing workflows. These workflows allow you to schedule and automate the class billing process, saving your staff time and effort.
Overview
iClassPro's Automated Billing workflow allows you to schedule and automate the class billing process based on specific triggers and filter options. Once triggered, the workflow will run through specific steps based on the selected Workflow (as outlined above). Designated staff will receive email and/or text notifications throughout the billing process, so they have a chance to review any previews and cancel the workflow if needed.
Available Workflows
iClassPro allows you to choose between one of five modular billing workflows, each of which carries out a single billing task in two stages: Preview and Process, with a configurable wait period in between.
- Automated Billing - Anniversary Charges
- Automated Billing - Apply Credits
- Automated Billing - Capture Payments
- Automated Billing - Class Tuition Charges (Monthly)
- Automated Billing - Class Tuition Charges (Session)
There are also three fully automated billing workflows:
Automated Billing (Monthly)
This workflow is designed to generate charges, apply credits, and process payments at a specified time on the Nth day of the month, with a wait period between the preview and process actions.
- Creates Class Tuition Charges
- Applies any available credits
- Processes payments using saved payment information and applies successful payments to charges
- Sends emails for successful/failed payments (if enabled).
Automated Billing With Anniversary Charges (Monthly)
This workflow follows the structure of “Automated Billing (Monthly)” with the addition of a step to preview and process Anniversary Charges between the “Class Tuition Charges (Process)” and “Apply Credits (Preview)” actions.
- Creates Class Tuition Charges
- Creates Anniversary Charges (based on family/student eligibility status and Anniversary Charge Timeframe)
- Applies any available credits
- Processes payments using saved payment information and applies successful payments to charges
- Sends emails for successful/failed payments (if enabled).
Automated Billing (Weekly)
This workflow is designed to generate charges, apply credits, and process payments on a weekly basis, with a wait period between the preview and process actions. This ensures that students who enrolled after the initial charges have been processed are included.
- Creates Class Tuition Charges
- Applies any available credits
- Processes payments using saved payment information and applies successful payments to charges
- Sends emails for successful/failed payments (if enabled).
Important Notes
- Whenever a "Location" selector is available, the system will limit results to students with enrollments at the selected Location.
- The system will use the Auto-Charge Scheduler associated with the selected Billing Schedule to assign the appropriate Charge Category.
If the Billing Schedule is not associated with a specific Auto-Charge Scheduler, or if the Auto-Charge Scheduler associated with the Billing Schedule has been deleted, then the system will use the default Auto-Charge Scheduler instead.
- If you are using the "Custom" option for the Auto-Charge Scheduler, the Automated Billing task will not use the Backup Charge Category to create charges, and will fail if specific session dates and an associated charge category are not defined.
- This behavior is intended to ensure that all charges created via the Automated Billing task are assigned to the proper Charge Category and prevent false duplicate charge detection.
- For all workflows, the option to "Prevent Duplicate Charges" is automatically enforced for Class Tuition Charges created within the past six (6) months.
- For more information about how the "Prevent Duplicate Charges" option functions, see our "How Do I Prevent Duplicate Class Tuition Charges?" document.
- Staff are advised to monitor workflows as they are processed. To make it easier to know when a preview is ready to be reviewed, the workflow requires specifying email addresses to which updates will be sent as the workflow completes each action. Additionally, phone numbers can be specified to receive these updates as an SMS/text message. (Note that using the SMS option requires that iClassPro’s SMS/Text Messaging feature is enabled. Each message sent will consume one credit.)
- Any staff members configured to receive these summary email/phone notifications in the "Preview” step will also receive a notification once the “Process” step has been completed.
- After reviewing the Preview, if staff determine that there are issues and it should not be processed, they need to DELETE THE PREVIEW FROM THE BACKGROUND TASKS to keep the “Process” action from being triggered.
- If the workflow is unable to trigger a "Process” action, this stops the workflow completely.
- Since duplicate charges/payments can be created when manually actioning the TRANSACTIONS>CLASS TUITION CHARGES and TRANSACTIONS>PAYMENTS tasks while the AutoPilot workflow is running, it is highly recommended that these processes are not manually triggered on the date the Automated Billing workflow is scheduled to run.
- Duplicate payments can also be created when multiple Automated Billing workflows are run simultaneously. Therefore, it is highly recommended that If multiple workflows are scheduled, a sufficient delay is allowed between them so that one workflow can complete before the next is triggered.
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Manually processing a preview task that was generated by the Automated Billing workflow will stop the workflow from continuing.
- This is because the system would still attempt to process the preview task at the end of the "Wait for Action" period, and if the workflow is unable to trigger a "Process” action, this stops the workflow completely.