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In-app Payments

How to set up and automate payments, in order to manage all tuition collection in Famly, save you time, and improve the parent experience.

Julia Rose avatar
Written by Julia Rose
Updated over a month ago

Where to find in-app payments

Famly offers speedier payments for parents that pay by debit card, credit card, and ACH directly in the app. Parents can pay their outstanding balance in Famly either automatically, or with just a couple of clicks, without any manual work from your site. Your financial reports and accounts will, of course, be updated in real time.

To find in-app payments:

  • ⚙️ Settings → Finances → Billing

  • Then select In-app payments

Check out the video below to get an overview of in-app payments in Famly:


Get started with in-app Payments

To set up in-app payments, you'll need the "Can set up and manage in-app payments" permission enabled. Once you've enabled this, you will set up your account with Stripe for payment processing. Follow the instructions by clicking "Get Started".


Only managers with the permission to manage financial information can access the page.

Enter personal details

Entering your personal details is necessary to verify the account. Make sure that you are entitled to complete this set up on behalf of the site.


Company Info: Are there additional owners with at least 25% ownership? (If the account responsible has ownership, he/she should not be listed as an additional owner).


Account Responsible: Enter the details of the account responsible.
(This is the person that has authority to sign contracts on behalf of the company).

Upload picture of ID

As you are doing the setup on behalf of the site, Famly needs to verify your details before your setup is complete:


Verification

Once you have entered all the required details, our payment provider will verify them. If some details were incorrect, such as a blurry photo of your ID, or a misspelling of an address, we will ask you again for more information.

Should the person who set up in-app payments leave, don't worry - their personal details were only used to verify the account. The details are not used for anything else.


Changing Legal Names

To change legal or doing business as names:

  • Navigate to: ⚙️ Settings → Finances → Billing

  • Then select In-app payments

  • Click Edit details in the Verification section

Adjust your details on the newly opened page.

Note: This may prompt a second round of verification from Stripe.


Choosing payment methods permitted by your site

Next, you will choose whether parents can pay your site by ACH, Credit Card and Debit Card.

Debit and credit cards

When paying by debit or credit card, the parents will be asked to enter their card details - just like online shopping.

ACH

When paying by ACH, parents will be asked to go through a verification process. They can choose between:

  • Manual verification (They enter their bank details, then 1-2 business days later, they receive two micro deposits called 'ATMS' in their bank account. They then have three tries to enter those in Famly to verify their bank account.)

  • Automatic verification (They will search for their bank and log in to their bank from the app. They then allow payments to be drafted from their bank account.)


Payment Method Required

You are able to require that parents enter a payment method. Enabling this functionality will block bill payers from accessing Famly for general use (communication, attendance, etc) until a payment method has been added to encourage paying online and on time.

Please note, this will not block staff members with children from accessing Famly if they have not entered a payment method.

To toggle on this setting:

  • Toggle on Payment method required

Once enabled, bill payers will be greeted with the following message upon logging in:


Mandatory Autopay

In addition to requiring parents to add a payment method, you can also require that they sign up to be charged automatically as per your pre-defined schedule (weekly, monthly or on invoice due date - we'll configure these settings further below).

To enable this setting:

  • Toggle on the Autopay section (this requires the Payment method required setting enabled)

Once enabled, bill payers will be notified that adding a payment method will also sign them up for automatic payments.


Allow Custom Payment Amounts

You can decide whether you'd like to allow parents to pay custom amounts:

  • Partial payments (not the full balance)

  • Pay ahead (more than the full balance)

You can also choose to define both a minimum and a maximum payment amount that parents are allowed to pay through Famly.

To do so:

  • Click the Edit button next to Custom payment amounts, and enter a minimum and maximum payment amount here

  • The minimum amount cannot be less than $10

  • The maximum amount defines how much a parent is allowed to overpay their balance

    • $0 means the parent is allowed to pay up to their full balance

    • $100 means the parent is allowed to pay up to $100 more than their full balance and end up in credit

  • Click Save


Add a Statement Descriptor

To add a Statement descriptor, scroll right to the bottom of your in-app payments settings and switch on the toggle to Enable custom description:

Text entered into this section will show on your bank statements when you receive payouts. Your bank may add additional information so keep it short and sweet!

This is particularly useful if you are part of an organization with multiple settings - now you can add a unique descriptor for each setting so you know which payouts are coming from where.

If you decide not to add a descriptor, payouts will show they're from Famly Pay by default so you know it's from us.


Payment Fees

Famly charges stated processing fees for in-app payments, as shown below. There are no hidden fees that you will incur as a site utilizing payment processing (e.g. "other" / "maintenance" fees). Choose here whether your site or the parents will pay fees, by payment method.

If you pay the fee

When a parent pays their outstanding balance in Famly, the fee will be deducted before the money arrives in your account.

If parents pay the fee

When a parent pays their outstanding balance in Famly, the fee is added on to the total and shown as a separate fee.

💡 Tip: A few states do not let you pass on payment processing fees to the payer. Please confirm the regulations of your state.

Processing fees:

Direct Debit (ACH) pricing

Card pricing (credit, debit)

Non-US cards, AMEX, corporate cards

$0.60 if paid by site

2.8%

3.25%

$2 if passed onto parents


Payment Fee Scenarios

Below are two scenarios to help you understand how fees are applied to the total, dependent on who pays the fee.

Scenario 1 (If the site takes on the fees):

An invoice of $100
Fee = 2.8% on $100 = $2.80

Scenario 2 (If the parents are responsible for the fees):

An invoice of $100
Fee = 2.8% on $100+fee = $100 / (1-0.028) - $100 = $2.88

💡Tip: If your parents have automatic payments enabled in their accounts, the fee calculation will not appear prior to purchase.


Automatic Payments

Last step in your in-app payments setup!

Click Edit details to configure the recurring cycle for automatic withdrawal from any outstanding bill payer balances, including future invoices. This is for bill payers who have configured automatic payments on their end.

Payments can be initiated:

  1. Every week

  2. Every month

  3. On invoice due date

Famly recommends "on invoice due date" for most customers. This allows you to rely on the invoice due date you have set per billing cycle, and know that payments will be automatically withdrawn on that due date.

If you choose weekly or monthly automatic payments, note the options will allow you to chose the first working day of the month, the last working day of the month, an exact day of the month or a specific day such as Monday/Tuesday/etc.

Example of options for when payments will be initiated:

On invoice due date, charges for the full balance owed at the time of the due date will be initiated when an invoice becomes due.

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