Every term it starts the same way. You pull up the spreadsheet, or flick between the accounting tab and the enrolment tab, and try to work out who still owes fees from last month, who paid in cash and whose receipt you wrote on a slip of paper that is now somewhere in a drawer. The numbers rarely agree on the first pass. You correct one figure, and something else shifts. By the time the ledger balances you have spent the better part of a morning on a task that should take twenty minutes.

The drain is not just the time. It is the low-level anxiety of not being certain the record is right — of knowing that if a parent queries their account, or the principal asks for a summary before the board meeting, you will have to piece the answer together from at least two places. Daviah does not solve every part of this. One piece of the problem — how you follow up with families who have not paid — is not yet addressed by the tools described here, and this guide says so plainly. But the core of the record-keeping burden, the part that lives in disconnected tools and manual reconciliation, is where Daviah is useful.

Raising fees for everyone in one step

The first place time disappears is at the start of a term or year, when you have to work through the roll creating a charge for each student. In Daviah the treasurer raises the year's fees for everyone at once — one action, and every student's record shows what they owe. The charge appears in each student's account immediately, with no need to enter it separately per person.

Because the office uses a school's own words throughout — students, fees, roll — nothing needs translating before it makes sense to the people who use it.

Card payments recorded the moment Stripe confirms them

Students and parents can pay what is owed by card from the student portal, on the school's own site. A payment is recorded in the ledger only once Stripe confirms the money has moved — not when the card is presented, not when the form is submitted, but when the transaction is confirmed. That removes one whole category of reconciliation error: a card payment either appears in the record because it went through, or it does not appear because it did not.

The school is the merchant in this arrangement. Card payments go directly to the school's own Stripe account. Stripe's processing fees are paid by the school, and Daviah takes no share of the money.

Cash and cheque payments entered once, in order

Not every family pays by card. Cash and cheque payments can be recorded by hand in the same ledger, each with a receipt number that runs in sequence per year. The sequence matters: it gives you a clear paper trail without having to maintain a separate receipt book alongside the digital record. One place holds both the card payments that came in automatically and the offline payments you entered yourself.

This is the reconciliation step that normally lives in a spreadsheet next to the bank statement. When both kinds of payment live in the same record, the comparison is between what Stripe confirmed and what you entered — not between three separate documents.

Corrections that leave a trail

Mistakes happen, and so do legitimate adjustments — a fee waived for a hardship reason, a charge voided because of a scheduling change, a figure corrected after an enrolment error. In Daviah, waiving, voiding and correcting charges is the treasurer's decision, and every correction is recorded with a reason in the audit trail. The original entry does not disappear; the change and its reason sit alongside it.

This matters when the principal or board asks how a particular account reached its current state. You do not have to remember what happened or find the email where it was agreed. The audit trail holds it.

What Daviah does not yet do: chasing families who have not paid

The pain of overdue fees is not only about the record — it is also about the follow-up. Identifying who has not paid and then contacting them takes time, and it is the kind of task that gets deferred when the front office is already stretched.

Daviah does not yet have automated reminders or overdue notices sent to students or parents when a fee remains unpaid. You can see which students owe fees from the record, and the messaging tools in the office let you write to members with unpaid dues, but sending those messages is a manual step that you initiate yourself. There is no system here that automatically chases outstanding payments on your behalf. If that workflow is the largest part of your problem, this guide covers only part of what you need.

Reports and exports when the principal or board asks

Fees, payments, and student records can be exported to CSV from the office. Reports on dues are counted live from the records, so the figures you see in the office reflect what is actually there — not a snapshot from the last time something was refreshed.

When you need to hand a summary to the principal before a board meeting, or give the auditor a file of the year's transactions, the export is there without needing to rebuild it from a spreadsheet.

Where these tools live in the plan

Fee tracking, the student portal, card payments, offline payment recording and the audit trail are all part of the Website and Members plan, which runs month to month at $79.99 a month, or $819.99 a year. There is no contract. Signing up is free and asks for no card — you can build and review the office before committing to anything.

Questions

Does Daviah send automatic reminders to families about unpaid fees?

No. Daviah does not send automated overdue notices to students or parents. You can see who owes fees from the office and send messages to students with unpaid dues yourself, but there is no system that chases payments automatically.

Where does a card payment show up in the ledger?

A card payment is recorded in the student's account only once Stripe confirms the money moved. It does not appear as pending; it either completes and is recorded, or it does not go through and nothing is added.

How are cash payments tracked alongside card payments?

Cash, cheque and other offline payments are entered by hand in the same ledger as card payments, each with a sequentially numbered receipt for the year. Both kinds of payment live in one place, so you are not reconciling across separate documents.

What happens if a fee needs to be corrected or waived?

The treasurer can waive, void or correct any charge. Every correction is written to the audit trail with a reason, so the original entry and the change both remain visible. Nothing is silently overwritten.

Can fees be exported for an auditor or board report?

Yes. Dues and payments can be exported to CSV from the office at any time. Reports on fees are counted live from the records, so the figures are current whenever you look at them.

Does Daviah take a share of the fees collected by card?

No. Card payments go directly to the school's own Stripe account. The school pays Stripe's processing fees directly, and Daviah takes no cut of the money.

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