Sending fee reminders that parents actually pay

Every school sends fee reminders. Most of them are ignored, and the school concludes that parents do not care. Usually the message is the problem: too long, too vague, or sent at a time nobody can act on it.

Three rules

One child, one amount, one way to pay. A reminder that says "fees are due" is a notice. A reminder that says "Kofi owes GHS 250 for Term 1. Pay by MoMo to 024 000 0000 (St Mary's School) or at the office" is an instruction. The second one gets paid.

Send it when money is in the house. Friday evening and the day after month-end salaries. A Tuesday-morning reminder is read at a market stall and forgotten by lunch.

Send it three times, not thirty. Once when the bill is created, once a week before the due date, once the week after. After that, a phone call from the office beats a fourth SMS. A parent who receives ten identical messages stops reading the school's number altogether, including the absence alerts.

The three messages

When the bill is created:

St Mary's: Term 1 fees for Kofi Mensah are GHS 450, due 30 Sept. Pay by MoMo to 024 000 0000 (name: St Mary's School) or at the office. Part payment is welcome.

A week before the due date:

St Mary's: a reminder that GHS 250 is still owing for Kofi, due 30 Sept. MoMo 024 000 0000 or the office. Thank you.

The week after:

St Mary's: Kofi's fees of GHS 250 are now 8 days past due. Please pay this week, or call the office on 030 000 0000 to arrange. Thank you.

Notice what is not in them: no capital letters, no exclamation marks, no threat about exams. A parent who is behind on fees already knows it.

Confirm the name

Every message that carries a MoMo number should carry the name that appears when a parent sends. Fraudsters watch for schools' fee weeks. "Name: St Mary's School" costs nothing and stops a parent sending GHS 450 to a stranger.

Receipt every payment the same day

The reminder that works best is the receipt. A parent who gets "Received GHS 250 for Kofi. Balance GHS 0. Receipt no. 0412" the moment they pay tells the next parent in the queue that the school has its house in order. In SchoolSpec the receipt SMS goes as the payment is recorded, and the receipt is printed from the same screen.

Part payments are normal

Treat them as such. A reminder that shows the balance, not the original bill, tells the parent you noticed what they paid. "GHS 250 still owing" is a different message from "GHS 450 due" to a parent who paid GHS 200 last week.

What the office sees

A list of who is past due, oldest first, with the days late on each row. One button texts them all, and the app shows the count and the cost before you send, and refuses to send twice in one day. Then the phone calls, for the ones who did not move.