The Fee Collection module is the central billing system of Smart School. It handles monthly invoice generation, smart multi-month payments, and UPI payment verifications.

1. Generating Monthly Bills

Invoices must be generated monthly. The system grabs the current Fee Structure and any assigned transport route rates to build the student bill.

1. Click on Generate Bills inside the Fee Collection dashboard.
2. Select the target **Month** and **Class** (or "All Classes").
3. Click Generate Bills. The system creates the bills while pulling any previous balance (arrears) forward.

2. Smart Consolidated Payment Allocation

When collecting a payment from a student, Smart School uses a **chronological payment allocation loop**:

• Chronological Order: Payments automatically clear the oldest outstanding dues first.
• Auto-Expansion: If you collect payment for a specific month, the system automatically expands the payment to cover all unpaid previous months.
• Rippling Balance Updates: Paying off past dues automatically recalculates and "ripples" the updated balances down to subsequent months' invoices.

3. Collecting a Payment

1. Find the student in your list and click **Record Payment** or **Pay**.
2. You will see a list of selected unpaid bills. The payment form automatically fills in the total outstanding sum.
3. Select the payment mode: Cash, Cheque, or Online/UPI.
4. Click Pay. A unique transaction receipt code starting with REC- is created.

4. UPI QR & Payment Verification

For schools located in India, Smart School supports manual UPI QR code billing:

• Merchant Configuration: Admins can configure their school's UPI ID and Merchant Name in the **Payment Settings** under the Financials section.
• Student Payment: Students log into the student portal, scan the generated UPI QR code, make the payment, and upload the transaction receipt screenshot.
• Admin Approval: Admins review the screenshot and transaction ID inside the **Pending Verifications Dashboard** to either **Approve** (which marks the bill as paid) or **Reject** the transaction proof.