Creating a Course Confirmation Template

Creating a Course Confirmation Template

Overview

This article details the steps to create a standard Course Confirmation Template.  These templates allow schools to collect payment and agreement data from parents in relation to their child's school fees, user agreements and other school payment items such as sporting academies etc.

If you are needing to create a Course Confirmation Template that includes Per-Subject Charges, please refer to the 'Creating a Course Confirmation Template with Per Subject Charges' article from our Knowledge Base.


Permissions

To create and administer Course Confirmation templates, you will require the CourseConfAdmin permission.

For details on assigning permissions to staff in Compass, please refer to the 'Permissions' article from our Knowledge Base.

Steps

To create and issue a Course Confirmation template, you will need to complete the following:

  1. Create a new Template
  2. Add in the Basic Template Information
  3. Add Payment Items
  4. Add Conditions if applicable
  5. Add any required Agreements or Questions
  6. Enrol students in the cycle
  7. Open to Parent Access for completion

1 - Create a new Template

To create a new template, go to the Organisation menu (grid icon) and click 'Course Confirmation/Payments'.  This will take you to the Course Confirmations page in Compass.

Click 'Add New Template'.
     

A new template will open showing the 'Basic Template Information' tab.

     


2 - Basic Template Information

Work through the 'Basic Template Information' tab to add the applicable information for your template.

Template NameThis is the name of the template that is displayed to parents. It should be a clear title that explains what the Course Confirmation entails.
Example: '2020 - Year 7-9 Fees', or 'Yr 7 Laptop Program 2020'
Open to parents?This setting determines whether parents are able to see the Course Confirmation template and make payments through the Compass portal. At this point in the process, leave the box unticked as this setting should not be turned on until the entire template has been set up and is ready to be published to parents.
Target Academic GroupEvery template needs to be assigned to a Target Academic Year as this defines the period for which the charges/agreements are relevant.  Select the applicable year for this template from the drop down. 
Example: A template for students in Yr 10 in 2019 who are paying their schools fees to go into Yr 11 in 2020, should have a Target Academic Year of 2020.
Note: If the year you require is not in the drop down, please contact our Support Team to have this added for you
Introductory CommentAdd in the applicable introductory comments.  This comment is displayed at the beginning of the Course Confirmation process to parents. It is designed to convey information regarding the confirmation process, and can outline information such as due dates and school specific details. Some schools choose to use this space to explain the different fees (essential items and volunatary contributions), as well as describe projects the funds have previously gone towards or will go to in the future.
Allow offline completion? Selecting this tickbox allows parents to print the fee schedule from their portal and pay in person at your school. The form includes details of the payment items, school, student and parent details, as well as credit card fields to fill out. Leave it unticked if you want to only allow completion online through Compass.

Click 'Save'.

     

The information you have added will be saved and the additional tabs will then be accessible.
     

Click to the 'Payment Items' tab.

3 - Payment Items

     

The 'Payment Items' tab will have up to three sections, Payment Plans, Per-Subject Charges and Other Charges (Template-Wide).

Payment Items - Payment Plans

For schools who have the Payment Plan module, the Payment Plan section will display on the 'Payment Items' tab.  This gives you the option to set up a series of defined instalment dates that parents can choose to pay via.
     

If you do not want to allow payment via instalment for this template, leave the 'Allow parents to pay via a Payment Plan' box unticked and proceed to the 'Other Charges (Template Wide)' section of the page.

To allow payment via instalments as an option, tick the box.

This will display some additional fields for completion.
     
 
As you are not including Per-Subject Charges in this standard template and the first three options relate to how the Per-Subject Charges (subject levies) will be handled by the payment plan, you can do either of the following to set up your plan:


Add Instalment Dates with Automatic Distribution

This method allows you to add a series of instalment dates and Compass will then automatically evenly distribute the total amount owing for a parent across the dates.
  1. Select any one of the three options relating to subject levies (this template does not include Per Subject Charges so how 'subject levies' are distributed across the instalments is irrelevant, as such, you can select any of the three options).     
  1. Click 'Add Instalment Date'
 
  1. In the pop-up, add the date of the first instalment.  Then click 'Insert'.

     

The Instalment will then be added.
     

Click 'Add Instalment Date' again to add the next instalment date.  Continue to do so until all your dates are added.  
     

This will cause the total amount owing for a template to be evenly distributed across each instalment date for the parent if they opt to pay via instalment.



Add Instalment Dates with Allocated Percentages

This method allows you to set the instalment dates and allocate the percentage of the total amount owing to be taken on each instalment.
  1. Select the 'Fixed instalments with charges calculated by a percentage of the total' option
     
  1. Click 'Add Instalment Date'.
     
  1. In the pop-up, select the date and enter the percentage of the total amount owing to be paid on this date.  Click 'Insert'.
          

The instalment date will then be added to the list.
     

Continue to add instalment dates and percentages until all dates are added and the percentage total is 100%.
     

If the percentage total does not add up to 100% and you try to save the template, you will see a warning.

          

If you need to adjust the date or percentage, click the associated edit pencil icon.
     

To delete an instalment, select it and then click 'Delete Selected Instalment Dates'.
     

Please Note: Editing or deleting Instalments once the template has been published to parents will impact parent payments so we do not recommend doing so. In cases where changes must be made, please proceed with caution and you are welcome to contact our Support Team for assistance.


Payment Items - Per Subject Charges

Per-Subject Charges relate to student subject selection.  As the template you are currently creating is not including these, leave the 'Enable per subject charges' box unticked.
     

For information on creating a template that includes per subject charges, please follow the process detailed in the 'Creating a Course Confirmation Template with Per Subject Charges' article from our Knowledge Base.

Payment Items - Other Charges (Template-Wide)

'Other Charges (Template-Wide) are items that are to be paid for by the parents of each student included in the template.   

You can add payment items with a set amount that cannot be adjusted by the parent and are therefore not optional for payment,  and you can also add payment items that have a suggested amount that can be adjusted by the parent (Building fund donations etc).

     

To add a payment item, click on the 'Add Payment Item' button, and then complete the details for that item in the pop-up.  Click 'Insert' when you have added the content.

     
Payment TitleTitle of the payment item.
DescriptionDescription of what the charge covers. Parents can view these explanations when they complete the Course Confirmation process by clicking on the item's title. 
Suggested Fee ($ Sug)Ideal amount for families to pay for this payment item. This will display as the 'Recommended' fee on the Parent Portal and can not be edited by the Parent. 
Default Fee ($ Def)Will display as an auto-filled dollar value in the 'Amount' field on the Parent Portal. This amount can be edited by the Parent. 
Minimum Online Fee ($ MOF)
If the amount entered by the family is lower than this amount they will be prompted to pay directly at to the school, because the amount is too low to be processed online (determined internally by the school).
This amount is designed to encourage families to pay a larger part of the voluntary school fees. If the school does not wish to use this function, leave the MOF amount blank.
Locked (Lkd?)This will ensure the Parent cannot change the Default Fee amount. The Suggested Fee will not display an amount, instead the words (Fixed) will be displayed. Parents must pay the Default Fee to continue.
Tax Deductible (Tax D)Indicates that a particular payment item is tax deductible.
GST included? (GST?)Indicates whether a charge is inclusive of GST.
Priority (#)Determines the order which the Payment Items appear listed for families.



Continue to add all the payment items you require.
     

You also have the option to copy payment items from other existing templates.  To do so, select the template in the drop down that you want to copy items from and then click 'Copy'.
     

This will copy in all items from the selected template.  If you need to edit any of the items, click the associated edit pencil icon.
     

If you need to remove any of the items, select them and then click 'Delete Selected Payment Items'.
     

Please Note: Editing or deleting any payment items once the template has been published to parents is not recommended as it will impact parent payments.  If changes must be made, please proceed with caution and you are welcome to contact our Support Team for assistance.

When all your items are added, click 'Save'. This will update the template and take you back to the 'Basic Template Information' tab. 

     

Click to the 'Conditions' tab if you are adding these to the templat, if no conditions are required, click to the 'Agreements and Questions' tab.


4 - Conditions

Conditions are optional and can be set up in the template to ensure requirements, such as paying outstanding fees from the previous year, are completed before a student can proceed with this new Course Confirmation. Conditions can also be used to help facilitate the preparation process for the upcoming school year, for example students may need to complete a course counselling session or return all library books before the parent can confirm their enrolment for next year.

By default when a 'condition' is created in a template all students are set to 'Not Completed' for that condition. Until the condition has been marked as 'completed' for a student, their parent will not be able to complete the Course Confirmation process.

If you do not want to implement any conditions for this template, proceed to the next step on 'Agreements and Questions'.

To add Conditions, on the 'Conditions' tab, click 'Add Condition'.
     

Add in the required information for the condition in the available fields.
     
TitleThe name of the Condition. This will be displayed in the drop down menu for staff to manage conditions and to Parents on their Portal during the Course Confirmation process.
DescriptionThese details are displayed to parents if the student has not satisfied this condition. The description should include information of what the condition means and how parents and students can go about satisfying the requirements of the condition.

Continue to add any conditions you require for the template.  If you need to edit a condition, click the associated edit pencil icon.  To delete a condition, click the red cross icon. 

     

Please refer to the 'Conditions' section of the 'Course Confirmations' article from our Knowledge Base for details on processing students who meet the conditions for a template.

When you have finished adding conditions, click 'Save'.

From here, move to the 'Agreements and Questions' tab.


5 - Agreements and Questions

Agreements

The Agreements section of Course Confirmation/Payments allows the school to include school documents or policies that parents and students need to be aware of or agree to as part of the confirmation process for the following year.
Examples of agreements that could be included in a Course Confirmation template include an ICT usage agreement, uniform policy or restorative practices agreement.
     

If you do not need to add any Agreements or Questions for this template, please proceed to the next section 'Selected Students'.

To set up an Agreement, click 'Add Agreement'.

     

In the pop-up, add the content required for this agreement.

     

Agreement TitleThe title of the agreement, displayed at the top of the page when parents complete the Course Confirmation process.
BodyThe Body includes the details of the agreement. This can be formatted using the tools above the text box or information can be copied into the box from Microsoft Word or similar.
SignaturesIdentifies whether the parent and/or the student are required to sign the agreement. This is a digital signature (full name typed into an agreement box), of the person acknowledging the Agreement. Agreements can be set up 4 different ways: parent only signs (tick parent box only), student only signs (tick student box only), both parent and student sign (tick both student and parent boxes) or neither parent or student sign (leave both student and parent boxes unticked). 

When you have added the required content and made the required signature settings, click 'Insert'.

The added agreement will then be listed.

     

To edit the agreement details or settings, click the associated edit pencil icon.  To delete the agreement, click the associated red cross icon.
Please Note: Deleting an agreement once the template has been published to parents will cause any already processed agreement data to be deleted also.  Please proceed with caution when editing or deleting agreements.     
Continue to add the required agreements for this template.


Additional Questions

The 'Additional Questions' section of Course Confirmation allows the school to set up questions they would like parents to answer as part of the Course Confirmation process.

Additional questions can be associated with an agreement, or not. Any questions that are associated with an agreement will be displayed on the agreement page below the content of the agreement but above the digital signature section.

Any additional questions not associated with an agreement will come up after the agreements have been completed, on a separate page.

When parents provide answers to the additional questions they are typed into a free text box, which allows freedom for schools to ask open ended questions.

If you do not want to include any questions for this template, proceed to the next section 'Selected Students'.

To add some additional questions to this template, click the 'Add Additional Questions' button.
     

In the pop-up, add the information for this question.

     
TextType in the question i.e. What type of device will your child be using as part of the the BYOD program?
BodyDescription of the answer (i.e. Please indicate if your child will be using a laptop or tablet and also make).
Associated AgreementIf applicable, select the Agreement that the additional question is associated with so that it will appear beneath the Agreement when viewed by the parent completing the Course Confirmation.  If the question does not relate to an Agreement, leave this set as 'None'.
  
Click 'Insert' and the question will be added to the list for this template.


     

Continue to add questions until all you require for this template are listed.

     
     

Importing Agreements and Questions from existing Templates

Rather than add agreements and questions individually to this new template, you can import them from existing templates.

To do so, select the applicable existing template from the drop down and click 'Copy'.
This will bring in all agreements and questions from the selected template.  You can then edit/remove any as needed for this new template you are creating.

     

When you have added all required agreements and questions to the template, click 'Save'.

Click to the 'Selected Students' tab to proceed.


6 - Selected Students

The 'Selected Students' tab of a Course Confirmation template defines the students who the fees and agreements/questions pertain to.
Example: If the template is for students who are going to be in Year 9 for the 2020 Target Academic Year, if issuing this Course Confirmation in preparation to parents in 2019, you would add the current Year 8 students to the template.

     

Use the available fields to add the applicable students for the template. 

You can keep adjusting the filters to add all the required groups of students needed i.e. if you were adding Year 8 and Year 9 students to a template, set the 'Add by Group' to 'Year 7' and click 'Add', then set it to 'Year 8' and click 'Add' again.

     
Please Note:If you are attempting to add by a newly created Form group and it is not showing in the Form drop-down list, it will likely be because there are no student milestones set as currently 'Active' for that form group.  In this instance, you will need to use the 'Bulk Add ID Codes' field to add the applicable students who are in the new form.

The students will then be listed showing their basic details and their current status in relation to the template.

     

If you need to remove any students you can select the applicable one/ones and then click 'Delete Selected'. 

     

Alternatively if you have added the wrong group of students entirely you can click the 'Delete All' option to remove all students from the template.

     

Please Note: Deleting students from a template once the template has been published to parents should be be done with extreme caution as it will remove any Completion status information that may have already been recorded.  Students who have completed payment via CompassPay cannot be deleted.


Include Future Students

This option allows you to add Future Students into the template.  

     

Ticking the 'Include Future Students' will filter for only students with a 'Future' user status.  You will see a total of future users the filtered settings apply to and you can then click the associated 'Add' to bring the applicable Future students into the template.

It is important to remember that when you tick the 'Include Future Students' it will only add any applicable Future students.  It will not add current active users AND applicable Future students in the one click.  
To add current students, set the applicable filter and click 'Add'.  To then add any applicable Future students, set the filters, tick 'Include Future Students; and then click 'Add' again.
Please Note: When creating a template for specific year levels for next year's fees and the template is going to be issued for payment in the current year (i.e. 2020 fees to be paid at the end of 2019) you will add active students based on their 2019 year level and Future students based on their 2020 year level i.e. If the Course Confirmation template is for students who will be completing Year 9 in 2020, you would add the 2019 Year 8 active (current) students into the template and then use the 'Include Future Students' option and set the 'By Group' to be 'Year 9' to add any future Year 9 students to the template. 

When you have added all the required students to the template, click 'Save'.

You are now ready to publish the Course Confirmation template for parent access.


7 - Open for Parent Access

When you have added all the applicable content to the template and you are ready for parents to have access, click into the template and on to the 'Basic Template Information' tab.
Tick the 'Open to Parents' box and click 'Save'.

     
     
This will cause a notification to show on the applicable parents' dashboard alerting them of the template requiring their action.

If at anytime you need to stop a template from being accessible to parents, click into the template and untick 'Open to Parents' and then click 'Save'.  You can tick or untick this option as often as needed.


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