School fees: the term date nobody reminds you about twice

The school sends the fee schedule once, in April, on a circular that lives in a bag for a week and then nowhere. The term fee is due on a date everyone in the class group remembers the day after it passed. The late fee is small. The note home is not.

What there is to keep track of

• The term fee, usually quarterly or by term, on a date the school fixes for the year.
• The late fee and its grace window, which the circular states once.
• The yearly extras that come at a different time: admission or annual charges, books and uniform, the bus, activity and exam fees.
• For more than one child, the same dates at two schools that rarely line up.

The habit

On the day the schedule arrives, write every date down with how often it repeats and how many days of warning you want. A week ahead is the useful warning: enough to move money and to ask the school a question, and early enough that the class group has not started reminding everyone else.

Setting it up once

In EasyDooo, Bills and dues on the Budget page has a school fees template. It repeats every three months and reminds you seven days and two days before the date, through a task in Tasks and the daily reminder. Set one bill per child and per school, and add the yearly extras as their own bills. Mark it Paid and the payment is recorded in Budget against its category, and the next term's bill is scheduled. On Android, a photo of the circular or the school's payment message can be shared into EasyDooo to start the bill from what it says.