How TuitionDesk Sends Fee Reminders Automatically

Every tuition centre owner knows the scene. Fee due date passes. You open WhatsApp. You start copy-pasting the same "friendly reminder" message to twenty different parents. Half of them read it and don't reply. You do it again the next week.

TuitionDesk eliminates this entirely. Fee reminders go out automatically — no drafting, no copy-paste, no manual sending. Here is exactly how it works.

Two Automatic Reminders Per Fee

For every fee record in your system, TuitionDesk sends two types of automatic reminders:

1. Coming Soon Reminder (3 days before due date)

At 9 AM in your centre's local timezone, TuitionDesk checks which fees are due exactly 3 days from now. For each one, it sends the parent a reminder with:

The student's name
The amount due (in your local currency — RM, ₹, SGD, or whatever you have configured)
The due date
Your payment link, bank details, and QR code (if you have added them in Settings)

This is the friendly nudge — it gives parents time to arrange the payment before the deadline.

2. Overdue reminder (on the days you choose)

At 10 AM in your centre's local timezone, TuitionDesk checks unpaid or partly paid fees against your Overdue reminder schedule.

The default checkpoints are the due date, then 3, 7, and 14 days overdue. They do not go out every day. Under Settings → Overdue reminder schedule you can also tick 21 days and 30 days, and you can turn individual checkpoints off. At least one checkpoint must stay on. Save schedule stores the choice. Reset to default restores due date, 3, 7, and 14. The last checkpoint you leave on also alerts the owner and branch staff.

Both reminders run automatically every hour on TuitionDesk's servers and apply the time-zone gate per organisation. If your centre is in Kuala Lumpur (Asia/Kuala_Lumpur), reminders fire at 9 AM and 10 AM KL time — not India time, not UTC.

Which Channels Are Used

Reminders go out on all channels that are enabled for your centre:

Channel	Sent when
WhatsApp	WhatsApp is enabled in Settings and you have credits
Email	Email notifications are on (always available)
Push notification	Parent has the TuitionDesk app installed and is logged in

Push notifications for fee reminders are sent to the parent's phone with a direct deep link to the fee record — one tap and they are looking at the payment page.

Who Receives the Reminder

By default, reminders go to the parent linked to the student. This is the right person for fee conversations in most centres.

If you prefer reminders to also reach the student (for adult learners, for example), you can change the fee reminders parent only setting under Settings → Notifications. When turned off, TuitionDesk will fall back to the student's contact if no parent is linked.

What You Add to Make Reminders More Useful

The reminder message becomes a complete payment instruction when you fill in a few fields under Settings → Payment reminders:

Payment link — a UPI link, Stripe payment page, or your bank's payment URL
Bank name, account holder, account number, IFSC — for NEFT/RTGS transfers
QR code image — parents screenshot and pay from any app

When these are filled, the fee reminder message includes all the information the parent needs to pay without calling or messaging you.

Even if you use Stripe or Razorpay for online collection, adding your bank details is worth doing. Some parents prefer bank transfer. Having both options in the reminder means fewer questions to you.

The Plan Requirement

Automatic fee reminders (push, email, and the in-app Updates feed) run on every plan, including Free. WhatsApp is an extra channel when WhatsApp sending is on for your plan and the centre has WhatsApp credits.

When a parent replies

Replies do not stay on one person's phone. On Starter and above, open WhatsApp Inbox. The thread shows the parent's reply next to the reminder it answered. Type a reply there. The first reply claims the conversation. Release hands it back. Mark resolved closes it. If more than 24 hours have passed, WhatsApp requires an approved template instead of free text.

Manual Send (When You Need It Now)

If a fee has already gone overdue and you want to send a reminder immediately without waiting for the 10 AM window, you can trigger it manually:

Go to Fees → Outstanding
Select the fee row
Click Send reminder

Or, if you use the AI assistant, you can say "send fee reminders to all overdue parents" and it handles the bulk send for you in one step.

Summary: What You Actually Have to Do

The honest answer is: almost nothing.

Task	Who does it
Create the fee plan	You — once
Generate fee records	You — per period (or automated with auto-generate)
Send reminders before due date	TuitionDesk — automatically at 9 AM
Send reminders after due date	TuitionDesk — automatically at 10 AM, daily
Record the payment when received	You — or parent pays online and it records itself

The only things you need to set up are:

Your Country of Operation (so the timezone is correct)
Your notification channels in Settings (WhatsApp and/or email)
Your payment details in Settings → Payment reminders (so the message is useful)

After that, fee reminders run without you touching them.

Stop chasing fees on WhatsApp. Set up TuitionDesk for your centre and let automatic reminders do the follow-up for you.