Using electronic payments has proven to decrease accounts receivables for businesses. Giving your clients the ability to make payments online is a huge benefit to you and them. In 2019, it is all about convenience!
If you have a debit or credit card, you likely know how common it is for credit cards to expire and you don’t always remember every company that has your card on file. Not to mention, it is not uncommon for credit cards to be compromised. In order to efficiently collect payments online from your families, you must ensure that you have valid, updated credit cards prior to processing your monthly batch. But how? Jackrabbit has tools to help you be proactive!
Families Search
Using the Search function under the Families menu can help you find families that have an expired credit card or are missing a credit card on file all together when they have an ePayment Type of ‘Credit Card’ assigned. Reach out to these families to make sure you get an updated credit card before processing tuition payments.
Our Help Center includes more information on using the Search Families Report.
Family ePayment Listing Report
Using the Family ePayment Listing Report is a one-stop shop! Not only can you see which families are missing a credit card on file or have an expired credit card, but you can also email them directly from this report.
To find this report, hover over Reports in the blue menu bar and select All Reports. Find the Family ePayment Listing Report and select your criteria. Once you submit, the results page will include the option to email families of your choice.
For further assistance on how to email from a report’s results page, check out our Help article on Email from Reports.
Email Templates in Jackrabbit
We know you are busy day in and day out. In effort to make contacting families with an expired or missing credit card easy, each database includes an email template to help you stay productive. Look for the template named ‘103 Credit Card Expired’. If you do not see this template in your database, it may have been deleted previously by a user. Contact Support and they can help you add this template back in!
Want to make permanent adjustments to this template to include your Parent Portal link and or company logo? You can edit the template by clicking the Edit Email Templates button next to the Template drop-down. We highly recommend this! With the Parent Portal link included in the email, parents can easily login and update their credit card information. Editing the template will also keep you from having to make edits each time you use it.
Allow Parents to Update Credit Card Information
To keep your phones from ringing off the hook, you can allow parents to update their billing information through the Parent Portal. If parents can update this themselves, they are likely to do so as soon as they receive an email from you about their credit card. The easier it is for them, the better the results!
It is important to note that if you allow parents to update credit card information, they can only delete a credit card if they have multiple cards on file. Meaning, if they have one card on file, they can only edit that credit card. For more information, see our Help article on how to Manage Credit Cards in the Parent Portal.
Make Credit Card Checks Part of your Regular Procedures
Be proactive! Instead of allowing expired credit cards to decline, contact families ahead of time and avoid potential uncomfortable conversations. Incorporate the process of checking for missing or expired credit cards part of your procedures. Whether you do this weekly or prior to billing time, it is best practice to do this on a consistent basis. If your parents are reminded about expiring credit cards and can update the card number prior to billing, your accounts receivables will naturally decrease. Thanks to Jackrabbit, this is easy to implement!
Ready to get (bank) rolling? Schedule your next Jackrabbit steps today!
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