How can we help you?

Vidyapeeth360 lets a school collect fees online through a configured Razorpay or Cashfree credential set. The configuration screen does not independently prove who legally owns the provider account or where it ultimately settles; verify those facts in the provider contract/dashboard and school bank statement. The application creates the order in the resolved tenant/provider context and does not intentionally pool collections. The invoice is updated from confirmed gateway evidence; actual bank credit, provider deductions and settlement timing remain external evidence that the school must reconcile.

This "bring your own gateway" approach keeps the provider relationship tenant-configured. Control of the merchant account, rates, deductions, reserves and settlement cycles depends on the school's provider agreement and is not verified by the application. Review the provider dashboard and bank statement rather than inferring settlement from an invoice status.

For a school, this matters for both trust and cash flow. Parents can receive an invoice-bound payment path, while the school retains application evidence that a provider-confirmed collection was posted to the linked invoice. Bank settlement matching remains a separate reconciliation control.

How it works

• Your configured provider context. Orders are created through configured Razorpay or Cashfree credentials, or an eligible provider partner context. The application records provider-confirmed collection events; provider-account ownership and final bank settlement are verified separately.
• Try before you commit. A built-in application simulator exercises the internal order, webhook, reconciliation and receipt path without live credentials. It does not verify a Razorpay/Cashfree account, provider sandbox behavior, fees, settlement timing or bank credit.
• Confirmed payments only. A payment is posted only after gateway confirmation. Webhook retries and manual Sync repair a missed confirmation; unresolved provider events remain visible for operations review rather than being guessed as paid.
• Controlled overpayment. The order is checked against the current invoice due. If another receipt or adjustment reduces the due before a confirmed capture arrives, only the remaining due is applied and the exact excess is recorded as student advance credit instead of disappearing.

Setting it up, step by step

1. Start in sandbox. In Finance → Payments, turn on sandbox mode and run a test collection to see the full flow with no credentials required.
2. Add your live gateway. Still in Finance → Payments, choose Razorpay or Cashfree, set collection purpose, and enter credentials. Production must have SECRETS_ENC_KEY configured before this step; without it the development fallback can store tenant secrets unencrypted. Saving credentials is not a live provider-authentication or account-ownership check.
3. Save and verify configuration. For collection, verification creates a ₹1 order on the exact configured provider, proving credential and order-creation access only — not capture or settlement. For payout, it checks provider capability and required credential fields without sending a transfer. Confirm provider onboarding/KYC status and use a controlled small live invoice before general release. Cashfree partner registration and in-product KYC work only when Vidyapeeth360's Cashfree partner integration is configured. Razorpay partner registration is not implemented; a school with Razorpay must connect an existing collection account, and Razorpay payout configuration is unsupported.
4. Complete KYC where applicable. Cashfree KYC validates and normalises supported PAN, GSTIN, IFSC, account, phone, email, PIN and website fields, including PAN/GSTIN and account/IFSC consistency. PDF, JPEG or PNG documents are limited to 10 MB and their signature must match the declared type. Bytes are relayed to the provider; the app retains document type and provider/upload timestamps, not the document bytes. These checks do not prove provider approval, settlement readiness or malware-free content.
5. Collect a fee. Open Fees and select the invoice row; the same side drawer opens on desktop and mobile. Use Collect or History & receipts in that record context, or send a parent a Pay-Now link. A payment is posted only after the configured gateway confirms it.

No-login Pay-Now for parents

Not every parent will download an app or remember a password — so Vidyapeeth360 gives each fee a branded Pay-Now link you can share over WhatsApp or SMS. The parent taps it, sees the school's name, the child and the exact amount due, then opens the configured checkout — no portal login is needed. The requested amount is calculated by the system. A live payment link is generated only when the tenant has a verified live collection gateway and a trusted deployment or verified school origin. Otherwise the application does not send an untrusted/dead payment URL; reminder copy falls back to the school-office instruction.

Pay-Now links stay valid for 90 days unless the underlying invoice/payment state makes collection unavailable.

Tips and best practices

• Rehearse in sandbox first. Have your front-office team collect a test fee end to end before go-live day.
• Use verified live credentials in production. Test keys are only application-test evidence; independently confirm the provider merchant identity and intended settlement account.
• Let reconciliation do the work. Use the collection-order evidence and reconciliation views to resolve exceptions; an invoice update is not, by itself, proof that the provider has settled funds to the bank.

Frequently asked questions

Does Vidyapeeth360 hold my fee money? The software is designed to create orders in a tenant-configured provider context and not intentionally pool school collections. Repository inspection cannot prove the production money path; confirm it through provider contracts, configuration, settlement evidence and bank statements.

Can I use a Razorpay or Cashfree account I already have? The setup accepts supported existing account credentials. The school/provider administrator must confirm that the account belongs to the intended legal entity and that its settlement configuration and commercial terms are correct.

What if I have not set up a gateway yet? You can explore the application simulator, but no live parent Pay-Now URL is emitted without a verified live collection gateway and trusted public origin. Reminder copy falls back to contacting or paying at the school office.

Can a parent accidentally pay the wrong amount? The requested amount is checked against the invoice. If the due changes before a confirmed capture arrives, the remaining due is applied and any exact excess is held as student advance credit for later application. Withdrawal or refund of that advance credit is not implemented through the invoice-refund path.

How much can be refunded from an invoice payment? For an invoice-bound online order, the ceiling is the lower of confirmed captured principal and the successful unreversed fee payment posted to that invoice, less non-failed refund reservations. Captured excess held as student advance credit cannot be withdrawn through this invoice-refund action.

Can I reverse an online payment or completed online refund? No. A gateway payment must be corrected through refund-to-source. Once a gateway/online refund is processed, changing the local row cannot bring the payer's money back, so local Reverse is unavailable. A separate externally evidenced recovery/new-receivable workflow is not implemented.