Schools and daycares

A school, a daycare, a training centre or a tutor teaches or looks after learners and bills their guardians fees for each term, month or course. Parents pay at the office or to the paybill, the bursar follows up who owes, and teachers take registers and enter marks. Kila keeps every learner’s fee account and their school record in one place.

How Kila works for a school

• Each person starts on their own screen. Teachers on My day, the head on School today, the bursar on the Fees office, the gate on Gate and passes, a daycare’s caregivers on Check-in. See The school day screens.
• Your day revolves around the learner and their fee account. Each term, a fee invoice from the class’s fee structure; payments at the office, on the paybill or by a sponsor’s cheque; one statement for each family.
• The words Kila uses: student, fee invoice, fee item and campus, where other businesses see customer, sale, product and branch. The school chooses its own words for class, term and guardian: Little Steps Daycare says Parents.
• The menu has the school’s sections: Today, Learners, Fees, Teaching and School life, each with only the pages that person uses.

Kila runs these kinds of business this way:

• School
• Training centre
• Tutoring
• Daycare

A day at the school

1. Morning. Class teachers take the register on their phones, the matron the boarding roll call, the transport officer the bus roll: Take the register, Take a roll call. A daycare checks each child in at the door: Check children in and out.
2. At the office. Parents pay fees for one child or several: Take fees at the counter. Paybill payments with the admission number reach the learner by themselves; the rest the bursar places: Place a paybill payment.
3. During the day. The gate lets learners out on passes and signs visitors in, the sick bay records visits: Let a learner out on a pass, Sign a visitor in, Record a sick bay visit.
4. After lessons. Teachers enter marks; the head checks the day on School today: Enter marks.
5. Watch the term. The owner’s home page shows the fees billed, collected and outstanding, collections week by week against last term, and the balances by class.

Zoom

The home page’s cards

Kila arranges the home page of a school’s owner and head with these cards. Each shows when its feature is on and your role may see it:

• Fees billed, collected and outstanding this term
• Fees collected week by week, against last term
• Students with balances, by class
• Payments received today
• The school today
• My day
• Registers and attendance today
• Marks entry in open exams
• Out on passes, and visitors
• Children in today
• Enquiries and places this term
• Enrolment by class and course
• Staff in today
• Payments waiting for confirmation
• Approvals and reviews waiting
• Licences, permits and returns due

Who does what

Role	What Kila says it is for
Head teacher	Runs the school across every campus: approvals, staff, students, academics, report card sign-off and reports.
Deputy head teacher (academics)	Day-to-day running: subjects and teachers, the timetable, exams and marks, registers, passes and the sick bay, staff attendance and leave.
Bursar	Fees: the fee structure, term billing, payments, sponsors and bursary cheques, fee reports, statements and the books.
Fees clerk	Receives fee payments at the office, prints receipts and sends statements. No till, no fee structures, no books.
Admissions secretary	Enquiries and admissions: admits students, keeps their records, identity numbers and guardians; signs visitors in at reception. No fees.
Class teacher	A teacher who also keeps their class: the daily register, report card comments and messages to their class’s guardians.
Teacher	Teaches subjects: takes the register and enters marks for the classes and subjects allocated to them.
Boarding master or matron	Dormitories and beds, morning and evening roll calls, leave-outs and exeats, the sick bay and messages to boarders’ guardians.
Transport officer	Routes and stops, the morning and evening bus rolls, the learners on each route and messages to their guardians.
Gate or reception	The gate: learners out and back on their passes with the adult collecting them, and the visitors’ log. No fees or marks.
School nurse	The sick bay: visits, medication given and medical notes, and telling guardians when a child is sent home or referred.
Caregiver	Their room: checks children in and out to the adults allowed to collect them, keeps the day sheet and the register.

The owner gives each person their role under Users and roles. A school also has Kila’s standard roles, such as the accountant, the storekeeper for a uniform shop and the auditor.

Tasks for schools and daycares

Fees:

• Take fees at the counter and Send a fee statement.
• Place a paybill payment and Follow up fee balances.
• Set a term’s fee structures, Give a bursary and Bill a term.
• Fee reports and sponsors.

Learners, teaching and school life:

• Admit a learner and Set up classes and terms.
• Take the register, Enter marks and Sign off report cards.
• Prepare KEMIS and KNEC files.
• Take a roll call, Let a learner out on a pass, Sign a visitor in and Record a sick bay visit.
• Check children in and out, for a daycare.

Set up a school

Kila’s set-up list for a new school, in order. Kila ticks each step off from what you record:

1. Business details and KRA PIN
2. Campus, classes and streams, terms
3. Fee structure and vote heads
4. Students and guardians (import)
5. Staff and school roles
6. Subjects, teachers and timetable
7. M-Pesa paybill
8. First term billing

Tip

How the school works in Kila (grading, the school day, registers, vote heads, the sibling discount, the clearance amount and report cards) is set by the owner under School life › School settings.

Reports that matter here

The school’s own fee reports are under Fees › Fee reports and sponsors:

Report	What Kila says it shows
Collections by vote head	Money received in a period, by vote head (in the allocation order), class and payment method.
Balances by class	For each class: learners, billed this term, collected, owed and paid ahead.
Defaulters	Learners who owe more than an amount, oldest debt first, with the paying guardian.
Clearance list	Who is cleared (owes no more than the clearance amount) and who is not, class by class.

Common questions

Can a parent pay for two children at once? Yes, at the counter in one payment with one receipt, or on the paybill: Take fees at the counter.

A parent paid with “FEES” as the account. Where is it? Under Paybill to place in the Fees office, with Kila’s suggestions: Place a paybill payment.

Can a teacher see fee balances? Only if the school allows it, in School settings. At Bright Minds Academy a class teacher sees their own class’s balances; other teachers do not.

Try it in the demo

These demo businesses run on Kila as a school and a daycare, with made-up data. Each link fills in the person’s email: add the demo password the Kila team gave you.

• Bright Minds AcademySchoolSign in as Margaret Chebet (owner) (opens in a new tab)
• Little Steps DaycareDaycareSign in as Ann Mbugua (owner) (opens in a new tab)