Famly allows for parents to make payments in-app, which takes care of the entire process of accepting payments, updating accounts, and clearing debt. You can keep track of everything with the overviews of how it's working.
Reporting Transactions and Payouts
To see an overview of upcoming and past transactions and payouts:
Click on the Finances icon in your sidebar
From here, click on Reports
Then, choose the In-app payment payouts report
How to Read the In-app Payments Payout Report
Started
The Started section shows payments have been initiated by a parent, but not yet completed. This typically involves payment methods such as Direct Debit that take multiple days to complete.
Completed
The Completed section shows payments which have been successfully completed and are in your account with our payment provider. They will be scheduled for payouts to your bank account in the near future. If you have experienced disputes or payments with late failures that has caused money to be withdrawn from your account, these will be included here until they have been reconciled.
In payout
The In payout section shows payments have been scheduled for payout to your bank account. Corrections that have been reconciled in a coming payout will also be shown here. You can see a list of all pending, in transit and completed payouts below.
Payouts
The Payout section is a list of all past and pending payouts. On the right you can see the total amount being paid out and the processing fee that's been deducted in brackets. Clicking into a payout will breakdown which payments are included in the chosen payout.
How to See a Report of In-app Payment Fees
To see a report of In-app payment fees:
Click on Finance in your sidebar
Click on Reports
Choose the In-app payment fees report
You can click on each month to see an invoice for fees associated with In-app payments for that month.
Overview of Payments and Status
To view all payments (and their status):
Log in to the app and click on the Finances icon.
Click in to the Payments report for an overview of all payments created in Famly.
The Method filter is useful for getting more of an overview of the same type of payment. To get an overview of the status of payments, you can filter by Transaction status:
Completed - the payment is completed
Disputed - A complaint. A parent has contacted their bank or card provider and disputed the payment. In most cases, this only happens if the parent does not agree with the charge.
Failed - This can happen due to a number of reasons such as insufficient funds, parent entering incorrect postcode details, card expired, the BACS mandate has been cancelled, or the bank account has been closed. The payment has not been processed or saved. The parent will receive an email informing that the payment failed. A failed payment will show on the bill payer's account, but the amount will not count towards the balance.
Pending - The payment has been created but not started yet. It will start when the payment method (BACS Direct Debit) is ready and then change to 'processing'. This takes about 2-3 working days.
Processing - The payment has been started but it takes a few days to complete depending on the payment method.
Refunded - The payment was completed but paid back to the parent. It is not included in their balance.
Pending payments
Payments may be marked as pending for a multitude of reasons. In the new flow:
A parent may add a payment method and pay with that method immediately
Famly will set payment to Pending as we wait for the parent's bank to clear the new payment method (this may take a few business days, especially when setting up BACS Direct Debit!)
Once the payment method has been cleared, the payment status will be updated to Processing
If it is not cleared, the payment will be cancelled and a new payment method will need to be added
Payments may also be set to Pending due to:
Incorrect or incomplete billing address
Misspelled or mismatched names (when compared to information the bill payer's bank account may have on record)
If you notice parents' payments and payment methods are pending for longer than usual, it may be helpful to ask them to double-check that the information they have entered on Famly corresponds with the information their bank has as well.
Automatic payments
For customers who signed up to use in-app payments before August 10th, 2022
When you set up in-app payments, you can choose to enable automatic payments by the child's bill-payer. Naturally, the bill-payers at your setting can still opt in or out of this, enabling Automatic Payments just gives them the option to use it.
Go to Settings → Finances → Invoicing → In-app payments. At the bottom of the setup menu, click Allow bill payers to automate payments, or to edit this setting, click Edit details.
Choose when during the month the automatic payment run takes place.
You can select between:First working day of the month
Last working day of the month
An exact date in the month
Please note, if you choose the first or last working day, payments will be taken on the appropriate non-weekend day and does not take into account holidays
Or you can choose weekly automatic payment runs that take place on your chosen day of the week
On your chosen day for automatic payments, the system will look at all bill payers with outstanding balances and attempt to charge them (given that the bill payer has opted in for automatic payments).
"Lastly, it’s possible to select that payments should be initiated whenever an invoice is due. Be aware that the parent will not only be charged the amount of the invoice but the full amount of their outstanding balance at the time of the invoice becoming due"
Select On invoice due date in the Payments will be initiated section
For customers who signed up to use in-app payments after August 10th, 2022
When you set up in-app payments, automatic payments will automatically be enabled. Naturally, the bill-payers at your setting can still opt in or out of this, they will just always have the option to use an automatic method.
Go to Settings → Finances → Invoicing → In-app payments to see your settings for automatic payments.
You can view the Fees for each payment method by hovering over the information option to the right.
Debit cards will be enabled by default to ensure that at least one payment method is enabled.
Here you can also choose whether you'd like to run automatic payment every week, every month or even whenever an invoice becomes due.
If you select monthly you can choose between:
First working day of the month
Last working day of the month
An exact date in the month
If you select weekly you can choose which day of the week you'd like the run to happen on.
If you select on invoice due date, payments will be initiated whenever an invoice becomes due. Be aware that the payment will be for the full outstanding balance at the time of payment and not only for the invoice that becomes due.
On your chosen day for automatic payments, the system will look at all bill payers with outstanding balances and attempt to charge them (given that the bill payer has opted in for automatic payments).
To see voucher options click to expand the drop-down and use the below information to choose which settings for voucher inclusion you'd like.
Vouchers
If a parent partly pays their invoice using vouchers, these vouchers can be included in the automatic payment run. There are three options in regards to including vouchers in automatic payments:
Don't include
Include all past and future confirmed payments
Up to and including the month after the billing date
Up to and including the month of the billing date
The system will show (when selecting these options) which vouchers will be included in your next automatic payment run.
Refunds
At the moment, Famly is not able to offer refunds in-app. Any credit you need to pay back to the bill-payer must happen outside the app. Just remember to add the activity to the parent's account by creating a negative payment.