Customer Payments

Open Customer Payments

Go to Customer Payments (/studio/payments). Tabs cover the main money workflows. When Stripe is connected, a compact strip shows available balance and next deposit; open Payment Setup for full Balance & Deposits detail.

Tuition By Month

Open the Tuition tab.
Choose the month and households to charge.
Type the confirmation word shown (for example CHARGE). Upper or lower case both work.
Start the run and watch the progress overlay until it finishes.
Review failures and retry only the accounts that need it.

Charging keeps going on the server if you minimize the overlay, leave the page, or close the tab. While a tuition, fee, or custom invoice run is in progress, a small progress card shows in the bottom-right corner of every studio page. Select the expand icon on that card to open the full progress view again.

You can run tuition, a fee run, and custom invoices at the same time. Only one fee run (costume or competition) can run at once. When more than one job is minimized, use the arrows at the top of the card to switch between them. Email sends show in the same card.

You can untick households after the preview without previewing again. Adding a household that was not in the preview asks you to preview again.

If a household's total went up after the preview (for example a class was added), that household is not charged. Its result says "Amount went up … Preview again to collect it." Preview again and charge it separately.

Duplicate Charge Warnings

The preview warns you before you charge a family twice:

If tuition for the month was already run, the preview says when and how many households were charged. Running again only collects households that still owe.
If tuition autopay is on, the preview reminds you that tuition is already posted and charged automatically.
Households that already paid for the month are not listed.
Households that already have an unpaid invoice for the month show Invoice already sent and are unticked. If you tick one again, you must tick the box confirming you checked it before the run can start.

If a saved card is declined and the household has an email, the family is emailed a link to that same invoice so they can pay it with another card. They only ever see one invoice, and it is marked paid automatically when they pay. The household also appears in Needs Attention until the invoice is paid. If the email cannot be sent, the invoice stays open.

Charges stay on one invoice until it is paid or voided. Running tuition again, a fee run, Retry charge, or a manual charge pays that open invoice instead of creating a second one. If a charge fails with an unexpected error, no invoice is emailed; check the household in Needs Attention before charging again.

Tuition Autopay

Turn on Auto-Charge Tuition Monthly under Studio Settings → Tuition Automation. Each day SmartScore Pro posts the month's tuition and charges saved cards for anything still owed that month. Households without a saved card are emailed a payment link instead.

The month follows your studio's time zone, saved from your browser when you turn this on.
Charges already on an open invoice are left alone, so a declined card is not charged again every day. Declines appear in Needs Attention.

Competition & Costume Fees

Use Competition & Costume Fees for studio fees that are not monthly tuition. Select recipients and fee categories, then post the charge run the same way.

The preview skips households that already paid these fees. Households with an unpaid invoice for the same fees show Invoice already sent and are unticked; ticking one again asks you to confirm before the run can start.

If a saved card is declined, the family is emailed that invoice and the household appears in Needs Attention, the same as tuition.

Other Fees (Custom Invoices)

Create one-off invoices for a household when a standard fee does not fit.

Open the Other Fees tab.
Choose who to bill: one or more households, everyone in selected classes, or all active households.
Add line items, choose how to collect, and select Preview and charge custom invoices.
Untick any households you want to leave out, type the confirmation word, and start the run.

If a household received a custom invoice with the same description and amount in the last 7 days, the preview shows Similar invoice sent with the date and unticks them. Tick them again only if they really should be billed twice; you will be asked to confirm before the run can start.

Custom invoice runs show the same progress overlay as tuition and fees. Households that cannot be charged or emailed (for example no card and no email) are skipped without adding a charge to their account. If one household fails, the run records the error and carries on with the rest.

If you change the line items or recipients after the preview, the run asks you to preview again.

Sending A Payment Link From A Household

On a household's page, Email payment link sends a link for its unpaid balance. If those charges are already on an open invoice, you see Invoice already open and no new invoice is created. Use Resend invoice in Needs Attention to send it again.

Payment History

Open Payment History to find invoices and receipts.

Use the Household filter to see one family, or Status to see only paid or open invoices.
Open the ⋯ menu on a row to view details, download the invoice or receipt, refund a paid invoice, or void an open one. After a refund, the invoice badge changes to Refunded.

Needs Attention

Needs Attention lists declined cards, past-due invoices, payments waiting on bank approval, and disputed payments. The red number on the tab shows how many need follow-up.

Payment Blocked By SmartScore means SmartScore stopped a suspected duplicate payment. Check the household account in Invoice History to confirm the intended charge went through, then return to Needs Attention and dismiss the alert if everything is correct.

From the ⋯ menu on a row:

Details: see what went wrong.
Retry charge: try the card again after the family updates it. You confirm the amount first. If the charges are still on an open invoice, that invoice is paid instead of creating a new one.
Dismiss alert: remove an alert from Needs Attention without retrying, refunding, voiding, or changing the payment.
Resend invoice: email the family a link to pay.
Mark paid offline…: record a cash or cheque payment with its type, date, reference, and notes. If the charges were on an open card invoice, that invoice is marked paid in Stripe so the family cannot pay it twice.
Open household: go to that family's billable account.

If you mark an invoice paid in the Stripe Dashboard ("paid outside Stripe"), SmartScore Pro marks its charges paid too.

Payment Disputed

When a family disputes a card payment with their bank, the household appears as Payment disputed. Respond to the dispute in the Stripe Dashboard before Stripe's deadline, then choose Mark reviewed. Marking it reviewed does not respond to the dispute.

Stripe Balance Applied

Stripe keeps its own balance for each customer, separate from SmartScore Pro account credit. A refund or credit note issued in the Stripe Dashboard can leave a customer with a Stripe balance. Stripe uses that balance automatically on the next invoice, so the invoice can show "Applied balance" and be paid without charging the card.

When this happens, the charge run result says how much was covered by the Stripe customer balance, the amount collected is recorded as what Stripe actually charged, and the household is listed in Needs Attention as Stripe balance applied.

Open the item and check the customer's balance history in Stripe.
If the balance was expected, choose Mark reviewed.
If it was not expected, adjust the customer's balance in Stripe before collecting again.

Possible Duplicates

The Possible Duplicates card lists invoices that bill the same charges twice:

Duplicate payment: a family paid for charges that were already paid by another invoice, or already marked paid offline.
Duplicate open invoice: an invoice is still open for charges that another invoice already covers.

SmartScore Pro checks for duplicates whenever a family pays an invoice, and once a day for invoices from the last week. Select Scan for duplicates to check the last four months right away.

When a family pays, any other open invoice for that household whose charges are now all paid is voided automatically, so the family is not asked to pay twice. Open invoices that also include unpaid charges are listed here instead so you can decide.