Avela Payments Is Here: 10 Ways Schools Can Use It

Student enrollment may be going digital, but collecting fees can still feel surprisingly manual.

Families may be asked to mail or drop off a check, pay somewhere outside the rest of their enrollment experience, or create and manage an account on another platform. Meanwhile, staff may find themselves handling cash, following up with families, and managing payment information separately from the workflows they already oversee.

Avela Payments is now available in beta to help make that experience simpler.

With Payments, schools and districts can bring payment collection closer to the enrollment and program workflows they already manage in Avela—making it easier for families to pay and easier for staff to manage fees and payment activity in one place.

A Simpler Experience for Families and Staff

Avela Payments is designed around three simple benefits:

A family-friendly payment experience. Families can see what they owe through their Avela portal and complete payment online, without physically mailing a check or creating and managing another account just to make a payment.

Flexible enough for different workflows. Payments can fit at different points in your process, giving your organization flexibility to collect the fees that make sense for your programs and families.

More of your workflow in one place. Staff can create fees, request payment from families, and track payment activity alongside the other student and enrollment workflows they manage in Avela.

And because every school, district, and program handles fees a little differently, there isn’t just one way to use it.

What could Payments simplify for your organization?

Maybe you already have a fee that creates unnecessary steps for staff or families. Or maybe there’s a program where payment collection still happens completely separately from registration.

Here are 10 ways Avela Payments could fit into your workflow.

1. Application fees

Collect an application fee alongside the application process rather than sending families somewhere else to complete another step.

2. Registration fees

Request fees from families when a student reaches the registration stage of your enrollment process.

3. Seat deposits

For programs that require a deposit to secure or confirm a seat, request payment from the families who need to complete that step.

4. Summer program fees

Collect one-time fees for summer school, enrichment programs, camps, and other seasonal offerings from participating families.

5. Before- and after-school programming

Bring payment closer to registration for extended-day programs instead of managing program enrollment and payment through completely separate processes.

6. Field trip fees

Request a trip-related fee from the specific group of students participating rather than creating a process for the entire school.

7. Uniform fees

Create a reusable uniform payment and request it from the families who need it without rebuilding the same fee each time.

8. Yearbook fees

Give families a convenient online option for optional purchases like yearbooks instead of relying solely on paper checks or cash.

9. Fees for out-of-district students

Where permitted by local policies, request applicable costs—such as transportation or program-related fees—from the specific families responsible for them.

10. Kindergarten or early childhood program fees

For kindergarten, preschool, pre-K, or other early childhood offerings that include eligible fees, incorporate payment into the enrollment or registration experience.

How Avela Payments works

The possibilities may be broad, but the basic workflow is simple.

Create a payment.
Set up the fees your organization collects so they’re ready to use whenever you need them.

Request payment from families.
Send a payment request to the families who need it—whether that’s an individual student or a larger group.

Track what’s been paid.
See payment activity and status so your team knows what’s outstanding and what’s complete.

For families, the experience is just as straightforward: they can see what they owe through their Avela portal and complete payment online.

Avela Payments is currently designed around one-time payment collection, including use cases such as application, registration, program, and other school-related fees.

What could Payments simplify for your school or district?

These 10 examples are only a starting point.

Your organization may have a completely different fee that families encounter during application, registration, enrollment, or participation in a program.

The question to ask is simple:

Where are families being asked to pay today—and could that experience be easier?

Maybe it’s an application fee. Maybe it’s a program charge. Maybe it’s something unique to your organization that isn’t on this list at all.

Avela Payments gives you another way to bring that step closer to the workflows your families and staff already use, helping families complete payments more easily and giving your team a simpler way to manage the process.

And hopefully, it means spending a little less time chasing checks.

Interested in learning more about Avela Payments?
Contact the Avela team.

About Avela

Avela provides school districts, charter networks, and early childhood programs with modern enrollment software that helps families discover, apply to, and enroll in schools and programs while helping organizations streamline the work behind the scenes.