Quick answers to common questions about programs, tuition plans, billing, subsidies, and financial aid for US schools.
Dashboard: us.illumine.app
1. I do not see the three-dot menu on the Tuition Plans page to pause, edit, or delete a plan. Where can I find it?
Plan actions are available inside the program, not on the Tuition & Billing list.
Follow these steps:
Go to Programs and open the relevant program.
Select the Tuition Plans tab.
Click the three dots next to the plan.
You can access options such as Edit, Pause this plan, Save as Template, Reset one time charge, and Delete.
Good to know:
The Tuition Plan list under Tuition & Billing is for reference. New plans are created from Programs.
Charges are created under Tuition & Billing > Tuition Plan > Charges.
There are two different billing controls:
Pause this plan from the three-dot menu pauses that particular plan and affects only its assigned students.
Switch off billing at the top of the Tuition Plans tab stops billing for every plan in that program.
2. I need to pause all billing before tomorrow's billing run. What should I do?
You have two options:
To pause individual plans, open each program, go to Tuition Plans, click the three dots next to the plan, and select Pause this plan.
To stop billing for all plans within one program, switch off billing at the top of that program's Tuition Plans tab.
If you need to pause plans across multiple programs in bulk, contact the Illumine Support team for assistance.
Good to know: You do not need to pause a plan to apply proration. Proration is controlled through the plan settings:
Prorate first invoice based on student's start date
Prorate last invoice based on student's end date
Holidays are excluded, and the system calculates the prorated amount automatically when these settings are enabled.
3. I cannot assign a student to a tuition plan. What could be the reason?
This usually happens when the plan's optional registration date range does not include the student's registration date.
To resolve this, you can:
Update the student's registration date.
Edit the plan's registration date range.
Leave the plan's registration date range blank.
Good to know: If a student is active in two programs, make sure one program has an end date or remove the student from the relevant tuition plan.
4. Why is the Bi-Weekly billing option missing?
Bi-Weekly billing is available again.
When you add a plan, you can choose from the following billing frequencies:
Weekly
Bi-Weekly
Semi-Monthly (1st to 15th and 16th to the end of the month)
Monthly
Quarterly
Half Yearly
Yearly
Custom Terms
Installments
Good to know: If you previously used Custom Terms as a workaround for Bi-Weekly billing, edit the existing plan and change its frequency to Bi-Weekly.
5. How can I add a supply fee to the same invoice as tuition?
First, create the supply fee as an Additional Charge. Then attach it to the tuition plan.
Follow these steps:
Go to Tuition & Billing > Tuition Plan > Charges.
Create the supply fee as an Additional Charge.
Go to Programs and open the relevant program.
Select Tuition Plans.
Click the three dots next to the plan and select Edit.
Click Add Charge and select the supply fee.
The charge will then be included with the tuition plan.
Good to know: Parents can also pay multiple invoices in one transaction, with one processing fee per invoice.
6. How can I stop a one-time fee from being charged to current students while keeping it for new students?
You do not need to make any changes. A one-time charge is billed only on the first invoice generated after a child is assigned to the plan.
Good to know: If the charge appears again, the plan may have been deleted and recreated. Recreating the plan counts as a new assignment for all students assigned to it.
7. Can I generate invoices for past months using a tuition plan?
No. The setting Immediately invoice students who join after the invoices have already gone out applies only to the current or upcoming billing period.
Illumine does not automatically generate invoices for periods that have already passed. To create an invoice for a past period, go to Tuition & Billing > Invoices and create it manually.
8. Why do my recurring discounts keep disappearing?
A discount continues to apply automatically only when it is attached to the tuition plan, rather than being added to just one invoice.
To set it up:
Go to Tuition & Billing > Tuition Plan > Discount and create the discount.
Choose the discount type:
Standard: Continues to apply.
Conditional: Has a limited number of uses or an expiry date.
Go to Programs and open the relevant program.
Select Tuition Plans, click the three dots next to the plan, and choose Edit.
Click Add Discount and select the discount.
Good to know: Discounts and subsidy payers for individual children are configured when assigning the child to the plan. Discounts are different from financial aid, which is covered below.
9. How do I give a child a subsidy or financial aid?
Subsidies and financial aid help reduce the amount a family needs to pay, but they come from different sources:
Subsidy: Money paid by an external agency, such as a county or childcare assistance program, toward a child's fees.
Financial Aid: Money provided by an organization or school fund toward a parent's share of the fees.
Both are set up in two main steps: create the provider once, then attach it to each child who receives the support. You can also review the amounts applied afterward.
Important: The following steps describe the updated screens from the upcoming release. Until the update is live, the child's Billing tab may show only Add Subsidy, with Add Financial Aid available inside the Add menu on the page that opens.
Step 1: Create the provider
You can create a provider from the relevant section in Tuition & Billing.
To create a Subsidy Provider:
Go to Tuition & Billing > Subsidy.
Click Add Subsidy Provider.
To create a Financial Aid Provider:
Go to Tuition & Billing > Tuition Plan.
Open the Financial Aid tab.
Click Add Financial Aid Provider.
Enter the organization's name and an optional note.
You can also create a provider while adding it to a child. Open the provider dropdown on the Add Subsidy or Add Financial Aid form and select Create a subsidy provider or Create a financial aid provider at the bottom. Once saved, the new provider will be selected automatically.
Good to know: Creating a provider only adds it to the provider list. It does not automatically apply any subsidy or financial aid to a child.
Step 2: Attach the provider to the child
Go to Center Management > Students.
Open the child's profile and select the Billing tab.
Below the two balance boxes, find the light-blue strip with these options:
Add Subsidy
Add Financial Aid
Set up split billing
Select the option you need.
To add Financial Aid:
Select Add Financial Aid and complete the form:
Parent whose share the financial aid covers
Provider
Amount type: Fixed or Percentage
Amount
Program
Tuition Plan
Click Save when you're done.
To add a Subsidy:
Select Add Subsidy and complete the similar form with:
Provider
Program
Tuition Plan
Start date
Expiry date
Illumine sends reminders to Staff and parents before the subsidy expires.
Step 3: Review the applied subsidy and financial aid
Once a child has a subsidy or financial aid assigned, the Billing tab displays View Subsidy & Financial Aid instead of the individual Add links.
Click View Subsidy & Financial Aid.
The Payment Configuration page opens with two tabs: Subsidies and Financial Aid.
Each tab displays the child's programs and the amount applied to each program.
Use the search box and the Active / Upcoming / Completed filter to find the relevant entries.
You can also manage existing entries using the three-dot menu at the end of each row:
Subsidy: View, check how the amount is calculated, update the expiry date, or delete.
Financial Aid: View or delete.
Troubleshooting tips:
"Please configure financial aid on Student payment configuration page": Financial aid has not yet been configured for that child. Complete Step 2.
"You do not have permission" when adding Financial Aid: Your Staff role may not have the required financial aid permission. Ask your administrator to enable it under Settings > Access Control.
Set up split billing: This is a separate feature that divides a child's invoices between family members based on percentages.
10. How do I edit a program's rooms, dates, or schedule?
You can update these details from the program's Overview section.
Go to Programs.
Open the program you want to update.
Under Overview, click the edit icon.
Update the rooms, schedule, or dates as needed.
Save your changes.