Early accessFor small private schools & preschools
Tuition, and every fee after it. One balance per family.
Tuition on a 10- or 12-month plan, plus registration, supplies, field trips, after care and lunch, all on one balance parents can follow and autopay can run. Keep your check-in and messaging app. Let Tuition Tab handle the money.
- Flat pricing, never per student
- Works next to Brightwheel, Procare, FACTS or your SIS
- Built on Fee-Lion invoicing and payments
- Tuition · 10-month planPayment 5 of 10 · Dec 1 $822.00
- Field trip: science centerDue Nov 14 $22.00
- Technology feePaid Aug 15 $150.00
- Pre-K tuition · 10-month planPayment 5 of 10 · Dec 1 $648.00
- After care · NovemberDue Dec 1 $180.00
- Supply feePaid Aug 15 $85.00
Who it’s for
Schools small enough that the director also does the billing
Big schools have a business office and an enterprise system. These schools have one person, a spreadsheet and a stack of checks.
Independent K-8 and K-12 schools
One or two classes per grade, a business manager who also does admissions, and tuition on a 10- or 12-month plan.
Micro-schools
Ten to sixty students, often in a rented space, run by a founder who is also the lead teacher and the bookkeeper.
Montessori schools
Toddler, primary and elementary programs with different rates, half-day and full-day options, and a waitlist deposit.
Faith-based schools
Parish and church schools with member and non-member rates, tuition assistance, and a fundraiser every season.
Preschools and pre-K
Two-, three- and five-day programs, monthly tuition, registration fees and a supply fee every fall.
Homeschool co-ops
Class fees per family per semester, supply fees per class, and a volunteer treasurer with a spreadsheet.
Before- and after-care
Monthly contracts, drop-in days and late-pickup fees, billed on top of the school day.
Run something else? Tutoring centers, learning pods and enrichment programs bill the same way.
Tell us about it →
The year, in fees
Tuition is one line. The school year is a dozen.
Each has its own amount, its own due date and sometimes its own payment plan. Multiply by every student, and by siblings.
- Tuition plans Annual tuition paid in full, in two payments, or across 10 or 12 months.
- Registration and enrollment deposits Due to hold a seat, often credited to the first tuition payment.
- Re-enrollment The spring deposit that secures next year’s seat before open enrollment.
- Supply and technology fees Once a year per student, usually due in August.
- Field trips Small amounts per trip, per student, collected a week or two ahead.
- Before- and after-care Monthly contracts, drop-in days and late-pickup charges.
- Lunch program Monthly or by the meal, sometimes as a prepaid balance.
- Uniforms Orders in summer, add-ons all year, sometimes resold through the school.
- Fundraisers and events Gala tickets, auction items, sponsorships, family fundraising commitments.
- Activities and clubs Enrichment classes, sports, music lessons and camps billed per session.
- Sibling discountsPlanned A percentage off for the second and third child.
- Scholarships and tuition assistancePlanned A fixed amount or a share of tuition, applied before the plan is split.
A year at one small school
A year at Brookside Academy, 140 students, one business manager
A made-up school with very real moments. On the left, how most small schools handle them today. On the right, how Tuition Tab is meant to.
- Feb
Re-enrollment opens
TodayA paper form goes home, deposits come back as checks over six weeks, and the business manager checks each one off on a printed class list.
With Tuition TabEach returning family gets a $300 re-enrollment deposit on their balance, pays it from their phone, and the director sees who has and hasn’t at a glance.
- Jul
Tuition plans are set up
TodayFamilies pick a plan by email. Someone types 140 sets of ten payments into a spreadsheet, or pays a tuition-management company and families pay its enrollment fee.
With Tuition TabPick a plan per family (in full, two payments, 10 or 12 months) and the installments are scheduled. Parents save a card or bank account once.
- Aug
The first week of school
TodaySupply fee, technology fee, uniform order and the first tuition payment land in four different emails in the same week.
With Tuition TabSupply and technology fees go on the same family balance as tuition, with one due date and one receipt.
- Oct
The apple-orchard field trip
TodayTeachers collect $18 in envelopes, cash goes missing, and three students “forgot”. The office covers it out of petty cash.
With Tuition TabThe $18 trip fee goes onto every second-grade family’s balance in one step, and parents pay it with the next autopay or on its own.
- Nov
After care and late pickups
TodayDrop-in days and late-pickup minutes are tallied on a clipboard and added to next month’s invoice by hand, if someone remembers.
With Tuition TabAdd the month’s after-care charges to each family and they ride along with the next tuition payment. You still track attendance where you do today.
- Jan
Statements for taxes and FSAs
TodayParents ask for a year-end statement for their dependent-care FSA or tax credit, and someone rebuilds it from bank deposits.
With Tuition TabEvery payment is already on the family’s record, so a statement for the year is a download, not an afternoon.
Why nothing covers this today
The tools are built for daycares or for big schools. Small schools patch.
Here’s what small schools tell us they use, and where each one stops.
Brightwheel and Procare
All-in-one childcare platforms: check-in, attendance, daily reports, parent messaging and billing in one app, priced by quote. A strong fit for a daycare that needs all of that. Heavy if you only need the money side, or if you already run classes and messaging somewhere else.
FACTS and other tuition-management services
Widely used by K-12 private and faith-based schools for tuition plans, often alongside FACTS’ student information system. Families typically pay an annual payment-plan fee set by the school (in the school listings we checked, most were $25 to $55 per family a year), and the extra fees often still go elsewhere.
QuickBooks invoices
Good books, but each invoice is one bill to one customer. Ten tuition installments plus a field trip and after care per family turns into dozens of invoices, with no single balance a parent can follow.
Spreadsheets, checks and Venmo
Free and flexible, and where most small schools and co-ops really run. Until a family pays the wrong amount by Venmo, a check bounces, and the only person who understands the sheet is out sick.
What Tuition Tab won’t do
No check-in or check-out, attendance, daily reports, parent messaging, gradebook or admissions. Childcare centers expect those, and good tools exist for them. Tuition Tab is meant to be the tuition-and-fees money tool next to whatever you use for the rest.
How it’s meant to work
Set up the year once. Families see all of it from the first week.
This is what we’re building for early access. The schools on the waitlist decide what comes first.
- 1
Add families and students
Import from a spreadsheet export: family, parents, each student’s grade or classroom. Siblings sit under one family.
- 2
Set each family’s tuition plan
In full, two payments, 10 or 12 months. Sibling discounts and scholarships (planned) come off before the plan is split.
- 3
Add fees to a whole class at once
Supply fee for every kindergartner, a field trip for Grade 2, after care for the families who signed up. One step each.
- 4
Autopay and reminders do the chasing
Parents save a card or bank account once. Installments run on schedule, reminders go out before each one, and you see who’s behind.
Who it helps
Better for the office, the families and the kids
Directors and business managers
- One balance per family, across tuition and every fee
- Autopay runs the 10- or 12-month plan, with reminders before each payment
- See who is behind, and by how much, without opening a spreadsheet
- Flat price: adding a classroom doesn’t raise your software bill
Parents
- Every fee for every child, with its due date, from the first week of school
- Pay by card or bank account from a phone; set up autopay once
- Siblings share one balance and one schedule
- Receipts and a year-end statement for FSA or tax time
Students
- No envelopes of cash in a backpack for field trips
- Nobody gets pulled aside about an unpaid fee
- Money stays between the office and the parents
Teachers
- No collecting trip money or chasing permission-slip payments
- Class time stays for teaching
A parent at a school still on checks and spreadsheets? Join as a parent and tell us the school. We’ll reach out to them.
Pricing
Flat pricing. No per-student fees.
A 40-student preschool and a 240-student K-8 shouldn’t pay different software bills for the same tool. And families shouldn’t pay a fee just to be on a payment plan.
Fee-Lion plans today are $9 / month (Solo) and $29 / month (Studio). Online payments carry Stripe’s processing fee plus a small platform fee: 2% on Solo, 1% on Studio, with bank payments capped at $10 and $5.
The school edition’s price comes out before launch, flat like the rest of Fee-Lion. The waitlist hears it first.
See Fee-Lion pricing →Questions
Is this live?
Not yet. Tuition Tab is in early access. It's built on Fee-Lion, which already handles invoices, recurring billing, payment plans, autopay, a parent payment portal and online card and bank payments for small businesses. The school-specific parts (one balance per family with each student's fees, adding a fee to a whole class at once, sibling discounts and scholarships) are what we're building now, with input from the schools on the waitlist.
Does it do check-in, attendance or parent messaging?
No, and it isn't meant to. Tuition Tab is the tuition-and-fees money tool. Keep Brightwheel, Procare, your student information system, or the group text for check-in, attendance, daily reports and messages, and use Tuition Tab next to them for billing.
Do we have to leave FACTS, Brightwheel or Procare?
No. Some schools will move tuition over; others will only move the extra fees that don’t fit where they bill today. There’s no live integration with those systems; we plan to start with a family and student import from a spreadsheet export.
How will it be priced?
Flat monthly pricing, never per student or per family. Today Fee-Lion’s plans are $9 and $29 a month, plus Stripe processing and a small platform fee on online payments, with bank payments capped. We’ll publish the edition’s price before it opens, and tell the waitlist first.
How do parents pay?
Fee-Lion takes card and bank (ACH) payments online through Stripe, including payment plans and autopay. Bank payments cost much less to process, which matters on a $900 tuition installment. Checks and cash can still be recorded by the office.
What about sibling discounts and scholarships?
Both are planned, not live. The idea: a discount or an award is applied to a family’s tuition before the plan is split into payments, so every installment is already the right amount. Until then, the free tracker spreadsheet handles both.
What do you store about students?
As little as billing needs: a first name, a last initial or family name, and a grade or classroom. No birthdays, health or attendance records. Payment details stay with Stripe.
Who’s behind it?
Media Lion LLC, the small team that makes Fee-Lion. We’re talking to school directors, business managers and parents before we build, so the waitlist form asks a few questions. Your answers shape what ships first.
Early access
Join the waitlist
We’re opening to a small group of schools first. Tell us a little about yours and we’ll be in touch, usually for a 20-minute call about how you bill tuition and fees today.