School Fee Reminder

School Fee Reminder

Recover late coaching & school fees on autopilot — a polite before/on/after reminder cadence that captures a promise-to-pay, drops a UPI/EMI link, and halts the moment the parent pays.

Built on the Telenow App Platform as a pure declarative app: the data model, the agent tools, the SIS + Razorpay webhooks, the reminder + payment-halt workflows, the vernacular agent, and the fee playbook all run on-platform. No external server.

The problem (and the number)

For most coaching institutes and schools, ~40% of fee installments are paid late, and at any given time 15–35% of annual revenue is locked up in outstanding dues. Chasing it is awkward, manual, and easy to let slide — so a receptionist makes a few calls, feels rude, and stops. The result is a widening Days-Sales-Outstanding (DSO) and a cash-flow hole that has nothing to do with enrolment.

The fix isn't harder pressure — it's a consistent, polite cadence: reach the parent in their own language, remind them without judgment, get a concrete promise-to-pay (or split it into an EMI when money is tight), and make paying a single tap via a UPI/EMI link — then stop the instant they pay. School Fee Reminder runs that cadence for you.

How it works

SIS / ERP  ──(installment created webhook)──►  fee_installment object (status: due)
     │                                                  │
     │                                     fires object.fee_installment.created
     ▼                                                  ▼
 dedupe on phone                       ┌── fee_wa_nudge  → gentle WhatsApp reminder + UPI/EMI link
                                       └── fee_reminder  → delay ~3 days
                                                          → outbound-call {{settings.fee_agent_id}}
                                                              → dials {{trigger.data.phone}}
                                                              → passes student, amount, balance, overdue_days
                                                                  │
                                                                  ▼
                                             Fee Reminder Agent (Sarvam, vernacular)
                                             find_installment → polite reminder → answer from playbook
                                             → capture_promise + mark_promised   (pause cadence)
                                             → mark_paid                          (paid on the link)

Razorpay  ──(payment captured webhook)──►  payment object
     │                                            │
     │                            fires object.payment.created
     ▼                                            ▼
 verify x-razorpay-signature          payment_halt workflow
                                       └─ update-object fee_installment (match phone → status: paid)

Everything the agent does on the call updates the same fee_installment / promise rows you see on the dashboard — and the dashboard's Call now button dials through the same agent and tools.

Agent tools (used mid-call — all declarative)

The bundled Fee Reminder Agent is a multi-context flow: a deterministic find_installment tool node (looks the parent up in this app's data) → a conversation node that reminds, captures the promise, and negotiates EMI. STT/TTS default to Sarvam (anushka) so parents are spoken to in their own language.

Dashboard pages

• School Fee Reminder (dashboard) — KPI tiles (outstanding dues ₹, dues recovered ₹ + recovery rate, DSO / avg overdue days, promises to pay, in reminder cadence), a cadence-status mix bar (due → promised → paid), the most-overdue installments, and upcoming promises. Also powers the platform dashboard_widget slot in a compact form.
• Installments — filter by status, search, and Call now to trigger a reminder call for any installment (passes the student's context variables to the agent).
• Promises — every captured promise-to-pay, sorted by date, flagged when a promise is overdue, with a one-tap Follow up call.
• Setup — a configuration checklist, a one-click Create fee reminder agent button, and the post-install wiring steps.

Knowledge base

fee-playbook ships four real scripts the agent answers from: the polite dunning cadence (before / on / after due date), EMI / part-payment negotiation, explaining the UPI/EMI payment link, and handling fee disputes → route to accounts.

Install & post-install wiring

1. Install School Fee Reminder into your org.
2. Open Setup → Create fee reminder agent (builds the bundled Sarvam agent, auto-wired to the tools + playbook).
3. Copy the new agent's ID into the app's Fee reminder agent ID setting (fee_agent_id) so fee_reminder can dial.
4. (Optional) Set WhatsApp channel ID (wa_channel) to auto-send the gentle reminder + UPI/EMI link, and Accounts desk phone (accounts_phone) for dispute transfers.
5. Point your systems at the inbound hooks — sis_webhook (installments in, deduped on parent phone) and razorpay_paid (verified with x-razorpay-signature, halts the cadence on payment). Overdue installments now flow in and auto-dial.

Settings

Bulk dialing your backlog

The real-time path (webhook → workflow → call) covers new installments. To sweep an existing backlog of overdue fees, use the app-key campaign API:

POST /api/app-campaigns
{ "agentId": "<fee agent id>",
  "targetQuery": { "status": "due" },     // over the `fee_installment` object
  "result": { ... write-back ... } }

Monetization

School Fee Reminder is billed on outcomes, not seats: a small percentage of the dues it actually recovers (installments that move to paid after a School Fee Reminder call or link). No recovery, no fee — the merchant always nets positive, and the dashboard's dues recovered + recovery rate tiles make the ROI obvious.

Changelog

1.1.0 — 2026-07-12

• Renamed to School Fee Reminder (business-friendly) with a marketplace icon.
• Added real UI screenshots (dashboard + key pages).
• The auto-reminder call now carries the accounts-desk number so the agent can hand off disputes.
• Verified end-to-end loop closure: trigger → workflow → call → agent tools → write-back → dashboard.

1.0.0

• Initial release.
• Data model: student (name, parent, phone, course, status), fee_installment (student, phone, amount, due date, overdue days, balance, status) with overdue / promised / paid saved views, promise (phone, student, promised date, amount), and payment (phone, student, amount, paid_at).
• Agent tools (declarative): find_installment, capture_promise, mark_promised, mark_paid.
• Bundled agent: Fee Reminder Agent — a Sarvam vernacular multi-context flow (deterministic find_installment lookup → polite reminder → capture promise / negotiate EMI) auto-wired to the tools and the fee playbook.
• Knowledge base: fee-playbook — polite before/on/after dunning cadence, EMI / part-payment negotiation, explaining the UPI/EMI link, and routing disputes to accounts.
• Automation: sis_webhook inbound hook (upserts installments, deduped on phone) and razorpay_paid inbound hook (HMAC-verified via x-razorpay-signature); fee_reminder workflow (delay ~3 days → outbound reminder call); fee_wa_nudge workflow (gentle WhatsApp reminder + UPI/EMI link); payment_halt workflow (payment → mark the installment paid, stopping the cadence).
• Dashboard UI: KPI tiles (outstanding dues, dues recovered + recovery rate, DSO / avg overdue, promises, in-cadence), a cadence-status mix bar, most-overdue installments, and upcoming promises; also renders into the dashboard_widget slot in compact form.
• Installments page: status filters, search, and per-installment Call now (passes student context variables to the agent).
• Promises page: every captured promise-to-pay, sorted by date, with overdue-promise flags and a one-tap follow-up call.
• Setup page: configuration checklist + one-click Create fee reminder agent and post-install wiring steps.
• Self-seed: a fresh install auto-loads six realistic students + installments (across due / promised / paid) and two promises-to-pay (removable) so the dashboard is populated on first open.