Reapplying a Large Payment – Finalsite Enrollment

When a parent makes a large one-time payment and wants it spread across their payment plan rather than applied all at once, use a two-step Add Payment process: first reverse the original payment with a negative entry, then re-add it spread evenly across months.

💡Quick Answers

Why would I need to reapply a large payment? When a parent pays a lump sum that the system applies all at once, but they want it distributed across future monthly charges to reduce each installment.
How do I reverse the original payment? Click Add Payment, enter a description, select Manual Splits, and for each billing category enter the amount as a negative number; post it At Once on the original payment date with the same payment method.
How do I re-add the payment spread across months? Click Add Payment again, select Auto Distribute, enter the amount as a positive number, and choose Evenly Across Months; set the start term, start month, and number of months.
What if my payment plan is non-consecutive? You cannot use Evenly Across Months for non-consecutive plans; instead divide the total manually and add a separate positive payment for each remaining month.

Process

Example of a large payment on a ledger:

Example image of a Large lump payment

How to reapply the payment:

1. Add a negative payment to reverse the original one.

Select the ‘Add Payment’ button.
Enter a Description that helps you recall the reason for the adjustment.

Pro Tip

Give it a description like "Account Adjustment" to help it stand out in your other reports.

For the ‘Distribution’ select ‘Manual splits’.
For each separate billing category that the payment went to:
- Select the Category
- Select the Contact
- Enter the Amount as a negative number without the dollar sign (ex. -100.00).
Select to post it ‘At once’ on the same date as the original payment.

Important:

Be sure to apply the adjusted payment to the same Billing Category that was originally posted in to keep your billing reporting accurate.
Remember to enter the Amount as a negative number without the dollar sign (ex. -100.00).
There are 2 other requirements not shown in this video. When making an adjustment with the Add Payment pop-up, you are also now required to enter the Payment Method and the Received Date.

Payment Method and Received Date in the Add Payment box

Example of adding a negative payment:

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2. Add a positive payment and spread that payment across the months.

Select the ‘Add Payment’ button.
Enter a Description that helps you recall the reason for the adjustment.
For Distribution, select ‘Auto distribute.’
Select the Contact (*optional: if you leave this blank the system will divide the payment among all contacts associated with the payer).
Enter the amount
- Do not enter the amount as a negative number this time.
Select to post the payment ‘Evenly Across Months.’
- Select the start term
- Select the start month
- Select the number of months to divide the payment amongst

Please note: You can only select ‘Evenly across months’ if your payment plan is consecutive. If you have a non-consecutive payment plan, you will need to:

Divide the payment among the number of months in the remainder of the payment plan.
Manually add a fraction of the payment to each month.
Quick note: There are 2 other requirements not shown in this video. When making an adjustment with the Add Payment pop-up, you are also now required to enter the Payment Method and the Received Date.

Payment Method and Received Date in the Add Payment box

Example of re-adding the payment:

Additional Resources