Giving Future Parents Access to Invoices

Overview

There are two ways to give future parents access to their invoices online. The most comprehensive solution is to build a Future Parent Portal that includes a link to view invoices. This involves building a content portal for future parents (a content portal is included with the purchase of News Management). The other option is to send a Composer email to future parents that includes a token-based link to their invoice. This is a more direct option, but lacks the context of the entire portal experience.

This article covers both options.

Building a Future Parent Portal

Schools can elect to build a content portal for future parents. While there are not future parent-specific portal components (e.g., there is no future parent directory type), building a portal for future parents offers several advantages, it can provide a place to get information about the school and summer events using news management components, as well as providing a context for the student billing link.

To send future parents their invoice via a future parent portal, simply send an email with a link to the Invoices screen: portals.veracross.com/{school_short_name}/parents/invoice.

Replace {school_short_name} with your school’s, e.g.:
portals.veracross.com/vcdemo_client/parents/invoice

A generic content portal is included with the purchase of the News Management module; one can also be purchased separately. Contact your account manager to learn more about the setup process.

Send a Link to a Personalized Invoices Landing Page

Give Access Via a Secure Token Link

If there is no portal for future parents, schools can also send a Composer email with the link to their invoices. This functionality generates a secure token URL to the specific email recipient’s invoice outside of the portal. The result is a “frameless” invoice.

First, confirm that the feature is enabled in the portal. To do this, navigate to the relevant portal, click the Configuration tab, and check the “Enable…” fields. They are not directly editable; contact your account manager to make a change.

This feature utilizes a special Composer channel and must be accessed in the following way:

1. In Veracross Accounting, navigate to the Student Billing workspace and run the “Invoice recipients – Future Parents” query. Keep in mind this is looking at the current billing year, depending on the time of year this may need to be adjusted.
2. Launch Composer from the query result. To do this, click the Action menu (lightning bolt) and select “Send an Email.”
3. In the window, select three options:
   1. Person ID for the recipient Person ID field.
   2. Person Billing Link for the channel. Selecting this channel presents the third option.
   3. Person ID for the record ID field.

Notes on Use:

• The invoice view/pay feature must be enabled in the portal configuration.
• The query must be based on parents. The “target recipients” feature does not work with the merge field. It is recommended to begin with the “Invoice recipients – Future Parents” query in the Student Billing workspace.
• The email must be launched from a query. Starting it from scratch — even if in the Person Billing Link channel — does not work.
• All three options (recipient person ID field, channel, and record ID field) must be specified when launching the Composer email.

Include the Billing Link in the Email

When writing the content of the email, include a link to {data:billing_link} in a button or URL link. It is recommended to use the button component or to add an actual URL link, rather than including the {data:billing_link} in the body of the email because the actual URL that is generated is quite long.