Custom-Built Application Case Study: Enrollment & Billing Management Portal

What We Built -

A centralized Enrollment & Billing Management Portal for management of tuition and enrollment for a two-year online degree program.

The Challenge -

When we set out to build this application, the management of students, tuition and enrollment for a two-year online degree program was being done by a handful of non-integrated systems and a lot of spreadsheets to keep track of things. The result was not only burdensome on the staff running the program, but an accounting nightmare for the bookkeeping team. As is often the case, the student experience wasn't much better due to limited payment options and information that was often inaccurate or out of date.

The Solution -

The Enrollment & Billing Management Portal that we built on the Zoho Creator low-code platform allows staff to centrally manage student information, issue tuition invoices, collect payments online, and enroll students into courses in the online learning platform once tuition is paid. The application provides the administrative interface that is used to manage student information, tuition invoices and other program details. From within the portal, a new student profile can be created, scholarships and discounts can be entered, and the system does all of the work to set the new student up in various other systems required to complete the program. The portal also tracks overdue payments and automatically sends notifications to students when payments are due or overdue.

The Zoho Creator portal resides as the centerpiece of a suite of applications, and makes managing each of the other integrated systems automatic. System integrations include:

• Delivery and electronic signature of an enrollment contract through Zoho Sign
• Easy import of student contact information from Zoho Forms based program application
• Processing of tuition payments through the Stripe API (both one-time and automatically recurring payments)
• Provisioning of a user account on the organization's WordPress website in order to access student resources
• Enrollment of students into courses in the Canvas online learning platform once all tuition payment are made
• Automated entry of invoices, scholarships, discounts and payments into QuickBooks Online
• Sync of student contact, program and transaction information to the organization's main Zoho CRM database

The Outcome -

• Students now have real-time access to accurate financial and program information and the option to enroll in automatic tuition payment plans
• Program staff save substantial time setting up new students and avoid manual input errors
• Accounting staff time was also reduced considerably
• Students, program staff, accounting team and senior management have a clear view of all aspects of the program