An all-in-one school platform replaces your CRM, student records and billing with one system, and some also service or finance the payment plans. A standalone payment tool keeps the CRM and accounting you already run and adds the plans, the charges and each location's books. It usually comes down to four things. Is admissions already working in a CRM? Does billing need attendance and grades? Who should collect from the student? Does each location keep its own books?
What's the difference?
Both take tuition over time. They differ in how much of the school they take over.
| All-in-one school platform | Standalone payment tool | |
|---|---|---|
| Admissions and enrollment | Its own CRM and enrollment forms | Stays in the CRM you use now |
| Student records, attendance, grades | Usually included | Not included; kept in your SIS or wherever they are today |
| Payment plans and charges | Included | Included |
| Who collects from the student | Your school, or the vendor as servicer or lender, depending on the product | Your school |
| Accounting | Its own ledger, sometimes synced out | Posts to your QuickBooks or Xero |
| What changes for your team | Admissions, finance and records move to a new system | Finance gets a new tool; admissions keeps working where it does |
When does an all-in-one platform make sense?
- You don't run admissions in a CRM yet, or the one you have isn't working. Replacing it costs little.
- You want attendance, grades and billing in one record, for example because refunds, reporting or accreditation depend on attendance.
- You'd rather a vendor collect from students or carry the balance, and you accept that the student's monthly relationship moves to that vendor.
- You run one or two locations with one set of books.
When does a standalone payment tool make sense?
- Admissions already runs in HubSpot, Pipedrive or Salesforce, with pipelines, reports and automations your team relies on.
- You want to set the plan terms yourself and keep collecting from your own students.
- Each location is its own business, with its own bank account and its own QuickBooks or Xero file.
- Student records already live in a system that works, and billing doesn't need to change it.
What does switching cost?
Moving to an all-in-one means moving admissions as well as payments. Contacts, deal history, email sequences, reports and the habits of every rep move with it. Some schools want exactly that reset. For a school whose admissions process already works, it's the largest cost of the decision, and it lands in enrollment season if the timing is wrong.
Adding a payment tool moves less. Admissions keeps its CRM; what moves is the plans already running. Ask any vendor how plans in flight come across, and whether students have to re-enter their card.
Who should collect from the student?
When the school offers its own plan, the school collects every payment and follows up on the ones that don't arrive. The student pays the school for the life of the plan.
When a vendor services the plan or lends the tuition, the vendor collects and may carry the risk of non-payment. The school may get its money sooner, sometimes less a fee or discount. The student's monthly relationship is with the vendor. Neither is wrong. Decide which you want before you compare features. A 0% plan from the school, or a loan from a lender? works through the numbers.
Does billing need attendance and grades?
Sometimes. A school taking federal student aid has to tie refunds after a withdrawal to the days attended, so the records system and billing have to agree. Many short programs don't take federal aid. For them the refund policy is set by the school and the state, and billing needs the withdrawal date and the amount owed, not the gradebook. Check which applies to you before paying for an integration you won't use.
What should you ask either kind of vendor?
- Who owns the student's payment relationship, you or the vendor?
- Can each location be paid into its own bank account and its own books?
- How long can a plan run, and on what schedules: weekly, every other week, monthly?
- What happens to the schedule when a student withdraws, or when the balance changes?
- How do plans already running move across, and does each student need to re-enter their card?
- Can card fees be shown to the student before they pay, where your state allows it?
- What does it cost at your monthly volume, all in?
Paycove is the standalone kind. Plans are built from the enrollment in HubSpot or Pipedrive, at no interest, and each campus is paid into its own Stripe account and books.
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