NSF Checks & Declined Credit Cards
  • 19 Dec 2023
  • 3 Minutes to read

NSF Checks & Declined Credit Cards


Article Summary

This article describes how to make manual entries to reverse bounced checks (known as NSF checks, or non-sufficient funds checks) and declined credit cards. Tuition Express makes these entries for you—see: Tuition Express NSFs and Declined Credit Cards.

When Should I Use these Instructions?

  • If you manually record payments by check or credit card and you receive a notice from the bank (or card company) that the transaction had non-sufficient funds or was declined.
  • In rare cases, customers who began using Tuition Express prior to Jan. 1, 2016, may need to follow these directions for the very first batch containing an NSF Check or declined credit card. After the first manual correction, Tuition Express automates the handling of these transactions. See: Tuition Express NSFs and Declined Credit Cards.

How to manually reverse NSF checks & declined credit cards

NSF Checks (bounced checks) and declined credit cards need to be recorded on the Account Ledger Card in order to reverse the payment that was originally made and to charge an additional processing fee, if appropriate.

  1. Go to the Ledger Card of the family whose check bounced (or credit card was declined).

  2. Reverse the original payment:

    1. Select an appropriate payment description, like NSF Check or Declined Credit Card.Note: You may need to create a description first under the “Payment” section of Charge/Credit Descriptions.
    2. Enter a Comment if desired. If the original payment was part of a Tuition Express batch you may wish to use the Batch ID number.
    3. Enter the amount as a negative number, like -100.00, since the bounced check is considered a negative payment. This will cause the account balance to increase by that amount, indicating the money is still owed to you.
      Note: The negative payment should appear in YELLOW. Even though it is negative it is still a payment category. Payments and credits are always indicated by yellow lines.
    4. Click Post & Exit.
  3. Add an additional processing fee (optional):

    1. If you wish to add an additional fee, select a charge description, like Returned Check Fee, NSF Charge or Declined Credit Card Fee.Note: You may need to create a description first under the “Other Charge” section of Charge/Credit Descriptions.
    2. If you have set up Standard Amounts the amount of the fee will be entered automatically, otherwise you may manually enter the amount or type over the standard amount if needed.
      Note: The fee should appear in BLUE. Blue lines indicate charges to the account.
    3. Click Post & Exit.
  4. Close the Deposit Report

    1. Close a Deposit Report that contains only the NSF checks or declined credit cards recorded above. The total will be a negative number since the balance of your bank account is being reduced.
      Note: If you posted multiple NSF checks or declined credit cards you may wish to close each in its own separate Deposit Report. This may make things easier when you reconcile your bank account since each will appear as a separate deduction, rather than all together as one lump sum.

Redeposit the Payment Manually

When the time comes to redeposit the payment simply handle it like any other payment on the Account Ledger Card. In the comment box you might choose to say “redeposit check #1234”.

Redeposit with Tuition Express

You may process the payment through Tuition Express, a second time, or collect the money directly from the family (as a cash or check payment). Tuition Express WILL NOT automatically reprocess the item on its own.

  • If you process this as a recurring payment, follow the steps to Process Recurring Payments except it won’t be necessary to run Automatic Billing, since the appropriate families will already have a balance due. Make sure to select only the families you really wish to process.
  • Another option is to collect a Point of Sale credit card payment or Payment at Check-In from the family. This might be useful if their recurring fees could not be deducted from a bank account due to non-sufficient funds (ACH batch).
  • If you collect the money directly from the family be sure to post the payment manually on the Account Ledger Card. Don’t accept a check (from the same bank account) as payment if the original transaction was an NSF.

Deposit Reports & Redeposits

This series of transactions will affect three different Deposit Reports.

a. Once when the original payment was deposited.
b. A second time for the NSF check (or declined credit card) shown as a negative.
c. And a third time when the payment is redeposited.

This is truly the way it happened and the total amount deposited will be correct.


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