Damage charges
What a family is being asked to pay for a repair, and who decided.
Why this exists
Section titled “Why this exists”Everything it needs already existed and none of it was joined up. The repair cost was on the submission, the family was a person record, and the decision to bill them was an email between two staff members.
So a school could not answer “who approved this” a term later, and a parent asking why they owed $180 was asking a person rather than a record.
Two rules carry the whole feature
Section titled “Two rules carry the whole feature”Nothing is ever charged automatically. A cost on a repair is an observation, not a decision. A screen costing $550 to replace does not mean a family is being asked for $550, and the system does not assume it does.
The person who proposes is not the person who approves. A technician who can propose a charge cannot make it real. And because the person who decides a family pays is the same person who can decide they do not, waiving sits with approval rather than with raising.
The lifecycle
Section titled “The lifecycle”| Status | Meaning | Visible to the family |
|---|---|---|
| Proposed | A technician thinks this should be charged | No |
| Approved | Somebody with authority agreed | Yes |
| Invoiced | It has gone to finance | Yes |
| Paid | Settled | Yes |
| Declined or waived | Not being charged | No |
A proposal is an internal opinion, not a bill. Families only ever see approved, invoiced and paid charges, in the parent portal.
That distinction matters. A technician noting “this looks like deliberate damage, probably chargeable” should not put a number in front of a parent before anyone senior has looked at it.
Raising one
Section titled “Raising one”From the submission, once an outcome and cost are recorded. Give the amount and the reason.
The amount does not have to be the repair cost. Schools commonly charge an excess, a capped contribution, or a proportion, and the reason field is where the basis goes.
Approving one
Section titled “Approving one”Somebody with charge.approve reviews and approves, declines or waives.
Write the reason down. Approve one with no note and nobody can explain it when a parent rings six weeks later.
Waiving
Section titled “Waiving”Waiving is an approval decision, not a raising one.
Whoever can decide a family pays can also decide they do not. Split those two and a technician could quietly waive a charge their senior had approved.
What a family sees
Section titled “What a family sees”In the parent portal: approved and later charges, with the amount, the repair they relate to and the date.
Whether costs are visible at all is controlled by the parent portal configuration. Some schools show them and some do not.
Charges against stock sales
Section titled “Charges against stock sales”Different things.
A stock sale is a transaction: somebody bought a cable. It is immediate, it has a receipt, and nobody approves it.
A charge is a claim: we think you should pay for this repair. It is a decision, it needs approval, and it can be disputed.
Permissions
Section titled “Permissions”| Permission | Allows |
|---|---|
charge.view | See charges |
charge.raise | Propose one |
charge.approve | Approve, decline or waive |
Give charge.raise to technicians and charge.approve to whoever in your school
actually has the authority to bill a family. In most schools that is one or two
people, and it is frequently not in ICT at all.
Auditing
Section titled “Auditing”Every state change is recorded with who did it and when. That record is the answer to “who approved this”, which is the question that prompted the feature.