Overview

Payment Method/OP_Payment_Method_Free is a setting located under Financial Settings > General Settings > e-Payments, in the Transaction properties for addressing for Free Value Payments sub-group.

What This Setting Does

This setting lets the institution choose the default payment method that will be recorded on the financial transaction that Classter automatically creates when it matches (addresses) an incoming online Free Value Payment. A Free Value Payment is an online payment where the payer enters an amount rather than paying a specific pre-defined installment. Because these payments are not tied to one exact installment, the system needs a preselected payment method to use when it automatically issues the resulting transaction document.

Where It Is Used

This setting is used automatically in the background rather than being read from any staff-facing page. It is applied by the automatic addressing (matching) process that runs when an online Free Value Payment is completed, so its effect is visible afterward rather than on a configuration screen.

• Main Menu > Financial > Transactions > Online Payments: once a Free Value Payment has been automatically addressed, the resulting transaction (created using this default payment method) can be reviewed here, where each payment row shows whether it has been addressed and links to the transaction that was generated.

Business Logic / Behavior

• This setting only applies when automatic addressing of Free Value Payments is enabled, since it defines a property of the automatically created transaction.
• The value is selected from the list of payment methods already configured for the institution (for example bank transfer, credit card, or cash).
• If no payment method is selected here, the automatically issued transaction is created without a specific payment method or falls back to another default; this only applies when an automated transaction creation is defined.
• This setting affects only Free Value Payments; it is separate from the payment method used for standard (non-free) online payments matched to specific installments.

Example(s)

At an Academy, a Student’s family pays $275 online as a Free Value Payment, but their next installment is only $250. Because the finance team set Payment Method (Free Value Payments) to “Bank Transfer”, Classter automatically creates a $250 transaction for that installment using Bank Transfer as the payment method, leaving the remaining $25 as a separate credit on the account, keeping their financial reports consistent without staff needing to manually select a payment method for each transaction.

When to Use

This setting is a dropdown selection rather than a simple on/off toggle, so it is used whenever the institution wants to control which payment method label is applied to automatically created Free Value Payment transactions.

Configure this setting when Free Value Payments and automatic transaction addressing are enabled, so that every automatically generated transaction carries a consistent, correct payment method rather than being left blank or inconsistent. If automatic addressing for Free Value Payments is not used, this setting has no practical effect.

Notes

• Prerequisite: the general online payments feature and the Free Value Payment option (as well as automatic transaction addressing for Free Value Payments) should already be enabled for this setting to take effect.
• Related settings: Type of Reason/OP_Type_Of_Reason_Free (Financial Settings > General Settings > e-Payments > Transaction properties for addressing for Free Value Payments), Default Location for Students Found With No Record in Period/OP_Default_Location_For_Students_With_No_Record_In_Period_Free (Financial Settings > General Settings > e-Payments > Transaction properties for addressing for Free Value Payments), In Case of Overpayments Issue a New Transaction of Unconnected Type/OP_In_Case_Of_Overpayments_Issue_A_New_Transaction_Of_Unconnected_Type_Free (Financial Settings > General Settings > e-Payments > Transaction properties for addressing for Free Value Payments).
• Related configuration: Payment Method (Financial Settings > Parametric Lists > Payment Method) – this is where payment method records themselves are created and managed.
• K-12 vs Higher Education: This setting behaves the same regardless of whether Higher Education Mode (Enable Configuration for Higher Education/Xrisi_parametropoihshs_kolegiou) is enabled or disabled.