Overview
This article explains the purpose and behavior of the application setting that automatically applies a discount connected to a student’s voucher whenever a new financial arrangement of a chosen type is created for that student. It is written for institution administrators and finance staff who configure billing and discount rules, and does not require any technical knowledge of the system.
What This Setting Does
This setting lets an institution choose one or more categories of financial arrangement — Grade, Stream, Service, Subject, Group, or Administrative Fees — for which Classter should automatically add a discount to a Student’s arrangement whenever that Student already holds an eligible voucher.
In simple terms: if a Student has been given a voucher (a pre-loaded credit or allowance) and the institution later creates a new bill (an arrangement) for that Student in one of the selected categories, Classter automatically looks for that voucher and, if it qualifies, adds its linked discount to the new arrangement — without any staff member having to remember to do it manually.
This is a multi-select setting: administrators tick which arrangement categories should trigger the automatic discount. Categories that are not selected will never trigger the automation, even if the Student holds a valid voucher.
Where It Is Used
This setting is found under: Settings > Reductions, Discounts & Loans > Vouchers.
It takes effect at the moment a new financial arrangement is created for a Student, whether that arrangement is created:
- Manually by finance or administrative staff on the Student’s financial profile, or
- Automatically by other Classter processes that generate arrangements for many students at once (for example, when arrangements are generated for a whole Grade or Group together).
The setting is checked every time a new arrangement is created in one of the selected categories. It has no effect on arrangements that already existed before the setting was enabled — it only applies going forward, at the moment of creation.
Business Logic / Behavior
How the Automation Works
- When a new arrangement is created, Classter checks whether its category (Grade, Stream, Service, Subject, Group, or Administrative Fees) is one of the categories selected in this setting.
- If it is, Classter checks whether the Student holds any voucher that is eligible to be used automatically (see Prerequisites below).
- If an eligible voucher is found, Classter takes the discount connected to that voucher’s type and adds it automatically to the new arrangement.
- The value of the discount applied corresponds to whatever balance is still remaining on the voucher. As the voucher is used up over time, the automatic discount reduces accordingly, and once the voucher’s value is fully used, no further automatic discount is added.
- Only one discount is added per qualifying voucher, and Classter never adds the same discount twice to the same arrangement.
Prerequisites
For this setting to have any effect, the following must already be configured:
- At least one voucher type must exist and be configured to allow automated use. This is a property configured on the voucher type itself, separate from this setting.
- That voucher type must have a discount linked to it that is a fixed monetary amount. Percentage-based discounts linked to a voucher type are not picked up by this automation.
- The Student must already hold an active instance of that voucher with a value still remaining. Vouchers are issued to students separately (for example, as a promotional benefit, a sibling benefit, or through the related pledge-voucher settings described in the Notes section) — this setting does not create vouchers, it only consumes them.
- If the voucher type is restricted to specific Grades or Streams, the Student’s enrollment must match that restriction for the voucher to qualify.
Interaction with Scholarship Exception
If an arrangement (or the Subjects underlying it) has been flagged as a Scholarship Exception through the related scholarship-exception settings, the automatic voucher discount described here will not be applied to that arrangement, even if its category is selected in this setting. This protects scholarship-based billing arrangements from being unintentionally combined with voucher discounts.
K-12 vs Higher Education Mode
This setting behaves identically in both K-12 mode and Higher Education mode (that is, regardless of whether the college/university parameterization mode is enabled). The same six arrangement categories are available for selection in both modes, and the underlying automation logic does not change based on the institution mode.
In practice, usage patterns tend to differ: K-12 institutions more commonly select Grade (for annual or termly tuition arrangements), while Higher Education institutions more commonly select Subject (for per-course or per-module billing). This is a matter of typical configuration, not a functional restriction — any category can be selected in either mode.
Example(s)
Example 1 — Grade Arrangement (typical K-12 scenario)
Academy Alfa runs a back-to-school promotion and issues a ‘Welcome Voucher’ worth 200 currency units to a new Student, referred to here as Alex Sample, when they enroll. The Welcome Voucher type has been configured by the finance administrator as eligible for automated use, and it is linked to a fixed discount named ‘Welcome Voucher Discount’ of 50 currency units.
The setting is enabled for the Grade category. A few weeks later, Example Academy’s finance office creates Alex’s Grade tuition arrangement for the new term. Because Grade is selected in this setting and Alex holds an eligible, unused Welcome Voucher, Classter automatically applies the 50 currency-unit Welcome Voucher Discount to the new tuition arrangement, and reduces Alex’s remaining voucher balance to 150 currency units for future use. No manual action from finance staff is required.
Example 2 — Subject Arrangement (typical Higher Education scenario)
University Beta issues a ‘Merit Voucher’ worth 500 currency units to a Student, referred to here as Jordan Example, as an academic merit award. The Merit Voucher type is configured for automated use and linked to a fixed discount named ‘Merit Voucher Discount’ of 100 currency units per use.
The setting is enabled for the Subject category, which is common in Higher Education institutions that bill per Subject (Module/Course) rather than per Grade. When Jordan registers for a Subject and the university creates the related billing arrangement, Classter automatically applies the 100 currency-unit discount linked to the Merit Voucher, reducing Jordan’s remaining voucher balance to 400 currency units.
Example 3 — Category Not Selected
If Administrative Fees is not selected in this setting, then even if a Student holds an eligible voucher, no automatic discount will be added when an Administrative Fees arrangement is created for that Student. Finance staff would need to add any related discount manually, if desired.
When to Use
When to Enable
- The institution regularly issues vouchers (for example, promotional, sibling, merit, or pledge-related benefits) and wants their linked discounts applied automatically and consistently, without relying on staff to remember to do so for every arrangement.
- The institution wants to reduce the risk of a voucher being forgotten or under-used because nobody manually added its discount.
- The institution has already set up voucher types with clear, fixed-amount discounts, and is comfortable with those discounts being applied automatically the moment a matching arrangement is created.
When to Disable
- The institution does not use vouchers, or prefers finance staff to review and apply voucher-related discounts manually on a case-by-case basis.
- The institution wants tighter control over specific arrangement categories (for example, Administrative Fees) and prefers that voucher discounts never be applied automatically there, even if a Student holds an eligible voucher.
- There is a risk of unwanted discount stacking with other automated discount rules for a given arrangement category, and the institution prefers to review such cases manually before finalizing an arrangement.
Notes
- This automation only ever uses fixed monetary-amount discounts linked to a voucher’s type; percentage-based discounts tied to a voucher are not applied through this setting.
- Until at least one arrangement category is selected, this setting has no effect, since there is nothing for it to trigger on.
- This setting only affects arrangements created after it is turned on; it does not retroactively add discounts to existing arrangements.
Related settings:
- Voucher Type to be given automatically for pledge discounts when an arrangement is created / Voucher_Type_For_Pledge_Discounts (Settings > Reductions, Discounts & Loans > Vouchers) — the reverse mechanism: instead of consuming an existing voucher, this automatically creates a new voucher from an agreed discount that starts after the current Academic Period ends.
- Give dynamic pledge amount vouchers, for every agreed discount having start date later than the Academic Period’s end date / Give_Dinamic_Pledge_Ammount_Vouchers_For_Every_Agreed_Discount_Having_Start_Date_Later_Of_Academic_Periods_End_Date (Settings > Reductions, Discounts & Loans > Vouchers) — works together with the setting above to generate pledge vouchers automatically.
- Scholarship-exception settings under Settings > Reductions, Discounts & Loans, which can suppress this automatic voucher discount on arrangements flagged as a scholarship exception.
