Overview
This article describes the setting ‘Outstanding installments from previous periods will be paid first’ (Setting ID: Pliromi_Aneksofliton_Doseon_Apo_Alles_Periodous_Me_Imerominia), located under Financial Settings > General Settings > Transaction Rights & Controls > Outstanding Installments Payment.
What This Setting Does
This is an on/off setting that changes the order in which a payment is applied to a _Student_’s outstanding installments. When enabled, Classter will prioritize paying off outstanding installments from previous academic periods (installments with a date earlier than the current academic period) before applying the payment to installments in the current period.
Where It Is Used
This setting affects how a payment is automatically spread across a _Student_’s outstanding installments when the payment is entered without being connected to a specific installment.
- Main Menu > Students > (open a _Student_’s profile) > Financial tab > Accounting Tab sub-tab: when a payment is issued for the _Student_ without picking a specific installment/arrangement and the system auto-connects it to outstanding installments, this setting decides whether installments from earlier periods are settled first.
- Main Menu > Financial > Transactions: the same payment-issuing screen in the Transactions area follows the same ordering when auto-connecting a payment to outstanding installments.
Business Logic / Behavior
- When enabled, outstanding installments from previous academic periods (installments dated earlier than the current period) are paid first, ahead of installments from the current period.
- When disabled (the default), payments are applied without this specific prioritization of older periods over the current one.
- This setting is useful for ensuring that older debts are cleared before newer ones accumulate further, reducing the risk of long-outstanding balances.
Example(s)
Example: at Alpha Institute, a _Student_ has an unpaid $300 installment left over from last year’s academic period, plus a $300 installment due this month in the current period. The family pays $400 without specifying which installment it applies to. With this setting disabled, the $400 could be applied toward the current period’s $300 installment first (fully settling it, with $100 left over), leaving last year’s $300 installment still fully outstanding. With this setting enabled, Classter applies the $400 to last year’s overdue $300 installment first, fully clearing it, and applies only the remaining $100 to the current month’s $300 installment, which still shows $200 outstanding.
When to Use
This setting matters whenever _Students_ can carry outstanding installments across academic periods and the institution wants overdue amounts from earlier periods settled before current-period installments.
When to Enable
Enable this setting if your institution wants to ensure that older, overdue installments from previous periods are settled before payments are applied to current-period installments, helping to keep long-term arrears under control.
When to Disable
Keep this setting disabled if your institution does not need this specific prioritization and prefers the standard payment allocation order.
Notes
Prerequisites: this setting only has a visible effect when a _Student_ has outstanding installments spanning more than one academic period.
Related settings: Check installment outstanding status based on the agreed payment date (instead of just comparing the month) (Elegxos_Palaiotitas_Dosis_Me_Vasi_Imerominia_Pliromis in Financial Settings > General Settings > Transaction Rights & Controls > Outstanding Installments Payment); Enable auto-connection of unpaid installments during issuing an unconnected payment receipt (Enable_Auto_Connection_Of_Outstanding_Installments_During_Issuing_An_Unconnected_Payment_Receipt in Financial Settings > General Settings > Transaction Rights & Controls > Outstanding Installments Payment).
This setting behaves the same regardless of whether Higher Education Mode (Enable Configuration for Higher Education/Xrisi_parametropoihshs_kolegiou) is enabled or disabled.
