The most common reason institute owners delay switching to fee software is not cost. It is the assumption that setup will take days — importing data, mapping fields, configuring structures — and that something will break in the middle of a billing cycle.
That assumption is fair. It was true of most fee software until recently.
Feezy uses Spark, an AI onboarding agent, to set up your entire fee operation through a conversation. This guide walks through exactly what that looks like — step by step.
Before you start: what you need
Before opening Feezy, have these three things ready:
1. Your institute name (what appears on receipts and payment pages) 2. A rough description of your group structure — for a coaching institute this might be "two teachers, Mahesh and Ravi. Mahesh has Morning and Evening batches, Ravi has Afternoon." 3. Your standard monthly fee amount (or amounts, if different batches pay different rates)
That is genuinely all you need to start. Spark will ask for more detail as you go, but these three things let you begin immediately.
Step 1: Basic setup (2 minutes)
When you first log in, Spark greets you and asks for your institute's display name. This is the name that will appear on every receipt, every payment page, and every WhatsApp message your parents receive.
Type it in. Spark confirms and moves on.
Next it asks which archetype best describes you — academy (coaching or school), studio (dance, music, fitness), club (sports or hobby), residence (PG or hostel), or community. This sets the vocabulary Feezy uses throughout — so a coaching institute sees "students" and "batches" while a gym sees "members" and "plans."
Spark then offers to set your brand colour. You can pick from a preset palette, type a hex code, or ask Spark to suggest one based on your institute name and category. Optional — skip it if you want to come back to it.
Step 2: Business structure (3 minutes)
This is where institutes usually expect complexity. In practice, it is the fastest step.
Spark asks: do you run one location or multiple branches?
If one location: done. Move on.
If multiple: tell Spark how many branches and what you call them. It creates them.
Then Spark asks about your group hierarchy. How many levels do you use — just batches, or stream then batch, or teacher then batch? Tell it in plain English. "Two levels — teacher, then batch under each teacher."
Spark asks what you call each level. "Teacher, Batch."
Then it asks for your actual structure. You type it naturally: "Teachers: Mahesh and Ravi. Mahesh has Morning and Evening batches, Ravi has Afternoon only."
Spark parses this, shows you the hierarchy it understood, and asks you to confirm:
``<code> Mahesh ├── Morning └── Evening Ravi └── Afternoon </code>``
Confirm or correct. That is your structure — done.
Step 3: Fees (5 minutes)
This is the most detailed step, and still faster than any form-based setup.
Spark asks which fee types you want to enable. Regular fees (monthly or term-based), subscription fees, per-session fees, discounts, late-fee fines, partial payments. Answer yes or no to each. The right panel updates in real time as you answer.
For each fee type you enable, Spark asks the key details conversationally:
"Do you want recurring monthly fees on?" — Yes. "What is the standard monthly fee?" — ₹1,500. "Same for all batches, or different per batch?" — Same.
Done. Feezy now knows to generate fee records for every student in every batch at ₹1,500 on the cycle date you set.
If you have different fees per batch — Mahesh's batches at ₹1,800 and Ravi's at ₹1,500 — tell Spark. It handles batch-level overrides.
You can also enable one-time fees at this step — admission fee, exam fee, books, recital. Each becomes a fee type you can apply to individual students as needed.
Step 4: Payments (3 minutes)
Spark asks which payment gateway you want to connect — Razorpay or Cashfree.
If you already have a Razorpay or Cashfree account: paste your API key and secret. Spark validates the connection and confirms.
If you do not have one yet: Spark gives you a direct link to create an account on either platform. Once created, come back and paste the credentials. This step takes as long as the gateway account creation — usually 10 to 15 minutes for a new account. If you skip it, Feezy still works — you can collect offline payments and add the gateway later.
Step 5: Team (2 minutes)
Add your staff — coordinators, admin, teachers who need access. Name, phone number, role. Done.
What happens after setup
The moment setup is complete, Feezy:
Generates fee records for every student in every batch based on your fee structure
Schedules WhatsApp reminders to go out on your configured due date
Sets up your branded payment page — parents tap a link in WhatsApp and pay directly, without downloading anything
Your first automated fee cycle runs on the next due date. You do not need to do anything.
For institutes already mid-cycle
If you are setting up Feezy mid-month, Spark handles this. Tell it your current cycle date — say, fees are due on the 5th and today is the 14th. Spark generates the current month's fee records and marks them as overdue. Pulse then picks up the outstanding fees and begins the reminder sequence.
You do not lose mid-cycle data by switching.
The one thing to do before your first cycle
Import your student list. Spark can walk you through this — either a CSV upload or manual entry of each student's name and WhatsApp number. This is the only step that scales with institute size. For a 50-student institute, manual entry takes about 10 minutes. For 200 students, use the CSV import.
Once students are in, everything else is automated.
<em>Praveen GSVN is Co-Founder at Feezy, built by ConvertEdge Tech in Hyderabad.</em>