Madrasah fee management systems: what to look for, and the UK options

In most maktabs, fees are the job nobody wants. A treasurer keeps a spreadsheet, a teacher collects envelopes at the door, and somebody spends the end of each month working out which families are behind and how to ask them without causing offence.

A madrasah fee management system takes that on. But the term covers two very different kinds of software: ones that record fees, so you can see who owes what, and ones that collect them, taking the payment by card or Direct Debit and following up when it fails. This guide covers what a fee system should do, the questions to ask, and how the main UK options compare.

What a madrasah fee management system should do

• Fees that fit your year. Weekly, monthly, termly or yearly fees, with termly fees charged on your own term dates, plus one-off admission or registration fees.
• Families, not just students. Brothers and sisters grouped into one family, with sibling discounts applied automatically and hardship concessions for the families who need them.
• Card and Direct Debit. Parents pay the way they prefer. Direct Debit suits a regular monthly fee and costs less to collect; card, Apple Pay and Google Pay suit everything else.
• Failed payments followed up. Cards expire and accounts run low. The system should retry the payment and tell the parent how to fix it, rather than leave a gap for the treasurer to find.
• Cash and bank transfers on the same record. Not every family will pay online, and the record of who has paid is only useful if it’s complete.
• Arrears you can see. Who has paid this month, who is behind, and by how much, without reconciling a bank statement line by line.
• Parents who can help themselves. A portal or link where families see what they owe, pay, and update their card without phoning the office.
• Reminders that get read. In most UK communities that means WhatsApp, not an email that sits unopened.
• Reports for the committee. Revenue by class and month, refunds with a reason, and exports for your accountant.
• Money that goes straight to you. Payments should land in the madrasah’s own account, not be pooled and paid out later by the software company.

Recording fees vs collecting them

A system that only records fees still leaves somebody to collect them. It will tell you that the Rahman family is two months behind; it won’t take the payment. A system that collects takes each payment on the day it’s due, retries when a card fails, and updates the family’s record on its own. For a small maktab with a hands-on treasurer, recording can be enough. Once chasing fees takes real volunteer time, collecting pays for itself. The guide to collecting madrasah fees weighs cash, bank transfer and online payment side by side.

Direct Debit, cards and what they cost

Most UK fee systems take payments through Stripe, GoCardless or both. Stripe charges about 1.4% + 20p on a UK card and 1% capped at £4 on BACS Direct Debit, so on a £30 monthly fee Direct Debit costs 30p against 62p by card. The software company may charge its own fee on top: a monthly subscription, a per-student price, or a percentage of what it collects. Ask whether one Stripe account handles both cards and Direct Debit, or whether you need a second provider, and a second set of payouts to reconcile.

Gift Aid, fees and donations

Fees are payment for teaching, so HMRC doesn’t allow Gift Aid on them, even when the madrasah is a registered charity. Gift Aid can only be claimed on genuine donations, such as Sadaqah or a building appeal. Keep fees and donations apart in your system, so donations can be claimed on and fees never are. See online donations for how Labbaik handles giving.

UK madrasah fee management systems compared

The systems UK maktabs most often weigh up, on how they collect fees and what they charge. This is drawn from what each company publishes; anything they don’t publish is marked as such.

MadarisHub is another option some madrasahs consider; we couldn’t confirm its fee features or pricing when writing this guide, so check with them directly. For side-by-side detail beyond fees, see Labbaik vs IlmFlow, Labbaik vs IBEAMS, Labbaik vs e-maktab and Labbaik vs MaktabMate.

Questions to ask before you choose

• Does it collect fees, or only record them?
• Can parents pay by both card and Direct Debit, through one provider?
• What happens, and who is told, when a payment fails?
• Are sibling discounts applied automatically?
• Can we charge termly fees on our own term dates, and take admission fees?
• Are cash and bank transfers recorded on the same family record?
• Does the money go straight to our own account?
• What does it cost in a month when we collect nothing, and as we grow?
• Can we set it up ourselves, and connect Stripe without handling API keys?

Where Labbaik fits

Labbaik collects fees rather than only recording them. Families pay weekly, monthly, termly or yearly by card, Apple Pay, Google Pay or BACS Direct Debit, into the madrasah’s own Stripe account. Siblings are grouped and discounted automatically, failed payments are retried with a WhatsApp link for the parent, and cash and bank transfers sit on the same record, with revenue broken down by class. The Safar plan is free, with a platform fee only on card and Direct Debit payments, and nothing on cash or bank transfers. See fee collection, or use the fee calculator to pass the cost on to parents.

Masjid Irshad in Luton grew the fees it collected by around 133% after moving collection onto Labbaik, without raising them. Read the case study.

Sources

Competitor details are taken from each company’s own website: IlmFlow pricing, IBEAMS pricing, e-maktab and MaktabMate. Prices and features change, so check each one directly before deciding.

Common questions