Charging for Nursery Fees

If you wish to complete this setup, you will need to be on one of our Packages that includes Payments either our MIS Comms or MIS Perform Package. 

Permissions

The permissions required to set up Customer Account Types and create invoices  are:

• Finance: Administer - To complete any of the setup required to create Customer Account Types 
• Finance: View - To be able to see all the information about card payments in Arbor.

If you don't have the relevant permissions, ask your admin team to give you permission using these instructions.

Step 1: Create a Customer Account Type

If you wish to issue invoices to charge parents for Nursery fees, then a new Customer Account Type can be created. See more information on Customer Account Types. 

1. Head to School > Payments > Setup 
2. Click Customer Account Types in the left menu
3. Click the green +Add button > this will open a slide-over window. 
4. Fill in the Details > click Add customer account type.

Important note  

Ensure the category is Ad hoc select Create Student Accounts and show in the Parent Portal. Once the Customer Account Type has been added, this will need to be verified by another member of staff with the relevant Finance permissions.

Step 2: Add Invoices

Invoices can be added in two ways: via a student's profile or in bulk.

From the Student Profile:

1. Go to a Student's Profile 

2. Click Payments in the left-hand menu

   

3. Click the Nursery Account 

4. Click Invoices in the left-hand menu

   

5. Click +Add 
6. Fill in the slide-over window and click Charge for Item to create the invoice for the amount and date you specified

In Bulk

1. Go to Payments > Accounts > Invoices

   

2. Click the green Bulk Add invoices button

3. Fill in the slide-over window. For the Customer Account, ensure to choose the one for Nursery

   

4. Click Add Invoices

Note: You can always change the date to reflect the day the Student attended the extra session(s). 

Additional Information

Can Arbor provide itemised Nursery invoicing?

As of January 2026, the DfE requires invoices provided to parents by Funded Nursery Providers to be clearly itemised by January 2026. This guidance specifies that invoices must show a clear breakdown of Free Entitlement Hours, Additional Private Paid Hours, Food Charges, Non-food Consumables Charges and Activities Charges.

As Arbor’s Management Information System does not currently manage the end-to-end billing and invoicing of nursery hours to parents, we are not in a position to support the creation of a single, fully compliant itemised final invoice that meets this requirement.

However, Arbor can still be used to manage and track the critical data and related charges that contribute to the invoicing process. For example, your school can record and report on a student’s Free Entitlement Hours from their student profile. You can also use Arbor's payment features to charge for associated items, such as Meals and Wraparound Care Clubs.

To ensure full compliance with the statutory itemisation requirement, your school will need to use its dedicated external nursery billing system to consolidate this information and issue the final, legally compliant invoice to parents.