Topping Up and Managing Student Digital Wallet Balances

Top up student digital wallets for canteen and activity spending, view transaction history, and understand how low-balance alerts notify guardians.

Every student in Elimu Bora has a digital wallet with a running balance. Wallets are created automatically when a student is enrolled. The wallet is designed for day-to-day school spending — canteen purchases, supplies, activity fees, and any other service your school charges to students directly. Guardians fund the wallet in advance, and deductions are recorded as the school charges for services.

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Topping up a wallet

When a guardian deposits money for their child’s wallet — either by paying at the school or transferring funds — you record a credit to increase the wallet balance.

1. Go to Wallets

   Navigate to Finance → Wallets. You will see all student wallets with their current balances.

2. Find the student's wallet

   Search for the student by name or admission number and click their wallet to open it.

3. Click Add Credit

   On the wallet detail page, click Add Credit to open the top-up form.

4. Enter the credit details

   Fill in the amount to add (in KES), the transaction date, and an optional reference (such as a receipt number or M-Pesa transaction code).

5. Save the credit

   Click Save. The wallet balance updates immediately and the transaction is logged. The guardian receives an automatic notification confirming the funds have been added.

If you need to top up wallets for many students at once — for example, at the start of term — use the CSV bulk import instead of adding credits one by one. Go to Finance → Wallets → Import and upload a spreadsheet with student admission numbers and credit amounts. See the bulk imports guide for the template and column format.

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Recording a deduction

A debit reduces a student’s wallet balance when the school charges for a service, such as a canteen meal or a stationery purchase.

Deductions are typically recorded by the relevant department (catering staff for canteen purchases, for example) rather than by the finance office. Each debit is logged with the amount, timestamp, and a description so there is a full record of what the wallet was used for.

To record a manual debit:

1. Open the student’s wallet from Finance → Wallets.
2. Click Debit Wallet.
3. Enter the amount, date, and a description of the charge.
4. Click Save.

The guardian receives an automatic notification when a debit is recorded.

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Viewing transaction history

To see a full record of all credits and debits on a student’s wallet:

1. Go to Finance → Wallets and open the student’s wallet.
2. Click the Transaction History tab.

Each row shows the transaction date, type (Credit or Debit), amount, balance before the transaction, balance after, transaction ID, and a description. You can filter by date range to view a specific period.

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Low balance alerts

You can configure a minimum balance threshold for your school. When a student’s wallet falls below that threshold, the guardian receives an automatic notification so they can top up before the balance runs out. This prevents situations where a student cannot access the canteen or a service because their wallet is empty.

The alert fires automatically — you do not need to check balances manually.

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Guardian notifications summary

Guardians are notified automatically for the following wallet events:

Event	Notification
Credit added to wallet	Wallet funded notification via email and in-app
Debit recorded	Wallet debited notification via email and in-app
Balance falls below threshold	Low balance alert via email and in-app