Financial Management

School Management

Tuition Management Software: Pricing and Options for Private Schools

Sherman Hsieh

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Last updated: October 8, 2026 · Independent buyer’s guide · We do not sell rankings or coverage.

Tuition management software collects tuition and fees from families on a schedule, runs payment plans and autopay, applies financial aid awards to each family’s balance, and sends the results to your general ledger. The largest providers to private K-12 schools, FACTS and Blackbaud Tuition Management, do not publish what they charge the school, but school websites show that families often pay the vendor directly through enrollment fees, card convenience fees and late fees. A smaller group of vendors, including TUIO and Sycamore, publish school-paid pricing. This guide lists every published price we could verify as of October 8, 2026.

Published pricing at a glance

The table lists only prices vendors publish on their own websites. All pages were checked on October 8, 2026.

Sources: FACTS, Blackbaud, TADS pricing models and TADS Tuition and Billing, Veracross, TUIO, Sycamore, Gradelink. Each of these sources sells the product it describes.

What families actually pay: fees published by schools

Because FACTS, Blackbaud and TADS rarely publish rates, the best public evidence is what schools tell their own families. The fees below come from school websites for 2026–27 unless noted. Each school negotiates its own agreement, so treat them as examples, not a rate card.

Two patterns stand out. First, the per-family charge for a monthly plan ranges from $5 at one FACTS school to $55 at FACTS and TADS schools, and one Blackbaud school lists $300, which shows how much the terms vary from one school agreement to the next. Second, card fees between 2.65% and 3% are almost always passed to families, while ACH is usually free or capped, so the payment method mix your families choose drives a large share of total cost.

What drives the cost

Who pays. Vendors use two main models, and the school can often split costs between them. In the family-paid model, families pay the vendor an enrollment or plan fee and any card fees, and the school may pay little or nothing; this is the pattern visible at the FACTS and Blackbaud schools above. In the school-paid flat model, the school pays a fixed rate: TADS Flex charges “a flat per-student rate,” Sycamore charges $4 per student per month, and TUIO charges $500 per location per year. TUIO and Sycamore both state that the school chooses whether to absorb, pass on or split transaction fees.

Enrollment size and number of campuses. Per-student pricing scales with headcount, while per-location pricing does not. As an illustration only, a 300-student school on Sycamore’s list price would pay $4 × 300 × 12 = $14,400 a year before volume discounts and processing fees, while a single-campus school on TUIO would pay $500 a year plus $0.75 per bank debit. Sycamore is a full school management system, so this comparison only holds if you would replace your SIS too.

Plan structure. Vendors commonly charge nothing or less for one- and two-payment plans. TADS states that it “does not charge for families paying in one or two installments,” and Notre Dame Preparatory School and Academy of the Sacred Heart show a similar pattern for FACTS and Blackbaud, although St. Sebastian charges more for pay-in-full than for monthly plans. If most of your families choose 10-month plans, family-paid fees will be higher.

Hidden and extra costs

• Onboarding. Sycamore publishes a $2,500 minimum onboarding fee. TUIO publishes no setup fee. FACTS, Blackbaud, TADS and Veracross do not publish implementation fees, so ask for them in writing.
• Processing fees the school absorbs. If you choose to absorb card fees, Sycamore’s published 3.9% card rate on a $20,000 tuition payment would cost the school $780 (illustration).
• Late, follow-up and returned-payment fees. Blackbaud schools list $40 late or follow-up fees and $30 failed transaction fees. These go to the vendor, not the school, and St. Agnes Academy notes that its $30 failed-payment fee “cannot be credited” by the school.
• Contract term. Sycamore requires an 18-month minimum. Ask every vendor for term length, renewal increases and exit terms, including how you get your payment history back.
• Accounting integration. Native connectors exist for specific general ledgers only (see below). If your ledger is not supported, budget staff time for monthly journal entry imports.

Payment plans, autopay and financial aid

Every vendor here supports installment plans, but the controls differ. FACTS lets schools configure “various payment plan configurations” and bills incidentals such as sports fees and dining to the same account; St. Pius X Catholic High School, for example, charges incidental fees on the 5th and collects them through FACTS AutoPay on the 25th. Blackbaud’s payer documentation explains that the payment plan and method are set on the first child’s contract and locked for later siblings, and that the administrative fee is charged once per family.

Financial aid integration matters because awards must reduce what a family owes before the first draft. FACTS states that financial aid awards from its aid product are “automatically applied to tuition payment plans.” Blackbaud states that its Financial Aid Management integration shows tuition including aid awards, and Christopher Columbus High School tells families that aid awards are posted in Blackbaud Tuition Management. TADS sells a separate financial aid product, and its service comparison says schools can view financial aid awards and payment status, but its billing page does not describe how awards flow into billing, so ask for a demonstration, and do the same if your aid provider differs from your billing vendor.

How tuition management connects to your accounting system

Most tuition platforms act as an accounts receivable subledger: they hold each family’s charges, credits and payments, and send summarized entries to the general ledger. The level of automation varies by vendor and ledger.

• FACTS describes Advanced Accounting as making FACTS “your accounts receivable subsidiary ledger,” with GL codes mapped to bank accounts, charge accounts and adjustment reasons. Its GL Journal Entry Report summarizes FACTS transactions into one journal entry that you key in or upload. Sage also describes a FACTS connection that syncs tuition payment data into Sage Intacct.
• Blackbaud Tuition Management exports billing journal entries by month and cash journal entries by transaction date to Financial Edge NXT, after you map billing items to GL accounts. Blackbaud’s help recommends posting the prior month’s billing on the 1st of the following month and previewing the deferred revenue schedule first.
• TADS describes nightly data syncing from TADS to QuickBooks.
• Veracross sells Student Billing and General Ledger as modules of the same system, which avoids a separate interface if you run both.
• TUIO assigns GL codes and offers custom exports but names no specific accounting integrations.

Before you sign, ask for a month-end export into your actual ledger, including refunds, aid adjustments and payments made directly to the school. If you are also reviewing your ledger, our guide to nonprofit accounting software covers the systems most schools run, and our Sage Intacct for nonprofits page covers that product’s pricing and modules.

How to compare quotes

1. Ask each vendor for a written fee schedule that splits school-paid fees from family-paid fees, including plan fees, card and ACH rates, late and returned-payment fees, and onboarding.
2. Model total cost with last year’s data: families, plan choices and the card versus ACH mix.
3. Ask whether you can waive or cap fees charged to families, and whether the vendor or the school keeps late fees.
4. Confirm how often funds are remitted to your bank. TADS, for example, says it sends remittance reports six times a month and holds funds “only long enough to clear (5-7 days).”
5. Test the financial aid hand-off and the GL export with your own aid provider and ledger.
6. Agree on the receivables reports your business office will review each month. Our guide to AP and AR KPIs and dashboards lists the metrics worth tracking, and our article on aligning billing, AR and financial reporting explains how the pieces fit together.

Vendor profiles

FACTS

FACTS says more than 2,000 schools use it for their accounting needs, and it combines payment plans, incidental billing, financial aid and an AR subledger. Its family-paid model can cost the school little. Pricing is private and family fees vary by agreement, so insist on a detailed fee schedule.

Blackbaud Tuition Management

Formerly Blackbaud Smart Tuition, the product connects with Blackbaud’s enrollment, financial aid and Financial Edge NXT products, so it suits schools already on Blackbaud. Pricing is not published, and Blackbaud’s documentation notes that on Tuition Management enabled contracts a school cannot select a different payment processor.

TADS

TADS lets the school choose between a school-paid per-student Flex model and a family-paid model, and documents a nightly QuickBooks sync. Rates for both models are not published.

Veracross

Veracross offers student billing, integrated payments and a general ledger in one system, which reduces reconciliation work for schools on the full platform. Pricing is not published, and its billing pages do not describe financial aid integration.

TUIO

TUIO’s single published plan makes budgeting easy for small schools. It names no accounting system integrations and does not publish card rates, so confirm both before you commit.

Sycamore School

Sycamore publishes its full price, including processing rates. Billing comes inside a complete school management system, which suits schools replacing their SIS but is more than you need if you only want billing.

How we researched this

We reviewed vendor pricing and product pages, vendor help documentation, and tuition pages published by private schools between October 5 and October 8, 2026. We searched Google for “tuition management software” and read the top-ranking pages, which were mostly vendor blog posts without prices or accounting detail. We list only prices a vendor or school publishes. Vendors do not pay for inclusion, and we did not contact vendors for private quotes.

Related guides

• Private School Accounting Software: How to Choose (2026)
• Student Billing Software for Colleges: A Buyer’s Guide
• School Fee Management Software for K-12 Districts

Frequently asked questions

How much does tuition management software cost a private school?

It depends on the fee model. TUIO publishes $500 per year per location and Sycamore publishes $4 per student per month, while FACTS, Blackbaud and TADS quote privately. Under family-paid models, the school may pay little and families pay plan fees, which ranged from $5 to $56 per family at six of the seven schools we reviewed.

Do parents pay a fee to use FACTS?

Often, yes. Schools publish FACTS enrollment fees such as $20 or $5 per family at St. Sebastian Parish School and $50 for monthly, three-payment and quarterly plans at Notre Dame Preparatory School. Card payments typically carry a convenience fee of about 2.85% to 3%, while ACH is often free.

What is the Blackbaud Tuition Management fee?

Blackbaud does not publish it. Two schools list a $56 annual fee for 2026–27, and Blackbaud schools commonly list $40 late or follow-up fees and $30 failed-payment fees. Blackbaud’s documentation says the administrative fee is charged once per family, not per child.

Can tuition management software post to QuickBooks?

Some can. TADS describes a nightly sync to QuickBooks, and FACTS produces a GL journal entry you can upload to your accounting system. Ask any vendor to demonstrate the export with your own chart of accounts before you sign.

Should the school or families pay the processing fees?

It is a policy choice. Passing card fees to families protects your budget but adds a visible charge, while absorbing them improves the family experience at a cost the school books as an operating expense. Most of the schools we reviewed pass card fees on and keep ACH free or capped, which encourages bank payments.

Sources

• FACTS, Tuition Management, last modified May 22, 2026 (vendor). factsmgt.com
• FACTS, Advanced Accounting, no date shown (vendor). factsmgt.com
• Sage, blog post on Sage Intacct and the FACTS Connected Suite, August 15, 2023 (vendor). sage.com
• Blackbaud, Blackbaud Tuition Management, last modified July 15, 2026 (vendor). blackbaud.com
• Blackbaud, Tuition Management for Payers (help), last modified October 5, 2026 (vendor). blackbaud.com
• Blackbaud, Financial Edge NXT export (Tuition Management help), last modified October 5, 2026 (vendor). blackbaud.com
• Blackbaud Community, Branding Updates for Smart Tuition and Smart Aid, no date shown (vendor). community.blackbaud.com
• TADS, A predictable approach to tuition and billing (TADS Flex and Fee-based models), no date shown (vendor). tads.com
• TADS, Tuition and Billing, last modified September 4, 2026 (vendor). tads.com
• TADS, Tuition Management service comparison, no date shown (vendor). tads.com
• Ravenna by VenturEd Solutions, Tuition Management, last modified June 17, 2026 (vendor). ravennasolutions.com
• Veracross, Tuition Management Software, last modified May 20, 2026 (vendor). veracross.com
• Veracross, Business Office, last modified May 20, 2026 (vendor). veracross.com
• TUIO, Pricing, last modified June 29, 2026, checked October 8, 2026 (vendor). tuiopay.com
• Sycamore, Pricing, last modified July 27, 2026, checked October 8, 2026 (vendor). sycamoreleaf.com
• Gradelink, Tuition and Billing, last modified March 15, 2024 (vendor). gradelink.com
• St. Sebastian Parish School, 2026–27 Tuition Rates and Payment Options, no date shown. stsebastian.org
• Notre Dame Preparatory School, Tuition Information and Payment Options for the 2026–2027 School Year, February 5, 2026. notredameprep.com
• Gifft Hill School, Tuition and Fees, no date shown. giffthillschool.org
• Christopher Columbus High School, Tuition Information 2026–27, no date shown. columbushs.com
• Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic School, 2026–2027 Tuition and Fees, no date shown. olphsc.org
• Academy of the Sacred Heart, Online Enrollment/Re-Enrollment (2026–2027), no date shown. ashrosary.org
• St. Agnes Academy, Tuition and Financial Aid, no date shown. st-agnes.org
• St. Pius X Catholic High School, FACTS Tuition Management, no date shown. spx.org
• St. Paul Lutheran School, Payments, no date shown. stpaulschoolnorthville.org

6774 Overall Score

Sherman Hsieh

CEO & Editor-in-Chief, Business-Software.com
Independent analysis of enterprise software — ERP, CRM and more

Sherman Hsieh is the founder, CEO, and editor-in-chief of Business-Software.com. He leads the site's independent, buyer-focused coverage of ERP, CRM, and other business systems, including vendor-neutral comparisons, pricing analysis, and implementation guidance. Before founding Business-Software.com, Sherman was an executive at Siebel ...