Features How it works Pricing FAQ The Bursar's Handbook
South African school building in the morning light
For school bursars

Collect school fees. Automatically reconcile every payment.

Built for the school bursar. Parents pay online by card or instant EFT, every payment is matched to the right student and fee for you, receipts go out the moment money lands, and your outstanding balances are always current. You stop chasing late payers, stop reconciling bank statements line by line, and get your month end back.

Built around the way school bursars actually work.

We take the reconciling off your desk

A bursar's month is full of small matching tasks. Ourel matches every payment to the right student and fee for you, so you're not the one cross-checking a bank statement row by row.

No more nagging, family by family

Following up with every parent who hasn't paid is draining. Remind everyone who still owes with one click, or set automatic email reminders and don't follow up at all.

Receipts without the admin

Every payment emails its own receipt the moment it confirms. That's one printing, signing and sending job that just stops existing in your week.

You always know where you stand

No more opening a spreadsheet only one person can update. See who's paid and who hasn't at a glance, always current, so you can answer a school or parent in seconds.

The problem

A bursar's month shouldn't look like this.

Most of the work isn't deciding anything. It's chasing, matching and answering the same questions, over and over.

Chasing late payments

The same names, every month

The outstanding list doesn't shrink on its own. Someone has to call or message each parent who still owes, and the same names keep coming back.

Manual reconciliation

A bank statement, matched line by line

End of month means matching every bank deposit to a student and a fee by hand. One slip and the trial balance doesn't agree.

Paper receipts

Print. Sign. Scan. Send.

Every payment needs a receipt, and every receipt travels through a printer, a signature and an email, one parent at a time.

Spreadsheet overload

The spreadsheet is the source of truth

Fee structures, balances and payments live in cells only one person understands. Nothing is auditable, and nothing is current.

Parent payment confusion

"How do I pay? Did you get it?"

Parents don't know what they owe, how to pay, or whether a payment landed. Every question comes back to the office.

Receipts, by hand

Proof of payment, forwarded by email

Bank confirmation slips arrive in WhatsApp threads and inboxes. Someone has to find them, file them and send a receipt back.

What changes

Ourel turns each of those tasks into something automatic.

Built for the bursar's office, not a school management system. Ourel is a school fee payment system that collects online school payments, reconciles them automatically, and keeps every record current for you.

Chasing late payers one by one
Automatic reminders go to parents who still owe. You never send one.
Matching bank deposits manually
Every payment is matched to the right student and the right fee for you.
Printing and emailing receipts
PDF receipts are issued and sent the moment payment confirms.
A spreadsheet as the record of truth
One live view of who's paid, who hasn't, and what's still owed.
Answering "did my payment go through?"
Parents check payment status and download receipts themselves, any time.
Building month-end reports by hand
Collections, balances and history export to CSV in one click, always current.
Features

Everything a bursar needs to collect fees. Nothing else.

Ourel fits into the way your school already works. You keep your existing systems; Ourel just handles collecting and reconciling fees. Each feature below removes a task from your office, not adds one.

Online fee collection

Parents pay by card or instant EFT with no references to remember and no calls back to the office. The money lands in your bank account already matched to the right child, so there's nothing left to chase down.

Automatic reconciliation

You stop spending afternoons matching each bank deposit to a student and a fee. Payments are matched for you the moment they arrive, so your records and your bank statement agree without the line-by-line work.

Instant receipts

A receipt is issued and emailed the moment a payment confirms, so no one has to print, sign and send one out by hand. The "can I get a receipt?" request stops coming into the office.

Outstanding balance tracking

See exactly who's paid, who hasn't, and what's still owed, by student, grade and month. It updates as payments arrive, so you stop maintaining a spreadsheet by hand to know where you stand.

Parent payment history

Parents check what they've paid and download their own receipts any time, so families stop asking "did you get it?" and the office stops answering it for the same names each month.

Financial reporting

Month-end reporting no longer means building spreadsheets by hand. Collections, balances and history export to CSV in one click, always current, so the numbers are never a day old.

Custom fees for trips & events Payment plans & multi-month discounts Sibling discounts Automatic email reminders Manual cash & EFT recording Spreadsheet (CSV) import
How it works

From spreadsheet to reconciled in three steps.

Set up once before your next fee cycle. Your school, your fees, your bank account. Nothing about how you work has to change.

STEP 1

Set up once, before your next fee cycle

Add your grades and fees, upload your student list from a spreadsheet (CSV), then share one link. Parents register and link their children. No references, no data entry per parent.

STEP 2

Parents pay online

Each parent sees exactly what's due for their child and pays by card or instant EFT from their phone, in about two minutes. No references, no phone calls.

STEP 3

Fees reconcile themselves

Every payment is matched to the right student and fee, a receipt is emailed, and balances update the moment money lands. Your numbers are never a day old.

Why schools choose Ourel

Designed for the bursar's office.

Every decision is built around the person doing the work, not around software features. Some choices, and why they matter.

Fits how you already work

No need to replace your other systems

Ourel sits alongside your existing school and accounting software. It only handles collecting and reconciling school fees, the part of your month that takes the most manual effort.

Less to chase

Reminders and receipts built in

Payment reminders go out automatically, and every payment emails its own receipt. Both are jobs that used to sit with one person in the office, done over and over.

Fair by default

Every school gets every feature

You pay for the size of your school, not for access to the software. A school of 120 learners gets the same platform as a school five times its size. It just pays less.

The work disappears

Payments match themselves

When a parent pays, the payment is matched to the right student and fee, a receipt goes out, and the outstanding list updates, so there's one step to reconcile at month end, not hundreds.

Less staring at spreadsheets

Outstanding balances, always current

One live view shows who's paid and who hasn't, by student, grade and month. The spreadsheet that only one person had to maintain stops being the source of truth.

Built for the person doing the work

Empathy in every screen

Every view is built for someone who has a lot to do. Parents see what's owed, which child, and when, then pay. No navigation games, nothing to figure out.

A school bursar at her desk in the finance office

My month is the same three jobs every time: who has paid, what is still owed, and matching each payment to the right child. Ourel is built around exactly that work.

A school bursar School finance office, South Africa
Pricing

Fair by design.

A small school shouldn't carry a big school's costs. Ourel prices by the size of your school, so a school of 120 learners pays less than a school of 500. Every school still gets every feature; only the price scales.

Up to 150 learners
R499/ month

No setup fee. Cancel anytime.

  • Online payments, card & instant EFT
  • Automatic PDF receipts
  • Balances & payment tracking
  • Automatic reconciliation
  • Automatic payment reminders
  • Parent portal
  • CSV reports
Get started
Up to 1,000 learners
R1,499/ month

No setup fee. Cancel anytime.

  • Online payments, card & instant EFT
  • Automatic PDF receipts
  • Balances & payment tracking
  • Automatic reconciliation
  • Automatic payment reminders
  • Parent portal
  • CSV reports
Get started
1,000+ learners
R2,499/ month

No setup fee. Cancel anytime.

  • Online payments, card & instant EFT
  • Automatic PDF receipts
  • Balances & payment tracking
  • Automatic reconciliation
  • Automatic payment reminders
  • Parent portal
  • CSV reports
Get started

Import and reconciliation are free on every plan, always. Parents cover the payment processing fee, so it never changes your price.

FAQ

Questions bursars ask us.

Straight answers, no jargon.

Is Ourel school management software?

No. Ourel is school fee collection software, built specifically for the bursar's office. It handles online school payments, payment reconciliation, receipts and outstanding balances. It doesn't try to manage timetables, marks or school communication.

How do parents pay?

By card or instant EFT from their phone, in about two minutes. Parents see exactly what's due for their child and pay with no references to remember.

How does payment reconciliation work?

Every online school payment is matched to the right student and the right fee automatically, so your records and your bank statement agree without line-by-line matching at month end.

Do parents cover the payment processing fee?

Yes. Parents pay the small card and instant EFT processing fee, so Ourel's price to your school never changes.

Can we import our existing student list?

Yes. Set your grades and fees, then upload your student list straight from a spreadsheet (CSV). Parents are then invited to register and link their own children.

What does Ourel cost?

Pricing is based on school size, not features. Every school gets every feature. There's no setup fee, no lock-in, and you can cancel anytime.

Spend less of your month collecting fees, not more.

Ourel is built to take work off your desk: matching payments, sending receipts, chasing late payers. Set up once before your next fee cycle, and watch those tasks disappear. Your school, your fees, your bank account.

Register your school
No setup fee Spreadsheet import included Cancel anytime