The Prodigy E-wallet - How It Works

Aug 17 2021 | 4 minutes read

Within the school portal, the e-wallet serves as a single point for all online transactions, validating and processing all debit and credit transactions.

The prodigy e-wallet is a type of pre-paid solution in which a user can store his/her money for any future online transaction within the school on the school portal. The e-wallet is limited to all possible transactions within a school as no value can be transferred from the wallet to a physical bank account.

How it works

The e-wallet functions as a digital ledger recording all credit and debit transactions made by a user. Funding the wallet is enabled by a payment processor e.g (Paystack, Flutterwave, and the likes). The payment processor helps the school accept payment from a user into the school bank account.

User >>>> Payment Processor >>>> School Bank Account

Once a user funds his/her wallet, the payment processor deducts this money from the user's bank account and sends it to the school bank account. On confirmation of successful payment, the e-wallet records that transaction as a credit transaction.

For example, let's say a school fee is 50,000, and a parent (Mr. Folu) then decides to fund his wallet with 100,000. The payment processor deducts this money (100,000) from the parent bank account and sends it to the school bank account. This transaction is then recorded on the e-wallet that (Mr. Folu) the parent has 100,000 in his wallet (a credit transaction). The 100,000 displayed on his wallet balance is the money he has funded his wallet which is already existing in the school bank account.

If the parent decides to apply 50,000 payment for fees (a debit transaction), he would still have a balance of 50,000 in his wallet to apply for the next fee or any other cashless purchase that can be done within the school. Meanwhile, the school has already received the 100,000 pre-paid and the wallet is keeping a digital record of what any debit and credit is for.

Important information about the e-wallet

1. No card details or bank details of the user are stored in the e-wallet. The information required of the user to complete a transaction (Funding of wallet) is private and protected with state-of-the-art security features and practices by the payment processor.
2. Once a user (parent, staff, or student) has been registered on the school portal, a wallet is automatically generated for such user. This wallet keeps track of all transactions of the user.
3. Every wallet has a unique identification number (a wallet number) associated with it for fast and quick audits.
4. To start using the e-wallet solution, a school is expected to create an account with any of these payment processors (Flutterwave, Paystack, etc). The school would be required to associate a bank account with the account that has been created. The bank account is where all money collected by the payment processor on behalf of the school would be settled into.
5. After successful registration on the payment processor platform, the school would be required to provide some details to enable online transactions on the school portal.
6. All record-keeping, payment confirmation, and acknowledgment are automated thereby reducing the workload on the accounting department.

Contact Prodigy School Suite to get answers to all your questions, see how the system works, and learn the best strategies for implementing the e-wallet solution for fee payment and other kinds of payment within the school.