Is Chapa officially supported?

Yes. Chapa is a first-class provider with init, verify, refund flows, and signed-webhook handling. The integration is provider-agnostic so we can switch or add providers without rewriting finance.

How are partial payments handled?

An invoice tracks total, paid, and outstanding amounts. Multiple payments link to the same invoice via idempotency-safe payment rows; receipts cover each partial payment.

Does VISCO support refunds?

Yes. Refunds require an approver, are recorded against the original payment, and reverse the ledger entry. Provider refund APIs are called when supported.

Can finance teams export everything to CSV / Excel?

Yes. Scheduled and on-demand CSV/XLSX exports are available for invoices, payments, refunds, and reconciliation reports.

What is the best school management system for Ethiopia?

VISCO is a multi-tenant SaaS school management system built specifically for Ethiopian schools, with first-class ETB finance, Amharic, integrated adapters for Chapa, Telebirr, SantimPay, ArifPay and Stripe, MoE-aligned calendar, Ethiopian Calendar (E.C.) support, and parent SMS in the languages parents actually answer in (EN, አማ, AR, OM, SO, TI, FR, AA).

How does VISCO handle data for multiple schools?

Every record carries a tenant_id (school) and where relevant a branch_id (campus). Database-level row guards plus application-layer middleware ensure no cross-tenant leakage. Each school owns its data and can export or anonymise it on demand.

Which payment gateways are supported for Ethiopian school fees?

VISCO ships provider-agnostic adapters for Chapa, Telebirr, SantimPay, ArifPay, and Stripe, plus journals for cash and bank transfer. Configure one or several from /admin/payments-providers; webhooks are signature-verified per provider, idempotent, and produce ledger-friendly receipts in ETB or USD.

Can parents pay school fees with Chapa, Telebirr, SantimPay, or ArifPay?

Yes. Each invoice can route to whichever provider you have configured. Chapa, Telebirr, SantimPay, and ArifPay are integrated as hosted-checkout adapters; the parent portal generates a one-tap link and the receipt is reconciled automatically when the webhook arrives.

Can our staff add new dropdown options without engineering?

Yes. Any select field can be marked extensible. Staff press the inline "+" to add an option (e.g., a new guardian relationship type or a local sub-city). The new value enters a pending-approval queue and is auto-translated for Amharic if missing.

Does the AI assistant ever touch our production database?

No raw SQL. The assistant uses an allowlisted set of read-only analytics tools tied to your tenant. Bulk-impact actions always require explicit human approval; every query is logged.

What languages does VISCO support?

VISCO ships first-party support for English and Amharic (with Noto Sans Ethiopic typography). Arabic, Afaan Oromo, Somali, Tigrigna, French, and Afar are available through a Google Translate language bridge in the app shell. Arabic renders right-to-left automatically. Form labels and dropdown options can be authored in both English and Amharic side-by-side.

Does VISCO work for multi-branch / multi-campus school groups?

Yes. Branches are a first-class concept — students, attendance, exams, fees, and reports can all be scoped per campus, and a school group can manage multiple branches from a single tenant workspace with branch-level roles.

How does VISCO handle weak connectivity in some campuses?

Teacher attendance can be entered offline and synced when connectivity returns. Submissions carry a clientId for idempotent replay, and bulk operations queue retries via BullMQ.

Finance

Collect school fees online with Chapa — reconciled in your ledger automatically

VISCO's finance module is built on a provider-agnostic interface with first-class Chapa support. Guardians pay from their portal, webhooks are verified and idempotent, and reconciliation produces ledger-friendly receipts every finance officer can defend in an audit.

ETB-first invoices, USD secondary for diaspora
Chapa primary provider · Stripe for cross-border
Idempotent webhooks with signature verification
Partial payments, discounts, scholarships, penalties
Auto-dunning by SMS and email on overdue
Ledger-friendly receipts for finance reconciliation

Chapa as a first-class provider

Initialise, verify, refund — wrapped behind a clean PaymentProvider interface. Stripe adapter ships side-by-side.

Webhook security

Every callback is HMAC-verified and replay-protected. Idempotency keys prevent double-credit on retries.

Approval & refunds

Refunds require a designated approver. Every status change is captured in an audit log.

Receipts the auditor likes

Receipts include line items, taxes, discounts, and provider transaction IDs — exportable to PDF and CSV.

Automated dunning

Configurable SMS + email reminders kick off on overdue invoices. Opt-out is honoured per recipient.

Finance dashboards

MoM collection rate, cohort-paid percent, branch comparison, and aging-bucket reports.

Frequently asked

Answers from real Ethiopian schools

Is Chapa officially supported?: Yes. Chapa is a first-class provider with init, verify, refund flows, and signed-webhook handling. The integration is provider-agnostic so we can switch or add providers without rewriting finance.
How are partial payments handled?: An invoice tracks total, paid, and outstanding amounts. Multiple payments link to the same invoice via idempotency-safe payment rows; receipts cover each partial payment.
Does VISCO support refunds?: Yes. Refunds require an approver, are recorded against the original payment, and reverse the ledger entry. Provider refund APIs are called when supported.
Can finance teams export everything to CSV / Excel?: Yes. Scheduled and on-demand CSV/XLSX exports are available for invoices, payments, refunds, and reconciliation reports.

Keep exploring

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