Signed offer acceptance and the fee agreement
How the Education pack has the applicant sign the offer acceptance and the payer sign the fee agreement for an instalment plan, and where the copies go.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Education businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Launching soon. The Industry CRM add-on described in this article is launching soon. This article describes it as it will work at launch.
An offer of a place is only half a deal. The other half is the applicant saying yes, and somebody promising to pay. In many institutions those two promises are muddled together: the student signs a form that includes the fees, the parent who actually pays never signs anything, and when the second instalment is missed the college discovers it has no agreement with the person it needs to call.
The Education pack in Achekam's Industry CRM separates the two. The applicant accepts the offer. Whoever pays signs the fee agreement for the instalment plan. Both are signed electronically, and both copies are kept. Here is how that works and what to prepare before your first offers go out.
Two signatures, from two different people
| Document | Who signs | What it settles |
|---|---|---|
| Acceptance of the offer | The applicant | That they are taking up the place on the terms offered |
| Fee agreement | Whoever pays: a parent, guardian, sponsor or employer | The fees, the instalment plan and the payer's commitment |
Sometimes the applicant and the payer are the same person, such as an adult learner paying their own way. Often they are not. Treating them as two documents means each person signs only what they are responsible for, and the institution knows exactly who agreed to what.
The acceptance, signed by the applicant
Once an offer is made, the workflow sends the applicant the acceptance to sign electronically. The applicant's signature does more than produce a PDF: in the pack, an application can move to "Offer accepted" only once that signature task is done. Until then, the offer is outstanding, however warmly the applicant spoke on the phone.
That gives the admissions office a clean count of accepted places, and it means nobody has to chase a scanned form through a shared inbox. How the application reached this point is covered in applications from enquiry to accepted offer.
The fee agreement, signed by whoever pays
The pack keeps an Enrolment for each student, and the enrolment carries a fee plan of instalments. The fee agreement is the document that puts that plan in front of the payer and asks them to commit to it.
Address it to the payer by name. If a company sponsors the student, the signer should be someone at that company with authority to commit it, not the student holding an e-mail from their manager.
One point to be clear about with your finance team: in the pack, an instalment is marked paid by a person. Nothing ticks itself off. When a payment arrives, the bursar records the receipt in the books and marks the instalment as paid on the enrolment. If you invoice the year up front and take the instalments as part payments, the approach in fee instalments as part payments on one invoice keeps the books and the plan in step.
Asking for anything still missing
A workflow step can also send the applicant or the payer a request for documents, and their answer moves the task on. Use it for what is still outstanding at the offer stage: a scanned certificate that arrived unreadable, proof of the sponsor's details, or a guardian's identity document where the student is a minor. The request sits on the same record as the signatures, so the file shows the whole story.
How signing works, and where the copies go
The signing itself uses Achekam's document signing. Signature and initials fields are placed on the document, signers can sign in order or all at once, the envelope can carry an expiry and send reminders, and when everyone has signed, the signed PDF and a completion certificate are filed back into Documents. An envelope that goes to someone outside the business must be linked to a client or a CRM lead before it is sent.
A few limits are worth knowing:
- Starter wording. Every agreement in the industry packs, including the acceptance and the fee agreement, is marked as starter wording that your institution must review before use. Have your own legal adviser approve the text, particularly the clauses on cancellation, refunds and missed instalments.
- Ink where you need it. If your institution decides a document must be signed in ink, the pack never offers it for electronic signing. Its step only tracks the paper copy, so the record still shows whether it came back.
- South Africa. Achekam's e-signatures are simple electronic signatures. The certificate cites section 13 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act and says they are not advanced electronic signatures. Section 13 of the Act sets out when an electronic signature is valid and when the law requires an advanced electronic signature.
- Nigeria and Kenya. At the time of writing, the completion certificate describes the signatures under South Africa's Electronic Communications and Transactions Act whatever the workspace's country. Ask your adviser whether that wording matters for your agreements.
Before you send the first offers
- Have the acceptance and the fee agreement reviewed and adapted from the starter wording.
- Decide which documents, if any, must be signed in ink.
- Make sure every enrolment names the payer, with a working e-mail address.
- Set the instalment plan on each enrolment before the fee agreement goes out, so the payer signs the plan you will actually invoice.
- Agree who marks instalments paid, and how often they check receipts against the plans.
- Decide your policy for credit and refunds before anyone asks; overpaid fees and students who leave sets out the choices.
Two signatures, from the right two people, save a great deal of argument in the second term. The time to settle the wording is before the intake opens, not after the first missed payment.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
