Academy operations
Fee mandate
Definition
A fee mandate is the recurring-payment authorization a parent grants once, most commonly a UPI AutoPay mandate through Razorpay or a Stripe subscription outside India, so a chess academy's monthly fee debits automatically each cycle up to the approved amount. The mandate replaces manual chasing with a standing authorization the family can cancel or adjust at any time.
In practice
A fee mandate is set up once, usually during enrollment, when a parent approves recurring debit through UPI AutoPay or a card based Stripe subscription for academies billing outside India. Academy owners run into the term inside the enrollment funnel, since a family that skips mandate approval falls back to a manual payment link, and inside the guardian portal, where a parent can see an active mandate, its amount, and cancel it directly rather than emailing the academy. A failed or paused mandate is also what triggers a parent update reminder rather than a silent missed payment. Fee mandate is distinct from the fee itself: the mandate is the standing authorization, not the amount charged or the schedule of collection events. For the full collection stack a mandate sits inside, including the due date cycle, the payment link fallback, and the late payment ladder, read the linked guide below.