Entry years let parents calculate fees for children starting in future years — typically a prospective family looking at what will it cost when our child reaches Year 7 in three years’ time? — without you having to manually maintain a fee schedule for every future year.
Instead, you set the current year’s fees as the baseline (on each year-level fee), then add an entry year per future year with an annual increase percentage for inflation. The calculator does the projection.
How it works
- The fee on each year-level fee entry is the current-year amount.
- Each entry year (e.g. 2026, 2027, 2028) has an annual increase percentage.
- When a parent calculates fees for a child starting in a future year, the calculator compounds the increases from the baseline year up to the entry year and applies the result.
So if Year 7 is $20,000 today, and the increase percentage is 5% for each of the next three years, a child starting Year 7 in three years’ time would be calculated at $20,000 × 1.05³ ≈ $23,153.
Adding entry years
Go to Fee Calculator → Entry Years → Add entry year.
Fields:
- Year — the calendar year (e.g. 2027).
- Increase percentage — the annual increase applied at this year (e.g. 5 for 5%).
Add one record per year in the range you want parents to be able to pick from.
Setting the year range
The range of years parents can choose from in the calculator is set in Calculator Settings:
- First year of entry — the earliest year parents can pick.
- Last year of entry — the latest year parents can pick.
Outside this range the parent gets a friendly message (configurable via Beyond current year text in Calculator Settings) rather than a calculation.
A common setup:
- First year of entry — current year.
- Last year of entry — current year + 3 (so prospective parents can plan 3 years ahead).
What if there’s no entry year for a year in the range
If the range spans 2026–2028 but you’ve only added entry years for 2026 and 2027, calculations for 2028 fall back to the previous entry year’s percentage. This works but is fragile — best practice is to have one entry year record per year in the configured range.
Year-over-year maintenance
When a new year rolls over (e.g. 2026 becomes the current year):
- Update each year-level fee with the new current-year amount.
- Add a new entry year at the end of the range (e.g. add 2029).
- Update Last year of entry in Calculator Settings if you want to extend the projection further.
- Optionally delete entry years that have passed.
The increase percentage for the current year is normally 0 — the fees in the year-level fee entries are already the current amount, so no escalation is needed. Future entry years carry the inflation percentage.
What parents see
When entry years are configured, the calculator includes an Entry year field for each child. The dropdown shows the years in the range from Calculator Settings.
If a parent picks a year inside the range, the calculator returns the projected fee with the inflation compounded.
If a parent picks a year outside the range, they see the Beyond current year text you configured in Calculator Settings — a chance to direct them to contact the school rather than getting a calculation.
Tips
- Start conservative. A 3-year forward range catches most prospective enrolment decisions without committing the school to fee projections too far out.
- Document the assumption in your privacy/notes text in Calculator Settings — “Fees shown for future years are based on an assumed annual increase of X% and are indicative only”. This sets expectations and protects you if actual fees diverge.
- Don’t promise discounts that may not survive. Sibling discounts apply to projections too. If you’re planning to change the discount structure, the projected fees won’t reflect that.
- Refresh annually. This is the only piece of the Fee Calculator that needs a yearly touch. Build it into your start-of-year tasks.