Tuition followup: Goodbye robocalls, hello text messages

Paul Bowers

At the end of June, Blackbaud Smart Tuition’s Follow Up Service will stop contacting families about overdue payments and service fees via automated robocalls and start using automated text messages instead.


The robocall service will be discontinued on Tues. June 30, and the text message service will begin on Wed. July 1.

What do I need to do?

This change is taking place automatically does not require any action on your part. However, you might want to notify families and employees who handle tuition payments at your school about the upcoming change.

When will the text messages go out?

Follow Up Service Fee text messages and emails start the day after the due date. Blackbaud Tuition Management will email and text a payer up to 52 weeks or until the account is brought up to date.

What will the text messages say?

The new text messages from Follow Up Service will say the following:

[SCHOOL NAME] outstanding balance of $XX.XX due on [due date]. Click here to make a payment www.parent.smarttuition.com

If you have already resolved this issue, please disregard

Where will the records go?

You can still find a record of all late fees via the Follow Up Service Dashboard. Scroll to the bottom of the screen under Dashboards and select Follow Up Service.


To see a record of all communications sent to families, look under Dashboards again and select Communications. Here you can browse and search all communications that your school has sent to families, including automatic and manual communications.


Use the tabs at the top of the Communication Center to choose which Communication Type you would like to see. Previous robocalls will still be visible under Outbound Calls, and all automatic text messages going forward will be visible under Text Messages.


The Text Messages tab displays all types of text messages, including any reminders of upcoming payments that your school or families have opted to use. To only see text messages sent by the Follow Up Service, open the dropdown menu under Subject and select FollowUp Service.


For more information about recent changes to text message notifications and records, see our announcement in the Smart Tuition Blog by clicking here.

Bryan Lorenzo

What happens to families who have not opted into text messages? 

Paul Bowers

Follow Up Service text messages are controlled by the school, not by families. Families can opt in/out of auto-debit reminders and other optional text messages, but they cannot opt in/out of Follow Up texts.


School admins will be able to toggle Follow Up texts on or off for families the same way they toggle automatic emails, late fees, etc. To do this, select a family name under View All Families, open the arrow menu on the left side of the screen, and select Review Follow Up.