Payment Plan Expiry Dates Cannot Be Removed

Shirley Wagar · November 18

Has anyone recently experienced an issue with Payment Plans populating expiry dates that cannot be edited or removed? Our Payment Plans do not expire, but as of this morning, they're all populating with an expiration date of 1/1/1970. I can't remove or change the date, even though the field isn't locked, as it reverts on Save. I've opened a support case, and they can replicate my issue, but there's no solution yet. Just wondering if this is an isolated case.

Screenshot 2025-11-18 at 11.05.44 AM.png

Brian LeBlanc · November 18

1/1/1970 is database-ese for "blank". Databases can't have a null value in a date field, so they use 1/1/1970 as a placeholder for an empty field (there are reasons for this, but they're not all that entertaining). Chances are this is just a display bug and someone at Blackbaud needs to reset the code to say "no, when the date is 1/1/1970, it really does need to be blank and not display that date".

In other words, it looks odd but it's nothing to worry about, anything with that date won't expire.

Shirley Wagar · November 18

@Brian LeBlanc Actually, the date does expire my payment plans, so now when a parent views their contract and is prompted to select a payment plan, they're no longer visible to select. Here's what the contract in preview displays vs what the generated contract displays:

Preview

Live Contract

We've always left the expiry date field blank, so today's update must have changed something on the back end to force the 1/1/1970 entry. And why can't I change it? I tried using a future date 1/1/2030, but it just reverts back to 1/1/1970 on Save.

Brian LeBlanc · November 18

Well, that's not good and is absolutely a bug. Hopefully someone at BB fixes it quickly.

Kayla Euler · November 19

We have run into this same issue as well. I tried removing the date and using a future date but both reverted back to 1/1/1970

I just got off the Chat with support and they are looking into it apparently. Hopefully it gets resolved soon!

Shirley Wagar · November 20

@Kayla Euler Support told me "I have passed the information on to our product development team for further review. Please note that it does take time for the team to review, and the timeline can vary. I will update you once I have additional information."

It's frustrating to say the least! I was set to demo integrated contracts with my finance team tomorrow, as I've been encouraging them to use them for the 2026/2027 re-enrolment process. This glitch isn't doing much to convince them it's a good idea! 😟

Julia Meseck · November 21

@Shirley Wagar this is indeed a bug. Our teams have a fix but I'm going to message you now to make sure our release timing matches your timeframe.

Kayla Euler · November 21

@Shirley Wagar we are in the similar boat - we are trying to go live with Billing Management in January for the 2026/2027 school year and so we are trying to finalize everything to make sure we have set up the contracts properly. I hope it gets resolved in a timely manner!

Kayla Euler · November 21

@Julia Meseck can you please also let me know the timeframe for this. We need our contracts ready to go before our winter break so that they are ready for publishing upon the return

Julia Meseck · November 21

@Kayla Euler Our fix will go out on 12/3 — we aren't releasing next week because of Thanksgiving. However, if you need it sooner, please contact me directly and I'll see what we can do. : )

Kayla Euler · November 21

@Julia Meseck that should be fine for us. thanks for looking into this :)

Payment Plan Expiry Dates Cannot Be Removed

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