Is Telebirr production-live?

The Telebirr adapter is provider-ready: it implements the PaymentProvider interface used by every gateway in VISCO. Production go-live requires your school's Telebirr merchant credentials in env config plus the live webhook URL registered with Telebirr.

Can a parent pay one invoice with Telebirr and the next with Chapa?

Yes. Each invoice can route to whichever provider you have configured. The provider used is captured on the payment row, so reconciliation stays clean even when channels are mixed.

How are partial payments handled?

An invoice tracks total, paid, and outstanding amounts. Multiple Telebirr or cross-provider payments link to the same invoice via idempotency-safe payment rows; receipts cover each partial payment.

Does VISCO support refunds via Telebirr?

Refunds require an approver and are recorded against the original payment. Where the provider exposes a refund API, VISCO calls it; otherwise the ledger entry is reversed and finance issues the refund manually.

What is the best school management system for Ethiopia?

VISCO is a multi-tenant SaaS school management system built specifically for Ethiopian schools, with first-class ETB finance, Amharic, integrated adapters for Chapa, Telebirr, SantimPay, ArifPay and Stripe, MoE-aligned calendar, Ethiopian Calendar (E.C.) support, and parent SMS in the languages parents actually answer in (EN, አማ, AR, OM, SO, TI, FR, AA).

How does VISCO handle data for multiple schools?

Every record carries a tenant_id (school) and where relevant a branch_id (campus). Database-level row guards plus application-layer middleware ensure no cross-tenant leakage. Each school owns its data and can export or anonymise it on demand.

Which payment gateways are supported for Ethiopian school fees?

VISCO ships provider-agnostic adapters for Chapa, Telebirr, SantimPay, ArifPay, and Stripe, plus journals for cash and bank transfer. Configure one or several from /admin/payments-providers; webhooks are signature-verified per provider, idempotent, and produce ledger-friendly receipts in ETB or USD.

Can parents pay school fees with Chapa, Telebirr, SantimPay, or ArifPay?

Yes. Each invoice can route to whichever provider you have configured. Chapa, Telebirr, SantimPay, and ArifPay are integrated as hosted-checkout adapters; the parent portal generates a one-tap link and the receipt is reconciled automatically when the webhook arrives.

Can our staff add new dropdown options without engineering?

Yes. Any select field can be marked extensible. Staff press the inline "+" to add an option (e.g., a new guardian relationship type or a local sub-city). The new value enters a pending-approval queue and is auto-translated for Amharic if missing.

Does the AI assistant ever touch our production database?

No raw SQL. The assistant uses an allowlisted set of read-only analytics tools tied to your tenant. Bulk-impact actions always require explicit human approval; every query is logged.

What languages does VISCO support?

VISCO ships first-party support for English and Amharic (with Noto Sans Ethiopic typography). Arabic, Afaan Oromo, Somali, Tigrigna, French, and Afar are available through a Google Translate language bridge in the app shell. Arabic renders right-to-left automatically. Form labels and dropdown options can be authored in both English and Amharic side-by-side.

Does VISCO work for multi-branch / multi-campus school groups?

Yes. Branches are a first-class concept — students, attendance, exams, fees, and reports can all be scoped per campus, and a school group can manage multiple branches from a single tenant workspace with branch-level roles.

How does VISCO handle weak connectivity in some campuses?

Teacher attendance can be entered offline and synced when connectivity returns. Submissions carry a clientId for idempotent replay, and bulk operations queue retries via BullMQ.

Finance · Mobile money

Collect school fees via Telebirr — Ethiopia's mobile-money default

VISCO's finance module integrates a provider-ready Telebirr adapter alongside Chapa, SantimPay, ArifPay, Stripe, cash and bank transfer. Guardians pay from their phone, the webhook reconciles the invoice in your ledger, and finance gets a receipt every auditor will accept.

Telebirr alongside Chapa, SantimPay, ArifPay, Stripe
ETB-first invoices with reconciled receipts
Signed webhooks · replay-protected
Per-invoice dunning SMS in EN / አማ
Cash + bank-transfer journals for offline payers
Audit log for every status change

Mobile-money native

Guardians get a Telebirr deep-link from the parent portal. Confirmation lands in the audit log when the webhook fires.

Provider-agnostic engine

Switch or stack providers without rewriting finance. The same Invoice row routes to whichever provider is configured.

Signed webhooks

HMAC verification + idempotency keys prevent double-credit on retries. Replay window protects against stale callbacks.

Receipts the auditor likes

Receipts include line items, taxes, discounts, and provider transaction IDs — exportable to PDF and CSV.

Automated dunning

Configurable SMS reminders for overdue invoices, in the parent's preferred language. Opt-out is honoured.

Finance dashboards

MoM collection rate, branch comparison, aging buckets, provider-mix view (Chapa vs Telebirr vs cash).

Frequently asked

Answers from real Ethiopian schools

Is Telebirr production-live?: The Telebirr adapter is provider-ready: it implements the PaymentProvider interface used by every gateway in VISCO. Production go-live requires your school's Telebirr merchant credentials in env config plus the live webhook URL registered with Telebirr.
Can a parent pay one invoice with Telebirr and the next with Chapa?: Yes. Each invoice can route to whichever provider you have configured. The provider used is captured on the payment row, so reconciliation stays clean even when channels are mixed.
How are partial payments handled?: An invoice tracks total, paid, and outstanding amounts. Multiple Telebirr or cross-provider payments link to the same invoice via idempotency-safe payment rows; receipts cover each partial payment.
Does VISCO support refunds via Telebirr?: Refunds require an approver and are recorded against the original payment. Where the provider exposes a refund API, VISCO calls it; otherwise the ledger entry is reversed and finance issues the refund manually.

Keep exploring

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