School fee receipt format, in Excel and Word.

What a fee receipt shows

A receipt is the parent's proof of payment and the school's record of it. If a payment is ever questioned, it's the paper both sides go back to. Every receipt should carry:

• A receipt number and the date. One unbroken series, so a missing receipt shows up.
• The school's name, address and code, such as the affiliation or recognition number.
• The student: name, admission number, class and section. Karnataka's rules say the receipt is issued in the student's name.
• The period it pays for, such as "April to June 2026".
• Each fee head with its amount, then any concession, then the total.
• The amount in words, so a figure can't be changed later.
• How it was paid, with the cheque, UPI or transaction number, and the signature of whoever received it.

In the example above, the heads add up to ₹25,500. Less the ₹1,350 concession, the parent paid ₹24,150.

The rules behind it

These laws ask for a receipt in so many words:

Whatever the board, the heads on the receipt have to be ones you're allowed to charge. CBSE's Affiliation Bye-Laws say fees are charged "under the heads prescribed by the Department of Education of the State/UTs" and no capitation fee or donation may be taken for admission. The RTE Act bans capitation fees too. Rename the heads on the Setup sheet to match your state's list.

GST. Services that an educational institution provides to its own students are taxed at nil, and an educational institution includes a school teaching up to higher secondary. So the school's own fees don't need a GST line on the receipt.

Cash. The Income-tax Act, 2025 bars anyone from receiving ₹2,00,000 or more in cash from one person in a day, for a single transaction, or for one event. A parent paying a year's fees for two children at once can reach that, so take it by cheque, draft or bank transfer.

Tuition fee and income tax

Parents can deduct the tuition fees they pay to a school in India for the full-time education of up to two children. Since 1 April 2026 this is section 123 and Schedule XV of the Income-tax Act, 2025; it was section 80C of the 1961 Act before. Three limits apply:

• Only tuition fees count, not development fees, donations or payments like them.
• It shares the ₹1,50,000 limit with the other payments listed in Schedule XV.
• It isn't available under the default tax regime.

That's why tuition fee should always be its own line on the receipt. To give a parent the year's figure, filter the Excel register by the student's name: the totals row above the header adds up only the rows the filter shows.

What the Excel file does

• Setup holds the school's name, address, phone, email and codes line, the academic year, the seven fee heads and the payment modes. Rename anything; every other sheet reads from here.
• Receipts is the register, one row per receipt, with room for 2,000. The total works itself out. It won't accept a receipt number twice, or an amount with paise or a minus sign, and Paid by is a drop-down.
• Print receipt looks a receipt up by its number and lays it out twice on one A4 sheet, a parent's copy and an office copy, with a cut line between them. The amount in words is written the Indian way, in lakh and crore.
• Summary adds up the year's collections by month, by payment mode and by fee head, and checks that every receipt in the register landed in a month and has a payment mode.

The PDF and Word file are the same receipt, blank, on one A4 page. Print them for a counter that takes fees by hand, or edit the Word file to put your own letterhead on it.

Keeping the receipt book straight

Number receipts in one series for the year and never reuse a number. If a receipt is written wrongly, keep its row, mark it cancelled with a zero amount, and issue a fresh one. A gap in the numbers is hard to explain later.

At the end of each day, total the day's cash receipts and check them against the cash in hand, and match cheque, UPI and bank receipts against the bank statement as it comes in. The Summary sheet does the monthly version of this for you.

Charging a late fine? Work it out with the late fee calculator and enter it under Late fine, so it shows on the receipt as its own line.

How to set up the receipt book

1. Fill in Setup. Enter the school's name, address, phone, email and codes line, the academic year, your fee heads and your payment modes.
2. Clear the samples. On the Receipts sheet, select rows 6 to 13, right-click and choose Delete.
3. Add each receipt. Type the receipt number, date, student, the amount under each fee head, any concession and how it was paid. The total fills itself in.
4. Print it. On the Print receipt sheet, pick the receipt number and print. You get a parent's copy and an office copy on one A4 sheet.
5. Check the month. The Summary sheet shows what came in by month, payment mode and fee head. Match it against your cash book and bank statement.

Sources

We read each of these on 21 October 2026. Rules change, so check the latest circular before you rely on a detail.

1. Delhi School Education Rules, 1973, Chapter XIII (rule 168), Directorate of Education, Government of NCT of Delhi.
2. The Haryana School Education Act, 1995 (Haryana Act 12 of 1999), section 16, Government of Haryana, on India Code.
3. The Uttar Pradesh Self-Financed Independent Schools (Fee Regulation) Act, 2018 (U.P. Act 40 of 2018), section 3, Government of Uttar Pradesh, on India Code.
4. Karnataka Educational Institutions (Classification, Regulation and Prescription of Curricula) Rules, 1995, rule 10, Government of Karnataka, on India Code.
5. The Gujarat Self Financed Schools (Regulation of Fees) Act, 2017 (Gujarat Act 20 of 2017), section 11, Government of Gujarat, on India Code.
6. Affiliation Bye-Laws 2018, Chapter 7: Fees (clauses 7.1 to 7.3), CBSE.
7. Notification No. 12/2017-Central Tax (Rate), serial 66 and paragraph 2(y), Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, 28 June 2017.
8. The Income-tax Act, 2025 (Act 30 of 2025): sections 123, 186 and 202, and Schedule XV, Gazette of India, 21 August 2025.
9. Press release: Income-tax Act, 2025 comes into force from 1 April 2026, Central Board of Direct Taxes, 1 April 2026.