Pre

Who were we helping

Past-due student balances are a growing crisis. 72% of schools carry balances exceeding $1M, 52% saw those balances increase in 2024, and 20–30% of accounts receivable are written off annually.

The way schools handled it made things worse — 86% relied on fully manual processes: generic emails, spreadsheets, phone calls that rarely landed. With transcript hold bans gaining traction across states, institutions were losing leverage without gaining better tools.

The result: frustrated staff, students who felt cornered, and revenue slipping through the cracks.

Owing money is very stressful, I've been there myself. Being super empathetic was the only way to design this experience

We built a 12-week email and SMS campaign personalized with each student's name, balance, and school branding. The sequence escalates deliberately from a past-due notice to an urgent reminder to a final notice, and stops automatically the moment a student takes action. I partnered with the CX team to shape the tone and messaging, and gave schools time to review and approve the new copy. I recently collaborated with engineering to update our templates using Cursor for light and dark mode.

We designed the student journey mobile first, with 64% of users coming from mobile devices

Getting students or parents from an email or text into the app quickly was critical. For first-time or returning users, we made accessing Pre frictionless with a simple sign-in code sent directly to their school email. Once in, students could review their bill and set up their own payment plan of up to 24 monthly installments. They would enroll into autopay, automatic reminders, and smart handling of missed payments, all without any staff involvement.

Full visibility into every student's status

We created an admin experience that has everything they need to keep up with payments and communications. They can see who's been contacted, who's on a plan, who's resolved, who needs escalation. Daily exports make handoff clean and auditable.