School districts, tour operators, and corporate groups often don’t pay before they arrive. A district books a field trip in October, the buses roll in March, and the purchase order gets paid sometime in April once the final headcount is confirmed. For that kind of group, the balance should be due a set number of days after the visit, not before it.
Altru’s group sales tools are built mostly around collecting money ahead of the visit: deposits up front and the remaining balance due by or before arrival. That suits leisure groups and paid-in-advance tours. It’s awkward for the large share of group business that runs on invoices and net terms. Below is how to handle post-visit balance dates in Altru as it works today, and how to keep those open balances from slipping through.
Know what your Altru setup actually supports
Before you build a workaround, confirm the real behavior in your own database. Group sales configuration varies by organization, and Blackbaud adjusts features over time. Three things to check:
- The default balance due setting for reservations. Look at your group sales configuration and see how the balance due date is calculated for a new reservation. In most setups it is tied to the arrival date or a period before it. If you see an option that calculates from the visit date going forward, you’re in luck and can set it there.
- Whether the due date can be edited on a single reservation. Even when the default points before the visit, staff can usually change the date on an individual reservation’s payment terms. Test this on a sample reservation.
- What happens when the due date passes. Find out whether anything in your process (reports, holds, staff alerts) keys off the balance due date. If nothing does, a wrong date is mostly cosmetic. If your team relies on it for follow-up, a wrong date sends them chasing groups that aren’t late yet.
The safest way to test is in a sandbox or a clearly labeled test reservation you delete afterward. If you can’t tell from the configuration screens whether a “days after visit” default exists in your version, ask Blackbaud support directly rather than assuming either way.
Workarounds when the default can’t point after the visit
1. Set the date by hand for invoiced groups
The simplest fix: when a reservation is for a group that pays after the visit, the booking agent changes the balance due date on that reservation at the time of booking. Decide on a standard term (for example, 30 days after the visit) so everyone uses the same rule.
This only works if it happens every time. Put it on your booking checklist, and add a short note on the reservation explaining the terms (“Net 30 after visit, PO to follow”) so whoever picks it up later understands why the date looks different.
2. Separate invoiced groups from prepaid groups
If you can mark invoiced groups consistently, whether through a reservation type, a constituent attribute on the organization, or a code your team already uses, you can report on them separately. That way your “overdue balances” list for prepaid groups stays clean, and invoiced groups get their own follow-up track.
3. Build a follow-up query based on the visit date
Rather than trusting the balance due date, build a group sales query that looks at what you actually care about:
- Reservations with a remaining balance greater than zero
- Where the visit date is in the past
- Optionally, where the visit was more than your standard term (say, 30 days) ago
Run it weekly. This catches every open balance regardless of what date was stored on the reservation, which makes it a good safety net even if staff miss the manual date change now and then.
4. Keep the invoice wording in step with Altru
Whatever document you send the group, whether a confirmation, an invoice, or a reminder, should state the same due date your staff are tracking. If your confirmation template pulls the balance due date automatically and the reservation still shows a pre-visit date, the group gets a document that says they’re late before they’ve even arrived. Either fix the date on the reservation first or adjust the template so invoiced groups get different language.
Collecting the balance after the visit
The part that usually drags is the payment itself. After the visit, the group coordinator has to forward the invoice to someone in accounts payable, who then calls in a card number or mails a check. Every handoff adds days.
A few habits help:
- Send the final invoice within a day or two of the visit, while the headcount is fresh and any adjustments are agreed.
- Name the actual payer on the reservation (the business office contact, not just the teacher), so reminders reach the person who can pay.
- Give them a way to pay that doesn’t require calling your box office during business hours.
That last point is where Link2Pay can help. It creates a branded pay-by-link for invoices and group sales balances, and the payment posts back to Altru, so a coordinator can forward the link straight to accounts payable instead of relaying a phone number.
Quick answers
Can I change the balance due date after the reservation is booked?
In most setups, yes, on the individual reservation. Test it on a sample reservation to confirm in your environment.
Will changing the group sales default affect existing reservations?
Defaults generally apply when new reservations are created. Existing reservations keep the dates they already have, so plan to update any open invoiced bookings by hand.
