> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://harnesscalendar.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Billing rules
> Billing rules decide which account pays for each student's charges.
A billing rule connects a student to the [account](/docs/accounts) that pays for them. Most students need only the one Harness sets up, and you add more when someone else covers part of the cost, like a scholarship paying half of lessons. The rules decide where each new [charge](/docs/charges) lands.
## The default account
Every student has one default account, which pays for whatever their other rules don't. Harness sets it up when you [add the student](/docs/students#add-a-student), as a new account that bills their [primary contact](/docs/contacts#primary-contact). A brother or sister gets their own new account too, so to bill them with the rest of the family, [change their default](#change-who-pays) to the family's account. For a sign-up still waiting for approval, click **Choose someone else** on the student's **Billing** tab to pick the payer before you [approve it](/docs/sign-up-form#approve-or-reject-sign-ups). A student's sidebar lists who pays for them under **Paid by**.
## Split with another account
A rule sends part of a student's charges to a second account, like a scholarship paying half of lessons or a grandparent paying up to \$15 of each lesson. On the student's **Billing** tab, click **+** (**Add rule**) beside **Billing rules**, then fill in the blanks of one sentence: who pays, how much, which charges, and between which dates. The share can be a percent of each charge or up to a dollar amount of each one, and it can cover all charges or just one category, like lessons. If the payer has no account yet, pick **Create account** from the list. Click **Save**, and the rule appears on the tab as that sentence; click it any time to change it.
Rules apply to every new charge, fees included. To send just one fee somewhere else, pick the student under **For** and the payer under **Account** when you [add the charge](/docs/charges#add-an-extra-charge).
From then on, each payer gets their own charge for their share, so everyone is invoiced only for their part. The paying account lists the student under **Pays for**.
## Change who pays
Change the default when a different account should pay everything the other rules don't, like moving a new sibling onto the family's account.
On the student's page, open the **Billing** tab.
Click the default's sentence, the last one in the list, and pick another account.
Click **Save**.
The change reaches charges made after you save. Charges already recorded stay with the account they're on.
## End a rule
End a rule when the arrangement behind it is over. Click the rule and give it an end date, or hover it and click the trash icon to remove it if it was a mistake. A removed rule goes at once, and **Undo** in the message brings it back. The default account can be changed but never removed, since someone always pays the rest. [Closing an account](/docs/accounts#close-reopen-or-delete) removes every rule that names it, so its students may need a new payer.
## FAQ
A rule for all charges takes its share after any rules for a single category, like lessons, have taken theirs.
Changing a rule doesn't move charges already recorded. To move one that isn't paid or on a sent invoice, change its **Account**; see [Change or void a charge](/docs/charges#change-or-void-a-charge).
No one is set to pay for them, usually because the account that paid was closed. The student shows **Billing setup incomplete**, and lessons can't be charged when you [mark attendance](/docs/lessons#mark-attendance). On their **Billing** tab, click **Choose who pays** and pick an account.
Rules follow the lesson's date, not the day you mark it. A lesson from before the end date bills the way the rule said then.
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