Do late fees apply automatically?
Only if you turn on Apply automatically. By default a late-fee policy just builds an eligible list you apply by hand, and each invoice gets one fee ever.
Not unless you turn that on. Setting a late-fee policy (an amount and a grace period under Billing & Payments → Billing → Late Fees) only builds the Eligible now list: invoices past the grace period, waiting for you to tick and apply. Nothing is charged until a person chooses to.
There is a separate Apply automatically toggle, off by default. Turn it on and NestliCare applies the fee each morning in your timezone, notifying the parent in the app. Most daycares run the list by hand for the first month, then automate.
Guardrails either way:
- An invoice can receive one late fee, ever. Fees never compound.
- Invoices that are paid, mid-payment (a settling bank transfer), inside the grace period, waiting on auto-pay, or previously waived are never eligible.
- Waive removes a fee and marks that invoice permanently ineligible, so it will not reappear tomorrow.
Parents see your policy on their unpaid invoices before any fee can apply, so a fee is never the first they hear of it.
Related: Charge a late fee, Charge a late pickup fee.