Keeping the class money in Revolut: how to set it up

Many classes have no bank account of their own. The chair opens a pocket in their Revolut and asks parents to pay into it. It's quick and free, but by June it's hard to tell what was the class's and what was yours. Here's how to set it up so there's nothing to untangle.

Start with a separate pocket for the class

The most important step comes before ClassFund.Club. In the Revolut app, open a new pocket and give it a clear name, say "Class fund 3B". Only the class's money goes in, and you only pay the class's costs out of it.

Here's why. Connecting a bank reads every line of the accounts you choose, not only the ones about the class. If you connect your main balance, your shopping comes in too. You can leave those lines out with one click, and only you see them – parents and teachers never do. But it's cleaner if they never arrive.

Connect Revolut

• In ClassFund.Club, open Bank and choose to connect a bank.
• Pick the country your Revolut account was opened in – that's where Revolut is listed, and it isn't always your own country. If you're not sure, the account details in the Revolut app say.
• While setting up the connection, you choose which accounts and pockets appear in ClassFund.Club. Pick the class pocket you made earlier.
• Only one card can be linked to a pocket. So if you pay with a separate card, or want to follow some money on its own, feel free to set up more than one pocket.
• Once you approve, the transactions appear in ClassFund.Club.

Give each pocket a role

• The class account: parents pay in here and you spend from here. Money in is a payment, money out is a cost.
• A source of costs: if you pay for the class from another pocket or card, choose this. Only the spending is read from it.
• Not the class's: everything else. It stays out and counts nowhere.

Revolut calls every pocket "Revolut", so give yours a name of your own on the Bank page. That's the name shown everywhere from then on.

Moving money between pockets

Maybe you move part of the money into a second pocket for the leavers' party. That's neither a payment nor a cost, and ClassFund.Club treats it as an own transfer when it recognises the other side as one of the class's accounts. If it doesn't, you can mark the line as an own transfer yourself.

How parents pay

If the pocket has its own account number, parents simply transfer to it with the reference. Revolut pockets often don't, though, and then ClassFund.Club shows parents nothing that looks like one. On the "How to pay" tab you can offer two other ways:

• A payment link. Every Revolut pocket has its own revolut.me link, and money paid through it goes straight into that pocket. Copy the class pocket's link from the Revolut app, not your personal one – that pays into your main balance, which the books don't read. Parents on Revolut can then pay without typing a transfer.
• A QR code. If the Revolut app gives you a code for receiving money, upload it. Scan it yourself before the parents do.

The first month: teach it the names

In the first weeks you may have to link a transfer to a child by hand – when a grandparent pays, for example. ClassFund.Club remembers it as a rule, and from the next month it recognises that sender by itself.

How often it updates

ClassFund.Club reads the bank once a day, in the morning, because banks limit how often they can be read unattended. If you need it sooner, read the new lines by hand on the Bank page.

Revolut gives the consent for a few months. The Bank page shows how long it lasts. When it runs out, connect again – everything already read stays in the books.

Which plan do you need?

Connecting a bank comes with Basic and Premium. Basic reads one account, which is enough for a single class pocket. Every pocket you give a role counts as an account, so a pocket for payments and another for card spending already needs Premium, which reads up to five. On Free, you upload the statement yourself as a CSV file.

See the plans

In short

• A separate pocket just for the class.
• Connect Revolut, and give that pocket the "class account" role.
• Leave your own pockets as "not the class's".
• Name the pocket, so you recognise it.
• Give parents the class pocket's own revolut.me link, not your personal one.
• In the first month, link unknown senders by hand – after that it does it itself.

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