Cron Jobs

Five background scripts keep fee reminders, overdue tracking, and attendance alerts running on their own schedule.

Every script here is a plain PHP CLI script — run with php /path/to/project/scripts/whatever.php, no web server involvement, no arguments needed for any of them. Each is idempotent (safe to run twice in a row without duplicating anything or double-charging anyone) unless noted otherwise.

The five scripts

Script	What it does	Suggested schedule
`mark_overdue_invoices.php`	Flips `subscription_invoices` from `pending` to `overdue` once `due_date` passes.	Daily, early morning
`generate_term_invoices.php`	Generates that term's `subscription_invoices` for every active, full-platform school, based on each school's own `subscription_plans.term_length_months`.	Once per term (manual trigger is fine too — see note below)
`mark_overdue_library_loans.php`	Flips `library_loans` from `active` to `overdue` once `due_date` passes. Cosmetic status only — the return workflow and fine calculation both work the same regardless of whether this has run.	Daily
`send_attendance_alerts.php`	Sends a notification (SMS/email) to guardians when a student is marked absent that day.	Daily, after attendance is expected to be marked (e.g. mid-morning)
`send_fee_reminders.php`	Sends a reminder to guardians whose `student_fee_balances.due_date` is approaching or has passed.	Daily

On generate_term_invoices.php: unlike the other four, this one doesn't need a fixed daily cadence — it makes sense once per term, and running it twice for the same period is harmless (it's driven by each school's actual term dates, not a blind "run every N days" assumption) but also pointless. Many operators prefer to trigger this manually rather than scheduling it — either is fine.

Example crontab (VPS / any server with real cron access)

# Solvo — adjust the PHP path and project path for your server.
0 1 * * * /usr/bin/php /var/www/mojamoza/scripts/mark_overdue_invoices.php >> /var/log/mojamoza-cron.log 2>&1
0 2 * * * /usr/bin/php /var/www/mojamoza/scripts/mark_overdue_library_loans.php >> /var/log/mojamoza-cron.log 2>&1
0 9 * * * /usr/bin/php /var/www/mojamoza/scripts/send_attendance_alerts.php >> /var/log/mojamoza-cron.log 2>&1
0 10 * * * /usr/bin/php /var/www/mojamoza/scripts/send_fee_reminders.php >> /var/log/mojamoza-cron.log 2>&1
# generate_term_invoices.php: run manually at the start of each term, or uncomment for a quarterly nudge
# 0 3 1 1,4,9 * /usr/bin/php /var/www/mojamoza/scripts/generate_term_invoices.php >> /var/log/mojamoza-cron.log 2>&1

Find your PHP binary's path with which php (VPS) — shared hosts usually give you a specific path in their control panel instead (see below).

cPanel — Cron Jobs UI

For each script, add a cron job with:

Command: /usr/local/bin/php /home/YOURUSER/mojamoza/scripts/mark_overdue_invoices.php (cPanel's Cron Jobs page usually shows your exact PHP path near the top of the form — use that, not a guess)
Schedule: pick from the dropdowns matching the table above (e.g. "Once a day" for the daily ones)

Repeat for each of the five scripts, one cron job entry per script.

Verifying a cron job actually ran

Every script prints a short summary line to stdout when it finishes (e.g. "Marked 3 loan(s) overdue."). If you redirected output to a log file (as in the crontab example above), check that file. If a cron job silently does nothing every day, the most common cause on shared hosting is the PHP path being wrong — cPanel often has multiple PHP versions installed under different paths, and cron doesn't use the same PATH your shell does.