Student Fees/Exam Card Clearance System with Barcode

Student Fees/Exam Card Clearance System with Barcode is a free PHP and MySQL project that lets schools confirm in seconds — with a single barcode scan — whether a student has paid their fees and is cleared to sit an exam.

Instead of queuing at the bursar’s office with paper receipts, each student is issued a barcode that acts as their clearance pass. Staff scan it, the system checks the fee records, and the student is either cleared or flagged. The project was shared here mainly so learners can study the barcode/QR-code verification part, which is the most instructive piece of the code.

What is a student clearance system?

A student clearance system is software a school uses to verify that a student has settled their obligations — most commonly fees — before they are allowed to take exams or collect documents. This implementation is suitable for schools and colleges, student batches, coaching centers and academies, and education centers generally. An admin account creates users and students and manages the whole setup, and every user must log in before they can access the system.

Key features

• Add student / admission and manage students
• Create and manage branches
• Take fees, manage fees, and view fee details
• Barcode-based clearance check on the student’s exam card
• Reports
• User management and faculty data management
• Department and session management
• School fees settings and pay fees

Technologies used

The system is written in PHP on a MySQL database, with a Bootstrap front end. Database access is configured in a single file, so pointing it at your own server takes one edit.

How to install and run

1. Download the source code ZIP below and extract it.
2. Copy the extracted folder into your XAMPP htdocs directory (or your web server root).
3. Create a MySQL database named dms in phpMyAdmin.
4. Import clearance.sql, which is included inside the source code, into that database.
5. Open the classes folder, find db.php, and set the database host, username and password to match your system.
6. Start Apache and MySQL, then open the project folder in your browser at http://localhost/.

Demo credentials

Admin login — username: debola, password: debola
Student login — matric number: 1234, password: 1234

Who is this for

Students building a capstone or final-year project around fees, clearance or barcode verification; instructors who want a compact PHP/MySQL example that touches authentication, payments data and reporting; and developers who want a working reference for integrating barcode checks into a school workflow. You are free to build on the system — it is meant for learning.

Download the source code

LOGIN/REGISTER TO DOWNLOAD THE FREE SOURCE CODE

Download Student Fees/Exam Card Clearance System (ZIP from GitHub)

Note: the source code is available for educational use only — please keep the original author’s credit and don’t use it commercially without permission.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does the barcode clearance actually work?
Each student record is tied to a barcode printed on their exam card. When staff scan it, the system looks up the student’s fee records in the dms database and shows whether they are cleared.

Can I use a phone camera instead of a barcode scanner?
Yes — any scanner that behaves like keyboard input works, and you can adapt the lookup form to accept input from a phone-based scanning app.

Why won’t the system connect to my database?
Almost always it’s classes/db.php — confirm the database name is dms, and that the host, username and password match your local MySQL setup.

Related projects and guides

• Web-Based School Management System (Yii Framework)
• Student Result Management System
• Attendance Monitoring Management System Using PHP/MySQLi
• Capstone Project Ideas with Source Code (2026)