End of Year Guidance Manual guide to assist with managing ParentPay end of year requirements and optional tasks. 1 ParentPay Ltd 2016
Table of Contents 1. Introduction 3 2. Managing end of term school meal debt 3 2.1 Balance letters for parents 3 2.2 Account balance report 4 3. Credit balances for pupils remaining at the school 5 4. School leavers with credit balances 5 4.1 Refunding a balance to a payer 6 5. Debt balances against pupils remaining at the school 9 6. School leavers with a debt 9 7. Archiving accounts 9 8. Adding new pupils to ParentPay 10 8.1 Reception class intake 10 8.2 Non-reception intake 10 8.3 PayPoint Cards (available for school meal payments only) 11 9. New academic year, term and closure dates 11 9.1 Configuring term dates 12 9.2 Configuring closure dates 12 10. Meal periods and prices 14 10.1 Extending existing meal costs 14 10.2 Changes to meal costs 15 11. FSM Allowance 16 12. Managing meal patterns 17 12.1 Open ended meal patterns 17 12.2 Meal patterns with an end date 18 13. Managing booking and selection services 18 13.1 Extending a booking service 18 13.2 Extending menus 18 14. Creating or Removing Manager Accounts 18 14.1 Creating Administration Manager Accounts 19 14.2 Creating Classroom Selection Teacher Accounts 19 14.3 Removing Manager or Teacher Accounts 19 15. Homepage notifications 19 2 ParentPay Ltd 2016
1. Introduction The purpose of this document is to provide best practice guidance in respect to managing end of academic year tasks associated with ParentPay services. The focus of the document is to assist with the management of debt (especially in the case of school leavers) and to prepare the system for the new academic year. These activities may be undertaken throughout the summer term but must be completed prior to its end in order to ensure a smooth transition. The key tasks that need to be carried out include: Managing end of term debt; Dealing with school leavers; Remaining debt process; Administration for new pupils; Updating the school term dates; Updating the school meal price; FSM allowance adjustments; Managing meal patterns; Booking period extensions; MIS integration considerations. A checklist can also be downloaded to assist you with keeping track of the tasks you have completed. 2. Managing end of term school meal debt In order to minimise end of year debt management schools are encouraged to work with payers, throughout the academic year, to reduce any outstanding meal debt they may accrue. This is particularly important during the summer term when some pupils or students will be leaving at the end of the period. The following will assist with determining accounts with meal debt and with communicating to payers that are associated with those accounts. 2.1 Balance letters for parents Payers should be informed of current meal balances for any associated child accounts during the summer term to encourage them to manage those balances before the end of the term. Communication should focus on reducing any outstanding debt and where appropriate, reducing balances for school leavers to minimise end of term refunds. 3 ParentPay Ltd 2016
The ParentPay communication facility can be used to send emails and letters to payers reminding them of their balance and asking them to ensure their account remains in credit. Templates exist in this feature to assist with communication of this type. 2.2 Account balance report In the run up to the end of the academic year it is important to get regular full balance reports. This will clearly show you which parents are in credit or debt. This report can be used by the School Office to focus efforts on those parents that are still showing as having a debt. How to obtain a school meal account balance report 1. Navigate to Payment Items > View Payment Item 2. Locate the payment item used for school meals 3. Select Actions button and then View assigned people The report will be shown in Balance order with any debtors listed at the top of the report and the pupils will a Credit balance at the bottom on the report 4 ParentPay Ltd 2016
3. Credit balances for pupils remaining at the school Any remaining credit balance in place for a pupil will remain on their account and be carried forward to the next academic year. 4. School leavers with credit balances Ideally all pupils leaving school will have a zero balance on the last day of the summer term. Where credit exists against a leaving child s account, you can simply action a refund back to the parent s My Account balance, where they can reuse the funds for other purposes or arrange for a withdrawal directly through ParentPay. NOTE: If you settle your school meal payments to a Local Authority or Caterer account and not a direct school account, you will need to refer to the relevant Refund Policy to receive guidance on how to process leaver refunds. 5 ParentPay Ltd 2016
4.1 Refunding a balance to a payer Refunding balances (paid through ParentPay online) 1. Navigate to People > Pupils and Staff 2. Search for the relevant pupil 3. Select Actions and View Statement 4. Enter a date range which will show the last online payment received and ensure the school meal payment item is selected 5. Click Search 6 ParentPay Ltd 2016
6. Find the last online payment made and click on the description, ParentPay. This will take you into the receipt for the payment 7. Select Refund payment NOTE: If the Refund payment button is not showing on your ParentPay site and you are able to offer refunds directly, please contact the ParentPay service desk and ask to have your site refund enabled. 8. Enter the remaining balance from the school meal account above into the Refund amount field and a summary of the payment in the Notes field, for your records. shorty_roro@hotmail.co.uk> 9. Select Confirm refund 7 ParentPay Ltd 2016
Refunding balances (paid manually and recorded in ParentPay only) 1. Navigate to Finance > Record Adjustments 2. Select the school meal payment item 3. Select Debit as the method 4. Search for the relevant pupil The balance remaining will show against the pupil in the Balance column. 5. Enter the balance amount into the Amount field and a summary of the payment in the Internal comments field, for your records. 6. Select Debit You will be presented with a breakdown of the debits you have made. recommended you print this report for future reference It is 8 ParentPay Ltd 2016
Once you have brought the leavers balances back to zero on the ParentPay system you will then need to provide the appropriate refund to the parent via manual means (cheque/cash). 5. Debt balances against pupils remaining at the school All school meal balances will remain on the School Meal Payment Item. Parents with an outstanding debt, whose children are still on roll at the school, will continue to see their balance on the School Meal Payment Item. 6. School leavers with a debt Once a pupil leaves the school their account will be archived and parents will no longer have access to the account to make payments. For leavers that still have a debt we recommend that a barcoded letter be created prior to the pupils leaving the school. This barcoded letter can then be used by parents to pay any outstanding debt using the standard PayPoint method. Once the leaver accounts have been archived, information relating to leavers accounts remains available in the reports and in ParentPay screens where the include leavers check box is present. If you need to look at leaver information, select the relevant year the pupil was assigned to prior to leaving and tick the check box to include leaver details. 7. Archiving accounts The archiving of pupil account occurs automatically upon uploading the rolled up MIS data at the start of the new academic year. There are no additional requirements beyond running a pupil upload once you have promoted your MIS system to the new academic year. When you complete this upload, all new pupils will be added to the ParentPay system, all leavers will be archived and any additional year and/or registration group changes will be completed. NOTE: If a school operates an external nursery where a child is not on their MIS but where they have a ParentPay account for paying fees, a new account will be created when they are added to the MIS. When this occurs, any remaining nursery balance will need to be transferred from the nursery account to the pupil account. 9 ParentPay Ltd 2016
8. Adding new pupils to ParentPay 8.1 Reception class intake The new Reception class intake will need to be uploaded to ParentPay as soon as they are on roll at the school. This is likely to be on their first day of the new school term, and is the date at which they are allocated their Unique Pupil Number (UPN). When the pupils are on roll within the school s MIS, a refresh of data into ParentPay is required. Once loaded into ParentPay, account activation letters can be produced and issued to the parents of the new pupils. NOTE: Activation letters should include simple instructions on how to use the activation codes. Parents should either add the child to an existing account using the Add a child functionality or, where no account exists currently, they should use the codes to create a new account, automatically adding the child. The new pupils should automatically be allocated to any payment items that have been Globally assigned but may need to be added manually to other payment items. 8.2 Non-reception intake Pupils joining from another school can be uploaded into ParentPay using the preadmission upload process prior to the start of the new term. Some schools might find this useful as the activation letters can be issued to parents in advance, avoiding debts on accounts at the beginning of term. Pre-admission pupils can only be uploaded if they have a PERMANENT UPN number. The UPN number acts as the unique identifier for the pupil to ensure the account is not archived when they switch from pre-admission to pupil. Failure to use the UPN in the pre-admission upload will result in a new pupil account being created during the first upload of the new academic year and may require a refund to the original account. When the pre-admission pupils are uploaded they can be found in appropriate filter fields under Group 1 > Pre-admissions. NOTE: Automated pre-admission uploads from SIMS will require the preadmission pupils to have a status of Accepted. NOTE: Schools using a MIS system other than SIMS need to request that their pre-admission pupils are uploaded manually via the ParentPay Service Desk. 10 ParentPay Ltd 2016
WARNING: If you wish to upload preadmission pupils into ParentPay, it MUST be completed prior to the end of term. Please do not attempt to upload pre-admission pupils once the summer term has ended. NOTE: Due to the volume of pre-admission upload requests during this period we can only accommodate one request from each school. Please ensue that your pre-admissions are recorded accurately prior to submitting your upload request. 8.3 PayPoint Cards (available for school meal payments only) PayPoint cards can be ordered for any parent of a new pupil where required. This will allow payers wishing to make payments for school meals using cash or cheque to do so at a PayPoint store, rather than sending money directly into the school. NOTE: PayPoint cards are uniquely assigned to individual school s meal payment item. It is not possible for cards to be transferred between schools. PayPoint cards for school leavers should either be returned to the school, or destroyed, to ensure payments are not inappropriately made to the wrong bank accounts at the start of the new academic year. 9. New academic year, term and closure dates A new academic year is available for you within ParentPay for you to configure your school s term and closure dates. Term dates should be entered in full, without consideration for inset days, bank holiday and other days that the school is closed. These additional days should be configured as closure dates. WARNING: If you have not correctly entered your term and closure dates before the end of the current academic year, all bookings, meal patterns and other date dependant elements of the ParentPay system will fail to process correctly which could result in parents paying for items inappropriately. Term dates cannot be amended retrospectively, so it is essential they are entered correctly BEFORE the Autumn term begins. 11 ParentPay Ltd 2016
9.1 Configuring term dates 1. Navigate to Settings > Manage Calendar 2. Scroll down to Manage term dates 3. Enter the next academic year from the Choose academic year dropdown 4. Select Choose 5. Enter the Start date and End date for each of your terms in order. These should not accommodate other closure dates which are dealt with in the next section. 9.2 Configuring closure dates 1. Navigate to Settings > Manage Calendar 2. Scroll down to Manage closing days 12 ParentPay Ltd 2016
3. Enter the next academic year from the Choose academic year dropdown 4. Click Choose NOTE: Closure days can be added individually or as a block of days 5. Enter the Start date and End date for your closure period 6. Select Save 7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for all closure days All closure dates will be listed within the Choose closing days drop down menu allowing you to adjust any dates entered inaccurately. WARNING: Once meal patterns, menus or other modules that use periods are enabled for the new academic year, any manual changes to term and closure dates will not change the schedule. Payments that have been made as a result of meal patterns or bookings will need to be refunded. 13 ParentPay Ltd 2016
10. Meal periods and prices You should check your current meal prices to ensure that they are appropriate for the new year. If the costs of meals are due to change as the new year starts, you will need to have made the appropriate corrections to ensure meals are charged at the new rate. NOTE: Most cashless tills manage the costs directly and do not need to be changed in ParentPay. If the meal value is set to 0.00 on your setup, it should not be changed. If the meal cost is not increasing, you should ensure that your existing meal type is set to continue at the existing price for the next academic year. 10.1 Extending existing meal costs If there is no change to the meal price at the start of the new year, the existing meal type periods can be extended. 1. Navigate to Attendance, meals & events > Settings > Event types and prices 2. From the Choose time drop down select the relevant period (e.g. Lunch time) 3. From the Choose type drop down select the relevant meal type (e.g. Pupil Paid Meal) 4. Select Manage periods 5. Find the current meal period and select Actions and then Edit 14 ParentPay Ltd 2016
6. Adjust the End date to an appropriate date in the future e.g. the end of the next academic year (this can be changed at a later date if the meal price changes) 7. Select Save 8. Repeat steps 2 to 7 for each combination of meal times and types that you wish to check and extend meal prices for. 10.2 Changes to meal costs If there is a requirement to change one or more of the meal prices at the start of the new year, new periods will need to be defined. 1. Navigate to Attendance, meals & events > Settings > Event types and prices 2. From the Choose time drop down select the relevant period (e.g. Lunch time) 3. From the Choose type drop down select the relevant meal type (e.g. Pupil Paid Meal) 4. Select Manage periods 5. In the New period section, enter the new Start date, End date and Price for the new meal type period (suggested dates are start date of 1 st September and end date of 31 st July) 6. Using the Payment Item drop down select the appropriate payment item for your school meals 7. Select Save 15 ParentPay Ltd 2016
NOTE: The system will now know to charge the existing meal price up until the end of the academic year and will charge the new rate from the start of the new year onwards. 11. FSM Allowance If the meal prices for any periods are increasing, the free school meal allowance should be checked to ensure that pupils receive the appropriate FSM entitlement. WARNING: If the FSM allowance is set to a lower amount than the associated meal price, payers will be automatically charged for the difference in cost which may also result in bookings being cancelled. WARNING: If a cashless till systems is used, the allowance is normally managed by the till system and should not be changed. NRS systems do however use ParentPay s allowance values and should be configured appropriately. 1. Navigate to Attendance, meals & events > Settings > FSM allowance 2. Check the entries for each group (each group may contain multiple years). If any changes are required, in the Apply to all allowance group fields enter new values for: o Allowance value the new daily FSM allowance value for all years in the group o o Start date the date the new meal rate commences End date this should always be entered a double hyphen (--) to ensure the new value continues indefinitely 16 ParentPay Ltd 2016
3. Select Dry Run 4. Once confirmed select Commit changes 12. Managing meal patterns If ParentPay meal patterns are used to mark attendance automatically, the patterns should be checked to ensure that they are accurate for the new year s requirements. To check a pattern, navigate to People > Pupils Meal patterns will need to be set for all new intake pupils that require them once they have been uploaded. This can be achieved individually or as a year group. 12.1 Open ended meal patterns If meal patterns have been set up as open ended (no end date), the system will automatically end any pattern associated with a leaver on the last day of term. The patterns for the remaining pupils will continue into the new academic year. 17 ParentPay Ltd 2016
12.2 Meal patterns with an end date If meal patterns are used and have been set up with an end date before the next year begins, new meal patterns will need to be created for pupils for the next term. WARNING: If meal patterns are used but have not been correctly set up for the start of the new term, the system will NOT mark attendance automatically and manual entry will be required. NOTE: If you have pupils that are on an irregular meal pattern, for example Monday, Wednesday, and Friday only, it is recommended that you set the individual meal patterns against the individual account via the Edit Pupil Details section rather than the bulk create patterns option in the Groups section. 13. Managing booking and selection services If the pre-ordering system is being used to pre-book meals or to book places for before or after school care places, the booking periods need to be checked to ensure they are extended into the new academic year. 13.1 Extending a booking service During the summer term, ParentPay will attempt to contact any school that has not extended the booking periods for meals or breakfast and/or afterschool clubs. If you do require these services in the new year, you should contact ParentPay support at your earliest opportunity to renew them. If these booking services are not extended, payers will not be able to book meals or sessions. 13.2 Extending menus Schools using menu selection, that have created their own menus, will need to either extend their existing menu cycles or create new menus. WARNING: To ensure that your pre-booking menu is available for parents to book from, schools MUST ensure that the term and closure dates are set correctly and that meal periods are valid for the upcoming academic year, before the end of the summer term. 14. Creating or Removing Manager Accounts Quite often new members of staff join the school at the start of the new academic year. Schools are able to manage their Manager Account logins from the Settings > Manage users section. 18 ParentPay Ltd 2016
14.1 Creating Administration Manager Accounts If new staff require access to the ParentPay system to perform administration tasks schools will need to create new Manager login accounts for each relevant individual member of staff. 14.2 Creating Classroom Selection Teacher Accounts Schools using the Whiteboard: Classroom selection feature will need to determine if there are new teacher accounts that need to be added to the system in order for the new teachers to be able to manage the meal selections in the new academic year. 14.3 Removing Manager or Teacher Accounts If a schools has staff leaving the school that previously had access to the ParentPay system, or the Classroom Whiteboard facility, we would recommend that these accounts are deactivated. 15. Homepage notifications As part of the End of Year and Start of New Academic Year processes, ParentPay will activate additional Notifications within the My notifications area. These notifications will provide you with important information relating to several required or advised actions, for example, if a pupil upload needs to be processed or if you have meal type periods about to expire. Non Critical messages are flagged in GREEN Warning messages are flagged in YELLOW/AMBER Urgent messages are flagged in RED Once the relevant action has been taken the notification will be removed. 19 ParentPay Ltd 2016
16. Further Assistance If you do require further assistance with any aspect of the End of Year tasks please do not hesitate to contact the ParentPay Service Desk Team either by calling us on 02476 994820 or by email support@parentpay.com Alternatively, you may find useful guidance via the ParentPay Online Support Site which you can access from the Help link on your My ParentPay page. 20 ParentPay Ltd 2016