Linking SchoolMoney transactions
Payments received from parents via SchoolMoney can be easily imported into PFM without the need for manual re-entry. There are a couple of bits of setup that need to be done however, before this can happen
Creating/amending items for payment in SchoolMoney
For PFM to recognise payments from parents, the item set up in SchoolMoney must have some kind of link to the PFM account code. Log into SchoolMoney and create or edit a trip or other item for payment.
The DESCRIPTION is the key item - the description on SchoolMoney must be IDENTICAL to the Full Name entered on PFM.
If you want additional detail (ie more than can fit into the PFM Full name box) you can add a DOT on the SchoolMoney system, and anything after the dot will be ignored when it links to PFM.
Eg – the Ski Trip Feb 204 to Colorado might look like this :
PFM – Short code SKI14COL Description Ski Trip Feb 2012 Colorado
on SchoolMoney - the wording could be just - Ski Trip Feb 2012 Colorado
OR you could enter Ski Trip Feb 2012 Colorado. Winter Park Trip - all costs included.
(ie we put the extra details after a dot and do not need this extra detail on PFM)
Adding cash/cheques through SchoolMoney
If parents make all their payments through SchoolMoney, then the balance they owe will show correctly on SchoolMoney. However, if they pay some money through SchoolMoney and some as cash/cheques, then the SchoolMoney balance will not be up to date. A way round this is to use the option in SchoolMoney for entering Manual Payment. This will update the online balance, and the transactions will then appear in PFM as cash/cheques waiting to be banked. Clearly, you should not ALSO enter them into PFM in the usual way, and this will lead to duplicates. Enter them into SchoolMoney and then import.
It is much more straightforward if parents do not mix and match online payments with cash and cheques for any given trip, but of course we can’t stop this happening.
Downloading the list of payments received from SchoolMoney
You will be receiving payments from parents for trips etc., on an ongoing basis. Depending on the quantity, and how frequently you wish to update PFM with this information, you will need to download the report showing the payments received. If you want PFM to be up to date, then this will need to be done pretty regularly.
To download the report, go into SchoolMoney and choose REPORTS - click on MONEY RECEIVED.
TICK the box at the bottom that says 'SHOW TRANSACTION BREAKDOWN'
Click on FILTERS - if appropriate choose the bank account. Then choose your date range -
DATE RANGE – this needs to overlap the previous report run. PFM needs to find at least one item it has already processed, to know where to start the new download from. It will not duplicate any entries. If there is no overlap, PFM will warn you, and you may have missing transactions. Enter your FROM and TO dates - click OK
Click EXPORT - choose the type ISTEK - click on DOWNLOAD
Once the report is created it must be SAVED into the PFM folder – choose FILE - SAVE AS and choose the subfolder called UNPROCESSED INTERNET PAYMENTS in the PFM folder. SAVE and CLOSE.
Import the payments into PFM
Go into PFM – to Trans Entry – Receipts – Internet Receipts. Click on the button bottom left to READ INTERNET RECEIPTS FILE
PFM may find information in the file that it does not understand. If there is a trip or account that has been entered in SchoolMoney and DOES NOT have an identical 'Full name' on PFM, you will see a screen telling you the trip is not valid. You will be able to select the Short Code that it should be showing.
PFM may find a pupil who is not on PFM – maybe a new starter, or pupil from another school. Again, you will be able to manually pick the student this money should be allocated to.
You may have money on SchoolMoney that should NOT be imported into PFM eg Dinner Money. If this is the case click on the option called IGNORE FOREVER and then dinner money will be ignored from this point.
You can also choose to CANCEL the import, for example if you need to create a new short code for a new trip, or add a new student to the system.
Once complete, the grid onscreen will be populated with all the online payments received since your last download. The Trans Entry –Receipts – By Short Code will also have entries added for any cash/cheque you entered onto SchoolMoney. You can now BANK IT as required.
Where do I BANK IT to?
This will depend on whether you receive all the individual payments made into SchoolMoney as a lump sum (ie it totals a day or week or fortnights transactions and just pays you one lump) or whether you receive each of the individual items individually into your school fund bank account.
IF you receive a LUMP of money, then we recommend creating a dummy bank account called SM - SCHOOLMONEY HOLDING and bank all payments to this account. The payments sit here, until the lump is transferred out. (Create bank accounts in SETUP – ADD BANK ACCOUNT)
You will not need to do this IF you receive each individual item directly into your usual school fund bank account.
Bank transfer when SchoolMoney transfer money to you.
When you receive your lump sum payment from SchoolMoney, record this on PFM using Transaction entry – Transfers – Bank Transfers. FROM – SchoolMoney holding , TO – School Fund bank account. Enter date and amount.
Enter SchoolMoney’s service invoice
SchoolMoney charges a fee for each transactions processed.
If you are paid in a LUMP (daily/weekly) then the fees will usually be deducted at source and the amount you receive will be TOTAL less FEES.
If you receive every individuals transaction, the transaction fees usually aren’t deducted at source but instead the transaction fees are charged monthly, either by DD or monthly invoice.
In either case, you will need to enter details of the SchoolMoney charges invoice, and you will probably need to create a new short code for SchoolMoney Charges.
Enter the transaction for fees charged through Trans Entry – Direct Postings – Payments if the payment goes by DD or enter as a 'normal' payment, if you write a cheque for the invoice.
Reconciliation –the final stage!
The last step is to reconcile the SchoolMoney transactions. The holding bank account will have all the individual payments from parent going in, the lump transferred out when you receive your settlement and the fees invoice. They should balance out to ZERO.
Linking SchoolComms transactions
Payments received from parents via Schoolcomms can be easily imported into PFM without the need for manual re-entry. There are a couple of bits of setup that need to be done, and after that it should be simplicity itself on a day to day basis.
Creating/amending services in Schoolcomms
For PFM to recognise payments from parents, the service set up in Schoolcomms must note the PFM short code. Log into Schoolcomms and go to the PAYMENTS tab and then on PAYMENT REQUESTS. If the trip does not already exist you will need to create it using the NEW button, otherwise click on the trip from the list and click on the EDIT button.
In the COST CENTRE box, enter the short code of the trip from PFM. This must be exactly the same as on PFM – same spacing etc. It might be easier to COPY and PASTE from PFM to be sure it is identical. Save the amendment.
Adding cash/cheques through Schoolcomms
If parents make all their payments through Schoolcomms, then the balance they owe will show correctly on Schoolcomms. However, if they pay some money through Schoolcomms and some as cash/cheques, then the Schoolcomms balance will not be up to date. A way round this is to use the option in Schoolcomms for entering Manual Payment. This will update the online balance, and the transactions will then appear in PFM as cash/cheques waiting to be banked. Clearly, you should not ALSO enter them into PFM in the usual way, and this will lead to duplicates. Enter them into SchoolComms and then import.
Click on PAYMENTS - MANUAL TRANSACTIONS
Locate the student by entering part of their name then clicking to select. Select the Payer from the list, then locate the trip/item they are paying for.
In the first column ACTION - click on the pull down arrow and choose Cash/Cheque etc.
In the Amount box, either accept the default or enter another figure, enter any comment. Repeat for anything else they have paid, then click on APPLY ACTION at the top left. Click OK to confirm
It is much more straightforward if parents do not mix and match online payments with cash and cheques for any given trip, but of course we can’t stop this happening.
Downloading the list of payments received from Schoolcomms
You will be receiving payments from parents for trips etc., on an ongoing basis. Depending on the quantity, and how frequently you wish to update PFM with this information, you will need to download the report showing the payments received. If you want PFM to be up to date, then this will need to be done pretty regularly.
To download the report, go into Schoolcomms and to the Reports PAYMENTS tab and click on REPORTS. Click on TRANSACTION DAY BOOK and VIEW
DATE RANGE – this needs to overlap the previous report run. PFM needs to find at least one item it has already processed, to know where to start the new download from. It will not duplicate any entries. If there is no overlap, PFM will warn you, and you may have missing transactions. Enter your FROM and TO dates and click on FILTER.
Once the date range is selected, click on the SAVE button in the bottom right. Choose to SAVE the spreadsheet created, and save it to the PFM folder – into the subfolder called UNPROCESSED INTERNET PAYMENTS. Make sure the Unprocessed folder is EMPTY when you save this new file to it – if there are any old files showing, delete them.
Import the payments into PFM
Go into PFM – to Trans Entry – Receipts – Internet Receipts. Click on the button bottom left to READ INTERNET RECEIPTS FILE
PFM may find information in the file that it does not understand. If there is a short code that has been entered in Schoolcomms and is different on PFM, you will see a screen telling you the Cost Centre is not valid. You will be able to select the Short Code that it should be showing.
PFM may find a pupil who is not on PFM – maybe a new starter, or pupil from another school. Again, you will be able to manually pick the student this money should be allocated to.
You can also choose to CANCEL the import, for example if you need to create a new short code for a new trip, or add a new student to the system.
Once complete, the grid onscreen will be populated with all the online payments received since your last download. The Trans Entry –Receipts – By Short Code will also have entries added for any cash/cheque you entered onto Schoolcomms. You can now BANK IT as required.
Where do I BANK IT to?
Cash and cheques entered manually on Schoolcomms will be banked to the usual bank account in the usual way together with the contents of the current paying in slip.
With online payments however, you will receive a SINGLE payment from Schoolcomms comprising several or many individual online. settlement (so five payments of £20 would appear as a single entry on the bank statement of £100, not five separate lines of £20).You can choose when you are paid by Schoolcomms - to have online payments settled into your bank accounts on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.
Because it is a LUMP payment, we recommend setting up a dummy bank account called COM - SCHOOLCOMMS HOLDING and bank all
payments to this account. The payments sit here, until the lump is transferred out. (Create bank accounts in SETUP – ADD BANK ACCOUNT)
Bank transfer when Schoolcomms transfer money to you.
When you receive your lump sum payment from Schoolcomms, record this on PFM using Transaction entry – Transfers – Bank Transfers. FROM – Schoolcomms holding , TO – School Fund bank account. Enter date and amount.
Enter Schoolcomms’s service invoice
Schoolcomms charges a fee for each transactions processed. The transaction fees aren’t deducted before the payments are settled – so if a parent pays £20, the school receives £20. The transaction fees are charged monthly, either by DD or monthly invoice.
You will need to enter details of Schoolcomms invoice, and you will probably need to create a new short code for Schoolcomms Charges.
Enter the transaction through Trans Entry – Direct Postings – Payments if the payment goes by DD or enter as a 'normal' payment, if you write a cheque for the invoice.
Reconciliation –the final stage!
The last step is to reconcile the Schoolcomms transactions.
To Reconcile SchoolComms :
Log into Schoolcomms and go to PAYMENTS - Reports – Settlement Transaction Details. This report will show you all the settlements from Schoolcomms and the individual transactions they cover. SAVE this file into the folder called UNPROCESSED SETTLEMENT TRANSACTIONS then close the spreadsheet.
Go back to PFM - Transaction Entry - Bank Statements - select the SchoolComms bank account - You can now press the 'Read Gateway' button. It will open the spreadsheet from SchoolComms and will colour code the spreadsheet showing missing or different items in YELLOW. It will then 'tick' all the items it can find, and reconcile PFM. Now TICK the transfer you have entered that shows in the PAYMENTS column (or enter it now if you have not already) and this should exactly equal the ticked INCOME items. The Statement Closing Balance must say ZERO.
Once you have agreed with the settlement report, click on COMMIT CHANGES.
Linking Payments4Schools transactions
Processing parental payments received through Payments4Schools couldn’t be easier! There is a dedicated import area in the package that will read transactions in with all their necessary details, provide a screen and report for checking and then allow you to post the transactions at the touch of a button!
Configuring Payments4Schools to link with Private Funds Manager
Its very simple to configure Payments4Schools to link with PFM, as long as you are aware of how the link works.
PFM needs two linking fields – short code description– ie trip / item being paid for; and the student ID.
Description –
PFM looks at the description used in Payments4Schools to identify the shortcode. So when a new item for payment is created in Payments4Schools the description used, must be the same as the description on PFM. If you want additional detail you can introduce a DOT on the Payments4Schools code, and anything after the dot will be ignored when it links to PFM.
Eg – the Ski Trip Feb 2012 to Colorado might look like this :
PFM – Short code SKI12COL Description Ski Trip Feb 2012 Colorado
Payments4Schools- Description - Ski Trip Feb 2012 Colorado
Ski Trip Feb 2012 Colorado. Yr 11 would also work (extra details
after dot)
Students -
PFM also needs a student identifier for each payment. In Payments4Schools there are two options for student identifier – either the UPN is used, or a Payments4Schools index field.
If you have opted for the UPN, then nothing needs to be done for PFM to recognise the student.
If you have opted for the Payments4Schools index, you now need to link the students by identifier on PFM. You will need an alphabetical list of all students with both Payments4Schools index and admission number – Payments4Schools will provide this for you as an Excel spreadsheet.
Go to TOOLS – Payments4Schools
Tick the box next to P4S index in top right hand corner.
COPY and PASTE the list of Admission numbers from the spreadsheet onto column 1
COPY and PASTE the list of P4S indec numbers from the spreadsheet onto column 2.
Click on CHECK to confirm all values are correct. If so, click on SAVE.
Configuring Private Funds Manager
To configure PFM you simply need to confirm the folder that you will use to store Payments4Schools reports. PFM needs to know this, to look in the right place for the necessary import file. Go to TRANSACTION ENTRY – RECEIPTS – INTERNET RECEIPTS. Click on the button SETUP INTERNET RECEIPTS.
As a default, PFM will look to the file called Unprocessed Internet Payments for import files.
The only other configuration would be to create a new bank account on PFM IF payments from parents sit online and are only transferred to you bank account once a fortnight or another time period. We would recommend creating a bank account that holds all the individual payments, from which a lump transfer is made into your main bank account. If each payment from a student goes directly and individually into your bank account, then a dummy would not be required.
Exporting Internet Payment Details from Payments4Schools
There are just 2 steps to processing the internet payments – the first is to run a report in Payments4Schools and the second is to import that report into PFM.
Go to Payments4Schools and run a report of payments received.
IMPORTANT – make sure you pick a date range that OVERLAPS the previous report run. So if your last report went from 1/4/11 up to 12/4/11, make sure that the next report goes from 12/4/11 and not 13/4/11. This makes sure that no payments are missed, and any duplicates in the overlap are automatically removed. This is important because if you ran a report at 4pm on 12/4/11 up to the date 12/4/11, there could of course be transactions coming in up to midnight on that date, and if you started your next report from the date 13/4/11 then transactions would be lost.
Save the report as an Excel spreadsheet - must be an XLS or XLSX file and not a CSV file. Save into the folder called UNPROCESSED INTERNET PAYMENTS (or other folder as specified in earlier setup) and close.
Importing transactions into Private Funds Manager
Our final step is to import the Excel file into PFM. Go to TRANSACTION ENTRY - RECEIPTS – INTERNET PAYMENTS.
Click on Read Internet Receipts file.
If the description created in Payments4Schools does not tie up with a short code description in PFM 3 choices will be offered :
Choose the correct short code that this item relates to - SAVE
Cancel – check the descriptions, amend in PFM or Payments4Schools as necessary
Ignore – do not import any transactions from this item on Payments4Schools EVER
If any students listed on the payments received report are unidentified within PFM, you will be asked to select a student from the PFM pupil list.
If there is not a date overlap, you will be warned and asked to re-run the report.
The receipts screen will then be populated with the internet payments, for you to check and then bank Once banked, the Excel report is automatically moved from the UNPROCESSED INTERNET PAYMENTS folder to the PROCESSED INTERNET PAYMENTS folder in case you need to look back at.
Entering Payments4Schools invoices
Paying Payments4Schoolscharges will occur in one of two way – either payments from parents will be received net or charges, or an invoice will be issued and paid as a lump. Either way you will probably want to create a new short code called something like Payments4Schools charges.
To process invoices -
Enter this amount on PFM in Transaction Entry – Direct Postings – Payments. Select the short code to use for Payments4Schools charges and enter the amount. Select the appropriate bank account to take the money from - either the new dummy bank account if you are receiving payments net of charges, or from your normal bank account if you are paying invoices separately. Save.
Transfering money from Payments4School account to School Bank Account
ONLY if you receive fortnightly money transfers : Once a fortnight, when a lump of money is transferred from Payments4Schools to your bank account, use Transaction entry – Transfers – Bank Transfers. The ‘FROM’ bank account with be the Payments4Schools bank account, and the TO will be your school fund account.
Reconciling the Dummy Payments4SchoolsBank Account
ONLY if you receive fortnightly money transfers and have created a dummy bank account : You will probably want to reconcile the amount of money that Payments4Schools have transferred to your bank account, with the payments received from parents up to that date MINUS the invoice for the amount Payments4Schools have charged you.
Go to Transaction Entry – Bank Statements – select the Payments4Schools bank account at top left
Reconcile money received in and the Payments4Schools invoice relating to the period. The reconciled total should equal the amount transferred to your bank account. There will always be items left, that came in after the transfer point. Commit Changes to accept.