top of page

Online payments in PFM

 

 

Inbuilt PFM Online payment system

Autoreading existing standing orders and direct debits

 

​

Linking Parentpay transactions

Linking Parentmail transactions

Linking Wisepay transactions

Linking sQuid transactions

Linking Sims Agora transactions

Linking SchoolMoney transactions

Linking SchoolComms transactions

Linking Payments4Schools transactions

 

 

Inbuilt PFM Online payments

 

Please click here for online payment notes.& here for Autoreading Standing Orders and direct debits

 

 

 

Linking Parentpay transactions

Click here to print notes for downloading ALL students payments individually

Click here to print notes for LUMP SUMS from ParentPay 

Click here to print notes for ParentPay fees and reconciliation

​

Payments received from parents via ParentPay can be easily imported into PFM without the need for re-entry, if you would like ALL the entries from ParentPay replicated on PFM. 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 ParentPay

    For PFM to recognise payments from parents, the service set up in ParentPay must note the PFM short code. Log into ParentPay and go to PAYMENT ITEMS. Click on VIEW OR EDIT an existing payment item. If the trip does not already exist you will need to create it using Create a new Payment Item.

     

    Click on the item to edit then choose EDIT PAYMENT ITEM DETAILS

     

    Scroll down for existing trips, until you reach the FINANCE AND ACCOUNTING area.

     

    In the Group Code 1 - ACCOUNT CODE 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. (If you use Group code 1 for something else - SAP etc - enter the PFM code in Group code 2 or 3 but tell PFM in Tools - ParentPay options)

​

 

  • Adding cash/cheques through ParentPay

    If parents make all their payments through ParentPay, then the balance they owe will show correctly on ParentPay. However, if they pay some money through ParentPay and some as cash/cheques, then the ParentPay balance will not be up to date. A way round this is to use the option in ParentPay for entering Cash/Cheques as a batch. (FINANCE - CASH/CHEQUES) This will update the PP 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 PP and then import entries from PP ready for banking along with other cash/cheques not related to trips on PP.

    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 ParentPay

    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 ParentPay and to PAYMENT ITEMS Choose REPORTS.

     

    CLICK ON PAYMENT REPORT

     

    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.

    Once the date range is selected, click on the third button – Excel Full Report. 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 ParentPay and is different on PFM, you will see a screen telling you the Group Code 1 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 ParentPay. You can now BANK IT as required.

​

​

  • Where do I BANK IT to?

    Cash and cheques will be banked to the usual bank account in the usual way.

    With online payments, you can choose – do the individual ParentPay transactions go straight to your school bank account? Or, do you receive a lump sum transfer from ParentPay once a week or fortnight? If the first case, you would BANK IT to the school bank account. In the second case, we would recommend setting up a dummy bank account called PARENTPAY 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 ParentPay transfer money to you.

    If you receive a lump sum transfer weekly or fortnightly from ParentPay, record this on PFM using Transaction entry – Transfers – Bank Transfers. FROM – ParentPay holding , TO – School Fund bank account. Enter date and amount.

 

  • Enter ParentPay’s Collection service invoice

    Each time ParentPay transfer money to you, they will also issue a bill. The amount of the bill will be deducted from the amount of money you have received from parents, and the balance will be transferred to your school bank account.

    You can view the bill by logging into ParentPay, and going to Reports – Reports - Collection service invoice

    The invoice will need to be reflected on PFM. You will probably need to create a new short code for ParentPay Charges.

    Enter the transaction through Trans Entry – Direct Postings – Payments. Select the short code, and use the PP dummy bank account (as it will be automatically deducted from here)

 

 

  • Reconciliation –the final stage!

The last step is to reconcile the dummy ParentPay holding bank account. This will have all the monies in, the lump transfer out, and the invoice paid.

Log into ParentPay and go to Reports – Reports – Reconciliation report.

We have tp click on any transaction for a given date and at the bottom we are offered a subtotal for that day. It totals the same as the ParentPay reconciliation for that date, we can press the F1 functions key (at the top of the keyboard) and this will tick ALL the entries for that date

Some days may not agree – this is usually when payment has been made by Mastercard or Solo, which can take a few days to clear. However, this is only usually true if you are reconciling very quickly – it is much better to leave it at least a week before reconciling – ie don’t try reconciling 17th January until at least 24th January – that way, slow payments will have cleared and your reconciliation should agree.

Once you have agreed a series of dates with the PP reconciliation reports, click on COMMIT CHANGES. 

​

​

​

Linking Parentmail transactions

Click here to print Parentmail notes

 

Payments received from parents via Parentmail can be easily imported into PFM without the need for re-entry.  There are a couple of bits of setup that need to be done, and after that it should be quite straightforward  on a day to day basis.

 

Setting up pupils in PFM to accept PMX transactions.

PFM uses the SIMS admission number as a unique identifier for students. PMX assigns its own special index to identify students,  so before starting to import payments from PMX we need to tell PFM what the PMX index is for each child.

 

If we do not do this process, then every time a pupil pays  on PMX you will have to manually select the pupil on PFM - it is better to import the PMX IDs in advance to save this.

 

​

In Parentmail Go to REPORTS - GENERAL REPORTS - PARENT STUDENT EXPORT

 

Click onto the ‘Generate Report’ button, this will take a minute or two to generate a report. Click OK and you will be notified for when the report has been generated.

Underneath the Download heading, you wil have two options: CSV and PDF. Click onto the CSV green button, this will then automatically download or first ask you to save the file. Once you have opened this download, you will see a list of students and their PMX ID’s.  SAVE this file to a location of your choice.

​

NOW RETURN TO PFM - In PFM go to TOOLS - PMX

Click on BROWSE - browse to the file created above,  click on IMPORT.

 

If any of students do not match exactly, you will be offered possibilities. Accept or Scroll through to the next one until the correct student is identified.

The PMXIDs are now in PFM.

 

Creating/amending services in PMX

For PFM to recognise payments from parents, item in PMX must include an ACCOUNTING COST CODE. This is your PFM short code.

 

How to set up a trip and where to enter Accounting Cost Codes

 

When logged into PMX, click onto Payments tab from the menu on the left hand side of PMX. This will then expand into 11 different sub-tabs. Please click onto the ‘create new item’ tab’.

​

·         Create New – To create a payment item from scratch.

·         Use Previous Item - If you have previously set up the payment item and need to adjust with different dates/prices, users etc.

 

Both options have the same screen

·         Create New – Blank fields.

·         Use Previous Item – Fields will include information from previously set up that you can adjust.

​

Here you can fill in the details that you need. You can hover over any of the options for more information on what they mean. To add accounting cost codes, you will need to tick the box next to the setting (detailed) named: Accounting Codes:

​

This will then open up the settings for the accounting codes. You can enter in the PFM short code into the accounting code here and then click the ‘save’ button.

 

 

Adding cash/cheques through  PMX

​

If parents make all their payments through PMX, then the balance they owe will show correctly on PMX. However, if they pay some money through PMX and some as cash/cheques, then the PMX balance will not be up to date. A way round this is to use the option in PMX for entering Cash/Cheques as a batch. This will update the PMX 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 PMX and then import entries from PMX ready for banking along with other cash/cheques not related to trips on PMX.

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.

​

How to process a manual order

​

When logged into PMX, click onto Payments tab from the menu on the left hand side of PMX. This will then expand into 11 different sub-tabs. Please click onto the ‘manual order’ tab.

​

This will open the Contact Book – search for the student by using the search box, or search by ‘User’ or ‘Group’ type. Once you have selected the student – click ‘Next’.

You will then have the ability to view and select any payment items available for the child. To select an item press the basket option, next to the item.

You will then be able to select quantity or size if this option is available. Once you are ready press the “Add to cart” option in the bottom right corner.

​

You will then need to select ‘View Cart’, review the order and then select ‘Checkout Now’ on the right hand side. You will then be required to record who you are making the payment on behalf of.

 

The drop down box under “Select Payee Name” will list all the users who are connected to the student you originally selected from the Contact Book. You can select one of these users OR if the person who has come in or called in to pay for the item is not listed as a user on ParentMail, you can manually input their details. Please note, this will not add them as a user on the system. Once you have done this you will need to select the payment method from the drop down menu. The Payment Method you select will then determine the next page you see. If you select a card you will need to input the card details, for example.

 

To check that the payment has gone through, go to ‘Order History’ in the Payments Menu and the order you have just processed will be at the top of the list. Click on this to see the details of the payment.   You will also receive an email receipt that you have made a manual payment on behalf of the parent, and this will appear on the ‘Manual Payments for a selected date range’ report. You can use this email as a receipt, print it or email it to the parent.

 

​

Downloading the list of payments received from PMX

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 PMX and to the REPORTS option on the LH menu -  then select Payment Reports from the sub menu.

​

Then, select the ISTEK transaction report from the payment report menu to the right.

You will then be asked to select a date range, use the calendars as shown below to do so.

​

Click Generate Report once you are happy with the date range selected.

​

After a short time, your report will be ready to download, press the CSV button to do this.

​

SAVE the report into the UNPROCESSED INTERNET PAYMENTS folder within the PFM folder.   Make sure there are NO other files in this folder.

​

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

​

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 PMX.  You can now BANK IT. 

 

We recommend creating a 'dummy' bank account called PMX holding account and banking all money from Parentmail into this.  Then, when you receive a settlement from them that appears on your, enter a BANK TRANSFER from the dummy account into your real school fund bank account. This makes the reconciliation much more manageable. 

 

​

Enter PMX’s service invoice

Periodically Parentmail will issue a charges bill.  You will receive email notification of this bill. NB - Parentmail are planning to change this so that they

DEDUCT their fees at source

The invoice will need to be reflected on PFM. You will probably need to create a new short code for PMX Charges.

Enter the transaction through Trans Entry – Direct Postings – Payments.   Select the short code, and use the appropriate bank account (as it will be automatically deducted from here)

​

Recording the settlement from Parentmail

When you receive money from Parentmail , and IF you have used a dummy bank account, use TRANS ENTRY - TRANSFERS - BANK TRANSFER to record money coming FROM the dummy account into your real bank account. 

​

​

Reconciliation –the final stage!

The last step is to reconcile the PMX transactions.

If you have used a dummy bank account, we do this reconciliation in the DUMMY bank account on PFM. The idea is to match the individual transactions to the total amount settled.

​

If you have NOT used a dummy bank account, this will need to be done on your 'real' bank account to get the statement to balance.

​

All PMX transactions are allocated a BATCH NUMBER – but NOT UNTIL Parentmail actually pay you the money.

When a payment is received from Parentmail, go to TRANS ENTRY – BANK STATEMENTS – choose your bank account. Locate any one item within that batch – the batch number shows, as does the batch total, If the total agrees with the bank statement, press F1 to tick all the items.

NB – you must have the BATCH option ticked at the bottom left of the PFM Bank Rec screen.

​

​

​

​

Linking Squid transactions

Print notes for linking Squid transactions

​

​

Payments received from parents via SQuid can be easily imported into PFM without the need for re-entry.  There are a couple of bits of setup that need to be done, and after that it should be quite straightforward  on a day to day basis.

 

Setting up pupils in PFM to accept sQuid transactions.

​

PFM uses the SIMS admission number as a unique identifier for students.  sQuid assigns its own special index to identify students,  so before starting to import payments from  we need to tell PFM what the  index is for each child.

 

To do this, we will need an alphabetical list of all students with both UPN and sQuid number – this can be obtained from sQuid.

 

Open file in Excel – minimise and maximise PFM

 

Go to TOOLS – Update sQuid number

 

COPY and PASTE the list of Admission numbers from the spreadsheet onto column 1

COPY and PASTE the list of Unique numbers from the spreadsheet onto column 2.

Click on CHECK to confirm all values are correct. If so, click on SAVE.

 

​

Creating a sQuid bank account of PFM

Money received from parents is paid to the school on a weekly basis, as a lump sum and not as individual payment. Therefore, it is very much advised that you create a sQuid holding bank account on PFM where daily transactions can be posted, and then transferred from, when sQuid make an actual payment to your bank account.     Go to SETUP – ADD  BANK ACCOUNTS

​

Creating/amending Offers in sQuid

For PFM to recognise payments from parents, the Offer  Description  as set up in sQuid must be the same as the PFM code description.  Log into sQuid  and go to Offer Management System.  If the trip does not already exist you will need to ADD NEW OFFER, otherwise use the SHOW OFFERS option.

 

The DESCRIPTION must be EXACTLY the same as the Description box in Private Funds Manager.

PFM looks at the Item Title used in sQuid to identify the shortcode. So when a new item for payment is created in sQuid  the description used, must be the same as the description on PFM. If you want additional detail you can introduce a DOT on the  code, and anything after the dot will be ignored when it links to PFM.

 

 Eg – the Ski Trip Feb 2021 to Colorado might look like this :

PFM – Short code SKI21COL Description Ski Trip Feb 2021 Colorado

 - Description - Ski Trip Feb 2021 Colorado    Ski Trip Feb 2021 Colorado. Yr 11 would also work (extra details  after dot)

​

Linking pupil reference numbers from PFM into sQuid

When creating a new offer on sQuid that is for a selected group of  pupils and not the whole school, sQuid asks you to manually type in the reference numbers  for all required students. This can be quite a time consuming and laborious task. An alternative, is to set up the trip in PFM and link the students to the trip in the ‘normal’way and then use the sQuid button in PFM to create the pupil list.

This shows on PFM in Accounts Maintenance , when you click on the STUDENT button –

 

Click on the sQuid button and a list of student reference numbers is copied to the clipboard.

 

 

You can now swap back to sQuid and use Right click and Paste to enter these references in  the appropriate field.

 

 

Downloading the list of payments received from sQuid

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  Offer Management System  and to the SALES.

 

 

Choose TRANSACTIONS and SHOW FILTER

 

Enter the DATE range to extract payments for.

 

Click on EXPORT AS CSV

 

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.

Save the CSV report into the UPROCESSED INTERNET PAYMENTS folder within the PFM folder.   Make sure there are NO other files in this folder.

.

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  and is different on PFM, you will see a screen telling you the Group Code 1 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 .  You can now BANK IT

 

Receive money from sQuid

Money paid by parents is not received into the school bank account as received or on an individual basis, but is paid as a lump sum on a weekly basis. All transactions from Monday am to Sunday pm are settled the following Tuesday and in the schools account by that Thursday at the latest.

The payment is a net payment made up from total ePayments received less the transaction fee.

A  settlement statement is received each Tuesday with gross payments taken each day and the gross weekly total as well as the amount of the transaction fee cost and the total net settlement value to be deposited in your bank account.

To enter the actual money received in your bank account from sQuid, go to Transaction Entry  - Transfers – Bank Transfers

In the FROM select the sQuid bank account

In the TO select your school fund bank account

Enter the date,  amount etc., as usual.

 

Enter  sQuid charges

Periodically sQuid will issue a charges bill.  You will receive email notification of this bill.

The invoice will need to be reflected on PFM. You will probably need to create a new short code for Squid Charges.

Enter the transaction through Trans Entry – Direct Postings – Payments.   Select the short code, and use the appropriate bank account (as it will be automatically deducted from here)

 

 

Reconciliation –the final stage!

Use the  settlement statement received each Tuesday to reconcile your sQuid account. This will list the  gross payments taken each day which should tie up with the individual payments showing on PFM. The transaction fee cost will also show and can be ticked. Finally the settlement value deposited in your bank account should be ticked against the transfer.

Parentpay
Parentmail
Squid
Inbuilt

ADDRESS

Istek UK Ltd

3 St Ursula's Close

Salisbury

Wiltshire SP1 3FY

Tel - 01722 413255

bottom of page