Tinkerbell12 Posted October 1, 2014 Posted October 1, 2014 Hi I'm new on here, so please go easy! We have noticed since Spring 14 that we have had issues with our Cashless system not updating balances on ParentPay, when money was spent in school for meals. The problem has been intermittent and seemingly random with some students being effected and others not at varying points over the last 4-6 months. It appears ParentPay doesn't always receive updates for transactions, nor does the cashless catering system always get information from ParentPay about funds added via ParentPay. I was wondering if anyone has had similar experiences and if you have managed to get them resolved? If so how? I am unclear at this stage if the error is with ParentPay or our cashless catering system.... or both? I've searched on Google and can see various schools have messages on their own websites making mention of apparently similar issues, but it would be really helpful to make contact with some peers who are happy to talk through issues they have experienced and resolutions. Thanks Tink
winng Posted October 1, 2014 Posted October 1, 2014 I use ParentPay and a third party cashless catering system (the latter for security access too). I frequently get notified that someone (staff or student) has loaded money for their lunch only to be disappointed when they reach the canteen till! It tends to be due to a mismatch between the Staff ID on ParentPay and the other system. By resolving this in the latter and re-running the transaction file, the funds usually appear. A similar situation occurs with students linked by their Admission Number on both systems but sometimes, I don't yet know why, the cashless system doesn't hold their Admission Number so the funds are left in limbo. Again, it takes some time to reconcile but I usually get there. I should say, I don't (can't) use the MisSync feature available from ParentPay as I am a MAT and the cashless system only allows one account. Therefore, I have to concoct a file containing all students (or all staff) and upload it to ParentPay, asking them to process it on my behalf. If I miss anyone out, their account disappears from view! 1
pete Posted October 1, 2014 Posted October 1, 2014 @Tinkerbell12 - are you finding that things eventually get reconcilled with big, odd-looking descriptions on ParentPay that cause parents to phone and ask what's going on?
Tinkerbell12 Posted October 1, 2014 Author Posted October 1, 2014 They usually come up as "adjustment made to match till balance" and yes plenty of queries coming in....
Tinkerbell12 Posted October 1, 2014 Author Posted October 1, 2014 Are we prepared to say who our cashless caters are? We've had the issue since April.... possibly March. I'm happy to show some examples if that would help?
Tinkerbell12 Posted October 1, 2014 Author Posted October 1, 2014 Here is an example showing two types of error. One with a payment made via ParentPay and then one with the purchase at till being reversed....
Tinkerbell12 Posted October 1, 2014 Author Posted October 1, 2014 Snap.... shall I inbox you? et al.... I'd be really pleased to hear from others too....
pcstru Posted October 21, 2014 Posted October 21, 2014 We seem to be having some issues with 'delayed' payments - which matches the "adjustment made to match till" description by @Tinkerbell12. The problem seems to be that parentpay regards it's view of the world as the truth, so if a till transaction is for some reason AWOL, parentpay corrects the cashless system. So a student buys a lunch, PP misses the transaction but sees the students balance is now wrong so issues a credit for the lunch to bring the two systems in line. Somehow, PP then finds the transaction and applies the debit to both systems. At best this causes confusion and head scratching, at worst if the transaction is lost for days, the students will have spent the credit and suddenly find themselves without the means to buy their lunch. Currently we are dealing with hundreds of students who's transactions were lost over a month ago which have then been applied in the last few days.
FragglePete Posted October 21, 2014 Posted October 21, 2014 We've had this every year, and ours too is 'Vericool' - I'm not afraid to name. Every year this happens, and every year I have to deal with irate parents who accuse use of bad accounting. Every year I have numerous support calls with Vericool ignored, every year I have to rant down the phone at them, every year we have issues generally, etc, etc, etc. From I what I understand, vericool works like this...... Payments on ParentPay are collected every 20 minutes (or so), this credits the Vericool account. At the end of the day, all the transactions are uploaded to ParentPay which then adjusts the balance. The issue occurs when the service that collects the payment stops (as it does on our server), the transactions still get uploaded which then puts the balance out of sync with what is on ParentPay. Every Sunday evening, the Vericool server runs an 'audit' which then adjusts balances on ParentPay to match those on Vericool. It's barking. And causes no end of hassle with our parents who are convinced they've lost money. I have pretty much got a template e-mail explaining the issue I send out with a PDF Report from Vericool showing all payments made and recieved. I'm glad (in a way), we are not the only school that experiences these issues. Pete
Tinkerbell12 Posted October 21, 2014 Author Posted October 21, 2014 Thanks PCStru and FragglePete.... we've had a quiet couple of weeks, but still don't seem to understand what the masses of issues over the Summer term were or who was to blame.... TBH I am sitting here just waiting for it to start again... I certainly have lost confidence....
RobFrain Posted November 4, 2015 Posted November 4, 2015 Hi Sorry to bump this post- but do these issues still affect the schools you work at? Cheers
pete Posted January 14, 2016 Posted January 14, 2016 We've just had this issue rear it's head again. Not sure whether it's the ParentPay or the Vericool end yet. Has anyone else had issues in the last few days?
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now