Anyone Truly Cashless

[pcstru]

So is anyone truly cashless? If so how did you do it? Or if you tried but failed what stopped you?

 

As a school could you actually refuse to take cash and demand people use a service like Parentpay?

[mjk]

I think our finance team can take cash if they want to but don't think they do very often.

How did we do it? - we refuse to take cash and everyone uses parentpay.

[pcstru]

I think our finance team can take cash if they want to but don't think they do very often.

How did we do it? - we refuse to take cash and everyone uses parentpay.

Thanks for the response. How would you describe your catchment in terms of affluence/deprivation? Did you get any complaints?

[mjk]

Thanks for the response. How would you describe your catchment in terms of affluence/deprivation? Did you get any complaints?

Affluent. <= 11% Pupil premium

Complaints were minimal, most parents accept it.

[jmak]

I think our finance team can take cash if they want to but don't think they do very often.

How did we do it? - we refuse to take cash and everyone uses parentpay.

This is very similar to our situation - although we now use Schoolcomms instead of Parentpay.

Thanks for the response. How would you describe your catchment in terms of affluence/deprivation? Did you get any complaints?

Our catchment (according to Ofsted criteria) is average for deprivation/affluence and slightly above for English as additional language. We're infant and nursery age group. No complaints and not much wingeing. When we have school trips we usually end up with about three parents coming in and giving cash to the office. We also occasionally have parents in the school office being guided through using their credit cards to make payments.

 

Overall it's been well worth it for reducing work in the office and the vast majority of parents prefer it.

 

Most systems give an option for charge cards which can be topped up at local convenience stores - we offered that option, but no one took it.

[sparkeh]

We have been cashless for a few years now. We told parents well in advance of the deadline so they were mostly paying for everything online by the time the deadline for cash arrived. No complaints that I am aware of. We have made rare exceptions, one parent didn't have a bank account (and couldn't open one) and the cost of a couple of events have not been worth the transaction fee. We are in a deprived area.

[pete]

Same as @mjk really. Our intake is relatively affluent and we simply refused to accept cash. FSM info is automatically fed into the catering system to adds funds to the student accounts.

 

Now I'm not saying it was easy to get there, but now it's the norm it's relatively trouble-free.

[mukz]

Truly cashless here for past 5 years. Parents who dont have a bank card use money to topup at a paypoint - this is the only thing that now affects us.

 

Once a year on xmas we allow students to give Finance the set money for a Xmas Dinner, mainly for the packed lunch students

[elsiegee40]

No chance at my governor school. The income levels of many of our parents make theirs a cash economy.

[Michael]

We have been cashless for a few years now. We told parents well in advance of the deadline so they were mostly paying for everything online by the time the deadline for cash arrived. No complaints that I am aware of. We have made rare exceptions, one parent didn't have a bank account (and couldn't open one) and the cost of a couple of events have not been worth the transaction fee. We are in a deprived area.

 

It's interesting you mention 'no bank account' as I've had similar discussions recently with parents with no debit/credit card allegedly! Apparently the Post Office offer a sort of charge back card, so you can only spend what's on it and not a penny more.

 

I thought also that the Government had changed rules; even for people who declare themselves bankrupt. You can still have an account with all major banks, but with literally no perks, or no overdraft.

 

I just can't see how anyone in society can function without a bank account, it's just extremely impractical from a lot of angles!

[Michael]

Another way to look at it, is how much is it costing schools to have physical cash collected? Long term it just isn't viable and there's a higher chance of theft or money going missing. It's extremely unlikely going all online, other than the system becoming unavailable, plus all major banks will refund owed money in such an invent anyway.

[pete]

^ Yup, we were paying for Securicor pickups because we judged it unsafe for the staff to haul several thousand in cash to the bank on a predictable schedule.

[Edu-IT]

What does a cash collection cost? Is it a fixed fee? Just wondered how it compares to the transaction fees.

[Michael]

What does a cash collection cost? Is it a fixed fee? Just wondered how it compares to the transaction fees.

 

Not just that though - it's quick, easy and more efficient. The fact a lot of schools are going in this direction, I suspect it's much cheaper.

[sparkeh]

Not just that though - it's quick, easy and more efficient. The fact a lot of schools are going in this direction, I suspect it's much cheaper.

 

I seem to remember the comparison being favourable toward cashless when we ran the figures.

 

Also we suffered a string of errors from CIT provider and the bank which took up a lot of time to rectify. And parents can no longer claim that they paid for something but the money "went missing" in the office (no e-receipt, no payment).

 

As mentioned, we are in a deprived area but made it work and the parents have commented that it's easier for them.

[Achandler]

We are going to phase out cash over the next year, partly due to the staggering costs Cunninghams want to upgrade Re-Valuation machines. We are going to get rid of coins on site from September 2017, so thats 9 months notice, we are going to keep one note machine for now, then phase our notes. We offer online payment, will offer paypoint topups and even checks if really necessary!

 

Sadly the cost saving for us will be minimum because we have an external caterer, so they pay for cash collection and the time saved from not needing to count the money also won't actually help school staff. However, the benefits of having it simpler for everyone just makes sense, the re-val machines are the worst part of the whole cashless catering system, then we have students who are probably given £5 dinner money and only £3-4 makes it to school because they buy sweets on the way and parents aren't happy, we have had a few students lie about putting money in a machine, which is time consuming to check.

 

The school intake for us is very much Pupil Premium and heavy EAL as well. A lot fo the Pupil Premium students are also FSM so they shouldn't have issues, it is the students that don't quite qualify for FSM but struggle with money that will be the issue.

[Schoolcomms]

Hi there

I noticed that we were mentioned in this thread and thought I maybe able to help. The answer is yes schools can be truely cashless and we have case studies of how this has been achieved. The key is to have a communication plan that runs beside the system implementation plan. I have a copy of a presentation that one of our customers put together and which we used at a series of NASBM (National Association of School Business Management) events fairly recently - it shows one schools very successful approach. If you drop me your email I can send it over. Equally, if you want a demo of how our cashless system works so you can access it for yourself, just let me know and I'll put you in contact with an advisor.

Best

Kirsty

Edited January 20, 2017 by Schoolcomms

[pcstru]

I noticed that we were mentioned in this thread and thought I maybe able to help. The answer is yes schools can be truely cashless and we have case studies of how this has been achieved.

Thanks. Yes, the sense I am getting is that the communications are key and will need to be done in good time prior to any refusals to take cash. In a sense our project is systems de-impementation (removal of the cash handling function from our existing system), I doubt there will be any change to the providers of the various elements.

If you drop me your email I can send it over.

Thanks. It might be really useful for anyone who comes after (digging up this thread from a search in a year or two) if you could use the forum functions to attach that to your post.

Edited January 20, 2017 by pcstru

[bossman]

We are truly cashless, CRB biometrics for dinner paid through Parentpay and all trips or anything else which requires money to be paid is done through ParentPay, our catchment area is classed as deprived and before we made the change we informed parents via text and letter that we would be moving this way and that those people without a bank account could put money on their childs/rens accounts vis the local shops in the area which we researched beforehand.

 

We find that it is an absolute success for both the parents and the students as no money is brought to school so stops any bullying for money between students. The school saves money by not having to engage with a security firm to transfer money to the bank and everything is transparent and reports can be generated for every imaginable scenario.

 

First class

[maturelady]

Yes – absolutely you can, and should, become cashless. That was the vision I had 15 years ago and there are many schools now that have achieved this. It won’t be easy to begin with but once you are there you’ll never regret it.

I was there at the very beginning - in 2002 I originated and founded ParentPay. It was the first online payment system in UK schools. I developed and fashioned the software around my experience as a teacher of 18 years who ran loads of trips and a busy Mum. I wanted a system that kept children safe, reduced workload for staff, and saved money. Being 100% cashless achieves all 3.

In the early days, I dragged around schools showing version 1 of ParentPay and was laughed at by many bursars and heads. I hope none of you were one of those. However as always in education the visionaries shone through.

I retired from ParentPay 3 ½ years ago and am no longer part of the organisation. Yet I still follow with great interest the online payments world which has grown so much.

I’m happy to share my expertise freely with any school but please don’t ask me to say which is best.

Edited January 24, 2017 by maturelady
missed a word