wesleyw Posted February 22, 2012 Posted February 22, 2012 How do any of you go about providing Cashless Catering and Online Payments for things like school meals, uniforms, school trips, etc..? Wes
nettechth Posted February 22, 2012 Posted February 22, 2012 We use a system called sQuid. Each person charges there sQuid card online at the website or we have a secure/designated machine with a proxy reader to allow them to charge there cards in school too. We also have a Free meal option for guests/support staff 1
Guest TheLibrarian Posted February 22, 2012 Posted February 22, 2012 Online payments: Home | Tucasi Cashless system: to be decided but I liked the Sharp tills and what-have-yous, they demonstrated the most mature product by far, the hardware will be supported for 10 years after it goes end of life, the supplier is bonded by Sharp which means if the supplier goes under the warranty is then taken over by Sharp. The other good point (if the MD of the supplier is to be believed) is that Sharp are the only company to have a British kite mark to say their top-up points are disabled person friendly. It's just a shame I can't remember the supply company name, if you really want the name I will get it for you.
wesleyw Posted February 22, 2012 Author Posted February 22, 2012 We used Tucasi for online payments then moved to sQuid we had issues with Tucasi software which prompted the move (isolated case i think) sQuid is a better system for many things however the problems we have is from a parents point of view with the top ups being in sets of £10 and several items we have are 21.99, 3.99 etc meaning money is left on the sQuid system waiting until the next time instead of a one off payment as PayPal card systems do (I use this only as an example) ? Both systems did work well it was just a problem we couldn't overcome with Tucasi that sank it (shame good system otherwise and worked for around 12 - 18 months without a problem) and this top up issue with sQuid which we feel is the only negative we have with it. Wes
nettechth Posted February 22, 2012 Posted February 22, 2012 Yeah we kind of have the same issue, However when someone make a bank transfer to their sQuid card, it does allow us to do it in intervals of £5 and a minimum of £10, which is a little anoying since we have odd prices for our items too.
rad Posted February 22, 2012 Posted February 22, 2012 We use ParentPay as the online payment and NRS as the till provider. It works well and allows parents to top up online and pay for trips effectively.
glennda Posted February 22, 2012 Posted February 22, 2012 We use Cunninghams and Parentpay - most of the systems will intergrate with each other - most are mentioned on the websites of the retrospective companies.
Sylv3r Posted February 22, 2012 Posted February 22, 2012 We use CRB (Cunninghams) as our cashless catering system with sQuid for our online payments for parents. We haven't rolled out the school tips part yet but will do so into the future including uniform etc.
elsiegee40 Posted February 22, 2012 Posted February 22, 2012 ParentPay has had 'issues' in the past year... Basically it went offline and caused no end of problems. @john is probably best placed to comment on this
plexer Posted February 22, 2012 Posted February 22, 2012 We haven't rolled out the school tips part yet but will do so into the future including uniform etc. You get tips? Ben
wesleyw Posted February 23, 2012 Author Posted February 23, 2012 Can parents just pay the necessary amount with ParentPay though not in sets of £5 with a £10 minimum? Wes
sonofsanta Posted February 23, 2012 Posted February 23, 2012 We're using WisePay now for online payments, imminently moving to their back-office system, and looking at rolling out a cashless catering system to integrate in the near future, which I believe would be with Cunninghams. WisePay works very well, has integrated communication etc., runs entirely online, integrates with the MIS, and has generally been very well received by parents and staff alike. Thoroughly recommended from what we've seen so far.
rad Posted February 23, 2012 Posted February 23, 2012 Can parents just pay the necessary amount with ParentPay though not in sets of £5 with a £10 minimum? Wes Yes, you can pay any amount depending on the minimum limit set by the school. For canteen the minimum is we have is £10 but you can top up any denomination over that amount. Yes ParentPay had issues at the beginning of September when their site crashed as parents around the country logged on to top up.
john Posted February 23, 2012 Posted February 23, 2012 ParentPay has had 'issues' in the past year... Basically it went offline and caused no end of problems. @john is probably best placed to comment on this Indeed I was at the brunt of this for around two weeks but I know ParentPay have invested in trying to ensure this doesn't happen again so we shall see. Certainly for us, if it does, it will be the end of that contract (and as its via the LA another nail in the end of using anything the LA recommend!). Certainly if I was looking now I would be evaluating everything, I do like the look of the ParentMail+Pay system and certainly if / when re-evaluating I will be aiming to go for that as it just looks and seems a better system now and I haven't ever had any issues with obtaining support when required even on the day the UK turned white I still spoke to someone promptly and got an incredibly quick reply to the concern I had. With regards to the actual cashless hardware, Cunninghams and Nationwide are the big two, I am going to be going Nationwide it has a much simpler integration with online payment systems and other products due to the way it works rather than using a 3rd party product to try and merge 3 IDs together which can result in confusion / poor linking / issues with systems talking etc.... but they all have pro's and con's. Our catering manager isn't 100% sold on Nationwide but she does accept that they all tick the boxes for what she needs she just didn't feel as WOW'y about the look of the hardware but we are not going for looks here we need functionality for all involved and simplicity and support options
mats Posted April 30, 2012 Posted April 30, 2012 Just finished fighting the stupid tucasi (school cash office) installer. It defaults to installing in c:\sco. It needs local admin rights. If it finds an error, it tells you about 10 times. Documentation? FAQ? Don't make me laugh. The software might be great but the installer is $hit. I hate it already.
zag Posted April 30, 2012 Posted April 30, 2012 The software is just a glorified access database. They don't even have an online version yet. The support is ok but the software is poor in my opinion. Something like parentpay would be much more advanced.
mats Posted April 30, 2012 Posted April 30, 2012 The software is just a glorified access database. They don't even have an online version yet. The support is ok but the software is poor in my opinion. Something like parentpay would be much more advanced. Fair assessment.
Edu-IT Posted April 30, 2012 Posted April 30, 2012 Just finished fighting the stupid tucasi (school cash office) installer. It defaults to installing in c:\sco. It needs local admin rights. If it finds an error, it tells you about 10 times. Documentation? FAQ? Don't make me laugh. The software might be great but the installer is $hit. I hate it already. Disagree. While it defaults, you can change it from C:\SCO, as with any other software. Doesn't need local admin rights? There is extensive documenation available through the program or by contacting support. SCO User Documentation | Tucasi
36Degrees Posted April 30, 2012 Posted April 30, 2012 Never had any problems with Tucasi, even when we moved it from the old server to the new one.
zag Posted April 30, 2012 Posted April 30, 2012 Never had any problems with Tucasi, even when we moved it from the old server to the new one. Yeh thats about the one benefit of an access database
mats Posted April 30, 2012 Posted April 30, 2012 Disagree. While it defaults, you can change it from C:\SCO, as with any other software. Indeed. The rest of the world manages to install to C:\program files. What's so special about sco? Doesn't need local admin rights? Won't find the db here without it. Even when its on on the same machine. Yes, I was getting desperate. There is extensive documenation available through the program or by contacting support. SCO User Documentation | Tucasi No, there is extensive sales documentation there. "To access the SCO Help Centre just click on the Help button when logged on to SCO.". No, it should just work. I don't want to log into sco. There should be a readme.txt or install.txt with the installer if it's not immediately clear. The FAQ has one question in it. "If you need copies of any other user documentation, including product installation guides, please contact Tucasi Customer Support." . Great. Why can't you just put docs on your website? Everybody else does. Photoshopped happy photos of people != documentation or usefulness. 1
36Degrees Posted April 30, 2012 Posted April 30, 2012 When we first got SCO they sent us the documentation to install it as a hard copy. If you ring support they are very good and will deal with your problem straight away including sending you the documentation. I see the point about not having it easily accessible on their website though. I suspect that the issue you're having is because you need to create a usergroup that has the correct rights to access SCO. This may also be why they set it to install to C:\SCO.
Edu-IT Posted May 1, 2012 Posted May 1, 2012 Indeed. The rest of the world manages to install to C:\program files. What's so special about sco? Won't find the db here without it. Even when its on on the same machine. Yes, I was getting desperate. No, there is extensive sales documentation there. "To access the SCO Help Centre just click on the Help button when logged on to SCO.". No, it should just work. I don't want to log into sco. There should be a readme.txt or install.txt with the installer if it's not immediately clear. The FAQ has one question in it. "If you need copies of any other user documentation, including product installation guides, please contact Tucasi Customer Support." . Great. Why can't you just put docs on your website? Everybody else does. Photoshopped happy photos of people != documentation or usefulness. User Documentation (SCO version 2.2) | Tucasi
mats Posted May 1, 2012 Posted May 1, 2012 User Documentation (SCO version 2.2) | Tucasi A good example of what's wrong with sco's website. You can click on 'support' at the top. You can click 'user documentation' on the L side. You don't get the useful page you quoted, you get a page saying "The SCO Help Centre contains comprehensive information on how to use all Tucasi products. To access the SCO Help Centre just click on the Help button when logged on to SCO. If you need copies of any other user documentation, including product installation guides, please contact Tucasi Customer Support." which is as useful as a 'under construction' page with a picture of somebody digging a hole.
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