Parent FAQS

If you send a text message to a parent who is logged in to the App they will receive an App message, instead of a text message, which will save you money. To do this;

• Go to Messaging
• Click Send a Text
• If send by box shows App/Text – this will send an App message to those logged in and a Text to those who are not
• If send by box shows App – this will only send an App message to those logged in and those who are not will fall on your Paper list

• Go to Messaging
• Click Sent Items
• Select the message you want to view
• Click Dispatched/ Delivery Status
• If the colour of the message is green this means the message has been sent, if it is amber this means it is pending and if it is red it means it has failed.

Please keep in mind on an email the green means it has been dispatched, however the message may have been delivered to the recipients Junk/Spam Mailbox

• If the parent does not show in the Dispatched/Delivery Status report, you can then check the Paper list to view the people who the message could not be sent to. Go to Messaging
• Click Sent Items
• Select the message you want to view
• Click Paper list to view a list of people who the message could not be sent to as they do not have an email address/mobile number. You can also cross reference with your Data Issues report, and re-enable the contact details where applicable.

Each time you click into Send Message, Schoolcomms will create two blank drafts. To manage your drafts;

• Go to Dashboard
• Click to Messaging
• Click to Drafts
• Select the Draft/s you want to delete by ticking the box. If you want to delete all the Drafts click the top box to select all Drafts
• Click Delete

You can message both parents if they are being imported from SIMS (depending on their Priority number) – You can check your import settings on the Desktop version of Schoolcomms;

• Go to Management
• Click Edit Settings
• View the setting under the Student Family Contact area – if you want to import more contacts click the change button and view the help page before processing the change

Alternatively, if you want to import an additional contact (separate to your import settings above) for one child, you can do this in the Desktop version of Schoolcomms;

• Go to School Members and Group
• In School Members search for the child
• Click Linked People at the top of the screen to view the contact currently being imported
• Click New from SIMS at the bottom of the screen, this will show the additional contacts in SIMS
• Select the new contact and click OK

The new contact will come into Schoolcomms as a non-prime Parent so when you are sending a message to include this contact you will need to un-tick Send to Prime Parent or select Send to All Contacts.

There may be a few simple reasons a parent does not get an email please can you check the following;

• Go to Dashboard
• Click Linked People and search for the parent
• Do they have an email address? – If not add this into SIMS and run the import in Schoolcomms
• If they have an email address is it disabled? – If so this may be showing in your Data Issues as emails may have bounced or gone into Spam, you can enable the email address on the right-hand side but only do this once you have confirmed the details with the parent and advised them to add your Schoolcomms email address to their address book so it does not happen again.
• If you sent the message to Prime Parents make sure the parent is showing as a Prime Parent

To view the dispatch status for the message less than a month old;

• Go to Messaging
• Click Sent Items
• Select the message you want to view
• Click Dispatch Status
• If the colour of the message is green this means the message has been sent, if the parent has not got the message it may be in their Junk/Spam Mailbox. You may wish to advise your parents to add your Schoolcomms email address to their safe senders list to ensure all future emails are delivered to their inbox.

• To edit an existing Payment Request, go to Payments > Active Payment Requests.
• Select a request from the list and click Edit to amend it.
• Scroll down to School Members.
• Search the pupil/staff members name, click on their name.
• Click on Add, they will then transfer to the column on the left.
• Select Save to save the changes made.

If the area of the Payment Request you want to amend is greyed out, this means it can not be changed so you will need to complete the following step;

• Go to payments
• Select the relevant Payment Request
• Click edit
• Add the word old to the name of the Payment Request
• Change the visible to date on the Payment Request to yesterday so this expires the current Payment Request
• Click Save
• Go to Expired and select the old payment request
• Click Clone
• Change the name of the payment request to remove Clone and old and the visible to date
• Change the other details you want to amend
• Click Save

If you want all the payments made to be on the same payment request, you can record a manual adjustment under the Manual Transaction screen.

When issuing refund for online transactions it is important to issue them via Online Transaction Refunds and not Manual Transactions.

To action a refund  of a payment that has been made on School Gateway, you will need to go to the Payment Request within Payments and Click into Online Transaction Refunds.

• You will now see a list of Online Transactions available for you to refund.
• Once you have found the Online Transaction that you would like to refund, click ‘Yes’ next to that Transaction.
• If you are unable to select ‘Yes’ on a payment you wish to refund, it will mean the payment has not yet cleared from the parent’s bank account, so cannot yet be refunded. Payments can take up to 7 days to clear from the parent’s account, so please wait until this time has elapsed before attempting to issue a refund.

Please Note: If you would like to action a partial refund, you will just need to change the amount that you wish to refund in the Amount column.

• Once you have selected the Online Transaction that you would like to refund, Click ‘Refund’ in the top right-hand corner of your screen.
• You will then be presented with a warning message asking you to confirm you are sure you would like to process the refund. It will also remind you that for each Online Transaction that you refund, you will incur a Transaction Charge.

The system will then confirm that your refund has been successful, and that the refund will reach the parent within 3-5 working days.

Please note: Any payment made over 180 days ago, will not be refundable via online transaction refunds.

If you initially issued the refund via Manual Transactions, please follow the steps below to reverse it.

Go to Payments, Manual Transactions

• Search and click on the pupil’s name
• Select the request you had previously applied the manual refund, change the ‘no action’ to ‘manual Adjustment’
• In the amount box input the amount you had previously refunded, there is no need to add a plus sign.
• Add a comment explaining the adjustment
• Select Apply actions to confirm and the transaction will be processed.

• Go to Payments and select the relevant Club Payment Request
• Click Edit
• Check that the Payment Request type is: Clubs flexible can be made more than once or Clubs Fixed only needs to be paid once
• Check that the Payment Request is linked to the Club

If not, you will need to re-create your Payment Request with the correct type and manually transfer any payments across.

You can produce a PayPoint voucher for those parents who do not want to pay via School Gateway.

• Go to Payments and select the relevant Payment Request
• Click Create PayPoint Voucher
• Select the child you are creating the voucher for
• Print or email the voucher

PayPoint payments will show accordingly in your payment reports by 11 am the next working day.

You will need to contact the school to arrange a refund into your Parent Account balance, whereupon you can withdraw the balance. If you wish to withdraw money from your Parent Account, please use this FAQ

If you are unable to see your child’s details on your account you will need to contact the school to arrange any outstanding payments.

If you ever need to view your payment history simply follow the steps in this guide.

To create a new account, you will need to have the account activation letter provided by your school to hand. You will also need to be able to access your email as your email address will become your new username and is used for the verification process.

If you have lost your activation letter or not yet received it, please contact your school.

Please note, if you have previously had a ParentPay account you should attempt to login to this account and follow the add a child process, rather than creating a new one.

Navigate to parentpay.com

Select Login at the top right corner of the screen.

Enter the username and password (activation codes) provided in your account activation letter and select Login.

Complete the activation as detailed on the screen.

You can now log in to your account.

For further info on activating your account view here.

If the email has already been used it is likely that this is an historical account.  Assuming you still have access to the email address you wish to use, you can either log in if you remember your old password or use the Forgotten password link on the login page in order to reset it.

1. Navigate to parentpay.com

2. Select Login at the top right hand corner of the screen

3. Log in to your existing account using your email address (if you cannot remember the password, select the forgotten password link and follow the instructions)

If you wish to add a child to this account using the information from an activation letter you can now do so:

From the top right hand corner select Add a Child (this will re-activate an account if it has been archived)

Enter the username and password issued by the new school in the activation letter provided. This will add your child to this account.

Some email providers may move ParentPay password verification emails to a spam or junk folder. If you have requested password verification and the email has not arrived please check those folders.

Gmail account holders, please also check the ‘All’ and ‘Promotions’ inboxes.

If you still have not received the verification email please contact us.

Login

Go to Communications

Go to Alert Settings

Select the type of Alert (low balance and/or new item) and select how you want to receive alerts, email and/or SMS Text.

Email alerts are free of charge. If you opt for SMS text alerts there is a small charge per text.

For more information on setting alerts, view our guide on how to set up email or text alerts.

Bank Transfer and Auto top-up are new payment features with a selection of parents & schools. If these features are currently available to you and you require support please look at our Bank Transfer Help Page or request help after login.

As your child leaves their old school you should aim to clear any debt or request refunds for any outstanding balances still owed to you.

Money already paid to a school is no longer within ParentPay and must be refunded by the school in order for you to use it elsewhere within your ParentPay account or arrange a withdrawal.

Once the old school complete their new year processes (usually at the start of a new academic year), your child will be archived from your account and will no longer be visible.

If your child’s new school is using ParentPay, this school will send out activation codes in order for you to add your child to your ParentPay account.

Please note: There may be a short period where you have both schools set up for the same child on your account.  If this occurs then the school name will be appended to your childs name so that you can differentiate between them.  Once the old account is archived the school name will once again be removed as it will be unnecessary.

You can add up to 15* people to each ParentPay Parent Account.  These people can be any children, staff, or visitors that attend schools or clubs that use ParentPay, providing a single location for all your ParentPay payments, bookings and communications.

To add additional people to your account please follow this guide.

* a new activation will be required for each person at each new school or club they attend. This may result in the same person being listed several times, once for each location.

No, funds cannot be transferred from one school account to another as they will have already been settled to the first school’s bank account. Please contact your existing school to determine if a refund can be made or to transfer the balance to a sibling account at the school if appropriate.

Additional payers can be set up with their own login in order to make payments. Please contact your child’s school and they will be able to arrange the second payer setup.

In order to merge two existing accounts, please follow these steps:

Log in to the account you want to use as your main account (this will become the only account you use in future).

Select the Add a child tab on the home page.

Enter the username and password of the account you wish to add to your username.

Select Search. Your child’s name will be listed on the screen.

Select Add to my account.

Please note you will lose all transaction history from the account that you are adding to your current username

If you need further information about merging accounts view the following guide.

Adding a mobile number to your Parent Account is simple, just follow this guide.

At ParentPay we employ a dedicated team of qualified security specialists and we operate a comprehensive suite of security controls. We have established an industry-leading programme to manage information security risk and compliance. Details of our robust security can be found here.

If you would like to pay for your child’s school meals via PayPoint, please contact your school. They will order you a PayPoint card and while you wait for this card to arrive, provide you with a barcoded letter to enable you to make meal payments. If you have more than one child at the school you will need a PayPoint card for each child.