Around four years ago we made the decision at Cheam Fields Primary to become completely cashless. At the time, we were still using our local authority’s catering service. They had previously introduced (and managed to get a good deal with) a parental payments service that the majority of schools in Sutton used, and still do. Back then, in the days before free school meals for infants, most of the money we had coming in was for school dinners. We soon realised, however, that if we were going to be getting this system for a good price, and if our biggest source of payments was now cashless, why not do the same for everything else?
We began by setting aside a September to January term where parents could make payments using either method, though we did announce that we were no longer accepting cheques. Those would always cause us problems, whether it was because they bounced or the wait for them to clear.
The way we presented it to parents was, ‘We’re no longer accepting cheques, but you can continue to pay in cash. Should you wish to pay online, we can set you up with an account.’ By the end of that term, there were so many parents signed up and so few still paying for things with cash that we went cashless soon afterwards.
Bedding in
We’d expected some pushback, but were surprised at how few problems there were. We issued parents with temporary logins that they could change, and made sure they knew we could reset their login from our end if need be. We offered parents with English as a second language, and those who weren’t computer literate, the option of booking an appointment with somebody from the school office to help them through the registration process. At most, we had 15 people needing that, but it’s still something we offer every year with each new intake.
We currently have around five families in school that don’t use the online facility. For them, we print off barcoded letters that they can take to a payment point in a shop or Post Office. We’ve tended to find that even our less well-off families can still get some access to online banking, often via their phones.
With cashless systems, you get far more control in terms of auditing. You have instant access to complete records of who’s paid you, when and how much. Whenever cash is involved, something always seems to get lost. Of course, we also no longer have any cash on site that we need to count and physically take to the bank or pay a security company to transport, which is what used to happen.
When parents log in they can call up the details of their child(ren) and see all the things they’ve been allocated to pay for. Some might not usually have school meals and won’t be automatically charged for them, but they have the option to pay for them on a couple days in any given week if they wish. There’s also the option for them to pay for more expensive items, like schools trips, in instalments over 18 months to two years, rather than all in one go and have the system track what they owe. It’s sophisticated, but very simple to use.
Running costs
Of course, there are costs involved in setting up and running a cashless system – and it can be hard to say exactly what those are, since the ongoing costs currently depend on the type of cards people are paying with. American Express cards are more expensive than Barclays Visa debit cards, for example, but we’ve found that things more or less even out.
The only real issue we’ve encountered so far is that we had to leave our initial system provider for two reasons. The first was that the system itself often crashed, possibly through overuse. The second was that the provider used to collect the money regularly, but only credit the school twice a month. We’ve since moved to a provider we were already using for our pupil databases and finance systems, and to a system that provides us with funds twice a week, which gives us fewer cash flow issues to deal with.
As with any service, it’s up to schools to investigate what different providers offer – but there’s really not that much difference between them. As long as your cashless provider is reputable and observes all the necessary data protection rules, that’s the main thing. You don’t want to give your school a bad reputation by signing up to some small company that accidentally lets all your collected credit card details get out there.
Unfortunately, we do still have to chase people who haven’t paid for things every few weeks – the human factor doesn’t change. Towards the end of each term we have a big drive on chasing all debts. If we could do away with this and the time it involves, that would be fantastic – but unfortunately, just because parents can pay online that doesn’t mean we never have any debts.
Ultimately, though, from an administrative point of view we’ve saved loads of time by not accepting cash – personally, I don’t understand why some schools still are.
Do it yourself
If your school’s looking at going cashless, you might want to observe the following points…
Keep parents involved
Get parents onside early on and offer support to those who need it. Once people are set up, the system should be simple to use.
Don’t do it overnight
Once you’ve made the decision, introduce a ‘dual run’ period in which both cash and online payments (though possibly not cheques) are accepted, so that parents can get used to the transition.
Don’t give too much leeway
Once the transition term’s over, start getting strict about not accepting cash. Otherwise you run the risk of some parents believing it’s easier for them to just bring cash in and dump it on your reception desk. So long as you’re running two systems, you’re won’t be getting the time-saving benefits.
Remember what it’s for
Keep in mind that the main point of what you’re doing is to help your school cut down on admin time, while introducing reliable financial reporting and a proper audit trail.
