Managing school bank accounts Before you get started, there is some terminology you will need to know in order to understand your bank accounts in ParentPay: Payee: Bank account: The name of the organisation that owns the funds and the bank account such as school, caterer, Local Authority or other 3 rd party provider Name of the bank account owned by a Payee linked to your site; this will show your bank account s nickname if you give it one View bank accounts linked to your site Go to Payments>Bank accounts All bank accounts linked to your site are grouped by payee and the information is explained below: Status: icons in the Status column will indicate if those bank accounts are: Live and approved: payers are able to pay for services linked to this bank account and money can be settled to the bank account. Live awaiting approval: payers are able to pay for services linked to this bank account but money CAN NOT be settled to the account via the ParentPay Collection Service until approval by ParentPay. Click here to view our guidance on what evidence has to be provided
Awaiting approval from ParentPay: bank account can be linked to services, however payers cannot pay against those services or money be settled for those services until the account is approved. Please confirm details: bank account has been setup but you have not confirmed the information supplied is correct and you are unable to link it to any services. You need to click on View/edit this account and click on Edit these details in the Account details area on screen in order to confirm the account details are correct. Account nickname: how you want to refer to your bank account in ParentPay to ensure users can identify the correct account when allocating to services. Account name: the name of the bank account as it appears on your bank statement, cheque book etc. What does Online payments are via Cardnet mean? Where this appears in the Account name column, it indicates that you have money settled to this bank account directly using your own internet merchant account (not via the ParentPay Collection Service). ParentPay don t hold your bank details where schools use their own internet merchant account. If you need to make changes you must contact your internet merchant account provider directly; ParentPay Support will not be able to make any changes. Can I switch my bank account to the ParentPay Collection Service? Yes, definitely but we have to do this for you it s really quick and easy! Information on the benefits of our collection service, how it works and associated transaction charges is available on our support site. To switch your bank account to the ParentPay collection service simply contact support@parentpay.com Adding bank accounts In order for a new bank account to receive income through the ParentPay Collection Service it needs to be fully approved. This includes the school providing ParentPay with evidence of ownership of the bank account. Please use the email/fax cover sheet at the end of this document to accompany your evidence. Evidence you need to provide to ParentPay Evidence should be scanned & emailed, or a faxed copy of one of the following:
Bank account statement Cheque Confirmation letter from bank (less than 28 days old, including contact details at the bank) These must be sent to: Email: banking@parentpay.com or faxed: 01278 501070 The evidence needs to clearly show the account number, sort code, school (company) name and bank account name (e.g. Grange Hill High School, Grange Hill School Fund Account, 11-22-33, 123456789). ParentPay will normally complete all approvals within 3 working days of receipt. IMPORTANT: Evidence sent later than 3 working days before the end of the settlement period (15th or last day of the month), may mean funds are not settled to the account until the next settlement run. Please contact support@parentpay.com with any questions. How to add your new bank account Go to Payments>Bank accounts and click on Complete all the requested information and click Save these details. An overview of the details of the bank account you are adding will show on screen, check the details are correct and click Confirm new account.
If you notice a mistake, click on Edit details to make your amendments then click Confirm new account. Confirmation of your new account details will appear on screen with the status Awaiting approval by ParentPay which means your newly added account has been submitted to: a) ParentPay support: ParentPay support will set your account Live this will enable payments to be made to services associated with this bank account. b) ParentPay settlements team: Online account details will be checked and approved once appropriate evidence of bank account ownership has been received (see above). Once approved, funds can settle to the new bank account. If at this stage, you click on Edit these details in the Account details area, you will only be able to change the Account nickname, Account reference and Email receipts sent to fields.
If you are the Payee, you can change the Payee details (contact information) at any time click on Edit these details in the Payee details area. You can only edit the Payee/beneficiary email, Payee/beneficiary phone and Payee/beneficiary extension. Once finished, click Save these details. How to replace an existing bank account IMPORTANT: this functionality is only available to schools using the ParentPay Collection Service. Schools using their own internet merchant account for the settlement of funds must contact their provider in order to change any details of that account. IMPORTANT: information about replacing an account:
Once replaced, all payments for existing services that credit the 'old' bank account will be switched to credit your 'replacement' bank account (as detailed). You will no longer be able to associate the 'old' bank account to Services. If the bank account you wish to use as your replacement of an existing account is not currently setup in ParentPay, you need to follow the above steps to Add new bank account before carrying out the below process to replace an account. Go to Payments>Bank accounts Click on the Replace this account icon you wish to replace. in the Options column alongside the account IMPORTANT: you are unable to use a newly added bank account to replace an existing bank account until the status of the new account is Live awaiting approval. This ensures that once replaced, payers are still able to view and pay for services now linked to the new replacement bank account. Step 1 - confirmation of the account you have selected for replacement will show on screen. Step 2 select bank account: select the account you wish to use in place of this account.
Step 3 effective from: choose the date you wish the new account to replace this one. Step 4 settlement: tick the appropriate option to tell ParentPay when and how to settle money to the new account. Click Show effect of these changes. Click Confirm: Replace bank account
View ParentPay collection service settlement statements You can access your settlement statements quickly and easily for each bank account: Go to Payments>Bank accounts Click on the View settlement statement for this account icon in the Options column Period: select the period of the settlement you need a statement for Statement type: Cards (online payments) or PayPoint Filter by bank account: select the bank account you want the statement for Filter by service: select an individual service to report on or leave as All for a report across all services linked to that bank account Totals broken down by: use these drop down menus to define what your report will contain and how it will group the payments Click Show report or Download to Excel The report gives you a clear break down of: Refunds that have been applied against the settlement you have received The VAT applied to the transaction fees for each line item The opportunity to have payments filtered by accountancy code, service and so on with sub totals
Bank Approval Email/Fax Cover Sheet School Name LEA DFE Main Contact Person Main Contact Telephone Main Contact Email Date: Number of pages (including this one) Please attach one of the below types of evidence of bank account: Blank Cheque Bank Account Statement Letter from Bank (includes sort code and account) Then either: Fax to 01278 501070 Scan and email to banking@parentpay.com