User Guide

Contents Page

Section 1 – Finding your way around Star Academy

• Main Menu Tabs
• Star Academy Toolbar
• Top Tips
• Printing from Star Academy

Section 2 – Getting Started

• Logging In to Star Academy
• Changing / Resetting Passwords
• Creating Additional Users/Access Levels
• Enter School Details
  • Address
  • Multi-Academy Trust Field
  • Financial Year/Month
  • Cheque Printing / Budget Profiling
  • Input / Output Paths
  • School Logo Path
  • Debtors Option
  • BACS
  • Monthly Export
  • VAT Registration
  • Payroll Claims Forms
  • Asset Register
  • Bank Details
  • Alternative Delivery Address/Contact Details
• Nominal Codes
• AR and SOFA Headings

Section 3 – Department Codes

• Department Codes – Creating, Maintaining, Inactivating and Deleting
• Grouping Department Codes
• Departmental Reports
• Emailing Department Reports
• Manage Department Codes

Section 4 – Suppliers

• Creating Suppliers
• BACS Details
• Default Coding
• Edit / Delete / Inactive Supplier Details
• View Supplier Transactions
• Importing the ESPO Catalogue
• View / Amend / Delete Catalogues

Section 5 – Staff Details

• Creating / Amending / Deleting Staff Details
• Export Staff List to Microsoft Excel
• Individual Employee Report
• Monthly Staffing Profile

Section 6 – Budget Transactions

• Entering Budgets and Budget Revisions
• Budget Planner Software
  • Breakdown of Budgets
  • Budget Revisons
  • Exporting Budgets into Star from the Budget Planner Software
• Creating a Budget within Star
  • Main Academy Budget
  • Departmental Budgets
  • Enter Budget Revisions
• Budget History
• Budget Profiling

Section 7 – Purchase Orders

• Entering an Order
• Entering Order Details
• Delete a Line or Order
• Editing a Line
• Adding a Line
• Printing an Order
• Emailing Orders
• Outstanding Orders Report / Aged Creditor Report
• Paying an Invoice through an Order
• Removing Outstanding Commitments
• Amending Part Received / Part Paid Lines

Section 8 – Entering Transactions

• Introduction
• Expenditure Transactions
• Income Transactions
• Income Receipts / Refund Cheques
• Bounced Income Cheques
• Multiple Coding Transactions
• Running Bank Total / Last Record and Group Totals
• Split VAT Transactions
• Payments in Advance (Deposits)
• Entering Credit Notes / Direct Debits
• Future Year Payments
• Reversing a Transaction
• View Transaction Details / Searching for Transactions (Find Function)

Section 9 – Cheque Printing and Other Payments

• About Cheque Printing
• Remove Zero Payments / Remove Direct Debit & Credit Card Payments
• Process Cheque Run
• Cheque Run Options / Cheques for over 15 Invoices
• Re-Issue a Cheque
• Cheque Payment Details Report
• BACS Payments
• Sending BACS Remittance Advices
• BACS Payment Corrections

Section 10 – Journals

• Journals
• Preview Balances if Posted
• Deleting a Line from a Journal / Viewing Journals Entered Report
• Bank Transfer Journals – Petty Cash & Other Bank Accounts
• Transfer of monies between Funding Streams
• Assets
• NCC Only
• Journal Templates

Section 11 – Petty Cash

• Creating a Petty Cash Account
• Creating an Opening Balance
• Entering Petty Cash Transactions
• Topping up the Petty Cash Account - via Journals
• Topping up the Petty Cash Account - via the Bank Reconciliation Screen
• Closing a Petty Cash Account
• Petty Cash Reconciliation
• Petty Cash Tin Reconciliation

Section 12 – Bank Reconcilations

• About Bank Reconciliations
• The Bank Reconciliation Screen
• Reconcile / Unreconcile Transactions
• Reconciling the Petty Cash Account
• View Prior Reconciled Statements
• Entering VAT Reimbursements
• Creating a Cheque for Negative Reimbursements
• The Reconciliation Statement
• Reconciled Balances
• Appendix A – Multi Academy Trusts – VAT Reimbursements Allocation to Affiliated Schools

Section 13 – Period End

• Changes implemented from Version 6.00 onwards
• Processing the Period End
  • Data Validation
    • Blank Nominal Codes
    • Reconciliation Statement Balances
    • VAT Registered Academies
    • Non-VAT Registered Academies
      • VAT Adjustment for 'Non Business' Use
    • Post Data Validation Process
  • Upload Files / Re-Sending Prior Upload Files
• Change Period
• Appendix A

Section 14 – Back up Routine

• Why Backup?
• Backup Retention
• Backing Up
• System & User Generated Temporary backups
• Sending Backups to County Hall
• One-Off Permanent Backup
• Deleting Temporary Backups
• Backup Monitoring

Section 15 – Reports

• Contents
• Printing reports
• Emailing Reports
• Reports
  • Review Commitments
  • Financial Statements
  • AR (Various)/WGA
  • Capital
  • Department (Various)
  • School Fund / Activities Account
  • Monthly Profile (Various)
  • Transaction Reporting
  • Creating a Report Template
  • Paying In Slip/Invoice Details
  • Monthly Monitoring
  • Unreconciled Transactions
  • Payments / Income in Advance
  • Find
  • Open Monthly Exported
  • Asset Register (Assets from Orders)
  • Appendix A – (Trust Data file only) – Multi-Academy Consolidation Excel Spreadsheet

Section 16 – Debtors

• Contents
• Getting Started
• Customer Details
• Facility Details
• Payment Terms
• Enter Lettings Invoices
• Enter Standard Invoices
• Edit / Print / Cancel Invoices
• Registering Payments
• Debtor Reporting

Section 17 – Year End

• Changes from August 2014
• Housekeeping
  • Pay Current Year Invoices
  • Bank Current Year Income
  • Review Outstanding Purchase Orders
  • Review Outstanding Invoices
  • Enter Accruals
  • Print Reports and Check
  • Clear Old Cheques
  • Inactivate or Delete Codes
  • Process Fund Transfers or Journal Corrections
  • Post Depreciation and/or Disposals
  • Bank Reconciliation
  • Check Year End Financial Statement Reports
  • Back Up Star Academy
• Year end Rollover
  • Preliminary Year End Rollover
  • Finalise Year End

Section 18 – SQL Users

• SQL Server Settings Incorrect Error
• Creating Shortcuts for Additional Users
• Restoring from a Backup

Section 19 – Payroll Claim Forms

• Introduction
• Switching on Payroll Claim Forms
• Completing a new Payroll Claim Form
• Reviewing and Submitting Outstanding Claim Forms
• Reviewing Claimed Claim Forms
• Reviewing Deleted Claim Forms
• Alternative Filtering Options

Section 20 – Processing Payroll

• Introduction
• Getting Started
• Entering Details
• Posting Payroll

Section 21 – Asset-Register

• Contents
• Getting Started
• Asset Locations
• Entering Assets
• Importing Excel Template
• Manually Creating an Asset
• Import Assets from Transactions
• Update Asset Register
• Asset Maintenance/Safety Checks
• Loaning an Asset
• Selling an Asset
• Asset Disposal
• Reactivating a Disposed Asset
• Delete Assets
• Asset Reporting
• Find Assets