Financial

Is there a report to apply batch credits?

Currently, there is not a Batch Credit report.

Here is a workaround you could do for now.

1. Go to Accounting Mgr | Configuration | Common Charges.

2. Click on New Charge.

3. Enter an amount, but make it a negative amount.

4. Use a Batch Charge report and select the Common Charges.

How do a correct a payment amount that paid off an invoice?

If the payment was made for a charge and invoice that were created through Accounting Mgr| Families| Monthly Charge, it will require the following steps:

1. In Accounting Mgr| Families open the Family Account Summary and in Deposits tab click on the blue payment name and Delete

2. In the Family Account Summary| General tab, click on the blue Invoice number and Delete the invoice

3. In Accounting Mgr| Families| Monthly Charge, click on the blue Charged amount and Delete

4. Now you can re-charge the monthly charge, and receive the payment in the correct amount and apply it to the new invoice.

If a common charge is deleted, the charges amounts will still show on the families' accounts.

It will not show up, though, if you need to use the Common Charges Totals report.

Am I able to update the common charge amount without affecting the charges assigned to the Billing Setup for families?

If you have completed all of your billing setups using the current year's common charges amount, then those will stay intact. So, you can go ahead and change the existing ones. You just want to make sure not to remove and re-add the common charges currently assigned to families for this year. Doing so would pull in the updated common charges.

The totals on the Common Charges report will reflect the updated common charge amount. The detailed common charge amounts (seen when clicking on blue count button) will show the amount actually charged.

On the family account, create a new charge using an Open Charge line with the memo describing the check # and NSF. You would need to add the charge in any family account that was affected. That will keep the original charge line item, but you will now have the accurate balance.

How do I export my account balances to Excel?

Under the Accounting Manager| Families| Accounts there is a balance sheet available to export to Microsoft Excel for each of the accounts listed, including Cafeteria and Childcare. Simply click on the Balance in blue and then click the blue Export button at top right.

Why is a PayPal transaction still showing as Pending?

When a user clicks on a Paypal Online Account, they will see a Pay Now button. This will take them to the area where they will enter their payment information (i.e. Credit Card, Checking Account). As soon as they click on Pay Now, an Invoice entry will be created for them in Sycamore. So, if you are seeing Pending for a while, it is very likely that they clicked Pay Now, but did not complete the transaction by clicking Submit after entering their payment details.

Where do I find Cafeteria statements to send to families?

1. Go to Cafeteria | Accounts.

2. Select the families you want to generate a statement for.

3. Put a check in the box next to their name.

4. Once selected, choose the statement month in the upper right hand corner.

5. Once selected, click on the Print button.

This will generate a statement for each family that has a check in the box next to their name.

How can I add or change Employee Price Plans?

1. First, Price Plans need to be setup under Cafeteria | Price Plans.

2. If that is done, then for employees go to Administrative | Human Resources | Reports.

3. Select the Lunch Price Plans - Employees report.

4. Now you can select or change the price plan for your employees.

5. Hit update and you are done.

6. To edit an individual, just change that individual's price plan and then update.

If a price plan is not set, the employee will be charged regular price of the meal.

How do I transfer positive Cafeteria balances to pay other accounts?

The best way to do this is:

1. In Accounting Mgr| Cafeteria| Reports| Lunch Balances - Families| select the specific family(ies) and hit the blue Rollover button. That will remove all the individual transactions and replace them with a single balance.

2. Take that amount, and Receive Payment for each family in Accounting Mgr| Families| Receive Payment toward the applicable Family Account.

3. Go to Accounting Mgr| Families| Current, click on the blue Family name link, click on the blue Cafeteria account name link, click on the blue New Transaction button and enter the amount you have removed (using the negative sign).

How do I view Orders by Type/ Total Orders for each Meal Choice?

If you have more than one meal option for lunch or breakfast, you can view what each total is by going to the Orders under Cafeteria Manager. Once there, click on the total button on the right side of the screen (directly above the solid color bar.) This will bring up another window, which will display totals for all meal options.

How do teachers order A La Carte items?

If you want to allow your teachers to order A la Carte items for a day for students from the class site| Teachers Desk| Lunch Orders, click on the A la Carte button for a specified day.

To allow teachers to order A la Carte items for every school day in a month, click on the A la Carte button at the top of the window. The teacher will need to enter their Employee ID # in the Code field.

Note - to allow parents to order A la Carte items from their Sycamore login, you would use the separate setting on the Cycle window.

Are staff members able to make bulk orders?

Because teachers do not have access to My Accounting | My Cafeteria Orders, they are unable to make bulk orders. There are several ways to make staff orders:

1. Teachers can order within the class site on a day by day basis.

2. If a school uses a General class for administration (e.g. All Staff), non-teachers can use that class to order from.

3. Some schools have a written monthly (or other period) order form for teachers and then they have another staff person enter their lunch orders into a general classroom which includes all staff, or through the Cafeteria Mgr.

Is there a way to charge a flat rate for Childcare?

There are two ways to charge families for childcare. They can either be charged based on their Price Plan or they can be charged a flat rate.

1. Price Plan charge - First set up price plans under FINANCIAL | CHILDCARE MGR. Then, assign the price plans to students by using the Child Care Price Plans Report. Students are charged in Daily Charges under Childcare Mgr. The blue 'Charge' button is used for this particular type of charge.

2. Flat Rate charge - This charge is also done under FINANCIAL | CHILDCARE MGR | Daily charges. There is a blue button called 'Charge Amount'. Enter the amount in that box, check off the students that charge will apply to and hit 'Charge Amount' button.

How do I print Childcare Statements?

FINANCIAL | CHILDCARE MGR | Family Accounts - To print out monthly statement, find family using the "All" link or "A-Z" links at the top. Once you have found the family, put a check in the check box to the left of their code, select the month and year and click on the Print button. When you click on the family code, it will open a new window where you can see the activity in their account, by month and by year. You are also able to Print a statement from here and Transfer their balance to another account. You can select multiple or all families for this monthly statement printout option.

To print out childcare reports for all activity within a date range, use FINANCIAL| CHILDCARE MGR| REPORTS| Childcare Statements. Select the start and stop dates for the range and Update, then those families who had activity in that period will be automatically checked; then Print.

You can choose to use the FINANCIAL| CHILDCARE MGR| Notification area if you want to email parents who have over a minimum balance owed in the Childcare area. This email will go out during the night and will contain the message you include plus their balance.

How do I charge the same group of students without going grade level by grade level?

A General class can be created under Academic | Classroom Mgr | General - New Class. Add Students to the class.

Use the Batch Childcare Class Charge report to charge the students in the General class.

How do I view Orders by Type/ Total Orders for each Meal Choice?

If you have more than one meal option for lunch or breakfast, you can view what each total is by going to the Orders under Cafeteria Manager. Once there, click on the total button on the right side of the screen (directly above the solid color bar.) This will bring up another window, which will display totals for all meal options.

How does the PayPal Payments work?

You can accept PayPal payments for events within your school.

1. You will need a PayPal account, with the email address to which you will accept PayPal payments. You can set up a free PayPal business account. Make sure and verify your information and finally, when setting up your PayPal account, you need to setup the Website Payments Preference section. To set up this section, please click here to view a HOW TO document.

2. Enter this information in Sycamore Education in Financial| Accounting Mgr| Confguration| Setup, check Paypal enabled box, and in Paypal ID enter in the email address where payments will be posted. Set the local tax rate, if any.

3. Create a "New Payment," set active if you want to use this now.The URL field will contain the URL that will bring up the payment screen. This can be then place on your site, within a document, etc. When they go to this URL, they will then be able to make a payment for this item.

   1. Name (eg. Tri-County District School Sweatshirts.)

   2. Details or description (Cotton pull-over hoodie 'Tri-County Bulldogs' displayed.)

   3. The amount of the item (most will be fixed, if it is a donation it would be variable.)

   4. Check if taxable.

   5. Max amount to be purchased.

   6. Owner (who will be notified of the payment.)

4. The URL field will contain the URL that will bring up the payment screen. This can be then place on your site, within a document, etc. When they go to this URL, they will then be able to make a payment for this item.