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Entering new parent/staff details on Bromcom
For parent/staff contact details to be successfully imported into Schoolcomms, there are certain guidelines which need to be followed. Access the Bromcom Data requirements help guide here.
Parental Responsibility also needs to be applied in Bromcom for parents to be able to give consent, see balances, and make bookings on School Gateway.
The 'Data processing consent has been granted' checkbox will need to be ticked in Bromcom for students, staff, and contacts. The data won't be imported into Schoolcomms unless the checkbox has been ticked.
To review and identify any gaps in data currently held in Schoolcomms, check your Registered Users Management Report. Click here for assistance with this. Access the Management Dashboard help guide here.
Import Settings
Your import settings determine the contacts and data that are imported from your MIS database.
To review your Schoolcomms import settings go to Dashboard > Import Management > Edit settings
Access the Import Settings help guide here. Access information to assist with scheduling your import here.
Please note: Wonde imports data on an hourly basis so users will need to wait an hour after amending any details in your MIS before running an import to ensure the latest data is imported
Data Issues
Every time you run an import Schoolcomms will run a check on your data and if there are any anomalies it will produce a report of data issues which you are prompted to view and action, any changes will need to be done in your MIS and then the import re-run to remove the data issue.
Access the data issues help guide here
Manage Schoolcomms User Accounts
Your school multi-user administrators can create, UNLOCK, amend, and delete staff Schoolcomms user accounts. Access the Create Additional Users help guide here.
If your school has a scheduled import setup using your Schoolcomms user credentials, please ensure the credentials are updated on the Task Scheduler, you may need your IT Support to assist you with this.
Access information to assist with scheduling your import here.
Pre-admissions
Currently it isn’t possible to import pre-admissions for non-SIMS MIS systems.
Any new starters will import across to Schoolcomms once they are on roll.
Leavers
Please note: When deleting your leavers from Schoolcomms, this is a permanent deletion; only complete once you are certain you no longer need to access any related information or communicate through Schoolcomms.
School leavers need to be given a leaving date (employment end date for staff members) and once the leaving date has passed, they will be taken off roll. Once they are leavers, they can be permanently deleted from Schoolcomms. Access the Delete Leavers help guide here.
Once students are identified as leavers in Schoolcomms, they can still be messaged as normal, however they will no longer show in their MIS groups.
We would recommend that you manually create a Leavers Group in Schoolcomms to continue to message them in bulk before they are deleted as leavers. Access the Groups help guide here.
Once your academic promotion has been run in SIMS, any student self-contacts (i.e. the contact details held in section 4 of their SIMS record) for leavers from the previous academic year will be removed from Schoolcomms as SIMS will no longer provide us with this data. Any parental contact details (from section 5) will remain in Schoolcomms as normal.
Please ensure that if you need to contact students directly, that this is completed before your academic promotion is run in SIMS. Otherwise, you will need to manually re-add your student self-contacts in order to message them.
Access the support guide to assist you with adding members manually in Schoolcomms here.
Leavers in Meal Manager (Cypad)
In order for your leavers to be removed from Cypad (at which point they should change to Closed on Cypad and Anonymised), you will need to follow the Delete Leavers process in Schoolcomms.
Click here to access the Cypad/Meal Manager leavers help guide.
Add/amend bank details
As part of our improving security standards, schools will be asked for proof of ownership when adding new bank accounts to Schoolcomms. Access the Bank Accounts help guide here.
Payments
Amend existing or create new payment requests for the new academic year, access the Payment Requests help guide here.
Please note: Schoolcomms recommends that a new payment request is created if a vast sum of monies has been collected to prevent time-outs.
Refunds
For credit balances for leavers etc, access the Refunds help guide here
Schoolcomms Dinners
Amend existing or create new dinner plans for the New Academic year. Dinner bookings on School Gateway cannot be made for pre-admissions. They can be added to the dinner plan and the school can make bookings on their behalf. Access the Schoolcomms Dinners help guide here.
UIFSM year groups will not be updated until the first import is run following your Academic promotion being completed in your MIS. We would advise that you do not allow parents to pre-book meals in the Summer.
Meal Manager
To ensure that UIFSM meals are charged correctly on your first day of term, run an import in Schoolcomms before 11am so that the updated year groups will be passed to Cypad.
Depending on when the first import in the new academic year is run in Schoolcomms, pupils and class groups will update in Cypad after the next data sync:
School members – 6am, 11am, 3pm, and 6pm each day.
Pre-admission students will show in Cypad however parents will not be able to book through School Gateway until the pupil is admitted. The school can manually apply pre-orders for any new starters until they are admitted.
The status of leavers will change to Closed and will be anonymised once they have been deleted from Schoolcomms, they will then no longer appear on the Whiteboard.
Access the Meal Manager help guide here.
School Gateway
Encourage your new and existing parents to register for School Gateway.
Useful letter templates can be found in the School Gateway Success Guide here.
Also see App/Payments invite templates within Messaging.
Access the Full Parent Guide here
Access the School Gateway help guide here
Please remind parents to ensure that they are on the most recent version of School Gateway for the best user experience.
Text Credits
Top up text credits to ensure you have enough for the new academic year.
Access the Ordering Text Credits help guide here.
Space Usage
Archive sent messages and clean up the inbox. Access the Archiving via the Web help guide here.
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