A selection of debt templates are available for use within the communication centre. You can use one of the available templates or adapt one to suit your needs to notify parents of a low balance.
NOTE
We recommend schools send low-balance notifications via both email and letter channels. If a verified email address is available an email will be sent however, if not available a letter for that child will be added to the PDF run.
- To produce a low-balance communication, go to Communication > Create Letter
- Choose the template that best suits your requirements, or select Create new message to produce your own.
- Once you have chosen your template, select the template title to access the configuration screen.
- Select the title of the template in the Message/Template type column or click on the Clone icon in the Actions column
- You will see a preview of the letter on-screen with the Printed letter and Email tick boxes ticked. If you only want to create letters untick the Use for emails box. If you wish to send a reminder SMS, you will need to tick Send as a text message.
- Click Edit letter to make any changes you require or use the existing message text.
NOTE
Only printed letters will display a PayPoint barcode that is added using the <paypointbarcode/> merge field. Email and SMS do not support this function.
-
Select Continue.
-
Choose the appropriate options for your message: what is the priority, who do you want to send it to, and how?
INFO
We recommend that you leave the Verified email address only box ticked as these have been recorded in ParentPay by the parent and we have verified that they are the recipient.
If you are sending emails remember to enter in a subject, or you can leave it with the prepopulated subject showing.
- Select Continue.
- You will need to use the drop-down menu within the Add recipients section to select your recipients for the debt communication. Select Payment item – Account Balance BELOW value and ensure you select the relevant payment item i.e. if the debt communication is for school meals ensure you select your School Meal/Dinner Money payment item.
- In the balance below box, you can enter any amount you wish, this will then search for any balances below the figure provide
- Click Add to add the selected recipients to the Recipient group
- Click Continue to preview.
-
The summary at the top of the screen with display an overview of the communication you are about to create. The system will have identified who it can send email communication to and will produce balance reminder letters for those payers who do not have a relevant email address
- You can then select View and Print PDFs to open and print your new letters.