Once you have completed the initial setup tasks, contact ParentPay support and let us know the date you wish to enable this feature.
We'll let you know when you can start importing the registers.
This article will teach you...
How to import your attendance registers from Arbor into ParentPay and how to schedule the imports if you wish.
- School must use Arbor as their MIS.
- ParentPay must be approved as a third-party integration within the Arbor system (see article, Setting up and managing third-party integration).
- ParentPay calendar must be configured for the academic year, (see article, How to manage your calendar).
- All meal event types and prices must be configured correctly, (see article, How to set up a new meal type).
- All pupils and staff must have a pattern configured using either classic or next-gen.
NOTE
To avoid warnings on the Arbor Attendance Import Report you will need to create a group for all other meal types, i.e. Home and Sandwich pupils.
Import pupil/staff meal attendance
Log in to ParentPay > Attendance, meals & events [1] > select Import [2]
Click Arbor attendance import [3].
Choose One day [4]
or date range [4]
NOTE The date can be back dated as far as the initial switch over date however, you are not able to use a future date.
NOTE The default setting is Import pupils only, but you can import Pupils, Staff or both [5].
Select Import attendance [6]. The import may not be processed immediately and will be placed in a queue to be processed as soon as possible, typically no longer than 5 minutes.
The Import attendance [7] section will be greyed out whilst the import is processing.
The Most recent imports [8] will reflect the outcome of the import.
Attendance import history
To view the status of an import navigate to:
Attendance, meals & events [1] > Import [2] > Attendance import history [3]
There are four import statuses:
Click on the View Details [8] option to view further details about the import.
NOTE If there are any outstanding registers that have not been completed, you will be able to trigger the import again by clicking the Import attendance button. However, it is advised to wait for all registers to be completed before carrying out another import.
How to set up a scheduled attendance import
Did you know that the Arbor Attendance Import feature has the ability to schedule imports automatically? This will save even more time as you will not need to click the Import Attendance button every day.
Note You can always manually import registers if you need to.
Go to Attendance, meals & events [1] > Import [2] > Arbor attendance import [3]Schedule imports automatically [4].
To set up an automatic schedule time select the drop down [5] in the schedule imports screen.
Select a time range [6] that is suitable to you, these are set at 15 min intervals.
Click either Import pupil [7] and/or Import staff [8] by clicking the relevant option/s.
Click the Save changes [9] button to ensure the scheduled import time is saved.
A confirmation of your schedule being successfully saved[10] will now be visible.
Once a scheduled import has been set up the import will appear daily in the Most recent imports section on the Arbor attendance imports page.
The Imported by [11] field will state Scheduled import and the Result[12] field will state Queued.
Click the View details [13] option to display full information.
A scheduled import will not be processed on a weekend, during school holidays or on specified school closure dates.
To view attendance after Arbor Attendance import
When the Arbor Attendance import has been successfully completed the ParentPay Attendance screen will be updated to show the imported attendance marks.
Log in to ParentPay > Attendance, meals & events [1] > Attendance [2]
Choose the appropriate criteria from the Event and group details [3] drop-down lists, click either Record attendance (day) or Record attendance (week) [4] option.
You will now see the Attendance screen with marks populated to reflect the register import.
The Attendance screen can be edited, for instance, if a child had been marked as taking a school meal, and has gone home unwell before lunchtime, the attendance mark can be removed.
To remove the attendance mark click the tick icon [5], this will change to a red cross [6].
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The icon used is the same as one that is displayed for meal pattern sourced attendance and the show Key [7] will refer to this as Pattern or import sourced. |
Note Any imports for that day and pupil will return a warning stating that the manager marks will not be overwritten.
Remember to click Save changes [8] to apply changes and close the attendance screen.