-
- Parent engagement
- Platform overview
- Parent communication
- School payments
- Parents evening
-
- Who we help
- Primary schools
- Secondary schools
- Independent schools
-
- Why Access Education?
- About Access Education
- Customer stories
- Guides & webinars
- Meet our experts
- Blogs
My School Portal Payments
We understand you may be disappointed that your current payment system Pay360 Education Payments software / SIMS Pay service is ending. But don’t worry, we want to make this transition as easy as possible for you and in the end you will have a better payment system, with more functionality and at a really competitive price.
In fact, we are so confident of the great deal we are giving you that we’re launching our price promise, whereby if another provider offers the same service for cheaper then we will match it.
Plus, we will have you set up over the summer with no disruptions ready for the new academic term.
What is My School Portal Payments?
My School Portal Payments is the Access Education payment solution trusted by schools, academies and trusts. It’s a cost-effective solution for schools to manage payments and effortlessly go cashless, easing the burden and hassle of collecting, counting, reconciling and banking cash.
Cashless catering for faff-free finances
With school meals, guardians can choose to make a one-off transaction for school activities such as events, trips, after school fixtures and more in addition to making auto top-up payments to their child’s credit balance for school lunches, streamlining their user experience.
Meal management
Add menus, book meals and collect payments. It couldn’t be easier with My School Portal.
Dinner money
Ease the burden and hassle of collecting, counting, reconciling and banking cash. Seamless integration with your MIS, All payment options with the ability to auto top-up.
Easy finance
Manage stock availability, monitor FSM and UIFSM, and track debtor accounts to help parents manage payments. Easy reporting for better financial control.
Online bookings and payments all in one place
Through either a desktop, tablet or smartphone, guardians can also review their historic transactions and previous details regarding their children’s school meals, helping them stay informed and up to date at all times.
Online payments
Collect online and seamlessly integrate them with your finance system. Most importantly relax knowing all payments are secure and it’s just one less thing to think about.
Bookings and offers
Streamline your bookings for trips, clubs, activities and more. All bookings automatically show up on the parent's calendar and child’s timetable to ensure nothing is missed.
Reduced admin
Flexible and secure, our cashless payment solution is fast, easy to administrate and provides all the reporting you need.
Meal planning with our cashless catering system for schools
With our school payment system, guardians are able to pre-order and pre-select their children's school meals and securely pay for them, all from the comfort of their computer screen.
Through either a desktop, tablet or smartphone, guardians can also review their historic transactions and previous details regarding their children’s school meals, helping them stay informed and up to date at all times.
How much will it cost your school?
My School Portal Payments is really easy for you, your staff and parents to use and if you sign up before the end of the academic year, you can benefit from our year 1 offer price (details below) and you won’t need to pay anything until 1st September. What’s more, we will get you up and running well in advance of the start of the autumn term.
Our price promise
We also believe that you shouldn’t have to pay over the odds for this technology, so we have put together a competitive price point for a 12 month contract. We are confident these prices will be competitive in today’s market but if another provider offers a like-for-like service for cheaper then we will do our best to match it.
Benefits of our school payment system
Security and safety
Our completely cashless payment solution ensures payments are secure via our online system. From ad hoc payments for school trips, events or activities to automated top-up payments for school lunches and dinners, parents can rest easy knowing their information is safe and secure.
Adhoc and automated payments
Ad hoc payments
Guardians can use our online payment solution to make instant, one off payments for school activities such as clubs, trips, events and much more, and can group them together into one single payment.
Top-up balance
Guardians can also use our school payment solution to top-up their child’s existing credit balance for their school lunch and dinners. Guardians are able to do this both as a manual payment or, perfect for busy on-the-go parents, as an automated top-up.
Control and visibility
Parent-friendly and easy to use, our online payment system gives parents and guardians increased visibility over the payments and transactions they make within the school, helping them to always stay informed and up to date.
In addition to increased visibility surrounding their payments, parents can also have visibility over their children’s school meals- a feature that is very helpful if a child has allergies. Guardians and pupils can pre-select and pre-order their meals in addition to viewing historic information.
Avoid insurance implications
Schools are able to save time and admin by ensuring there are no insurance implications. As a rule, schools may only keep a certain amount of cash on site and must ensure they do not exceed this amount. By going cashless, schools will no longer have those insurance implications.
Reduce waste
Streamline your school's kitchen by allowing the parents or students to pre-select and pay for their school meals in advance. Our online payment system gives your kitchen the information it needs to streamline its processes and run successfully throughout the term.
Sign up now to get set up over the summer holidays in time for the new academic year
Upgrade to the full My School Portal Package
We know that parental engagement doesn’t stop when you take a payment. My School Portal also has a whole host of parent engagement and communication features which you can upgrade to at any time and if you upgrade before Christmas 2023, you will receive all of the below benefits for only an additional £350 per annum if you’re a primary school and £500 per annum if you’re a secondary school. This offer is limited to schools who join us before June and represents over a 50% discount on the list price for these services.
Communication
Improve parent engagement and communications with messages, social media, website, calendar and events.
Learning
Improve attainment with homework, remote learning and student reports. Plus organise and host parents' evenings.
Admin
Manage consent, absence and data collection with easy forms that increase response times
FAQs
Who is The Access Group?
The Access Group is one of the leading providers of business management software to UK, Ireland and Asia Pacific small and mid-market organisations. Our 7000+ employees help our 80,000+ customers across commercial, public sector and not-for-profit sectors become more productive and efficient.
Our sector-specific solutions include our offering to the education space. Access Education has 20 years’ experience providing software solutions to schools, academies and Multi-Academy Trusts. We work with more than 9000 schools and academies, that’s 1 in 3, across 37 local authorities to help schools to streamline their processes and save both time and money.
Our education-specific solutions include
- School payment and parent communication platform
- Finance and Budgeting software
- HR and Payroll services
- Curriculum content and assessment tools
- Career guidance software
Why is this happening now?
We realise that ending the Pay360 Education Payments software / SIMS Pay service may be disappointing and it’s not a decision we’ve taken lightly. We believe that the education sector should have access to modern cloud-based platforms that offer frictionless parental engagement, keep schools secure and futureproof the industry to continue its digital transformation.
What is the Access system that we would be moving to?
My School Portal is a powerful, intuitive school payment platform, allowing schools to process payments, manage clubs and event bookings and more. It gives you everything you had with Pay360 Education Payments software / SIMS Pay and much more and also has a whole host of parent engagement and communication features to connect parents and teachers.
What is our deadline to make a decision?
We realise that changing school payment providers can be daunting so to make it easier for you, all you need to do is let us know you’d like to move to My School Portal Payments by 2nd June 2023 to ensure we can get you moved across in time for the start of the new academic year.
What happens if I don’t let you know by 2nd June 2023?
We will do our best to get you up and running before the start of the new school year but unfortunately we can’t guarantee this so to avoid any downtime it’s important we hear from you as soon as possible.
What if I choose to do nothing? What will happen?
As we have mentioned, we are unfortunately ending the Pay360 Education Payments software / SIMS Pay service. You now need to choose a new provider to ensure your school can continue to process payments. We have tried to make moving to My School Portal Payments as easy as possible for your school. If you have any questions, please do contact us on [email protected].
What support do I get with the system?
Access provides a range of support, account management and online services through our extensive knowledge centre.
What happens if I choose to go with another supplier?
We would, of course, be disappointed to lose you as a customer. If you choose not to stick with us, just let us know as soon as possible.
What are the costs involved?
Prices are dependent on the number of pupils in your school, please have a look at our pricing table or contact us on [email protected].
Does Access have the capacity to deliver this project in time?
Yes. We are one of the biggest software providers in the UK and we are well versed in migrating customers to our systems. We have the resources available and ready to deploy in order to successfully deliver this project.
Does the system integrate with my MIS? Finance software?
My School Portal Payments integrates with Access Education Finance and we also integrate with a range of MIS’ via Wonde.
Is the software Cloud Hosted?
Yes, all of our software is purpose built for the cloud.
Do I need to procure through the Government Digital Marketplace (G-Cloud Framework)?
No. In line with Government guidance, schools only need to use a procurement framework when the contract value exceeds £40,000, which is well above the cost of the Access contract.
What is your contract length?
We have provided you with a discounted price for the next 12 months and you don’t need to pay anything until 1st September 2023. We hope you’ll love My School Portal Payments and we’d love you to stay for longer.
What do you need to do now?
Get in touch with us by filling out the form below and we will ensure one of our account management team reaches out to answer any further questions you may have. If you would like a demo of the additional upgrade modules, please request this in your submission.
