Pebble Cashless Catering and Arbor Integration

This article will show you how to set up our two-way integration between Arbor and the Pebble Till cashless catering system for student and staff meal payments. The integration ensures payment information for meals is up-to-date in both systems with no need for double entry, and you can top up and reconcile accounts in both Arbor and Pebble.

• For parents, the Parent Portal and Arbor App becomes their single point of access for making top ups and checking balances, without needing to jump into a different system.
• Save time - no need to update and log in and out of multiple systems.
• Easy reconciliation - balances are automatically copied between systems in almost real time.
• Automate account balance updates - when a child pays for their meal, the price is automatically deducted from their account balance in Arbor.

Permissions

• School: User Accounts: Administer - Approve the API connection
• Integrations: Administer All Integrations - Access the Integrations Administration page to set up the integration in Arbor
• Finance: Administer - See the button to set up the integration in Arbor, manage payments in Arbor

If you don't have the permission, you'll need to ask your admin team to give you permission using these instructions.

Setting up the integration

Step 1 - Let Pebble know you want to use Arbor with their cashless catering system

You'll first need to contact Pebble (support@mypebble.co.uk) to let them know you'd like to integrate your cashless catering system with Arbor Payments.

If you’re switching from another online payment provider, for example ParentPay, it’s important to also notify them of the move if you haven’t already.

Step 2 - Check current data in both systems

Ensure the data in Pebble’s system is sufficient and up-to-date, i.e transactions are present and balances are correct. Also check whether you have any existing meal account balances in Arbor.

If you’re switching from another online payment provider, make sure that parent access to your previous payment system has been disabled and that all payment transactions have been synced to Pebble.

Step 3 - Approve the API connection between Pebble and Arbor

The Pebble Trac app is used to synchronise data between Arbor Payments and Pebble Till (Pebble’s cashless catering till system), via Arbor’s Payments API. Navigate to this URL https://developers-portal.arbor.sc/integration/authentication/2465, sign in using your Arbor credentials and approve the Pebble Trac app.

You can check that the Pebble Trac app has been approved successfully by going to System > Partner Apps (API Users) and clicking on the Approved Apps page.

Step 4 - Set up the integration in Arbor

Once API access has been approved, go to School > Data > Integrations Administration and click the Set up cashless catering integration button.

In the slide over, select Pebble cashless catering as the provider and click Proceed with setup.

On the next page, you will be asked to confirm that student and staff data is already synchronised between Arbor and Pebble. If this isn’t already synchronised, Pebble will do this for you when they enable the integration at their end, so choose “Yes, synchronisation of student and staff data is already set”.

You also need to select the Customer Account Type that you wish to use for the synchronisation - we recommend your Meals account. Only payments for this Customer Account Type will be synced.

Once you have completed the process correctly, it will appear as Enabled on the Integrations Administration page.

Step 5 - Temporarily disable Parent Portal payments

When Pebble is setting up the integration, you'll need to ensure that there are no payments being made through Arbor. 

You can temporarily disable access to top up the Meal accounts by going to School > Payments > Setup > Customer Account Types. Click into the Meal account, click Edit then untick Show in parent portal.

Step 6 - Pebble perform the final steps of integration

Contact Pebble to let them know that you have approved the Pebble Trac app and are ready for the integration to be fully enabled on their end. This is important as Pebble will need to complete some work to set up your Arbor system with Pebble Trac.

Pebble will send the “opening balances” to Arbor based on the balances of the accounts  in Pebble’s system. 

Step 7 – Re-enable Parent Portal payments

Once Pebble confirm with you that they have completed the setup, you can now re-enable the account to show for parents by going to School > Payments > Setup > Customer Account Types. Click into the Meal account, click Edit and tick Show in parent portal. Parents will now be able to top up their child’s meal account via Arbor and top-up transactions will begin syncing with Pebble.

Using the integration in Arbor

• How payments will show in Arbor - All incoming transactions will have the Payment Method and Narrative set to Cashless Catering System so you can identify where the transactions have come from: How do Cashless Catering payments show in Arbor?
• How payments will show on the Parent Portal - When logging into the Parent Portal, guardians will see their Cashless Catering account balance on the main dashboard, which they can click into: How do Cashless Catering payments show on the Parent Portal? 

FAQ

Can Pebble be integrated with multiple payment systems at the same time (e.g. Arbor and ParentPay)?

No, Pebble Till Cashless Catering can only be integrated with one payment system at a time, so you cannot do a phased roll out. If you have previously integrated with another payment system (e.g. ParentPay), this must be disabled before integration with Arbor can be enabled.  

Can multiple Customer Account Types be synchronised with Pebble?

No, only one Customer Account Type (typically the Meals account) can be configured to synchronise with Pebble Till Cashless Catering. 

Can I change the Customer Account Type once it has been set up?

No, once integration has been enabled you are unable to change the Customer Account Type. This is to ensure that all transactions are kept in sync and there is no loss of information.

How often does the synchronisation between Arbor and Pebble happen?

The following synchronisation frequencies are configured in Pebble:

• Top-up payments from Arbor are pulled into Pebble every 10 minutes
• Any new student or staff meal accounts from Arbor are pulled into Pebble every hour
• Any sales transactions are sent from Pebble to Arbor every 5 minutes between 6am and 11pm
• At 6:30am Monday to Saturday, balance checks are performed between Arbor and Pebble to identify any possible discrepancies