Creating Initial Account Balances

If you have moved from another system to Arbor there will likely be meal balances for students and staff that need to carry over. You can transfer any credit or debt from your previous system by adding starting balances to accounts in Arbor.

Please note that you can only enter initial balances once so please double check you have accounted for all outstanding amounts before completing this.

Permissions

To set initial account balances, you will need to have the Finance: Finance: View and Finance: Finance: Administer permissions.

These permissions can be given to other users as needed. Click here to find out how to assign Ad-Hoc permissions to your staff. 

Which accounts do we use this process for?

This process can be used to set up balances for Meals accounts and other top-up type customer account types such as wraparound care accounts. 

It is not possible to set balances for standard clubs or trips from here, as standard clubs and trips need to have each session paid for directly and not from a balance.

You won't need to use this process if you'll be using our one of our Cashless Catering integrations, as initial balances are pushed through automatically when the sync is set up.

Please note: 

• You can only enter initial balances ONCE so please double-check you have accounted for all outstanding amounts before completing this.
• If an account balance has been topped up before the initial balances are set, the initial amounts set will be added or deducted from this amount rather than from 0.

Setting the initial balances

To set up initial balances for a group of students or staff in Arbor:

• Go to School > Payments > Setup
• Click Set Initial Balances in the left-hand menu
• In the top right-hand corner, select the class/form/staff you would like to start to enter opening balances for using the grey Group dropdown. It is not possible to do multiple forms in one go.

After selecting the correct group, check the Transfer balances from previous system section to view students without an initial balance and the account types eligible for balance setup. If a balance is set for one account type (e.g., Meals) but not another (e.g., Donations), only the unset account type (e.g., Donations) appears.

• To add a balance, either set the value you want to add or subtract from their balance manually by typing or clicking on the arrows next to students' or staff members' names and account type.
• Then, in the dropdown below the value field, select "Credit" or "Debit". 
  
  Credit adds the amount entered to the student's balance - this is used for positive starting balances. Debit subtracts the amount from the student's balance - this is to be used for negative starting balances.
• Repeat this until you have set starting balances for all students/staff you want to update. 
  
  If you leave the value field on 0 for any student or staff member, no changes are applied when you click next, and this can be updated later. Only values that are not equal to 0 are updated. Once one of these is applied, you cannot make further adjustments to that starting balance through this feature.
• Once you are happy to finalise your selections, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the green Next button.
• On the Confirm Account Balance Changes slide-over, review the students/staff and accounts you are about to credit and debit and by how much. Click Cancel to go back and make adjustments if needed.
• Click Confirm changes to finalise your choices and apply the new starting balances

You will need to repeat these steps for each form group/class. To set initial balances for staff accounts, use the All Staff Accounts option in the Groups drop-down.

FAQ

I'm getting an error message

Getting an error message when you try to save? Make sure all the fields have a value in, as the system won't recognise blanks. Where you want the initial balance to be zero, put 0.

Can we add balances in bulk?

It isn't possible to update or import balances in bulk. However, if you'll be using one of our Cashless Catering integrations, initial balances are pushed through in bulk when the sync is set up.