There is no native functionality to transfer funds between accounts, payment items or people. If you need to move money from one account to another (such as between siblings), we recommend refunding the original payment and requesting that the money be paid into the right account instead of trying to move the funds within Arbor. If this is not possible, you can follow the steps below.
Please note: This function can only be performed by school staff. If you are a guardian and you require funds to be moved from one account to another, please contact your school directly.
Refund guidance
We can't issue a refund
If issuing a refund is not possible, you can manipulate the refund function to move money from one payment item on Arbor to another if there has been a payment made for the wrong thing.
For example, if a guardian has paid money into one child's Meal account in error, you can remove the credit from the topped-up account in Arbor with a refund, then add a credit note onto the other account for the same amount.
Please note: If you transfer funds between customer account types with different accounts for payouts (for example, if meal payouts go straight to your caterer and all other payments go to the school's account), funds are not transferred to the other payout with this method, which is one of the reasons we recommend issuing refunds instead.
Transferring funds between top-up accounts
If you need to transfer funds between two top-up accounts (for example, the meal accounts of two siblings, or between a Meals and Wraparound care account), use this method.
Cash refund or invoice the account you're moving money from
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The first step is to log that the payment to the original account has been refunded. This lowers the account balance. You could also do this with an Invoice.
To do this, you can log that the payment has been refunded through cash or cheque, as shown in this article.
You can also do this from the student's Student Profile - select Payments from the left-hand menu, select the account and go to the Refunds page.
Click +Add to record the refund.
Set the Type to Cash or Cheque - Using one of these types ensures no money actually leaves Arbor, and as you need to select a type, either of these options is best to use
Set the Amount you want to transfer and the Date you want to show in your logs
Add a Narrative to clarify why the refund was issued for future reference (e.g. "Moving to siblings' account" or "Moving to Wraparound account")
Click Add Refund
Credit the other account
- Next, head to the other student profile or other customer account type and select Payments from the left-hand menu, select the account and go to the Credit Notes page.
- To then add a new Credit Note, click +Add on the right-hand side of the page.
- Fill in the details on the slide over, including:
- The bill payer - typically the student's guardian
- Amount - the same amount you've just refunded or invoiced on the other account
- Add a narrative - Note down where the funds came from (e.g. transferred from siblings' account)
- Click Credit account.
You can also move the money from one account to another on a single child's account in a similar way, for example, moving the credit from their meals account to a snack account.
Transferring funds from a non-top-up payment (e.g. from a Trip or Standard Club) to a top-up account (e.g. Meals)
As non-top-up account types like Trips do not have a running balance, it is not possible to create standalone refunds, invoices and credit notes for these. Instead, you need to cancel the student's participation in the Club or Trip, without issuing a refund to a card, so that the money does not leave Arbor, and then manually credit the account you are moving funds to.
Please note: This does not work for School Shop purchases, as there is no way to cancel a School Shop purchase without issuing a refund. School shop purchases cannot be transferred and always need to be refunded.
Cancel the original participation/membership without a refund
- Head to the original Trip or Club you want to move funds from under School > Activities
- Scroll to the Participants section
- Cancel the student's participation without issuing a refund.
- See how to cancel Club memberships without refunds here (make sure to set the partial refund to £0 to ensure the funds do not get returned to the original card): Cancelling a paid club membership
- See how to do the same for Trips here: Cancelling the Trip participation
Please note: If you reconfirm a student for a trip after cancelling their participation with a refund, they will still show as having paid the original amount. To get around this, you would need to either:
- Increase the trip price for that student to reflect this before they get reconfirmed
- Create a separate trip for the student in question
Credit the top-up account
- Next, head to the profile of the person you're moving the funds to and select Payments from the left-hand menu, select the account and go to the Credit Notes page.
- To then add a new Credit Note, click +Add on the right-hand side of the page.
- Fill in the details on the slide over, including:
- The bill payer - typically the student's guardian
- Amount - the same amount you've just refunded or invoiced on the other account
- Add a narrative - Note down where the funds came from (e.g. transferred from cancelled trip participation)
- Click Credit account
Transferring funds from a non-top-up payment (e.g. from a Trip or Standard Club) to another non-top-up payment
For the same reason as above, it is not possible to create standalone refunds, invoices and credit notes for non-top-up accounts; they always need to be tied to a payment item like a trip participation or club membership. Therefore, for this scenario, you also need to cancel the student's participation in the Club or Trip, without issuing a refund to a card, so that the money does not leave Arbor. After that, manually log a cash or cheque contribution to the payment item you want to move the funds to.
Please note: This does not work for School Shop purchases, as there is no way to cancel a School Shop purchase without issuing a refund. School shop purchases cannot be transferred and always need to be refunded.
Cancel the original participation/membership without a refund
- Head to the original Trip or Club you want to move funds from under School > Activities
- Scroll to the Participants section
- Cancel the student's participation without issuing a refund.
- See how to cancel Club memberships without refunds here (make sure to set the partial refund to £0 to ensure the funds do not get returned to the original card): Cancelling a paid club membership
- See how to do the same for Trips here: Cancelling the Trip participation
Please note: If you reconfirm a student for a trip after cancelling their participation with a refund, they will still show as having paid the original amount. To get around this, you would need to either:
- Increase the trip price for that student to reflect this before they get reconfirmed
- Create a separate trip for the student in question
Sign up for the club/trip you want to move funds to
Now that you have discounted the funds from the original payment item without sending them back to the original bill payer, you can add these funds to another trip or club by manually signing the students who should receive the funds with a Cash or Cheque payment equal to the amount you did not actually refund in the previous step.
See how to do this here:
- Manually signing students up to a trip (if this is a completly new trip participation)
- How can I log more payments for a trip? (if this is an addtional payment for an existing trip participation)
- Manually signing students up to a club
Transferring funds from a top-up account (e.g. Meals or Wraparound Care) to another non-top-up payment (e.g. from a Trip or Standard Club)
For this scenario, you need to comibe the options outlined above. You need to log a cash or cheque refund on the original top-up account and then log a cash or cheque payment for a trip or club.
Cash refund or invoice the account you're moving money from
-
The first step is to log that the payment to the original account has been refunded. This lowers the account balance. You could also do this with an Invoice.
To do this, you can log that the payment has been refunded through cash or cheque, as shown in this article.
You can also do this from the student's Student Profile - select Payments from the left-hand menu, select the account and go to the Refunds page.
Click +Add to record the refund.
Set the Type to Cash or Cheque - Using one of these types ensures no money actually leaves Arbor, and as you need to select a type, either of these options is best to use
Set the Amount you want to transfer and the Date you want to show in your logs
Add a Narrative to clarify why the refund was issued for future reference (e.g. "Moving to siblings account" or "Moving to Wraparound account")
Click Add Refund
Sign up for the club/trip you want to move funds to
Now that you hjave removed the funds from the original top-up account, you can add these funds to a trip or club by manually signing the students who should receive the funds with a Cash or Cheque payment equal to the amount you did not actually refund in the previous step.
See how to do this here:
- Manually signing students up to a trip (if this is a completly new trip participation)
- How can I log more payments for a trip? (if this is an addtional payment for an existing trip participation)
- Manually signing students up to a club
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