Should I set up a new customer account type for payments?

Arbor automatically creates three default customer account types: Clubs, Trips, and Meals to enable card payments. The Meals account is a top-up account, while the Clubs and Trips accounts are invoice account types i.e. pay at the point of purchase. This guide helps you check if you need to set up a completely new one, or whether you should use an out-of-the-box one.

If you haven’t already, please read this article Customer Account Types: Important Things Before You Begin 


This guide is in a series; the guides in this series are:


Do I need a new customer account type?

To avoid creating unnecessary, un-deletable accounts, use this flowchart to determine if a new Customer Account Type is appropriate for your scenario:

If you would like to create more customer account types, you need to decide if parents need to top up the account:

  • If yes - choose Ad hoc account type
  • If no - choose School Shop

You can then name these accounts as needed, for example:

  • Donations
  • Nursery Fees
  • Uniforms
  • Wraparound Care

If a new account is needed, which account type should I use?

Account Type

When to Use It

Key Features

Examples

Ad Hoc (not to be used for School Shop - see below) Ongoing payments where parents top up a balance
  • Acts as a top-up balance that parents add funds to via the portal/app.
  • Funds can be routed to different bank accounts
  • Requires school staff to manually create invoices to reduce the balance.
  • Visible to all students; cannot be restricted to specific groups.

Extended nursery hours

Milk

Snacks/Tuck shop

PTA donations

Wraparound Care

School Shop Parents to purchase items.
  • Payments are made by card at the exact point of purchase.
  • No instalments are allowed.
  • You can set stock limits and restrict visibility to specific student groups.

Physical items (uniforms, stationery)

Y6 Performance tickets

Nativity tickets

Tuck shops

One-off charity donations, eg Comic Relief.

Meals Day-to-day school lunches and other regular food/drink
  • Automatically integrates with the Meals Module.
  • Daily and weekly reporting options, not just lists of invoices.
  • Deductions are generated automatically based on student attendance. 

Snacks 

Milk 

Staff meals 

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