This article will show you how to set up our two-way integration between Arbor and Live Register (a cashless catering system for student and staff meal payments). The integration enables you to ensure 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 Live Register.
For parents, the Parent Portal and Parent App can become their single point of access for making top ups and checking balances, without needing to jump into a different system.
- No need to update and log in and out of multiple systems.
- Balances are automatically copied between systems in almost real time.
- 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
You'll first need to contact Live Register to let them know you'd like them to integrate with your Arbor site, so they can send the request.
Tell them which Customer Account Type you will be using for the synchronisation - we recommend your Meals account. Only payments for this Customer Account Type will be synced.
They may ask for your Arbor URL - this can be found by going to your Arbor homepage and copying the web address shown in the address bar at the top of your browser - the text should look like this: https://schoolname.uk.arbor.sc/?/home-ui/index.
When Live Register are setting up the integration, you will need to ensure that there are no payments being made. We recommend temporarily disabling 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.
Depending on whether starting balances in Arbor and Live Register are zero, you may need to send Live Register additional data.
- If both Arbor and Live Register balances are zero, no action is needed.
- If both Arbor and Live Register have different balances, you will need to manually adjust these using credit notes or invoices in Arbor, or manually adjust in Live Register so that they match.
- If only Arbor balances are zero, once the integration is set up Live Register will send an initial transaction to increase or decrease the account starting balance in Arbor.
- If only Live Register balances are zero, you'll need to send Live Register a CSV export of your starting staff and student account balances which Live Register will import for you. This will increase or decrease the account starting balance in Live Register.
Click the links at the bottom of this article to download the report templates. Do not open the template. You can then import it into your site by following these instructions, then click the Download button to download it as a CSV and send it to Live Register.
Go to System > Partner Apps (API Users) and approve the Pending Request for Live Register Cashless, following the usual steps outlined here.
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 Live Register cashless catering as the provider and click Proceed with setup.
On the next page, you must confirm that student and staff data is already synchronised between Arbor and Live Register. Live Register needs to already have student and staff data from the integration to be able to match the payment data with the student and staff accounts.
If you haven't set up the Live Register integration, you can see how to do this following the usual steps outlined here.
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.
- If you select Yes but don't have student and staff data in your Live Register system, there will be no students or staff records showing in Live Register - please contact Live Register to set this up for you.
- If you select No, you'll receive this error message and you'll need to set this up before you proceed.
Once you have completed the process correctly, it will appear as Enabled on the Integrations Administration page.
Once you've approved the API connection, Live Register will remote into your school’s Live Register Cashless Catering system remotely and enable the integration with Arbor.
Once Live Register confirm with you that they have completed the installation, you can reenable 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.
Using the integration in Arbor
Initial balance update
Depending on whether starting balances in Arbor and Live Register are zero, Live Register will have either:
- sent initial transactions to increase or decrease the account starting balance in Arbor.
- imported student and staff balances (which you should have provided in Step 3 of the setup above).
All payments for the specified Customer Account Type will then be synchronised moving forwards.
How payments will show
- 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
No, Live Register Cashless Catering can only be integrated with one payment system at a time, so you cannot do a phased roll out. If previously integrated with another payment system (e.g. ParentPay), this must be disabled before integration with Arbor can be enabled.
Only one Customer Account Type (typically the Meals account) can be configured to synchronise with Live Register Cashless Catering.
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.
The synchronisation frequency is controlled by Live Register, who have set it to run every 30 minutes. Please contact Live Register if you would like them to adjust this frequency for you.
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