PaySchools
If a school district has a need, chances are that PSBA has a service, expert or program to meet that need.
Making E-Commerce Easy and Affordable for School Districts
PaySchools makes it affordable, practical and simple for districts of all sizes to accept credit card and electronic check payments via the Internet from parents and other community patrons of school-based services and activities. Designed in close consultation with school officials, PaySchools is sponsored by PSBA, NSBA and the school boards association of numerous other states.
Links easily added to pertinent pages on the school district website lead parents, staff and other community members to a customized PaySchools portal where they can make secure payments to replenish school meal accounts, purchase books, event tickets or school apparel, pay for student trips, clubs or other activities, or pay for a myriad of other things for which the district wants to accept on-line payments. Options such as low-balance e-mail notification for meal accounts can provide even greater convenience.
“As busy families do more and more shopping and bill-paying on the web, the PaySchools program helps school districts both respond to and benefit from the demand for that kind of convenience,” says Tom Gentzel, PSBA Executive Director. “Parents no longer need to keep fingers crossed when sending money to school in student book bags, and districts can reduce the deposit delays, potential loss and staff hassle created by processing checks and cash in classrooms, school offices and even the district business office.”
The positive response from parents and business officials in school districts using PaySchools has been tremendous. Parents love the 24x7 convenience and security, and school administrators report both reduced burden on staff and improved cash flow due to more timely payments and deposits, larger average meal account payments, and significant reduction in bounced checks.
Using the online PaySchools administration functions, it takes designated district personnel only minutes to log on and add new items, categories or pricing options to their customized PaySchools portal, make changes to existing items and prices, or view and download detailed transaction and usage information. The district business office and other desired points of contact are notified immediately via e-mail of each transaction, in addition to daily transaction and deposit summaries. Transaction information is easily fed into the district's financial accounting, point of sale or other management information systems.
Before PaySchools , it could be quite expensive for a school district on its own to set up the components necessary to accept online payments and pay all the upfront and ongoing fees associated with Internet credit card merchant accounts, Internet authorization service, Internet payment gateway, shopping cart software and so on. PaySchools makes this affordable for even the smallest districts, in part because participating districts operate under a single aggregated merchant account combining all the necessary Internet services, at specially negotiated rates.
PaySchools fees consist exclusively of a low flat percentage of payments processed during the month. Payschools has no setup fees, monthly or annual fees, per transaction charges, returned check charges, reversal reserves, or other common standard, hidden or stacked fees.
In addition, PaySchools does not assess the separate membership, account or transaction-based convenience charges to customers that some payment processing services require. With PaySchools , the school district alone may determine whether any convenience charge will apply to various items, and if so, any such charge is paid to the school district, not to the processing service provider.
PaySchools is compatible with a school district's existing accounting, food service management and point of sale systems, leveraging the value of the district's previous information system investments. Though attractive, user-friendly and full of options, the PaySchools portal minimizes bandwidth and connection speed issues that can arise from web pages with excessive graphics and other bells and whistles.
PaySchools also protects school districts and their “customers” from the risk of stolen personal financial information. All transactions take place on a secure, firewalled server completely independent of the district's website. Unlike payment processing systems that can be favorite targets of computer hackers, the PaySchools system does not store user credit card or banking information.
For additional information about PaySchools, or to arrange a demonstration, please visit the PaySchools or call PaySchools staff toll-free at 1-866-PAY-5353.