EasyTrace Cashless Catering uses the latest in touch-screen (clear view) technology. All POS units deliver ease of use, reliability and the high level of resilience required for school and college catering environments.

The POS units have a tilting faceplate, allowing the operator to adjust the screen so they can sit or stand comfortably, and an integrated customer display at the rear of the unit. This allows students to see what has been debited from their account and their remaining balance.

The POS unit is fully customisable to offer maximum flexibility. As well as storing every item that the department offers, it may also be programmed with ‘meal deals’ to help promote healthy eating.

Individuals with multiple accounts, such as the head teacher, can choose which account to charge catering to.

There are a number of methods that can be used to credit users’ accounts:

• giving payment to a member of staff who then credits this to their account via a networked PC
• using an Easy Account Loader. The Easy Account Loader is a wall-mounted unit that has a card or fingerprint reader and note and coin deposit slots. Using an account loader, the user can instantly credit their account with whatever amount they wish and also check their remaining balance.

Parents can add credit to their child’s account in two ways:

• By sending a cheque or cash to the school or depositing it into a specially designed, tamperproof postbox at the school. This is then manually credited to the student’s account by a member of staff via an appropriately networked PC.
• Via the internet using a secure payment site, ParentPay, where parents can make payments securely, reliably and quickly by credit or debit card. ParentPay is available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and processes card transactions in just a few seconds. Parents can also view the account balance via the ParentPay website.
• By encouraging parents to use Parent Pay, you can reduce administration time spent managing cash and minimise banking costs.

The Easy Cashless Catering solution allows you to run the ‘Supplement Run’ every morning or this can be set to run automatically if required. This credits authorised accounts with the appropriate free school meal allocation. The student is easily able to top up this amount with their own money if they so wish. When a valid sale is made, the amount is automatically deducted from the free school meal account first, then from the student’s own funds. The student is able to see the whole transaction on the screen.

If the student does not spend their full allocation, the remaining funds (excluding the student’s personal money) are automatically transferred to the free school meals suspense account, so that funds are not rolled over. All transactions are recorded in an audit trail.

A healthy eating or reward points scheme can be easily introduced via the EasyTrace Cashless Catering system. Points can be automatically credited to students’ accounts when they purchase specific items – you just programme in what items you want in the scheme and allocat an appropriate reward amount. Reward points can also be added by an authorised user via a PC on the network, allowing you to reward other activities, such as good behaviour, sporting achievement etc.

You chose what the reward points can be used for – you simply specify a points purchase price for any item you wish to make available. For example, points may be used to buy items from the canteen / catering department or to buy additional printing credits via the EasyPrint system. You may even wish to set up a school e-store where pupils can spend their points, possibly leveraging ties with key sponsors or partner organisations within the local authority