KEV Group is working with K-12 schools during these tumultuous times to help manage the sheer volume of refunds.
From our Business Sponsor, KEV Group
School closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic have required refunds of school activity fees on an enormous scale.
KEV Group is working with K-12 schools during these tumultuous times to help manage the sheer volume of refunds and shape the future for the better. Learning from these challenges, here are some tips that can prove successful for dealing with refunds in your school or district.
PREVENT SYSTEM OVERLOAD
- Prioritize adapting your district’s internal capabilities to the challenge ahead. Redirecting resources to evaluate and upgrade your student activity fund management system so it will have the ability to handle a large influx of refund transactions will lessen, if not eliminate, system downtime or outages.
- Ensure your staff can keep everything moving, your system or solution must have the proper security protocols & permissions for data access.
- Partner with a provider that can configure the right reports and dashboards as well as have integrated helpdesk functionality that will simplify the process for you.
BUILD EFFICIENT PROCESSES FOR STAFF
- Keep an accurate master list containing post-dated transactions such as scheduled payments or active sales items that are no longer required. This will allow your staff to pre-emptively halt these transactions and prevent the need to deal with these as future refunds.
- Establish the ability to refund merchant processing fees and individual items that had been combined within a transaction.
TIMELY COMMUNICATION WITH PARENTS/GUARDIANS
The economic impact of the pandemic touches everyone; families who may have lost income need access to these refunds. Deliver peace of mind directly to their inboxes that any cancelled events, trips or prepaid services will be reimbursed. This will help mitigate the need for them to reach out to your staff for updates.
- Considered the gold standard for refund communication: is to 1) send status notifications when a refund is initiated, Followed by 2) send a follow up notice when the refund is successfully processed and can be expected to appear in their account.
TAKE AWAY
- Processing refunds for physical cash and checks require more time to process, more work for bookkeepers/school staff (manual input into system, printing, signing, and mailing out physical checks).
- Having high (>90%) parent participation rates of online payments makes it faster and easier for them to receive refunds vs in-school payments.
Driving mandates that focus on health & safety, such as contactless payments, is becoming our new normal. Schools and districts currently using our School Cash solution have benefited from the only software available that fully integrates online payments, fee management, lunch payments, digital forms, and school-level accounting. Our system ensures the most secure and efficient management of school activity funds possible and lowers the risk to the district of fraud and theft.
To learn more about School Cash visit KEVGroup.com
