sQuid Dinner Money Holiday System Checks

To help plan for the new school term and to continue the smooth running of sQuid Dinner Money, please ensure that the below checks are carried out, to help alleviate any issues that may affect system operation on your return to school.

Pre-holiday checks

It is important to note that any end of term IT work that you carry out throughout the year can adversely affect the operation of your sQuid Dinner Money system. This includes pulling through new starters, sending us transactions, top ups and writing registration back to SIMs (if you have this set up). You should contact support@squidcard.freshdesk.com to let them know if any of the following work is taking place, so that arrangements can be made with sQuid to carry out remedial work and testing as required.

  • Internet provider changes
  • IP changes
  • Server moves
  • MIS changes
  • Internet connectivity, such as proxy settings or changes to your ISP including filter content

Please be aware that resources for this work immediately following a school holiday (particularly in September) are extremely limited. You are strongly advised to book well in advance for testing to take place during a school holiday.

Back to school checks

It is important to test your sQuid Dinner Money system at least the day before your children start back at school (maybe on Inset days). This is especially important in September when you have new starters and year changes.

Please check the following:

  • Check that your calendars and menus are set up for the new year
  • Check new students have pulled through to the system
  • Check that existing students' years and classes have changed
  • Do you need to change the prices of your products?
  • Do you need to update your FSM, UIFSM or SVM Value?

Once you have checked and made all of the changes above, you must run a Day End. This will make sure all of your new starters, year groups, Free School Meals (FSM) and Universal Infant Free School Meals (UIFSM) are up to date.

MIS updates not pulled through

Should your MIS update not run in time and the students show in the wrong years, you will need to manually update the UIFSM credit.
For any previous Year 2 students that should now be in Year 3, you will need to remove their UIFSM credit. You can do this by following the instructions below:

  • Log in to sQuid Dinner Money
  • Go to the Customers tab
  • Search for the required person(s) and highlight them
  • Click on Adjust Funds
  • Enter the notes in the Description box
  • Select the Transaction type - UIFSM Reclaim
  • Add the amount of your Universdal Free School meal value to be reclaimed in the Additional Funds box
  • Click Save

To add UIFSM for new Reception Years, repeat the steps above, however, you will need to change the Transaction type to UIFSM Deposit and then enter the value in the Additional Funds box.

Checking the Calendar End Date

You will need to ensure that you have your new academic year set up in the calendar, including weekly menus and holidays in order for meals to be ordered. You can see an overview of your calendar start and end date when you go to the Calendar tab. Your end date should be the end of the school academic year. See below for how to change Calendar start and end dates:

  • Log in to sQuid Dinner Money
  • Go to the Calendar tab
  • Click Edit Calendar
  • Enter Year End date first and then the Year Start date second
  • Click Save

See section 9 of the sQuid Dinner Money Hosted Portal Manual for making menu changes, and section 10 for making further Calendar changes.

UIFSM Years

  • Go to the Maintenance tab
  • Click Settings
  • Click Financial
  • Enter the names of UIFSM years in the box next to UIFSM Years and enter a comma (,) between each year, such as "Reception, Year 1, Yr 2"
  • Click Save

*Please note that the spelling of your year groups need to be exactly the same as they have pulled through from your MIS.

Mixed Classes

Should your school have mixed classes, you will need to follow the instructions below to change these:

  • Go to the Maintenance tab
  • Click Settings
  • Click Client
  • Enter the names of your Mixed Classes in the box next to Mixed Class Names and enter a comma (,) between each class, such as " Oak, Willow"
  • Click Save

*Please note that the spellings of your classes need to be exactly the am as they have pulled through from your MIS.

Allergies

Should your school assign allergies to children's accounts, you will need to follow instructions below to change these or add to your new starters:

  • Go to the Customers tab
  • Search for the required person and press View Person
  • Click the Warnings tab
  • Tick the warnings (allergies) to be added to the person
  • Click Save

You need to make sure that you have assigned warnings (allergies) to your products as well, in order for this to show on reports.

See section 7.3 in the sQuid Dinner Money Hosted Portal Manual to see how to make these changes.

Menu displaying incorrectly for Pre-order

Change this if your Pre-order menu options are showing you the wrong meal choices. Please follow the instructions below:

  • Log in to sQuid Dinner Money
  • Go to the Menu tab
  • Find the right weekly menu so it is displayed
  • Click Set Active

If you are still experiencing issues after you have checked all of the above, contact our Client Services team at support@squidcard.freshdesk.com

> Download the sQuid Dinner Money School Holiday System Checks