School Accounting Software

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Handbook of instructions for recording disbursements for school purposes, in accordance with the uniform system prescribed by the University of the State of New York

These days it is commonly expected that even small performing arts or non profit organizations will not only offer up to date listings of their events on their web site, but will also offer the ability to purchase tickets online.

Undoubtedly a lot of small to medium organizations, colleges, schools and non profit organizations may think that ticket sales software is well beyond their budget. In actual fact, there is now a significant number of companies offering ticket sales software which is both affordable,easy to set up and to use. In fact it is quite likely that one of the main hurdles faced by organizations seeking to upgrade their box office ticketing operations is deciding what type of ticket sales software would best suit their needs.

So let’s take a look at a few specific features of ticketing software systems which should be a priority when selecting the best system to use.

Online ticket sales capability

The main reason for considering an upgrade to a new ticket sales software system is undoubtedly to give your customers the option of purchasing tickets to your events directly from your website, and to simplify your existing box office operations whereby both your online and offline ticket sales are combined into a single tightly integrated system. The best systems will allow you to choose seats directly from an interactive seating chart – to select the seats they require from a realistic representation of the venue auditorium and not just a best available method where there is no customer control in the seat selection process.

Ticket sales outlets

Do you plan to sell tickets only through your own box office (and online) or you maybe now or in the future do you plan to sell tickets via agents, ticket outlets or maybe from your own home? If so, a Web-based ticket sales software system rather a than a software system installed on your PC is probably be better choice since it generally enables tickets to be sold from any number of outlets, anywhere in the world where you have an Internet connection.

Print at home tickets

Many customers these days prefer the ease and convenience of printing their tickets at home when purchase tickets online. But to prevent fraud or copying of tickets, you need to have some means to validate tickets at the entrance to your events. The most common way of dealing with this is to print bar codes on all PDF tickets which can then be scanned at the entrance to your venue with a hand held scanner attached to a computer. Alternatively with some systems you may be able to send an email to your customer which contains a voucher. The customer then exchanges this voucher at the venue for the numbered tickets.

Payment processing

Online ticket sales software should always have the ability to process credit card payments. You must check if your current payment gateway is supported by your chosen software, or if not, whether it can be easily be integrated into their system. Alternatively you may be required to use the software provider’s service to process all credit card payments. With the latter, the ticket software company will generally charge a fee for handling credit card payments and furthermore, the ticket revenue may only be transferred to your bank account on a monthly basis or only after the event concerned has been held.

Customer records

A customer database is the heart of any ticket sales software system. Its essential that the database has an adequate number of fields to record as much detail as relevant about the customer which can then be used for marketing purposes and maintaining good customer relationships. Preferably you should be able to send emails direct from your database informing customers of upcoming events etc. Additionally it should have the ability to send out customised letters or at the very least print out address labels. Some box office systems may offer the ability to actively manage donations and pledges, to set up campaigns or to accept donations at the time of a ticket purchase.

Attendance and Financial Reports

Live and detailed reports on attendance, transactions and other financial details are an essential component of any ticket sales software. It should also be easy to access reports on-the-fly and ideally y you should have the ability to see detailed information about any particular sold ticket including who purchased the ticket, the price they paid, the date that the ticket was purchased, who sold the ticket as a minimum simply by clicking on any seat on your seating chart.

Ticket printing

Specialised thermal ticket printers such as those produced by Boca Systems or Data Automation are certainly ideal choice for printing admission tickets but the price of these printers can be quite high. Fortunately many systems offer the ability to print tickets with common inkjet or laser printers. With the actual tickets, you need to be able to customize the layout and choose which elements do or do not appear on the ticket – at the very least including the ability to add logos, images and one or two additional lines of text

Season or subscription tickets

If you offer subscription packages or season tickets, your ticket sales software must be able to handle this type of ticket competently. Whilst some ticket software systems will provide the capability to create individual subscription series from a list of events, others may only allow subscribers to select from a number of pre-set packages. Some ticket software systems include the ability to roll over season subscriptions from one season to the next. Rolled over subscriptions are generally recorded initially as reservations which the customer must confirm by a certain date including making payment, or else the tickets are returned to the system for sale to other customers.

Gift vouchers and Flex Passes

If your organization sells stored value gift cards or passes, make sure your ticket sales software system includes this capability. Such cards can normally be programmed to set validity for a specified date range, or a specified range of events.

Ease of use

If you have multiple ticket sellers, you’ll want your chosen ticket sales software to have a logical administration interface and be easy to operate by all users without requiring days of training and maybe even switch between different languages. But the only realistic means of evaluating a system is to request a trial or a demonstration version of the software. Of course you’ll also want comprehensive operational manuals, preferably which can also be accessed online.

Customer Support

Ticket sales software is quite complex so it is very likely you will require some degree of customer support from time to time. Ensure that the software provider you choose has the capability of providing adequate and rapid support by telephone or email. If possible you should check that the ticketing company has a policy of constant improvements and upgrades so your system does not become technologically out of date.

The above provides a summary of the main features you should take into consideration when shopping for a ticket sales software system for your venue or organization. A good starting point in selecting a new software system is to write down a list of features that you feel are essential then try to match these with ticketing software systems that are available.

With budget cuts everywhere, especially in government spending, schools are looking for ways to cut costs right and left, especially when they can do so without effecting spending on student-related activities. So, they scour the books looking for possible ways to tighten their belt so they can continue to offer the students the robust educational and extracurricular experience they deserve.

In doing so, a public school system in Indiana was having issues with managing the cost of their phone system. There were a couple of areas where they felt they could really “cut the fat” in their phone bill if only they could get to the root cause. First, they were having an issue with prank 911 calls being placed from somewhere within the building and they were unable to pinpoint from where these calls were coming. Each subsequent time 911 was dialed and the local authorities came to the school, the school was being charged a nominal fee. And second, the school was incurring increases in telephone bill costs and had no explanation for this random increase in costs.

After installing a call management solution with fraud protection, the school found some very interesting activities. First, they were able to identify the classroom from where the calls were being placed to 911 and they were able to catch the culprit and provide appropriate punishment. Second, they were able to identify the source of their increased telephone expenses. One of the teachers had decided to start an arts and crafts business on the side and was using the school’s phone system to place calls to vendors, customers, logistical companies, etc. They were able to eliminate the long distance phone activity and, thus, reduce their monthly telephony costs immediately.

These are just two examples of how call management solutions with fraud protection can help an organization save money on their monthly bills. Call management solutions with fraud protection offer high quality, real time monitoring of activities such as incoming, outgoing, international and out of hours calls, together with 24×7 monitoring of a voice network’s status.

Fraud protection software provides three types of monitoring:

• Call Monitors – Display user-defined lists of calls in chronological order
• Alarms – Triggered by user-defined telephonic events, provide instant notification of telecom usage that may adversely impact or effect the running of a business’s voice systems
• Threshold Alarms – Allow businesses to set warning levels (60% – 90%) that trigger before the actual alarm level is breached

Traditionally, call management solutions are used to analyze historical call traffic, for example; investigating calls made by individual departments at the end of each month. This means that organizations don’t always have the immediate, hands-on control they need to manage their ongoing communication costs.
Control Costs and Usage

• Identify excessive personal telephone calls
• Set expected spends for individual carriers
• Monitor calls made outside normal business hours
• Monitor switches for no calls during a set period

The opportunities that this school system found to cut costs were unique to their circumstance but not entirely unique in their existence. Every organization has opportunities available to cut costs in their telecom expenditures. It seems like a simple thing, but most organizations have no idea where they spend their telecom budget or where they could cut those costs. Call management systems with fraud guard offer that visibility so that organizations can control their costs rather than having their costs control them.

The four definitive trends listed in the National Association of Wholesalers-Distributors’ publication Facing the Forces of Change are fairly straightforward, although meeting these customer expectations often proves difficult for an unprepared distributor. Learn to successfully cope with these trends is often assisted through the implementing an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software package, which is a critical first step for wholesale distributors.
In Facing the Forces of Change (available at www.nawpubs.org) the four trends are detailed:
• Customer Self-service: Providing customers with up-to-date technology that allows access to pertinent account information and provides the customer with an avenue to immediately act upon this information as needed. Examples include such functions as: online ordering, online access to product offerings and documentation, interactive product configuration management, and access to inventory levels or order status. Not all ERP systems are equally suited to meet this distribution requirement.

• Strategic Sourcing: Leveraging an organization’s existing purchasing power to lower product and transportation costs, reduce product lead-times, and streamline the overall purchasing process. In companies with multiple locations, this can easily be achieved by centralizing purchasing, instituting formalized purchasing policies, and automating the purchasing process through the usage of distribution requirements planning or DRP processing. Again, many ERP systems fall short in assessing distribution requirements.

• Fee-based Services and Pricing: This concept allows distributors to offer value-added services to differentiate themselves from their competition and improve profitability by providing customers with a service offering they both want and need. The key is to offer products that are backed by exception services which help augment the customer’s own profitability and aid in the purchaser reaching their own sourcing objectives. Many ERP systems cannot accommodate the exceptions common in distribution.

• Logistics and Fulfillment: As more third-party logistics companies vie for the market share of the wholesale distributor, these old school distributors need to become savvier with their service and fulfillment offering. Simple order to cash processing will no longer appease the average customer; distributors must advance their offering to show exceptional customer focused value. ERP systems must have the capacity to accommodate fulfillment.
Founded in 1990 and headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, Technology Group International (www.tgiltd.com) is a proven technology leader delivering Tier 1 application software functionality at a price performance level that can be readily accepted by wholesale distribution organizations of all sizes. A best-of-breed ERP software solution provides the basic footprint for managing the four trends outlined and Enterprise 21 offers functionality well beyond that of the standard distribution package. Enterprise 21 provides full ERP functionality with a fully integrated e-commerce module. It is one of the few ERP systems to meet the needs of today’s wholesale distribution without the need for expensive and time consuming modifications.

A school district in Klein, Texas, isn’t waiting for a crisis to occur to see how it fares. Thanks to funds through grants and private sponsorship, the 39,000 students and 35 schools that make up the Klein Independent School District, one of the nation’s largest school systems, is trying out a state-of-the-art alert system during the 2005-06 school year.

Developed by TechRadium Inc., the Immediate Response Information System, also known as IRIS, is a high-speed notification and response service that sends messages to thousands of people in seconds. It was designed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in response to a demand for more efficient ways to notify people in case of emergency.

To operate the system, a designated staff member sends out a message using a phone or Internet-connected computer. IRIS then transmits voice and text alerts to electronic devices, including home and cell phones, e-mail accounts, pagers, PDAs and fax machines. To ensure that the message was received, IRIS confirms completion and redials all missed contacts. Messages can be sent in one of 10 languages.

The system is valuable in sending emergency messages as well as routine school announcements. It requires no hardware, software or system installation for setup, making it a cost-effective way for parents and other community members to stay connected with their local schools.

Located in Software Technology Park (STP) at Gurgaon – another hub of IT companies in India, IntelliNt System is a software development firm that provides cutting edge solutions to industries across many verticals. Having a skilled pool of developers and project managers, it also has a dedicated business development team that captures the client requirements and provides them the best-customized solution. The guiding philosophy of IntelliNt is to empower organizations through IT applications and streamline operations resulting in greater efficiency and productivity.

IntelliNt System has developed varied software solutions that cater to common needs of organizations. IntelliPay, for example, is a highly customizable solution for payroll related requirement for any company. IntelliCosting has been developed to help electrical panel builders in doing costing at a greater speed and efficiency. Some important software solutions are Vikreyta – streamlines the core processes of retail business, IntelliSMS – an enterprise level short messaging service, Intelli Asset Pro – a complete automated asset tracking tool, Reckoner – creating a seamless flow of communication within various departments, iCARE – a comprehensive school management software and many others. You can have a detailed overview of various software solutions offered and created by IntelliNt System at their website www.intellinetsystem.com.

ERP solutions require indepth understanding of stratgeic, tactical and operational perspective of that business segment. Such insight is not a matter of one or two day effort but require consistent effort to break the subtality of managing businesses and processes. IntelliNt System has domain specific consultants who have spent their whole life in nurturing and cultivating their knowledge deeper and deeper. Currently IntelliNt System is concentrating on following domains and developing ERP solutions for the same – Financial Management, Supply Chain Management, Financial Accounting, Inventory Control, Warehouse Management, Production Planning and Control, Demand Management and Export Documentation. No need to tell you that such solutions is an evolving phenomena and IntelliNt System believes in that.

IntelliNt System also develops state of the art websites, content management, E-commerce integration, etc. These activities help small and mid size firms to avail services at an affordable and economical price.

Visit more information about Software Developement and ERP solutions Softwarewww.intellinetsystem.com

New accounting system on hold
others also read… When the Langley school district hired Deloitte to audit its books, the result ended with a $8.3 million deficit, full of overspending made by accounting errors.

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