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How do I use the export/import pages to transfer non-lunch account balances?

When schools go through major enrollment changes, such as when the academic year changes, there may be a large number of students who transfer between schools within the same district. As such, many of the students may have balances that need to be transferred too. This document describes how to transfer student non-lunch account balances between schools via import when there are a large number of balances to transfer. Additionally, it directs you to set balances to zero at the school that the balances are transferred from. Alternatively, when there are few balances to transfer, you can use the option to manually add the balances. Learn more about manually transferring balances here. 

This article will cover the following topics:

Transfer Account Balances

Export Account Balances

Create a comma separated value (CSV) file for the students whose balances will be transferred.

To export existing balances:

  1. Go to Admin Main > Tuition/Fees > Account Balances
  2. Select the General Account
  3. Select Who to Show
  4. Select Where Shown Comma Delimited CSV
    • Select Show Header Row
  5. Select Sort By Last Name
  6. Select Unique Identifiers Student Number
  7. Select additional options
    • Hide inactive students
  8. Generate

After generating the export file, the program will return you to the Import/Export menu and will display the following message at the top of the page. Click the “here” link to download the file.

download_message.PNG

Prepare the Import File

Preparing the file for import will require adding a category column with the value of “starting balance”, and adding a date column to indicate the starting balance date. In addition, you’ll format the balance amount and student number columns so that they are saved properly for importing.

To prepare the file to be imported:

  1. Open the downloaded balance export file in Excel or another spreadsheet program
  2. Set the Balance column format to number format
    • Select the Balance column and right click
    • Select Format Cells
    • Select the Number Category
    • Select the -1234.10 Negative Number
    • OK
  3. Set the Student Number column to a custom format which is of the length of student number.
    • Select the Student Number column and right click
    • Select Format Cells
    • Select the Custom Category
    • Enter zeros in to the Type data field to match the length of the student number
      • Example:  When student numbers are 5 digits, enter 00000
    • OK
  4. Add the following columns
    • Category: Starting Balance
    • Note:Year Account Balance Rollover
    • Date:  The current date, the first day of school, or the student entry date
  5. Save

Import Account Balances

Once the file is ready to be imported, preview and import your file.

To preview and import the balance file:

  1. Login to the school where balances are being transferred to
  2. Admin Main > Import/Export > Import Fees
  3. Select the File Name from your hard drive
  4. Upload
  5. Select the desired Academic Year
  6. Options
    • Select Criteria to match student records on Student Number
    • Select Preview Mode Show All
    • Select This file has a header row that should not be imported
  7. Preview
  8. Review the preview to verify that there are no errors
  9. Make necessary corrections to the import file
  10. Repeat steps 2-7 until the preview is correct
  11. Import

Set Prior School Account Balances to Zero

Once balances are transferred to the new school, you will most likely need to zero out balances at the prior school. You can zero negative balances via import by using the balance file to apply payments to the negative balances. Learn how to set positive balances to zero here.

Adjust the Zero Balance Import File

Adjust the balance import file by changing the category and balance columns so that the correct transactions will occur to zero out the balances. Additionally, remove the zero balance and positive balance rows. Learn how to set positive balances to zero here.

To prepare the file:

  1. Open the file that was previously used to import balances
  2. Set the Student Number column to a custom format which is of the length of student number.
    • Select the Student Number column and right click
    • Select Format Cells
    • Select the Custom Category
    • Enter zeros in to the Type data field to match the length of the student number
      • Example:  When student numbers are 5 digits, enter 00000
    • OK
  3. Use spreadsheet filters to remove zero balance and positive balance rows
    • Filter the rows to show positive and zero balances
    • Delete the positive and zero balance rows
  4. Adjust negative balance categories
    • Enter “Payment” in the Category column for balances that have negative amount
  5. Adjust negative balances
    • Use Find/Replace to change the negative values in the balance column to positive amounts by removing the minus (-) sign
  6. Save

File Before Changes

file_before_changes.PNG

File After Changes

file_after_changes.PNG

Import the Zero Balance Import File

Once the file is ready to be imported, you can preview and import your file.

To preview and import the zero balance file:

  1. Log in to the prior school
  2. Admin Main > Import/Export > Import Fees
  3. Select the File Name from your hard drive
  4. Upload
  5. Select the desired Academic Year
  6. Options
    • Select Criteria to match student records on Student Number
    • Select Preview Mode Show All
    • Select This file has a header row that should not be imported
  7. Preview
  8. Review the preview to verify that there are no errors
  9. Make necessary corrections to the import file
  10. Repeat steps 2-7 until the preview is correct
  11. Import