First Key: Preparation

It’s time to prepare: the end of the 2018-2019 school year is approaching quickly! Before you know it, your students will be heading home for the summer. The earlier you start looking ahead at what needs to be done internally and within your school nutrition software, the better off you will be. In this blog, we will go over some quick tips and tricks to get ahead-of-the-game with PrimeroEdge, and have a smooth, stress-free end to your school year.

Ideally, to have the easiest Year End, you and your staff should organize a game plan to execute the necessary steps required to close down shop safely and efficiently. Certainly, there are plenty of internal processes that each district is well-versed on to ensure proper dismissal of the 2018 school year. But the focus of this blog will be on the new requirements you will face when using the PrimeroEdge software. Fortunately, these requirements are not cumbersome, and with proper planning and attention they can be handled in no time at all.

Second Key: Hardware Strategy

The first plan of action is to tackle the hardware-specific strategy. As you are entering your final serving days, you must verify that all the meals are on the server. In layman’s terms, make sure all the meals you served appear under Reconciliation on the PrimeroEdge website. This will guarantee the end of the year reports are up-to-date and accurate.

Once you are completely done serving, it’s time to retire your terminals for the year. In order to maintain your PrimeroEdge POS terminals when they are not in use, it is imperative to unplug and store them in a cool and dry place. We also suggest covering your machines to prevent particle matter from collecting inside. A few optional practices for the end of the year when dealing with your POS terminals are labeling and upgrades.

Labeling your machines is a great strategy not only for you, but also for us here at PrimeroEdge. When facing an issue with your terminal, our Customer Care team can efficiently identify the problem by knowing the machine with the issue as quickly as possible. If all the machines are pre-labeled, a cashier or whomever may be calling won’t need to know how to determine a machine’s name manually. This allows us to help you in an expedited manner and makes your life just a bit easier.

Secondly, your IT team could use the time at the end of the year to put together a strategy to upgrade any outdated POS terminals. As we all know, technology is always changing, and computer operating systems are constantly getting updated. When trying to manage a plan of action to upgrade POS machines during the school year, the difficulties of execution begin to mount quickly. The end of the year is the perfect time to plan, execute and conquer a project as such, to ensure your POS terminals are the best version they can be.

Third Key: PrimeroEdge Website Reminders

Now that we have covered the hardware-related necessities for the end of the school year, let’s dive into the more specific PrimeroEdge website reminders. During the year, POS Periods should be constantly maintained and closed. This is just as important to consider for the final month as well. Under the Point of Service Module > Management > POS Periods is where you can locate the page to close your final month of the year, and also verify all of your other periods have been properly consolidated.

The final PrimeroEdge website reminder to look into prior to the summer starting is setting the Last and First Day to accept online applications. If you have the proper permissions to manipulate certain system settings in PrimeroEdge, you can quickly navigate to the System Module > Management > System Settings > Student Eligibility tab > Category: Online Applications.

Here you will find the two application settings shown at the bottom of the screenshot below:

All that is required for this setting is to consider the dates that you want to establish as the last day to accept online applications, and then the first day to begin accepting online applications. Don’t let the year confuse you; it actually doesn’t affect anything for this configuration. This is an optional item for the Year End, but it will be one less thing you need to focus on when the beginning of the next school year finally arrives.

So, what about those pesky Year Begin tasks? Stay tuned for the “Year Begin: Keys to Your Success” blog to find out! In the meantime, tell us how you manage the end of your school year in the comments section below – with PrimeroEdge software, or other strategies. What challenges do you face, and what strategies have you established to make the end of your school year as stress-free as possible?

Last but not least, click Year End printable if you would like access to the Year End reminders document.