Public Store Webinar Q&A

Thank you to all who were able to attend the Public Store Webinar on July 29, 2021. Due to time constraints, some questions could not be answered during the webinar. Answers to those questions are provided below. We have also included the questions and answers that were addressed during the webinar.

Note: Questions regarding district-specific issues are not included. We recommend submitting a support case to have your individual situation reviewed and addressed.

View the Webinar Recording

#QuestionAnswer
User Accounts
1What are the pros and cons of requiring a user account?It's purely up to the school district's preference. We have one of our early pilots who require it because they want to be able to follow-up with a guest user via future notification tools, etc.
2How does the account creation impact SAML or AD accounts?These user accounts are treated as non-linked accounts for SAML and AD.
3If they already exist as a person in Infinite Campus, will it tie them to that person, so that they aren't duplicated?No, it will not tie to a person who already exists in Campus. Campus does verify the email address. So, if they have an email address in Campus already, they will need to call the office to have a user account created for the Public Store.
4Won't that create a lot of duplicate people?You can choose not to require user account creation if you have concerns about duplicates. If you do require user account creation, Campus does verify the email address is unique. The person will not be duplicated as long as the email address is unique.
5Does the "require user account" option when the person is created in Census, does it do any checks or is there administrative tools to prevent person duplication?Campus users are required to have unique email addresses. So, as long as they're consistent with the email address, duplicate people and accounts won't be allowed.
6Does it tag a required user with a student or does it have any impact on the student side of IC?There is no linkage or impact to students via the Public Store.
7If the emails match, would it allow the user to change their name? I wouldn't want people messing with legal names.No. If the email matches a known user, they are redirected to the proper store login for that email address.
8People change email addresses as often as cell phone numbers. They use multiple email addresses as well. In our OLR applications we have had fictional characters as emergency contacts.  Are there other fields that could be required when creating accounts?We had a lot of conversations about this and we were unable to find anything else that would be useful in eliminating duplicates without having to reveal Census data which is not a secure option. So, we chose to follow industry standards for online store user accounts.
9My Public Store home page does not have the option/checkbox for require user account.Campus.2128 was the GA release and that is the one that has the option to turn off the requirement.
10So, will there be a new user account type created for those that are only on for the Public Store? As in not a parent or student?Yes, in user accounts there is a new Public Store homepage. 
Ticket Sales
11If we were to use this to sell tickets to sporting events, will we be able to use the SKU on a report to mark the ticket off once the person or persons have entered the event?Currently, we only support general admission. Assigned seating or selection of seats would be a potential future addition or partnership.
12If you're selling an item -- such as football ticket -- what is used to get into the event? Someone at the gate checking a list or do people use the email from the purchase?At the moment, you can check off purchased items on a list from the Payments Reporter or use a receipt from the store for the item.
13Can you pick your seat or are all seats General Admission?
 (Note: this is more about theater and not football)
Currently, for ticket sales it's general admission. We may look at either building or partnering on ticketing related to specific seat selection and assignment in the future, but it's not on our roadmap currently.
14What would keep folks from just copying the paper receipt for a ticket they never actually paid for? How can folks at gate be sure this has been paid for??You need to name the product appropriately; e.g., Vikings vs. Saints 9/21/21.
15How do the "ticket takers" at the door know the person really bought a ticket??You can use the printed Pick List or export purchased items from the Payments Reporter and/or use receipts.
Kiosk
16How do we deal will transactions using the Public Store with walk-in customers?One option is to have a computer available in a "kiosk" mode for the person to go to the Public Store. This option also works for Activity Registration for parents who aren't comfortable using Parent Portal. We do have plans to provide a Physical Store POS that will serve this purpose in the future.
17Or have them enter their information on a kiosk mode computer in the store?Correct. Known parents/students could use the kiosk to go to the Campus Parent or Campus Student. Or guests could use the kiosk for the Public Store.
18How does this work for a physical store with people in front of you? They shop off the shelf? Do we have a way to go in and add stuff for them at the store and pay that way?We have a Physical School Store / POS project in our road map. In the meantime, while it might be clunky, you could use a kiosk for Public Store or School Store.
Ad hoc Filters
19How does that work together - if you restrict it to enrollment but allow it in Public Store.If you have restrictions for school enrollments or use Ad hoc filters, they will not be available in the Public Store.
20Does it take a snapshot of that Ad hoc? What if 4th graders enroll after you did this?Using the Pass-through SQL query will allow for this.
21Using the Ad hoc to only be available for 4th grade students...can't be used WITH the Public Store, correct?That is correct, only Campus Student and Campus Parent portal.
22How do you restrict products to a grade?You can use an Ad hoc filter for that. There are also many other ways to selectively make products available for purchase.
23Is there a way to limit the idea that HS Prom Tickets can be purchased by elementary school students… given that anyone can shop at any store? I’m sorry if I’m way behind.Yes, those items would have an Ad hoc filter which would restrict the availability to just the students/parents whom you want to purchase the item.
24Are all the store fields available in Ad hoc? I am thinking a report the food service people could run instead of the admin having to give them the report.The data represented in the Pick List is available in Ad hoc currently: ItemName, CutstomerComments, purchasedate, schoolID, recipient,customer,itemSKU, transaction type, totalprice, paymenttransactionref, pickedup, recipientpersonID, schoolName, studentNumber, and categories.
School Store
25Why would a school put an elementary field trip on the School Store instead of merely creating a fee to assign or optional to select?Many districts require forms to be completed or option selected as part of field trips. They are using Activity Registration with forms for eSignature which appears as a product in the store.
26Where were the checkboxes for free/reduced?First, the school must allow for different pricing, which is a School Store setting. Then when you set up a product, there are fields for entering free and reduced prices. The store checks the student's eligibility status and displays free and reduced prices according to their eligibility status.

Keep in mind, Free/Reduced does not apply to the Public Store because we don't have them associated with a known person in Campus.
27IF you do not use FRAM information what do you enter for the prices? Or leave blank in Reduced and Free?You can leave Free or Reduced as blank or the same price as the sale price.
28Who has access to receipts when there is F/R costs listed? How does the confidentiality work?We protect the paid amounts to only those who should have access to see it through tool rights.
29So, if grandparents want to pay for an Activity Registration it needs to be checked as a general product to show up in the School Store?Currently activity registration like other fees associated with students is limited to Campus Parent and Campus Student users to make payments. If a "guest" wants to make a payment for something like this, it would be best to have them use a card for card present processing in the office so it can be directly applied to that item.
30Is the credit card fee 4% on School Store as well?All fees are consistent with the Fee Schedule for all Campus Payments.  You can get the Fee Schedule from our Customer Relationship Manager or Account Executive.
31Would we receive an email when someone purchases an item or do we have to continually check to see if purchases were made?We currently have a project in the future to provide notifications for School Store and Public Store.
Miscellaneous
32Can you clarify/review the limitations around using Free/Reduced in the Public Store. Sorry if I missed it.Free/Reduced does not apply to the the Public Store because we don't have them associated with a known person in Campus.
33Thank you David... To my understanding.... We will have to wait for future POS in order to use a credit card transactions for in person purchases? Correct?You can accept card present transactions today for parents/students using either the USB Card Swipe or directly entering the information in the payments area for Census.
34So, if grandparents want to pay for an Activity Registration it needs to be checked as a general product to show up in the School Store?Currently activity registration like other fees associated with students is limited to Campus Parent and Campus Student users to make payments. If a "guest" wants to make a payment for something like this, it would be best to have them use a card for card present processing in the office so it can be directly applied to that item.
35How do you do discounts? Like 10% off for Back to School coupon?We don't currently support discounts or coupons, but they are on our future roadmap.
36What if you want more inventory if you run out?

You can just update the inventory on hand in the item editor if you receive additional inventory for an item.

37Is there a way that people can use there cell phones for the receipt?You could access your payment history from your cell phone. Parent/student app is already available. Public Store is through a URL link.
38Is there a way to allow partial payments for a field trip?Currently, to do partial payments or recurring payments you need to use a Fee rather than a store item. We do have it on our roadmap to allow partial/recurring payments for certain store items in the future.
39How do you make a product active. I don't see an active buttonThere is a check box as well as effective dates so you can set up items ahead of time and set a specific timeframe you want the product available for purchase. You can also leave the end date blank and it will be available until you choose to remove it.
40How secure is the public facing site for transactions for hosted schools?It's all housed in the same infrastructure as your main Campus SIS installation. Very secure and all payment related information is secured to the highest level of PCI compliance.
41To whom do the "forget username" and "forget password" notifications go?To the email address associated with the account. Same functionality as in core Campus.
42Is there a limit to the number of items in the cart?No limit on the number of items in the cart.
43Who gets alerts that people have bought product?Currently it's report driven in the pick list or Payments Reporter. We just kicked off a notifications project that will allow you to select one or more people that should be notified of a product sale, or daily sales, out of stock, etc.
44Can the "payment method" be a check or cash to eliminate the 5% fee?eCheck is supported. There is no way to accept cash for the store. Once we have the Physical School Store the ability to use cash would be an option. 
45Can they only pay with credit card in Public Store? Or can they give cash/check?eCheck / Credit Card. Current support is for online transactions. Once we have the physical School Store cash and physical check will be options.
46Sorry if I missed something since I had to join late. How does a person get to the School Store if they do not have an IC login?There is a URL available in the setup that you can put on your school website or send via email for folks to be directed to the Public Store.
47How are you getting that sweatshirt to Grandma Wagner if she bought it online?Use descriptions and pick list to coordinate pickup or delivery.
48All of our fee rates apply to the Public Store, correct?All fees are consistent with the Fee Schedule for all Campus Payments.
49I have set up things as we were going along. Nothing shows up on the Public Store - any troubleshooting ideas?I suggest submitting a support ticket so they can dedicate the time to help with this.
50Is there a limit to the amount of product items you can have, per item?No technical limit. You'll want to be careful about how it will look to parents in the store though.
51REPORTING - PICKLIST - I want to export the report, but only for some people...for example, I would like to deselect certain people...can I do that? Or is that an enhancement coming? Or am I only able to do that in Excel once I export.Yes, whatever grouping and filtering you do on the Pick List report, it will export that way.
52Are students allowed to manage the pick list for certain items they are selling?Yes, if you give access to the report. As a best practice, do not give students the tool right to the Sale Price column. 
53Do you recommend creating new Public Store item for each football game or can we just change the dates and reuse. Do we need to create a new store item each year or can we just change the dates of and item we already have?I would suggest creating a separate product for each game, but then you could also re-use the products the following year and just update the dates. Assuming they play the same teams. 
54What happens if they used "eCheck" option but didn't have enough money in account to cover the costs??The same thing that happens on Amazon or any other online store. Their bank will submit an "Insufficient Funds" response a day or two later and the district will need to follow up with the individual to collect. Alternately, you can choose not to accept eCheck if you prefer.
55But then how do you track sales if you can't accept cash or check like we do with tuition?It's all in the Payments Reporter or sales report.
56Taxes? I take it this does not calculate taxes for items sold. Will I have to add that in the price?Currently, if you are required to collect tax that would need to be accounted for in the price. There is no tax module for the store currently.