In this guide, you will be shown how to create a Club or Trip from within the Groups page.
A Club is usually a reoccurring activity/service like Breakfast Club or Basketball, while a Trip is a one off activity/occurrence like Ski Trip or London Aquarium.
- Create a New Club/Trip
- Group Details
- Basic Group Details
- Additional Group Details
- Charges – Running Balance Clubs Only
- Associated Group Details
- Schedule
- Student Memberships
- Managing Waiting Lists
Access: The minimum permissions required to create a Club or Trip are found in the Framework Module of Config>Setup>Roles and Permissions.
See also: How to Edit and Maintain a Club, Parent View of Booking a Club or Trip on MCAS – desktop view.
In Bromcom, there are various types of Clubs or Trips that you can create.
- Free – For a Club or Trip that requires no fee to enrol/attend.
- Paid – For a Club or Trip that requires a fee to enrol/attend.
- Running Balance – For School care taken before or after School times.
Create New Club/Trip
From the left Menu, go to Groups and in the Group Type dropdown choose Clubs & Trips.
Note: In a Secondary School database the Group Type will default to Teaching Class and in a Primary School database the Group Type will default to Tutor Group.
Next, click on New.
This will open the Create New Group window, which provides you with the ability to enter the the following information;
Note: All fields with * are mandatory and must be completed.
- Club Payment Types – can be either Free, Paid, or Running Balance. With Running Balances students can be assigned to specific sessions either by Administrators if set to Submit Preferences or Parents if set to Enrol to Sessions. Parents then pay off the Running Balance over time.
- The Start and End Date – refer to the dates when the Club will be running, you can timetable this further on to specific times. These dates are the dates the club is active on the groups page. This is not just the date the trip or club is happening on. We advise that this is set to today as a start date and the end date must be at least the date of the trip schedule. With larger trips that have instalment plans, we would suggest allowing yourselves some additional time after the trip has run, just in case. If you select Running Balance Club as the Payment Type the End Date field will disappear, you will be able to amend this later but we would generally recommend that you do not enter an End Date for Running Balance Clubs.
- Membership Limit and Reserved Spaces – is how many people you wish to have in the Group and how many of those spaces can be Reserved in advance. You can reserve places in the example you have parents who do not have access to a computer but you know they will want to book on the club
- Waiting List – whether you wish to run a Waiting List in case anyone drops out or leaves the Club. The parents will be able to add children to the Waiting List on MCAS
- Attachments – are associated documents about the Group, such as Flyers or an Itinerary. These can be Uploaded as a Document
- Linked Groups – clicking on the Linked Groups button opens the Group Selector page where you have the option to select who the Club or Trip is for – Classes, Year Groups or other Types of Groups. Once you have selected the Group type (if needed – you can just leave it for the whole Group), select the further sub Groups within that area, then when you’re finished click Done, if you want a Trip to be for a select group of Students create a Report Group first with the selected students. So in the example you are running a Year 6 Film Club selecting Year 6 in the Groups will mean this club is only available to parents of Year 6 children
- Important Note: leaving the Linked Groups empty will open the Club/Trip up for all Students. – If you wish to restrict the Club/Trip to specific Students, you would select a Group here and only the Students in it would have access to the Club/Trip. For example if you wanted to create a Club/Trip for just PP Pupil Premium Students then one option is to select the (V) Pupil Premium Group
If the Group Selector is open, click on the desired Group/Groups and press Done.
This will take you back to the previous screen (unless you did not add a Linked Group).
Now, click on the Save & Edit button.
You have now created your Group and you will be redirected to the Groups Details area of it, where you can add further information for the Club/Trip.
Alternatively, you can press Save and resume creating the Club/Trip later.
Group Details
After pressing Save & Edit, the Club will be displayed where additional information can be added.
Alternatively, if you selected Save earlier and navigated away from the Club, you can return to it from Groups > Group Type > Club.
Once you find it, press View to open the Group Details area shown below;
Basic Group Details
This area allows you to amend the Name, Description, Start Date and End Date at any time.
The Display club in the following section on MCAS is a mandatory selection and will display the Club under the Clubs, Trips or Wraparound Care sections on MCAS.
The Payment Type is dictated by which option you selected previously and the Display on MCAS section is for you to choose where you want the Club to Display.
If the Club is Paid, you will have an Edit Payment Options.
Under Payment Options, you have Variations.
If you set this to Yes, you have the option to create Variations of the Club/Trip with different prices and assign them to a Group of Students. For example, a discounted version for PP/Disadvantaged Students and a full price version for non PP/Disadvantaged Students.
Parents of Students in one Group will not be able to see the Club/Trip under the other pricing and vice versa.
- Fixed Price allows you to set a Price that must be Paid in one transaction
- Instalments allows you to set a series of Payments split over a period of time.
- Enable Part Payment is only accessible within Instalments but they are separate, Part Payments allows Parents to make flexible payments of their choice as and when they want towards the total price.
If needed, the Payment Option you select can be changed once the Club/Trip is live and there are Orders against it. So if the Club/Trip is initially charged in Instalments, you are able to then change it to a Fixed Price Club/Trip should you wish.
Additional Group Details
This section allows you to set a Membership Limit and Reserved Spaces.
Membership Limit dictates how many Students can Purchase/Enrol to the Club/Trip, while the Reserved Spaces automatically deducts spaces, potentially so that you can add Students who’s families don’t use MCAS.
Live on MCAS dictates the Dates the Club/Trip is visible in MCAS. Clubs and Trips can be configured in Config>MCAS>Clubs and Trips Settings.
Charges – Running Balance Clubs only
When creating a Running Balance Club you will see an extra section in the Additional Group Details panel for Charges. This is how you determine how much a Student will pay per session. The section also allows you to define different charges which could be used to differentiate the length of time spent (for example you could have a different Charge for a 30 minute session as opposed to a 2 hour session) and can be assigned to different groups of Students (for example separate charges for Students with Pupil Premium and Students without Pupil Premium)
To Add a New Charge click Add New Record at the bottom of the table, tick the box on the far left to make the charge Active, enter a Name and Code for the charge, then select whether it will be the Default charge and if it will be Available to Parents using the tick boxes. Enter the value of the Charge (Note: This is entered without a £ sign, so a Charge of £2.50 would be entered as 2.5). Next, use the drop down to select any Groups you would like to link this Charge to (Note: if you select a Group here, this charge will only be available to the selected group, leaving this section blank enables the charge for all Students to whom the Club is available.) Once you’re happy click the Tick on the far right hand side to save the Charge.
Important Note: When updating the Charges for an existing running balance club, to avoid losing historical data, it is usually better to deactivate the old Charge and create a new one rather than deleting or editing the existing Charge. To do this just untick the Active box for the charge you are changing and then follow the steps above to add a new one.
Associated Group Details
This section allows you to add or amend any Linked Groups that have been linked to this Club/Trip.
Linking a Group to the Club/Trip means that only Students from that Group will have access to/be able to enrol to the Club/Trip.
Schedule
The Schedule is very Important when it comes to Clubs and Trips. This is how you outline when/where the Club takes places and the Schedule being present is a big part of how Students can see/enrol to it on MCAS.
Important: a Club/Trip will only become available for parents to book on MCAS if there is a future Schedule. This is time linked, so if a trip starts at 8am. By 8:05 it will be considered a past trip.
When you press Add, you will be required to populate the following information;
- Weekday: For example if the Club is on a Wednesday type Wednesday into Weekday, you can choose more than one day
- Start Time and End Time: if for example the Club starts at 3.15pm and finishes at 4.15pm then either type the time in or use the clock
- Session length: this will populate automatically from the Start and End Time
- Main Teacher : select the Teacher responsible for the Club
- Location: select the Room/Location for the Club, if this is offsite for a Trip click Unknown
All the above can be amended once the Schedule is Saved. For example if you have a club every Wednesday but for some weeks its on a Thursday in a different room with a different teacher this can be amended once you click Save Schedule.
Another new feature has been added to allow you to add Sessions for past dates in the Schedule area of Clubs. Previously this feature was not available and would cause issues if a Club was created but the first few Sessions were not in the Schedule for example.
When editing a Club, Past Sessions can be added via the Schedule.
Student Memberships
The final section of the Group Details is Student Memberships.
In general, you do not need to add Students manually to a trip/club, if the Club is chargeable we would usually advise that you allow the Parents to enroll the Students via MCAS. However, if the Club is Free you can add and remove students through the Student Memberships panel with no impact.
This is where you can view, amend or add Student Memberships to this Club/Trip. If the Club/Trip has been made available to Parents on MCAS and Parents have booked on to the trip you would see them in Student Memberships
If you add Students in this section you are adding them to the Club/Trip and if there is a charge then this will create an order
When you press Add Multiple, you will be presented with a Student Selector and Start Date.
These allow you to select which Students you wish to add to Club/Trip and from which Date.
This could be useful in situations where a family does not have MCAS but they want their Child to attend, meaning you could add the Student manually on their behalf.
Adding a student manually in Student Memberships gives you the option to create an order. If you add student memberships manually then you will need to create an order for each instalment needed. If you add all instalments in the single order, then parents will need to pay all in one checkout.
If you choose Do not create then the selected Students will be added to the Club but with no charge added.
If you choose Create an order you will be asked to confirm the charge you wish to apply to the selected Students and this will now show as Outstanding in the Student Memberships
If you have selected Instalments within your Payment Options and select to create an Order you will see the following options.
Selecting Add Deposit creates an initial order for the Deposit which will be followed by all subsequent instalments as specified in the Payment Options section. This is the option we would usually recommend if you would like to add Students to the Club and have them follow the designated Instalment plan.
Selecting Add Full Amount will create an order for the Full Amount including the deposit and all instalment plans under 1 order (For example if the instalment plan dictates a Deposit of £50 and then 4 x Instalments of £50, this would add an order for £250) . The parent will need to pay for the Club in full and will not be able to make use of the Instalment plan.
Selecting Add Bespoke Amount opens the following pop-up enabling you to customise the instalment plan for the selected Student(s). You can use the Deposit field at the top to change the deposit amount, and you can then use the Number of Instalments dropdown to change the number of Instalments as well as the amount required per Instalment, the individual Instalment amounts can be amended individually but the Deposit plus all of the Instalments must equal the Total Price as selected upon setting up the Club. Clicking Create Order will create orders for the Deposit and each of the Instalments.
Managing Waiting Lists
If you have ticked Enable Waiting List and added a Membership Limit in Additional Group Details, then once the Membership Limit is reached, Parents will have the option to add the Student to a Waiting List. You’ll see the Waiting List below the Student Membership panel on the Group Page.
Once a space in the Trip becomes available you can move the Student from the Waiting List in to the Student Memberships list by clicking the + button in the Actions column on the far right.
If the Student decides they no longer wish to attend the Trip and would like to be removed from the Waiting List you can remove them by clicking the Bin icon in the Actions column.
