(Book)keeping Payments Flowing: How Paducah Middle School Digitized Their School Fees and Ticket Sales with OSP's Online School Payment System

THE CHALLENGE

No Paperless Payment Options

When Paducah Middle School suddenly had to shift online during the pandemic, Honey Holmes, Finance Secretary, decided it was time to introduce a digital payment system within the school. With OSP by Edlio, staff have found it much easier to track and analyze school fees, donations, and event tickets, while parents love the convenience of being able to pay online.

“Parents would come in to ask if we took credit cards because they didn’t have cash or checks on-hand but had their credit card,” says Honey.

Although Paducah Middle School had noticed a growing need for accepting credit card payments from families over the past few years, it was the pandemic that made them realize how urgent the need really was. With no way for parents to come into the school to make payments, they became motivated to look for an online school payments platform.

“When COVID hit, we started to think about how we were going to collect lost textbook fees and other end of the year fees,” explains Honey, “because we did not have a credit card processing system in place.”

THE SOLUTION

Online Fees and Ticket Sales Using an Online School Payment System

Fortunately, finding a solution did not take long as Honey had previously been introduced to OSP at the California Association of School Business Officials Conference and felt that it would meet the school’s needs.

“I had heard Kristine speak about OSP and I liked how it integrated with EPES. So we decided to give OSP’s Online School Store a test run at the end of the year and it worked really well,” recalls Honey. “And this year, we expanded to club and other activity fees, as well as selling tickets to our sporting events with Online Ticket Management.”

RESULTS

A High Volume of Online Sales

With the help of OSP’s Online School Store (OSS), Paducah Middle School now collects fees, sells items like yearbooks, and even raises donations for school clubs. “We’ve had a high volume of online sales. Our volleyball team did raise a good amount of money,” summarizes Honey. “And we no longer have to worry about checks getting lost in students’ backpacks!”

Keeping track of sports game ticket sales has also become easier with the implementation of the Online Ticket Management (OTM) feature. Even experienced gatekeepers found that selling and redeeming tickets was much more efficient.

“One of our teachers who has worked on several games loved that she didn't have to fill out the sheet at the end of the night and all I had to do was print out the report and add it to my monthly sales report, ” elaborates Honey.

Paducah Middle has even been able to sell tickets for away games at the request of visiting schools. “We sold tickets to our parents, sent the check to the visiting school, and then emailed the report to their bookkeeper,” says Honey, “and they were able to just check tickets at the door.”

“Overall, OSP has been a blessing. Not just during COVID, but in terms of the things that we can do and branch out. We were kind of tied with just cash and checks. And it’s something that’s not too overwhelming. It’s easy to work with on the bookkeepers’ side.”