Pupil

The first student-travel management system

Student travel has evolved, bringing greater security to contracts and stronger internal management controls at agencies.

Pupil was conceived specifically for student-travel agencies. Its modules were designed with input from industry experts, using their operational knowledge to fit the needs and workflow of end-of-school trips.

Pupil manages travel contracts, including additions, cancellations, changes, complimentary travellers and accompanying adults. Its payments module creates instalment slips payable through payment centres, banks and online.

Pupil's self-service module lets signatories and passengers check booking status online, change passenger lists and track instalment payments.

Pupil Online Management System overview

The system includes the following features:

Contract entry

• The salesperson specifies

- School name

- Signatories

- Package A

- Package B

- Initial instalment

- Discounts and allowances

- Internal party responsible for discounts (company or salesperson)

- Number of complimentary places

- Payment plans included in the contract

Once entered, the contract is validated by senior staff. This establishes the contract structure used for subsequent allocations.

Passenger registration

• Through passenger self-service (optional Self-Service module)
• Managed by the salesperson

Passenger allocation

• Through passenger self-service (optional Self-Service module)
• By the salesperson
• This allocation defines

- Student

- Student type (complimentary, half-price, full payment, etc.)

- Selected plan (12 instalments, etc.)

Pupil checks the entered data against the validated contract structure. For example, it will not allow more complimentary places than the contract specifies.

Once students have been allocated, payment booklets can be issued, preventing further changes by the salesperson. The booklets support the available payment methods.

Payment booklet issuance

• Student name
• School name
• Contract number
• Instalment number
• Amount at the first due date
• First due date
• Amount at the second due date
• Second due date
• Barcode for payment-collection providers

Interest calculation

• Process overdue instalments
• Apply a percentage increase

Reissue payment booklets

• Students can reissue their booklet through the Self-Service module

Balance self-service (optional Self-Service module)

• Using an individual PIN, signatories can view each student's payment position.

Reports module

• Overdue-payment reports
• Collections by area
• Sales by area
• Payment-percentage tracking (passengers up to date, active or in arrears)
• Nights sold by hotel (bed nights)

Add-ons module

• Add services or purchase conditions outside standard packages, such as additional nightclub visits.

Trip module (optional beta version)

• Build trips using the following details

- Trip number

- Contracts included in the trip (travelling on the same bus)

- Validated passenger count for each contract

- Number of accompanying adults

- Departure point

- Departure and return dates

- Coordinator names

- On-board doctor

- Meals on board or at a roadside stop; assign the stop when applicable.

Checklist

• Assign and validate the students and accompanying adults travelling on the planned trips
• Validate each student's personal details for the passenger manifest and meal type, for example for students with coeliac disease

Forms

• Passenger manifest
• Medical insurance

Destination operations module (optional beta version)

• Issue destination vouchers (VIAS)

- Optional-service sales module

- Record the sale

- Issue the voucher

- Record photo-sale settlements

- Record chocolate-sale settlements

- Settlement sheet for coordinator commissions

• Issue combined vouchers

- Once vouchers for each trip and service are received, the general coordinator can issue one combined voucher for all students taking the selected service.

• Voucher reconciliation

- When a combined voucher is issued, cancel the individual trip vouchers in the system to reconcile and control the services delivered at the destination.

• Supplier settlement

- Combined-voucher tracking generates the amounts owed to service providers, which are checked against payments made.

• Trip schedule

- Trips, grouped by departure date and hotel, form the seasonal logistics schedule.

Online credit-card payments or payment slips for collection providers

Users can print their own barcodes for authorised payment-collection providers. A subsequent implementation stage needs to assess whether barcode standards align with Chilean requirements.

For online credit-card payments, we have developed integrations with providers of technology for securely validating sensitive card data.

• TRANSBANK
• EQUIFAX
• NPS
• SAFEYPAY
• MERCADOPAGO
• TODOPAGO

Collection is entirely online, generating a PDF receipt for the user and a corresponding receipt in the internal system to automate the process.

These tools may be the most useful starting point for your agency. For more advanced automation, further modules and utilities support online sales, contract validation, complimentary places, scheduling and other operations.

Implementation adds links to the applications on your agency's existing website, retaining its look and feel and hosting them on your servers. The original material states that Softur does not host customer information.