Using Schoolpost to deliver Fees Invoices

Last Updated 12/06/2025 - There are now 4 rename applications with associated configuration files: 

MHSF; Kingshott; Lyonsdown; St Jospeh

This process renames and copies ISAMS invoice id files to iSAMS parent id for SchoolPost publication.

SchoolPost:

MHSF https://millhill.schoolpost.co.uk/

St Jospeh https://stjosephs.schoolpost.co.uk/staff/login 

Kinsgshott https://kingshott.schoolpost.co.uk/staff/login 

Lyonsdown https://lyonsdown.schoolpost.co.uk/staff/login 

SchoolPost help:

https://schoolpostcdn.blob.core.windows.net/public/~/4.45.2/SchoolPost-getting-started-guide.pdf

Relationship Types

The following iSAMS relationship types will have Firefly/SchoolPost accounts, in the future other relationship types may also have Firefly/SchoolPost accounts:

Parents,Father,Mother,Father and Stepmother,Mother and Stepfather,Stepfather and Mother,Stepmother and Father, 

Agent,Educational Agent,Guardian,Foster Mother,Foster Father,Guardian/Educational Agent,Grandmother w Portal, 

Aunt,PA to parents,Stepfather

Invoices for any other relationship types will fail to be matched and will have to be sent via email. Note also that some educational agents have multiple or incomplete entries in iSAMS, and so may also fail to be matched. See Create a new Merge publication below for viewing details of the non-matched invoices.

Initial Script Setup (only required once on your computer)

Download the attached INVOICE_RENAME.ZIP file to your My Documents folder, and unzip.

The following folders and files are created:

CONFIG files in My Documents > INVOICE_RENAME > APPLICATION allows the default invoice template pattern and invoice prefixes to be defined.

For example, CONFIG-MHSF:

Ensure that the iSAMS invoice template includes the words "Please ensure you give your Account Ref " and includes the account reference number on one line. These words can be modified in the CONFIG file.

Export Invoices from iSAMS -  

Export the invoices for each school from iSAMS as a single ZIP file containing all invoices as separate files - do not select the option to download as a single document as this would then have to be split. 

Extract the individual invoices from the iSAMS ZIP file into a new subfolder (right-click, extract to folder) and keep the file/folder names as short as possible (e.g. "unzip") as there is a 260 character limit in Windows and Firefly. You can also user MS PowerToys to rename all files - for example rename "InvoiceDocument_*" to "InvDoc_*".

Copy the extracted invoices folder (e.g. "MHI Autumn Term 2024"), navigate to the script area: My Documents > INVOICE_RENAME > ISAMS_SRC created by the intial setup above and paste in the invoices folder. This can be done for each school - ideally clearly identifying the school name by subfolder title (e.g. "MHI Autumn Term 2024" ).

Run the Rename Script for each school

Open the My Documents > INVOICE_RENAME folder, double-click the Fee_Invoices_Rename application for the particular schools, and in the folder dialog select the folder contaning the schools iSAMS invoices:

Next, select the invoice title (0-4) which will be added as a prefix to the invoices to be posted via SchoolPost:

The script will now rename all invoices for that particular school, for example, a single invoice to be sent to both parents:

InvoiceDocument_run-370_inv-31367_acc-ACH001.pdf

Would be duplicated and renamed for the primary parent and the secondary parent (identified by their contact id):

Invoice MHI Autumn Term 2024 7010-1.pdf

Invoice MHI Autumn Term 2024 7010-2.pdf

Estranged parents will have different account references, and therefore only receive their invoice and not see the other parent's contact details.

The script will list all the renames and summarise the Matched and Unmatched invoices.

If any errors are shown in red, please re-run the script for that school as files may have been locked, preventing rename.

The resulting log file, and renamed-invoices (packaged as a ZIP file) are saved to My Documents > INVOICE_RENAME

The renamed invoices saved to My Documents > INVOICE_RENAME > RENAMED_INVOICES can be used to locate any unmatched renames which will have to be handled manually.

Create a new Merge publication

Logon to Schoolpost, select My Account, Staff Area, New Merge Publication.

The fees invoice can either be published as soon as ready (leave the custom date selected to now), or schedule to send at a particular date and time.

Once the upload is complete, the results of the upload are shown, it is to be expected that there will be some non-matched documents as not all agents or relationship types will be set-up in iSAMS and Firefly.

Clicking on Merge publication:

Presents a summary showing matched and unmatched document counts:

Clicking on Non-matched documents, or Matched documents to see the details:

For example, below there are 9 non-matched documents which will have to be sent manually by email. Any CSV files in this list should be deleted to ensure that the publication can be saved.

...and 199 matched documents that will be published via SchoolPost. Finance should click on a selection of PDF documents to verify that the invoice matches the Name.

Note that if a ZIP is too large for uploading, split the ZIP into two and upload as batch 1 and batch 2.

Create the Communication

The communication can now be completed, include a Subject, use the merge field template to enter parents title and name, and enter the body of the message:

The messages can be previewed by clicking View email button:

Do not send emails

For invoices, ensure that the option to not send emails is selected. 

Co-owners and Confidential Publication

For invoices, you should select Confidential Publication. You can also select other people to work jointly on a publication:

Save the publication.

Submit for approval

When ready, select Richard Das as the approver, ensure that you select Do not send emails (otherwise this would defeat the purpose of only publishing invoices via SchoolPost and not via email), and click Request approval button:

Note that the number of matched documents may be greater then the number of recipients, for example a mother with two children in a school will have two matched invoices, but only count as a single recipient.

Informing Parents that an invoice has been posted

Once approved, the publication will be posted to SchoolPost/Firefly messages. Note that as the "do not send email" option was selected the parents will only know that they have received an invoice if they check Firefly messages or use the Firefly for parents app. SchoolPost should therefore be used to generate a quick publication (a standard publication, not a merge publication) to all Parents of a particular school informaing them that invoices have been posted to the bill-payers via Firefly. For example, to send to all MHI Parents:

Set your reply option:

a) None – no reply link will be available for this message/publication.

b) Message – this allows parents to click a reply link and type a short message into a simple ‘onefield’ form. The ‘Email address for replies’ field will automatically be pre-populated with your own address; this is where an email alert will go to whenever a parent replies. You may edit this if you need replies to go somewhere else or remove it if you do not want an email every time someone completes the reply form. You can enter multiple emails separated with ;. All replies also go into a data file which you may download later (i.e. a list of all replies in one file) so you do not need to also receive the emails for each reply unless you particularly want to. 

Recalling a Publication

A publication can be recalled by editing the active publication and clicking Deactivate. This will immediately remove the publication from Firefly/SchoolPost.

Parents trying to access the previously viewed publication (if it has been cached by the Firefly app or they are revisting the page) would see a page error:

Logs Summary

SchoolPost can report the number of users who have viewed the publication details, click on the publication and Logs Summary button.

The summary can show details of publication details viewed, and invoice documents downloaded. Click on the relevent Excel icon or click the Download documents button (as a XML file), once downloaded the XML file can be oipened in Excel (File, Open).

Viewing a parent’s mailbox in SchoolPost

Main Menu > Accounts > Search or filter the view to find the parent > Click Mailbox

This gives you a view of everything the user has ever been sent including icons on the left which indicate

whether they have read or replied to a specific message or not (hover over an icon for an explanation if it is

not clear from the graphic).

IT Source Files

See https://mhsf.freshdesk.com/a/solutions/articles/103000305482?portalId=103000015705