You can import pupil Names from your school administration database in various ways, we would suggest you take a look at the options below as a starting point.

Please contact support@mypebble.co.uk or send us a message, bottom right, and we can advise you further.

We would recommend our new Trac Xporter tool to import and update your pupil and staff data. Trac Xporter is recommended for all MIS, SIMS, Bromcom, Arbor etc.

If you have a ParentPay or sQuid integration with Tali;

Use ParentPay or sQuid to update your pupil and staff names if you are not a Tali TILL customer - however, we would still recommend Trac Xporter rather than relying solely on ParentPay or sQuid for pupil and staff names.

Note: Pebble Support generally does one of the above as part of your initial setup or Support can add these features for you at a later date.

How do Names work in Tali?

Each pupil or member of staff has their own entry within Tali so you can register individual transactions against them. More options are available such as Relations details and Groups. Organisation names can be added as required using the Manage Names > Create New Organisation option.

We would always suggest that you Import your pupil names from your administration database; this should avoid duplications. The Trac Xporter feature is the automatic way to add an up-to-date file of pupil names with their year and registration group details and import them quickly into Tali daily. Trac Xporter then archives a name once that person leaves.

Names can be added on an ad-hoc basis for pupils and staff, but this should be avoided if possible and names of pupils as a last resort can be added manually in Admin>Manage Names, but only if you have the permanent UPN for each of the pupils you wish to add.

New organisations can be created and only need creating once, using Create New Organisation. Input the organisation’s name, you do not have to enter any other details unless you want to. Once you have filled in all the information you require click Save.

Pupils and staff details will need to be refreshed e.g. at the start of a new year or term, when pupils move from class to class, or year to year, and when pupils and staff leave the school.

Updating can be manual, but if you are using any of the 3 options above this will be automatic once you have made the change in your MIS, this detail will be reflected in Tali/Till the next day as long as your chosen update method is working automatically.

If you are not using Trac Xporter or a third-party integration, you will need to update names manually, with an imported CSV file. Please contact Support so we can advise how best to do this for your school.

Note: It is your responsibility to handle personal data in accordance with GDPR law.

If you use Trac Xporter or have an integration, pupils will automatically move from class to class, year to year once you refresh the data in your MIS - don’t forget to archive old pupils and staff when they leave school via Administration > Manage Names > Batch Actions.  if you are not using Trac Xporter - Trac Xporter does this automatically.

How to mark Names Out of Use

Pupils are already usually imported by Class, Year or Registration group or create your own pupil group (User Defined) for your Tali names, e.g. trips, off site, overseas, sixth form, etc. You can also set up groups for different groups of pupils e.g. universal infant free school meals, pupil premium, etc. Together with the filter options throughout Tali, groups assist you in selecting names quickly when you want to assign transactions to the names in the group or include the names in the group within reports, such as the Who’s Not Paid report.

Note: Names can be assigned to more than one group, so you can design the groups to make your workday easier.

Once you have created the groups you want to use, you assign names to the groups. This includes the names in the group and you can then apply various actions to the groups.