Open Front Desk → Student Pickup. This module connects a parent's pickup pass, the gate scan, the private office queue and the public call display. Your school must enable pickup and your staff login must hold the permission for the screen you need. If it is missing or access is denied, ask your administrator to check both the school setting and your role's privileges.
Parent pickup pass
In a Parents App version that includes this feature, select any child at the school, then open Home → Pickup pass and present the current QR at the gate. The pass covers the server-linked active siblings at that school, not children at a different school. It contains no fee information. The QR expires after at most ten minutes; press Refresh pass to replace it. The app clears an expired pass or a pass left in the background. Return to the screen and refresh before scanning. Do not share the QR or use another family's pass.
A scan records arrival. It does not prove who may collect the child, and it does not record handover. Gate staff must still check the school's authorized adult details before handing over a child.
Gate Scan
Use Front Desk → Student Pickup → Gate Scan to scan the current pass for the selected campus. Only linked active children at that campus are included. The system records their pickup requests and arrival time. There is one pickup record per child per day; repeating a scan returns the existing record, including a completed handover. An invalid or expired pass must be replaced; do not treat a failed scan as permission to release a child.
The gate shows pickup status without fee amounts. If a request needs office review, contact the office rather than announcing it outside.
Choose Pickup arrival or Morning check-in, then select the campus. A USB or Bluetooth QR scanner can enter the token in the Family pickup token field; press Enter or Scan QR. Use camera fills the field for review before submission. Camera scanning needs a supported browser and camera permission. If the browser says it cannot scan QR codes, use an external QR keyboard scanner or enter the current pickup token. Do not assume every biometric device supports this interface.
Office Monitor
Front Desk → Student Pickup → Office Monitor shows today's pickup requests and morning gate arrivals at the selected campus. The authorized office user can review private fee status, release an announcement hold, mark a child ready and confirm actual handover.
When fee announcement restriction is on, an overdue child's pickup request stays in private office review. The child's name must not appear or be spoken on the public display until the office releases the request. Release clears the display hold only: it does not pay, waive or change the child's fees.
Only confirm handover after staff check the collecting adult and the child has actually left with them. A handed-over request leaves the active public call queue.
The sequence is Release → Release for public call for a held request, then Mark ready → Handed over → Confirm handover. A request already called does not need Release. Search by student or class and use Show to filter office review, called, ready, handed over, morning check-ins or all today. Clear removes the search. The queue refreshes every four seconds while the page is open; Refresh queue checks again. If the queue disconnects or another user changed the request, refresh before retrying an action.
Public Display and audio
Front Desk → Student Pickup → Public Display is for a lobby or waiting-area screen. It shows cleared students' photo, name, class, section and pickup status. Held requests and morning arrivals are excluded. Fee amounts, parent contact details and private review reasons never belong on this display.
Pickup announcements default to Urdu. Audio uses the display device's browser voice and speakers; it needs an available Urdu voice on that device. If no Urdu voice is installed, Enable audio is disabled and the screen explains that an Urdu voice is unavailable; it does not switch the announcement to English. The visual board still works. The operator must enable audio, check volume and test the speaker connection. Browser and installed voice support can vary. Check the device and browser if a call appears but cannot be heard or pronunciation needs attention. This is browser text-to-speech, not a cloned voice or a guaranteed match to a supplied recording. A browser announcement does not send SMS, WhatsApp, email or a mobile push notification.
Select List view or Ticker view, then Enable audio if announcements are needed. Stop audio silences this device. Keep the tab visible; changing campus or hiding the tab stops audio. The board refreshes every three seconds, and each call is spoken once per announcement update while the display remains open. Presentation view opens a full-screen board; Exit presentation or Escape returns. If the display disconnects, calls and audio pause until it reconnects. This screen still requires a staff login with Pickup Public Display access; “public” describes its displayed content, not an anonymous link.
Settings & demo and overdue badges
Use Front Desk → Student Pickup → Settings & demo to set the school's announcement restriction and staff overdue highlighting. Restriction controls whether an overdue request needs private office release before public calling. Active requests are checked again when the monitor or public display refreshes: turning restriction on can move a called or ready request into private review; requests individually released by the office stay released. Completed handovers do not reopen. Highlighting controls the overdue badge on staff screens; it does not change the student's balance or pay a challan. The badge is a status indicator, not a fee amount.
Choose Enable student pickup, Hold overdue fee requests for office review and Highlight overdue fees on private staff screens, then press Save settings and confirm. These are school-wide settings even though a campus is selected for permission checking. Discard changes restores the saved policy.
The fee flag follows the school's existing fee-defaulter rule: a challan from this month or an earlier month whose status is not Fully Paid. It does not compare the challan's due date. A current-month unpaid challan can therefore trigger review even if its due date is still ahead. Partial payments reduce the private remaining-balance amount, but a challan that is still not Fully Paid remains flagged. Future-month challans are excluded. If the flag looks wrong, check the saved challan month, status and payments on the fee screen; do not release a pickup to try to correct a balance.
Staff Fee overdue badges appear in Manage Students, Fee Plans create/edit, Pay or Print Fee Challans and Take Attendance. Existing classic layouts remain available. Gate, parent and public displays receive no fee badge or amount.
The Urdu announcement wording setting requires {student_name} and may also use {class_name} and {section_name}. The template is limited to 600 characters. Keep it limited to pickup instructions and the student's public call details; never put fee information, parent phone numbers or private office reasons in a template. A sample recording can help staff adjust the wording later, but it does not make this device reproduce the sample voice or tone.
Preview a student announcement safely
In Settings & demo, choose a permitted campus, then find a student by name in the paged student picker. Select the student to see their public call details in the demo, or use the sample when a real student is not needed. Choose List or Ticker to preview the display. The demo formats the draft Urdu announcement wording using the same public student details as the live display. A draft preview does not save the school-wide wording; use Save settings and confirm when the wording is ready.
The preview does not scan a pass, add a pickup request, release a hold, change fees, record attendance or send a message. Selecting a student, editing wording or changing view does not automatically speak. Press Listen to announcement to hear the preview on this device. Speech stops if the selected student, draft wording or voice changes, if the tab is hidden, if the page closes, or if the preview fails. Use Stop demo to end playback. Use the demo to check pronunciation and the speaker before running a public board.
Choose from the Urdu voices installed on this device. Adjust Speed from 0.7 to 1.3 and Pitch from 0.8 to 1.2. These voice preferences are saved for your account in this browser and are also used by Public Display on the same account and browser. Reset voice restores the device defaults. Another device or browser needs its own voice preferences; these controls do not install a voice or change every school's speaker. If no Urdu voice is available, follow the device's Urdu voice guidance before listening. There is no English voice fallback. The wording may be tuned using a sample recording, but browser speech cannot promise the sample's exact voice or tone.
Every other school needs explicit enablement and the relevant staff privilege. In Users & Privileges, grant only the needed Pickup Gate, Pickup Monitor, Pickup Public Display or Pickup Settings permission, with the correct campus. Keep the office screen away from a public monitor because it contains private fee information.
Morning arrivals and early leave
A morning gate scan records arrival in the pickup monitor only. It does not mark the attendance register. Record attendance through the school's normal attendance process.
For a child leaving early during the school day, use the existing Front Desk → Student Leave / Exit Pass workflow. Pickup announcements do not create an early-leave pass, and neither workflow changes attendance automatically.