Somersfield Academy PTA | School PTA Website

3 weeks

From the first line of code to taking cards

3

Design rounds with the committee

20

Rounds of review before a real card went near it

18

Emails, each written for the moment it is sent

6

Spreadsheet exports, including a paper door list

4

Roles: admin, editor, treasurer and door

15

Plain-English guides for next year's committee

0

Accessibility issues across 124 page views

One site in place of five tools

The PTA runs events, a shop and food days for the school. Its biggest night had a date on it: the 35th Anniversary Cocktail Party at the Hamilton Princess on 14 November, with eight ticket and sponsor tiers and a park-and-ride add-on to sell well ahead of time. And the committee changes every year, so whatever replaced the old tools had to be run by volunteers, next year's as much as this year's.

Before

A free page on Classlist
Volunteer sign-ups in the Classlist app
A Jotform for Pizza Friday
Rented card machines on the door
Bank transfers for donations

Now, at somersfieldpta.com

Tickets with named guests and a QR code each
A shop with sizes, colours and stock
Food orders by the term, per child
Donations and auction winnings by card
Door check-in that works without signal
An editing area the committee runs itself

Design

Four directions, then one

Design came first, in three rounds with the committee. The first offered four directions for the same home page. The committee chose Airy as the base, took Bold navy's event buttons and some of Warm's warmth, and kept Editorial for the news pages.

By the third round the anniversary filled the top of the home page and Buy Tickets was the loudest button on it. Each round stayed frozen at its own address while the committee reviewed it, so nothing moved under them.

Round one: Airy, the first design round's home page — Round one: Airy

Round one: Bold navy, the first design round's home page — Round one: Bold navy

Round one: Warm, the first design round's home page — Round one: Warm

Round one: Editorial, the first design round's home page — Round one: Editorial

Round two: one combined direction with a yellow Buy Tickets button in the header — Round two: one direction, from the committee's written notes

Round three: the anniversary gala's date and venue under the headline, with Buy Tickets for the 35th Anniversary — Round three: event details, Food Orders and the anniversary up top

The live home page: the 35th Anniversary Cocktail Party with Buy Tickets, beside the PTA's own photo of coloured pencils — Live, with the PTA's own photography

Photos in the three rounds are placeholders.

For parents

Tickets, the shop and lunch, on a phone

Parents arrive from links shared on WhatsApp, so every page was built for the phone first.

Tickets take a few taps. Each guest is named at checkout, so their ticket is waiting at the door, and the receipt carries a QR code for every ticket. When a sold-out event frees up, everyone on its waiting list hears at the same time.

The shop has sizes and colours with their own stock. Food orders go a term at a time, per child, and the class lists sort themselves out for the volunteers.

Buying gala tickets, with placeholder names. The card form is Authorize.Net's own page, so its box is left empty.

The baseball hat in the shop, with colour choices of navy, white, and white with Somersfield PTA — Each colour keeps its own stock

Food Orders: ordering Popcorn Recess Monday for a child by first name and class, with the term's dates beside it — A term of popcorn, per child, paid once

Donate to the SPTA on a phone, with amounts of $25, $50, $100 or other — Give by card, in any amount

The receipt email for Somersfield Academy Quiz Night, with a QR code for each ticket — The receipt: one QR code per ticket. Made-up buyer.

Email: tickets are available for Somersfield Academy Quiz Night, sold first come, first served, with a Book tickets button — The waiting list hears together, first come, first served

For the committee

Run by the committee itself

The dashboard opens on the next event, with a sales bar for every ticket tier, the week's takings, food lists by class and a short Needs a person list for anything the site could not sort out itself.

Pages, events, prices and stock are changed in the editing area. Publishing updates the public site about a minute later.

Refunds, part refunds and cash sales are done from the order, and the buyer is told exactly what came back and which tickets still stand.

The dashboard as a sale lands. Sample figures, not the PTA's.

Needs a person: an order held for review at Authorize.Net, a hair bow down to 2 left, and 3 website enquiries not yet handled — Needs a person: only what the site cannot settle on its own

Alert email: an order was paid twice at Authorize.Net, refund one of them in the merchant portal — A double charge raises an alert by email

Refund email: $60 sent back to the card, which ticket is cancelled, which is still valid, and the reason — The buyer's refund email names each ticket

A committee edit going live. The one-minute rebuild wait is cut.

Topping up stock for one colour of hair bow. Placeholder counts.

The gala in the editing area, with buttons for the guest list, programme list and orders spreadsheets, and to message everyone with an order — Every event carries its own spreadsheets and a message-everyone button

An order's refunds panel, recording a part refund and the ticket it covered — A part refund, with the ticket it covered

At the door

Check-in that keeps going when the signal does not

The guest list is saved on the volunteer's phone. If the hall loses signal, check-in carries on and catches up when the signal returns.

A ticket let in on two phones is flagged rather than admitted twice. A door account sees the door and nothing else, and a paper list is one click away if the phones are not the answer that night.

Signal drops, check-in carries on, then syncs. Placeholder names.

Door check-in on a phone: a guest admitted, with the reference box and camera button above — Admitted, by name, reference or QR code

Door check-in offline: an amber banner, and a guest admitted offline that will sync — Offline: one scan waiting to sync

Auction winnings

From silent auction to paid, without a card machine

The gala closes with a silent auction run on AirAuctioneer. Afterwards the treasurer types each winner and their lots into the editing area and presses Send.

Each winner gets an email with a link to their own page, listing their lots and the total. They can add the card fee, 2.25% plus 25 cents, so the PTA receives the full amount, then pay through the same Authorize.Net form as every ticket.

A winner who paid at the party or by bank transfer is recorded by the treasurer instead, and their link closes. It went live on 27 September, ready for the gala on 14 November.

A winner paying for their lots, with placeholder lots and names. The fee is the site's real rule: 2.25% plus 25 cents.

Payments and privacy

Card numbers never touch the PTA's pages

The card form is Authorize.Net's own, so the PTA answers the shortest of the yearly card security questionnaires, and the money goes straight into its own merchant account. Type a card number into any other box on the site and it is refused, with the box named.

Parents' details are handled under Bermuda's PIPA from the start. Allergy notes need their own consent tick, dated on the order, and a request to be forgotten removes the person while keeping the accounts whole.

Every change, export and sign-in is written down, sign-in takes a six-digit code, and an idle editing area signs itself out.

The contact form refusing a message with a test card number in it: card details never go in this box — A card number typed into a message box is refused. Published test number.

Pay securely on a phone: the order total, then the card payment area left for Authorize.Net's own form — The checkout hands the card to Authorize.Net

An order's notes, with the dated line recording the buyer's consent to the allergy note — The allergy consent, dated on the order

An order after Remove personal details: the buyer's details gone, the amounts and status kept — Forgotten on request, with the accounts kept whole

The audit list: sign-ins, changes and exports, each with who and when — Who changed what, and when

A user set to Door, check-in only — Four roles. A door account sees only the door.

The result

The site is live at somersfieldpta.com, on the PTA's own domain, with hosting included and managed by dotbm. It was ready in about three weeks, with the gala still six weeks away.

Parents pay by phone, the money lands in the PTA's own account, and the committee runs the site themselves, with fifteen plain-English guides for whoever takes over each job next year.

Before a real card went near it, it went through twenty rounds of review, including a rehearsed door night, and the last accessibility check found no issues across 124 page views.

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