Bus booking applications, operator access and better tracking

Please find below our latest release notes, including new features and enhancements recently added to the RollCall system. These updates are designed to improve day-to-day transport management and support a smoother experience for schools, staff and families.

In this release

Student travel is now clearer from booking to boarding. You can handle bus booking applications in one workflow and give transport operators access that suits their job. We've also improved parent communications, live tracking and the apps families and drivers use every day.

1. Bus booking applications, in one workflow. Review applications and turn them into bookings without re-entering the family's details.
2. Access that suits your bus operators. Operator staff can run the day without broad access to school and family records.
3. More accurate travel information. Scans, bookings and live tracking give families a more reliable picture of each trip.
4. Other improvements. Eleven smaller changes across bus bookings, parent accounts and the Admin Console.
5. What we've fixed. Ten fixes across bookings, payments, notifications and access.

Manage bus booking applications in one workflow

Match, seat or waitlist every application from a single queue.

You can now review bus booking applications and turn them into bookings in one place, without re-entering the family's details.

• Match or create: Match an application to an existing student, or create a new student and link a parent.
• Book in a few clicks: When a family asks for morning and afternoon travel, check the suggested student match, mark the application ready and book the trips.
• Waitlist with context: Add a reason and a date when you waitlist an application.
• See where everything is up to: The intake queues show which applications are pending, ready to seat or seated.
• Everything in one view: Booking periods and school holidays sit alongside the intake workflow.

Why it matters: Less double handling, fewer typos and a clear picture of who's still waiting for a seat.

Give bus operators access suited to their work

Everything they need to run the day, and nothing they don't.

Bus company staff can now oversee daily transport without broad access to school and family records.

• Operations access: Staff can monitor drivers and routes without full access to student or parent records.
• What they can do: Send route messages and manually sign students off a trip.
• What they can't do: Assign students to routes or view message logs.
• Third-party administrators: They can manage driver contact details but can't see the driver's student list.

Why it matters: Operators get what they need to run the day, and family information stays with the school.

Rely on more accurate travel information

Scans, bookings and live tracking you can trust.

Scans, bookings and live tracking now give families and your transport team a more reliable picture of each trip.

• Driver App scans: A student's boarding or alighting status now updates correctly, even when an earlier scan was delayed by a poor connection.
• Offline scans: They no longer stay stuck in the queue after they've been recorded.
• Parent App: Bookings that seemed to be missing now appear, tabs that were blank on iOS 27 now load, and push notifications arrive after a parent signs out and back in.
• Live tracking: When it connects, parents see the bus's latest available position. If needed, it switches to a backup connection.
• Show Route: See a bus's path during and after a trip, including when it entered and left each approved stop area.

Why it matters: Fewer “where's the bus?” calls to your office.

Other improvements

Smaller changes worth knowing about.

Bus bookings

• Share your school's booking form link from Intake, or copy the code to embed the form on your website.
• Add dates for students already booked on a route without replacing their existing bookings.
• Select several routes at once during year-to-year setup.

Parent accounts

• Spot recently added students and parents in the existing lists.
• Automatic parent access: Turn on the setting for each source before adding parents. Manual entry, CSV imports and school management system additions are off by default.
• Parent engagement status is now automatic and read-only. You still control parent access with Enabled and Disabled.
• At schools that use only single sign-on (one school login for everything), parents can activate the Parent App without creating a separate RollCall password.

Admin Console

• See student balances in the Students list, with negative balances clearly marked.
• Follow the new guide to set up Custom Push and nightly sync.
• Eligible administrators can request Full Navigation. Making a request doesn't turn it on or start billing.
• New sync alerts tell you when a school management system sync fails, has errors or warnings, or runs late.

Fixes

Ten fixes across bookings, payments and access.

Bookings and routes

• Parents no longer see duplicate buses after a year-to-year route rollover.
• Recording an absence no longer removes another student's booking, or a booking made after travel was recorded.
• Parent Web no longer accepts a booking for today's route once the driver has signed in.
• Delete Booking is now available if your school has turned it on.
• Routes no longer show as full in the Parent App after bookings are cancelled.
• Long-term Parent App bookings now appear in Booking Activity.

Payments and notifications

• A cancelled Stripe “Add Funds” checkout no longer shows as completed or pending in the Parent App.
• Non-travelled surcharge notifications are now sent when a route completes automatically.

Parent communications and access

• Guide and app links in parent welcome emails now open the correct pages.
• Changes to role permissions now show the correct access.

Questions about this release?

Our support team can walk you through any of these changes. Call 1300 821 116 or email us.