How EventPOS is Transforming Cashless Catering at New City College

Efficient catering services are vital for any large educational institution – particularly one like New City College, an OFSTED Outstanding provider serving over 40,000 weekly transactions across 9 campuses. Managing such high volumes requires a system that not only processes payments quickly but also enhances operational efficiency. That’s why New City College has relied on idXtra’s EventPOS for over a decade.

Addressing the Challenge of Long Queues

Before implementing EventPOS, the college faced significant delays during peak hours, with over 500 students queuing at a single campus.

“Reducing queue times was a major priority. EventPOS has helped us speed up transactions and improve the overall dining experience for our students.”
Paul Crossey, Group Director of Catering, New City College

The Power of Seamless Integration

Another key advantage of EventPOS is its flexible reporting capabilities. Schools often require tailored reports to meet their unique needs. idXtra understands this necessity and provides customised reports as part of its service, ensuring institutions have access to the data they need without additional complications. that meet their specific needs without additional costs. This enables institutions to access the data they need to make informed decisions on catering operations, inventory management, and financial tracking.

EventPOS integrates directly with the college’s MIS database, ensuring real-time updates on student balances and transaction records. This level of automation allows catering staff to focus on service rather than administrative tasks, making lunchtime operations more streamlined and efficient.

Smarter Decision-Making with Advanced Reporting

One of the most valuable features of EventPOS is its detailed and customisable reporting system. Understanding that each institution has different reporting requirements, idXtra offers flexible and customised reports, allowing schools to efficiently track financial performance and inventory trends with ease., ensuring that schools have the insights they need to make informed decisions. With this data, the catering team can:

  • Optimise menu planning
  • Reduce food waste
  • Ensure consistent pricing and availability across campuses
  • Generate custom reports to track financial performance and inventory trends

One of the most valuable features of EventPOS is its detailed reporting and analytics, which provide insights into sales trends, stock levels, and meal preferences. With this data, the catering team can:

  • Optimise menu planning
  • Reduce food waste
  • Ensure consistent pricing and availability across campuses

A Proven Solution for Educational Institutions

New City College’s experience highlights the benefits of adopting a reliable and scalable cashless catering system.

“idXtra has been an invaluable partner in helping us modernise our catering operations. Their system is efficient, easy to manage, and fully integrated with our existing infrastructure.”

Find out how EventPOS can improve your institution’s catering services>>

idXtra at BETT UK 2026 — Driving Smarter Cashless Catering with EventPOS

BETT UK 2026 once again brought together the UK and global education technology community at ExCeL London for three days of discovery, dialogue and demonstration. We were delighted to participate alongside our trusted partners VenturEd Solutions and WisePay, connecting with educators, technical leads and school business professionals from across the sector.

At BETT UK 2026, the idXtra team showcased EventPOS, our purpose-built cashless catering system designed for schools, colleges and multi-academy trusts. EventPOS continues to support educational settings by delivering fast, secure transactions, reducing queuing at peak times and enabling discreet handling of free school meals and bursaries.

Visitors to our stand experienced live demonstrations and explored how EventPOS integrates seamlessly with MIS systems and online payment gateways such as WisePay, giving catering teams greater control while improving the student experience. The conversations across the three days highlighted the practical priorities for schools today: efficiency, safeguarding and data-driven decision making.

The energy and engagement at BETT UK 2026 were inspiring. We extend our thanks to everyone who stopped by to discuss their current challenges and future goals. If you were unable to attend but would like to learn more about EventPOS or see a personalised demonstration, please contact our team directly. We look forward to continuing the conversation and supporting your institution’s journey towards smarter cashless catering.

Hands up if you love Cashless!

As the autumn leaves begin to fall and the new academic term begins, Kensington Aldridge Academy have decided to go cashless with their catering and upgrade to EventPOS!

Their new cashless catering system replaced a competitor’s system that had not been updated for 11 years – that was expensive and inefficient. 

We happily provided a state-of-the-art new system for less cost, which has made their break and lunch times much more efficient.

They can now enrol fingerprints / thumbprints for a whole year group in around just 30 minutes.

Thanks KAA, enjoy your smoother break times!

Portsmouth Grammar School go Cashless!

This month we installed our popular Cashless Catering system, EventPOS, in the independent secondary school which has a student population of 1,351.

Their system is programmed specifically to their requirements, to charge different rates for those who pay daily, versus those who choose to pay for a term in advance. 

This categorisation is not visible to students, nor are bursaries or any allergens/dietary requirements.

They opted to use smart ID cards with their system, but other options such as biometric fingerprint readers are also available.

Their system is linked to WisePay for parents and carers to top up and monitor their children’s accounts.  This keeps parents happy as it is so easy to use!

Thanks to The Portsmouth Grammar School, we can’t wait to hear how you get on with EventPOS!

To find out more about our cashless catering system, click here!

Queue-Busting Extension for EventPOS!

We are very excited to soon be launching an extension for our cashless catering system, EventPOS by idXtra!

In the form of a handheld portable tablet or a mini till, along with a card reader, these ‘pop-up’ stations will allow you to extend your services at lunchtime/breaks and reduce queues.

Adding a portable tablet or mini till to your existing EventPOS setup would allow you to have a ‘pop-up’ station, for example, at a mini cafe or drinks stand for an event, without the need for an additional big EventPOS till.

Additionally, incorporating this to your setup would improve throughput and reduce queuing in the canteen. At busy times, adding a ‘pop-up’ till station at short notice can ensure that students aren’t waiting for large amounts of time to grab their lunch.

Find out more about our cashless catering system, EventPOS, here.

Get in touch here if you’d like to find out more about our mini till / tablet extension for EventPOS!

Welcome on board the United Colleges Group!

As it begins to feel like summer at last, we welcome on board a new customer to the idXtra family- the United Colleges Group! We are thrilled to welcome them and we look forward to working closely with them.

We have been chosen by the United Colleges Group to supply their new cashless catering and visitor management systems, alongside some streamlining of ID card issuance and population of the access control system.

We are installing our cashless catering system, EventPOS, at 22 locations across all of the United Colleges Group’s campuses (City of Westminster College and College of North West London). Their upgrade to EventPOS will simplify the issuing of discreet free school meals and bring several disparate systems together as one system, on a single network linked to MIS. 

Our visitor management system, VisiTapp, will enhance the security and safety of their staff, students and visitors, whilst improving their front of house image. Our VMS comes in various forms and it can be customised precisely to suit their specific requirements.

Thank you United Colleges Group, we can’t wait to upgrade you!

To find out more about our systems and services, check out the links below:

Season’s Greetings from idXtra!

As 2021 slowly draws to a close, we reflect on what a year it has been. Amid the Coronavirus pandemic, we are thankful to be able to spend this festive period with our loved ones.

We would like to thank our loyal customers for their continued patronage, and we look forward to all that is to come in 2022!

Before we see in the new year, we’d like to welcome on board two new idXtra customers, Queen Mary’s College in Basingstoke and Newham College London!

Queen Mary’s College have just had our cashless catering system installed in their premises; it will make their catering and payment processes so much easier. To find out more about our cashless system, EventPOS, click here.

Newham College London have also recently decided to have EventPOS installed in both of their campuses, Stratford and East Ham. The new system is a big step forward from their previous one.

We look forward to hearing how both colleges get on with their new tech!

The Inspire Education group goes cashless!

Working with our partner, Wisepay, we installed our cashless catering system, EventPOS, at thirteen locations across two of the Inspire Education Group‘s campuses (Stamford and Peterborough Colleges).

The aim of the project was to simplify the issuing of discreet free school meals and to bring several disparate systems together as one system, on a single network linked to MIS. 

Their system is now much more efficient; the college group also made use of EventPOS‘ latest upgrade, which is the allergen tracking feature. This clever feature keeps a record of all students’ allergies and dietary information, and alerts if a student tries to purchase a prohibited item. Safeguarding has never been simpler!

Big thanks to the Inspire Education group, we look forward to hearing how you get on with EventPOS!

Please click here for more information on our cashless catering system, EventPOS, and here to hear more about its new allergen tracking feature.

New City College group gets major upgrade!

In these summer months as the new school year rapidly approaches, many schools and colleges use this time to get upgrades to their premises.

The New City College group are no different, and this month have decided to get a major upgrade to their systems, and opted for idXtra’s cashless catering and visitor management systems.

The NCC group had our cashless system, EventPOS, installed across their six colleges and ten campuses. They chose EventPOS to manage their cashless catering across its very large estate; the system works perfectly for them as it links to MIS to deliver FSM and other bursaries in real time.

A recent and major upgrade to the EventPOS system is that it now caters for allergies and dietary preferences, meaning the safeguarding of students is greatly enhanced.

Not only did the college group opt for a new cashless system, but they upgraded their visitor management system too! We upgraded and replaced all of their systems to our VMS, VisiTapp, across all of their campuses. VisiTapp is highly efficient and reliable, and can be adapted to meet your specific requirements and preferences.

Lastly, just in time for the enrolment period, we supplied the NCC with ten new ZXP 7 card printers plus eighteen new CardExchange v10 licenses. Our card printers and software are very reliable and easy to operate, plus our printers can be hired on a daily basis!

Big thanks to the New City College group, it was a pleasure installing our systems in your premises!

For further information on our products and services mentioned here, please click on the following links:

Welcome New Customers!

In recent weeks, we have had the pleasure of welcoming some new customers to the idXtra family! We are delighted to welcome the following establishments on board:

  • Hartlepool College of Further Education – EventPOS Cashless Catering
  • Derwentside College – EventPOS Cashless Catering
  • Warley Primary School – VisiTapp Visitor Management System
  • Colchester Sixth Form College – EventPOS Cashless Catering

Our cashless catering system, EventPOS, is proving to be very popular at the moment. Now is a great time to invest in a cashless system, as it would be installed during the summer months, so it would be ready just in time for the start of the new academic year!

Bicester School, who have been an idXtra customer for a few years, have recently upgraded to our cashless catering system too.

Benefits of using a cashless system include:

  • Allergen tracking for students (the system records allergies and dietary requirements for all students, and alerts you if a student selects an unsuitable product)
  • Improved customer throughput and reduced queueing
  • Minimised cash handling
  • Improved reporting
  • Easy managing of payments (option to top-up cards online or with cash at a kiosk)
  • Built-in bursary function with discrete FSM feature
  • Ability for parents to view their child’s meal purchase history

For more info about our cashless catering system, EventPOS, please visit idxtra.com/new-eventpos.

For more info about its allergen tracking function specifically, please check out our blog post from February here.

For a free demo or quotation, please email info@idxtra.com or call 0800 083 6053!