The RallyOrder story
We think running a real business is an exceptional education for high school students. Read about the origins and guiding principles of RallyOrder.
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The RallyOrder Blog
The Huddle
Explainers, playbooks, and field notes from real school stores. Written for the teachers, students, and administrators running SBEs.
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What is RallyOrder? The platform, explained.
A point-of-sale, store management, and learning platform built for one specific use case: the school-based enterprise.
RallyOrder is Washington DECA's School-Based Enterprise partner for 2026-27
We're partnering with Washington DECA to support student-run stores across the state.
How to start a school store: from empty closet to first sale
The complete playbook for launching a student-run store, from the first admin conversation to the first Friday of sales.
Getting started with RallyOrder: from first call to first sale
What actually happens between 'we're interested' and a student ringing up the first customer, step by step.
RallyOrder is Idaho DECA's School-Based Enterprise partner for 2026-27
We're partnering with Idaho DECA, the home state of the first school on the platform.
RallyOrder is Texas DECA's Premier School-Based Enterprise (SBE) Partner for 2026-27
We're partnering with the largest membership association in DECA, as Presenting Sponsor of the SBE Academy at the Texas DECA State Career Development Conference.
My DECA students helped build RallyOrder
CHS DECA advisor Tony Carrico on a year of prototypes, student feedback, and the week RallyOrder ran side by side with the old register.
The hardware: what's in the box
A real register, a customer-facing display, a card reader, and a cash drawer, built to survive a lunch rush and a teenager.
What is a school-based enterprise? A plain-English guide
SBEs explained for teachers, parents, and administrators: what they are, where DECA fits, and what students actually learn behind the counter.
For students: you're the operator
What running a RallyOrder register actually looks like from behind the counter, and what it puts on your resume.
RallyOrder is a DECA Premier Partner
RallyOrder joins DECA Inc.'s Premier Partner program for the 2026-27 school year, and we'll be judging at ICDC in Anaheim this April.
The school store opening-week playbook: empty room to first Friday
A T-minus checklist for reopening your school store this fall: inventory, float, crew, soft open, and the first Friday numbers huddle.
For advisors: what RallyOrder takes off your plate
Get your weekends back: catalog, pricing, inventory, reporting, and cash discipline, handled by the platform so you can teach.
The Friday Huddle: a weekly business review, sized for a school store
Six numbers, 20 minutes, every Friday: the review ritual the best-run companies live by, scaled to a store that's open 40 minutes a day.
A tour of HomeRoom: where the store becomes the Living Classroom
Screen by screen through the web platform where students run a real business and learn from every number: the dashboard, the analytics pages, Bolt Explains, Rally Insights, the catalog, and the reports.
What administrators ask us first, and our answers
Money flow, student data, audit trails, and who can press which buttons: the six questions every administrator wants answered.
For districts: how RallyOrder fits your rules
Merchant of record, money flow, data posture, and access control: the district-level design, stated plainly.
Pricing your first drop without leaving money on the table
A margin floor students can calculate themselves, plus the markdown calendar that saves you from a box of unsold hoodies in April.
Built through the lens of education
What changes when a commerce platform treats the school calendar, the student crew, and the lesson as first-class design inputs.
The DECA SBE certification guide for store advisors
What chapter certification actually takes, how your store's daily records become the SBE manual, and a fall prep plan that beats the January deadline.
Building the store into your curriculum
For teachers who want the store to count as coursework: the five layers of store-as-curriculum, what exists today, and what we're building next.
What to sell in a school store: the assortment guide
The four product tiers, the constraints to check first, and the margin mix that keeps the store funded: how to decide what goes on the shelf.
A tour of FrontOffice: the district view of every store
The district dashboard, screen by screen: the cross-school roll-up, per-school drill-down, payment splits, tax reporting, exports, and the data boundary built for student privacy.
Student data and the school store: the FERPA and COPPA questions
The two federal privacy laws that follow student data into any software a school adopts, what they require, and the questions to put in writing to any vendor. Including us.
The four-minute drawer count
The open-to-close cash routine that keeps the drawer honest, the handoffs clean, and the variance conversation short.
Turning inventory counts into a margin lesson
Count day finds the gap between what should be on the shelf and what is. That gap is one of the best lessons your store will ever teach.
Selling food at school: the Smart Snacks rules, plainly
The federal nutrition standards every school store snack shelf answers to: what qualifies, the exact limits, and a compliance routine that takes minutes.
[CdA STORE NAME]: the first store on RallyOrder
[One sentence: Coeur d'Alene High School's DECA store, the launch semester, the headline moment. Fill from interview.]
Role-play with your own numbers
DECA prep gets sharper when the case study is the store down the hall. A practice format built on your own sales data.
Who sees what: roles and access in a student-run store
The access map every store needs: who can sell, who can refund, who can change a price, and why the lines are the lesson.
Surviving spirit-wear season
Preorders, size curves, restock timing, and the November line: a playbook for the biggest weeks on the store calendar.
The semester close
One class period, the whole semester's data, and the review ritual that turns a season of sales into the best lesson of the term.
The January reset
Semester two starts clean or it doesn't start at all: the count, the repricing, the dead-stock calls, and the new-crew ramp.
Competition season, powered by the store
Districts, state, and the written events: how a semester of real store records becomes a competition portfolio.
The school store POS buying guide
The questions to ask any vendor (including us) before your store's money and your students' data run through their system.
A shift is a lesson plan
One 40-minute store shift, mapped task by task to the business skills it teaches, plus the debrief that makes the learning stick.
Taking the store courtside: running spring events through your operation
Concessions, pop-ups, and game-night tables as store extensions: same controls, new venue, and an event P&L your class can grade.
What Gold SBE stores do differently
The habits that separate certified stores from good intentions, drawn from the certification bar itself and the programs that clear it.
Next year's budget, this year's numbers
Spring data is fall's crystal ball: sizing the first PO, timing the drops, and building the equipment ask while the evidence is fresh.
The year-end wrap: what to show your principal
Ten minutes, six slides, one year of real numbers: the readout that secures the store's next year while everyone's still proud.
Handing off the store
Seniors graduate, access lingers, and memory walks out the door in June. The succession checklist that keeps the store compounding.
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