Finance-Whitepaper-FINAL

The far-reaching positive impacts of effective school finance systems School management software providers are increasingly stepping up and supporting schools by releasing new solutions

The far-reaching positive

impacts of effective school finance systems

School management software providers are increasingly

stepping up and supporting schools by releasing new

solutions that overcome emerging challenges in the

education sector The latest finance software solutions

being released for example, are highly beneficial to

finance staff in terms of greater efficiencies, visibility

of finances and accuracy Yet they also have far wider

positive implications for multiple schools such as

multi-academy trusts (MATs), a variety of school departments,

as well as teaching staff and students

School finance challenges

Budget pressures and uncertainty, National Insurance

and pension costs, the National Funding Formula,

monitoring standards and rising pupil numbers, all

contribute to stresses and insecurities around school

finance In addition, according to the Institute for

Fiscal Studies, while spending per pupil is now being

maintained in real terms between 2017 and 2019, if you

take the whole of the spending review period from 2015

to 2019, the impact of inflation and increasing pupil

numbers means a real-term cut of nearly five per cent

MATs, academies and maintained schools all similarly

feel financial pressures, with the latter facing additional

complexity around the time and insights required to manage multiple school finance systems Additionally, with the majority – around 90% of a school’s budget is spent on salaries, rates, bills, and examinations – it’s no wonder that schools carefully consider the remaining budget and how it should best be spent

Making lives easier through the use of finance technology

in schools will greatly contribute towards reducing the pressures associated with managing school finance

By upgrading the core finance system in schools, both administrative and finance functions will improve, and teaching, learning and school management will also be enriched as a result

Here we explore the finance system functionalities

we believe will have a positive impact on all schools, academies and MATs – based on qualitative research – in their daily working lives when faced with finance management challenges

Complete financial management

from one platform

Multiple logins, duplication of information, staff

making decisions based on information stored in

disparate systems These ways of working are becoming

increasingly outdated and inefficient – even in one

single maintained school, not forgetting how difficult

this must be for multi-academy trusts, working from

different school systems and getting to grips with where

money is being spent across schools The future of

school, academy and MAT financial management must

be a single consolidated financial view from one single

platform – to keep on top of where every penny is spent

or received in real-time

Encrypted, secure and GDPR compliant

With the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

deadline now well behind us, many organisations are

still considering what else could or should be done to

ensure compliance A school, academy or MAT finance

system holds vast amounts of confidential data and

should be secure enough to guard against hackers or

mobile devices getting misplaced As well as providing

efficiencies, time savings, visibility across academies and

more – it should also provide peace of mind, security

and compliance without creating extra work or requiring

additional budget

Cloud-based and easily accessible

A cloud-based system is the recommended option for quickly and easily accessing school finance information regardless of time and location Particular areas of the system should be locked down with varying levels of permissions for different staff members depending on the layers of required confidentiality – for example around salaries Being cloud-based enables greater efficiencies and time-savings, with staff seeking out and finding the information they need the instant they need

it Plus a cloud-based system ensures the information staff access is up-to-date and in real-time, providing a good basis for accurate decision making

An easy to read dashboard

Many school finance systems - built up over the years and enhanced with add-ons - have become complicated

to use and may no longer provide schools with the streamlined snapshots of information they need A simple, intuitive interface with a holistic view of a school/schools’ finances is what is now required by finance staff and senior leadership teams - without information slicing and dicing for hours on end

Reporting, forecasting and improving

financial activities

With the introduction of performance related pay,

many schools experienced an unprecedented layer of

complexity to their finances Yet school finance software

can help significantly The ability to accurately forecast

teacher pay budgets means you can have greater cost

control and improved tracking of money coming in and

going out

A school finance system should also offer flexibility

If you want to see a report created in a certain way

and reporting on a specific area, your systems should

be able to deliver this for you with ease Your systems

should be able to create bespoke dashboards to monitor

key financial information so you can identify areas of

financial risk or ways to make cost savings

The detail

Deep and layered insights should be available to you

through your school finance system You may not need

every single insight each week or month, yet having it

there for you if you do need it is important, particularly

for MATs needing multi-layered insights into groups of

schools You might need to see a particular transaction

or dig into an anomaly; or compare departmental

or academy-wide spending Whatever you need to

see, having the detail to hand rather than spending

hours searching for it is a must Detail does not mean

complexity however; accessing the system should still be

simple regardless of the level of detail it provides

No surprises

Some school finance software providers may charge

extra for additional users and if this affects you, your

costs could fluctuate annually There are providers who

offer their products on an unlimited user basis and this is

far more beneficial if you are seeking greater control over

your outgoings

The future of school, academy and MAT financial management must be

a single consolidated financial view from one single platform

A simple transition

Schools are often reticent to upgrade their finance

systems because it can be seen as disruptive, time

consuming and complex Yet there are a number of

providers who can manage the entire process for you

and ensure there are no hitches along the way A finance

system upgrade that isn’t professionally managed can

cause unnecessary increased workload for IT teams and

finance staff A system that is fully implemented and

ready to use without issues will allow your staff to hit the

ground running, and begin to make efficiencies from the start

Ongoing technical support should also be available and

you’ll need a team you can trust so your IT team and

finance staff aren’t spending hours trying to get the

system up and running again if there is a glitch

Workflow transparency

With so many tasks being automated in business these days, why not automate in schools too? For example, there’s no need to walk from one end of the school to the other or put something in the post to one of your schools

if a finance system can automate this for you With some school finance providers embracing automation, your teams could benefit from using intelligent workflows to streamline key financial processes For example:

• Activities such as authorising transactions can be automatically notified to the appropriate user, based

on predefined rules

• You should also be able to import data for activities like journals and bank reconciliation and have the ability to export information directly to Excel

Your academy

If you are converting to an academy, an effective finance system will ensure you have the data and financial systems in place to effectively manage your new responsibilities It can provide you with all the functionality an academy or academy converter could need

Your MAT

If you’re a multi-academy trust you need excellent control over all your schools’ finances An up-to-date system will enable you to gain insights from each schools’ finances with ease For example, you will be able to identify which schools are achieving good pricing from their suppliers and then see if there is a way to work with this supplier across all your schools Deeper insights across schools will provide you with opportunities to identify potential areas of cost cutting Plus,

by using this factual evidence you’ll be able to share best practice across schools Having the right finance systems in place will also provide you with data upon which to base your future expansion plans

Finance and

administrative

teams

Without doubt your finance and administrative teams will benefit from the implementation

of a new school finance system They will need to adapt to the change, yet by selecting a comprehensive system that saves time and is intuitive to use, the outcome will be highly positive

Business

Manager

Director of

Finance

Business Managers and Directors of Finance need reliable evidence from a trustworthy and real-time finance system that is automated and accurate Any errors will have been minimised due to less reliance on spreadsheets and paper-based documents An effective finance system provides them with clear, concise and correct accounting to support strategic planning

Leadership

teams

Through the use of a new finance system your leadership team will have a complete financial picture and forecast right across the school or trust Alongside this they will have increased confidence when talking about your finances because the numbers in the system will be up-to-date and accurate

IT teams

Dated finance systems are often a drain on your IT resource who may be receiving a number of calls each week and endeavouring to make it work as you need it to By investing in a new fit-for-purpose system, you can free up the time IT spend on your old system and they can work on more proactive tasks instead

Teachers and

learners

With less of a focus directed at spending time sorting out the finances, you can spend more time and effort on teaching and learning, and your school development plan Without administrative and financial distractions, the focus shifts back to your main purpose – teaching and educating your learners

Who benefits?

If you are in the process of sourcing a new finance system

for your academy or MAT, ticking off all of the above

would be an ideal first step towards ensuring the solution

you choose is fit for purpose

Once you have all of these in place and you have chosen your preferred system, the positive impacts will be far-reaching and will benefit the following stakeholders in the following ways:

The implementation of any new software in any organisation is often seen as challenging – even more so in time-poor and financially-stretched education establishments Yet, how long can your school, academy or MAT continue with finance software that isn’t capable of delivering the tasks your teams are working on? In light of the difficult financial landscape schools are facing at the moment, there is only so long schools can continue working on spreadsheets or using pen and paper to manage finances Even an older school finance system may be doing more harm than good

The implementation of a new modern school finance system can have a multitude of far-reaching positive impacts on the whole school, departmentally and for a range of stakeholders, from senior leaders to students

About SIMS

The SIMS management information system is now at the

centre of 21,000 schools in England, Wales, Northern

Ireland and internationally in over 40 countries Our

award-winning product range enables schools to manage

student and staff information across all areas of school

life To support the efficient running of academies,

MATs and schools, we also have a financial solution

that has been designed by experts with over 30 years’

experience in building finance solutions for the education

sector This is a unique proposition capturing the needs

of educational finance users at its heart The solution

consolidates SIMS data that is already used by thousands

of customers every day from one interface, providing

financial management for an academy or multi academy

trust in a safe, scalable and trusted environment

If you are considering sourcing a new finance system that

is fit for purpose for your school, academy or MAT, now

and for years to come, find out more:

Call: 0800 170 1736

Visit: www.capita-sims.co.uk/finance

Capita SIMS, Franklin Court, Priory Business Park, Cardington, Bedfordshire MK44 3JZ t: 01234 838080 | f: 01234 832036 | e: sales@capita-cs.co.uk | w: www.capita-sims.co.uk

A trading name of Capita Business Services Ltd Registered office: 71 Victoria Street, Westminster, London SW1H 0XA.