Software is the driving force of your school operations. This is true from both a data management perspective, and for your school accountants. Without a system that supports their needs, budget management and financial planning becomes even more challenging in such a volatile market.
However, not all budget planning software is built equal. Independent and International schools need to work with systems that keep their unique requirements in mind. While a broad accounting solution may offer helpful functionality, it cannot provide maximum efficacy to an industry that has such specific needs.
So, if you’re considering a full accounting solution for your bursary or accounting teams – where should you start? Here are just a few key features that you should add to your list when approaching potential providers.
- Working in the cloud
- Supported systems and payment management
- Flexible integrations
- Intuitive reporting
- Automation to prioritise efficiency
- Customise to your needs
- iSAMS budget planning software for schools
Working in the cloud
There are a variety of benefits to working in the cloud for all departments, including better security, flexibility, and interoperability. The same benefits can help support your finance teams.
Budget planning software that is built with cloud technology enables your finance managers to work flexibly, wherever they need. Web architecture means they can log on and carry out their tasks according to their schedule – in a working culture that demands more flexibility than ever.
This isn’t just key for your finance teams and their needs, but can help them to work more efficiently with external consultants or auditors.
Audits are a key process in effective budget management, but it can be extremely time consuming. Cloud-based finance software removes the need for an auditor to spend time on site, thereby minimising the time expenditure for your teams. They can work remotely to support external consultants as much as possible.
Offering flexibility, scalability, and software accessibility empowers your bursars and budget managers to work as efficiently as possible, and ensures they can meet their goals and deadlines to drive your school forward.
Supported systems and payment management
The best budget management systems aren’t just comprised of a dedicated financial management software. While this is a key piece of your tech stack, it’s important that your full school management system and additional software all work to support your budget management and planning. Your database is the foundation of all your school software.
The right budget planning software will understand the needs of your wider school and provide additional solutions to bolster your full accounting needs.
Your primary database is an important place to start – so consider working with a provider that offers or integrates an MIS or school management system. However, there is a variety of other software that could increase efficiency and improve time management for your finance managers.
For example, a fully supported payment solution for fee collections ensures flexibility for your parents and better budget forecasting for your accounting team.
When chatting to a potential provider, make sure to take full stock of their available systems and consider how these could work together to support all areas of budget planning.
Flexible integrations
While working with a well-rounded supplier is important, no one business can provide every solution that you need. That’s why the best software providers recognise this and ensure they provide the flexibility you need to integrate with third parties or your own preferred solutions.
Take stock of all your current key systems, consider which ones you might like to migrate for better functionality, and which ones you’d like to keep as an additional support to your main objectives.
The ability to integrate is an important feature of any school software. It enables you to build a custom solution that truly meets the needs of your school and your teams, rather than trying to make a rigid, off-the-shelf solution fit.
Intuitive reporting
Effective reporting is the number one consideration for effective budget planning. The best software will offer a dedicated, comprehensive solution for full financial data reporting. Your teams need to be able to see key data points at the drop of a hat, and work on presenting this information to your leadership.
Ultimately, your budget is what keeps your school running and growing. Maximising the potential of every penny and understanding where savings or profit could be made is the difference between a positive growth trajectory and stagnating.
Outside of key accounting functionality, clearly discuss reporting capabilities and your individual needs with your potential suppliers. Bring a comprehensive list of your most important reporting requirements and work with them to find the best way forwards. Ideally, you need a supplier that offers integrated reporting within their own suite of systems. However, you might consider a comprehensive integration as an alternative.
Automation to prioritise efficiency
There are a variety of tasks that your school teams manage on a daily basis that are repetitive and time consuming. Sometimes it’s just a fact of the role. However, this needn’t be the case for all tasks, particularly in your accounting department.
Some of the most time-consuming elements of the role can be easily automated by the right budget planning software. Keeping your information up to date is key for effective forecasting and planning, but managing incoming emails, invoices, purchase orders, and more can take up far too much of an accountant’s day.
Work with your full finance team to understand where their time could be saved, and better used. For example, the iFinance AP Inbox seamlessly matches up incoming invoices, featuring currency recognition, supplier identification and invoice auto-creation functionality. Remove the manual nature of invoice management with simple automation features.
Customise to your needs
School software is never a one-size-fits-all. Each institution is different, with different goals and changing needs. Your software needs to recognise and be flexible enough to support this. As mentioned, an off-the-shelf solution is unlikely to meet the wide-ranging needs of your school departments.
Customisability is an often an understated need when discussing a business’ tech stack. However, it’s a vital part of finding a software that is open enough to change, growth, and drive towards evolving business requirements.
This could mean customising the interface according to user profiles, integrating other systems, or customising needed modules or features according to your day-to-day requirements. When considering a new budget planning software, ensure any demonstrations show the potential of the software and its level of flexibility.
iSAMS budget planning software for schools
In 2018, iSAMS launched its dedicated budget planning and accounting software for schools – iFinance. The system was built with the needs of Independent and International schools, and their finance managers, in mind.
Offering complete flexibility, scalability, and tailored features and automations, iFinance is ideal for effective forecasting, day-to-day finance management, and fee billing. The comprehensive solution is supported by a range of systems, including the iSAMS school management software, payment gateway, direct debit management, and more.
Interested in learning more about iFinance and its key features for maximising department efficiency? Watch a full demo below: