How To Choose The Right Accounting Software For Your Academy Trust

Types of academy

 There are different types of academy with different organisational structures. The most important distinction is between single-academy trusts and multi-academy trusts (MATs). A single-academy trust is generally formed when a single school converts to academy status and takes complete control over their financial affairs and dealings. A MAT is a group of academies that are governed by one central organisation, one board of directors and trustees.

• Converter academies - generally higher achieving schools which are allowed to convert to academy status without assistance from a larger MAT. These types of academies can form single-academy trusts or recruit other schools and create their own MAT.  
• Sponsored academies - are forced to join a MAT. Sponsored academisation has become the dominant model as the government is generally no longer in favour of schools converting independently.  
• Free schools – legally speaking, are another type of academy. Like academies, they are funded by the government but tend to be run by independent groups and parents. They have more control over things like staff pay, the length of the school day and the curriculum.

There are different types of MAT, some are small and based on local school allegiances. For example, a secondary school can create a MAT with two or three ‘feeder’ primary schools in the local area. Other MATs are made up of dozens of individual academies and are generally sponsored by businesses, faith groups or another large body.

The amount of control that an academy has within their trust will vary according to the size and type of trust they find themselves in. Free schools clearly have a lot of freedom and single-academy trusts have a high degree of independence. The amount of control that a MAT academy has varies according to the size and type of MAT.

Whatever the case, it is important that academies use tools that are suitable to them.  

Extra responsibilities for academies

Looking after government money is one of the most important things new academies will have to deal with, because it has a knock-on effect on so many other aspects of school management, and government oversight is so strict.

Overnight, staff at a new academy or single academy trust will get a number of additional responsibilities. The academy’s finance team will be responsible for looking after the payroll, pensions, purchasing, and staffing costs.

Academies that fail to control their finances effectively often fail quite quickly. That’s why the government makes it mandatory for academies to use accounting software to make sure their accounts are managed properly and to make monitoring easier.

Eight questions to ask before purchasing academy accounting software

There are many different accounting software packages available, but you need to make sure you get the right one for your academy or MAT.

Here are eight questions to ask yourself before choosing a new accounting system.

1. Is it designed for the education sector?

Software that is designed for schools should differ from software designed for some large corporations. There are some distinctive aspects of school financial management that should be accounted for in the software.

Your academy accounting software should be easy to use. Even if you have an accounting qualification and can navigate systems easily, it is important to remember that your staff may find corporate accounting systems difficult to use.

2. Does it have separate user profiles?

In organisations where several people need to access and edit the system, such as in larger academies and MATs, it’s important that each user has their own profile and that individual user access rights can be changed to reflect their seniority and permissions.

This allows master users to manage an academy’s accounts more closely and prevent errors. Trustees and senior figures in academies and trusts can also easily access and keep track of the latest figures.

3. Is it flexible?

Make sure your future actions aren’t hindered by your software choice.

Choose a software package that is flexible with your needs and can grow or shrink with your needs and can work with different bank accounts.

4. Is the software cloud-based?

Software which stores data in the cloud and can be accessed from any computer, tablet or smartphone is more useful than software that is restricted to server-level machines.

You can use Access Education Finance from anywhere, at any time. And because data is stored in the cloud, it means that it will be more secure against the threat of cyber-attackers who may target your school.

5. Is the processing simple?

With school budgets continuing to be tight for many, it’s important that you ensure your budgets, however limited, are being used to maximum effect.

That’s why you need a purchase ledger to provide all the information you need to analyse performance and negotiate prices with suppliers and achieve the best possible value.

6. Does the processing work in real time?

Month-end calculations can restrict how you use your accounting package.

Access Education Finance allows for accurate work-in-progress data to be viewed at any time and is reactive to the changes that you make on a regular basis.

7. Is there a separate MAT layer?

MATs have different organisational layers and it is important that the overarching trust can monitor constituent academies collectively and individually.

Academy accounting software has a reporting consolidation layer where senior MAT leaders can monitor a trust’s overall financial health and the health of individual academies.

8. Can the system be updated?

One of the distinctive elements of education finance is that things can change all the time. New legislation, new regulations and funding changes can change an academy’s accounts several times a year.

Make sure that your new accounting software is easy to update and upgrade and that any updates are included in the initial cost forecast.

 

How Access Education can help you

At Access Education, we provide a software solution that’s tailored for academies and MATs. To fit your needs, the software is flexible, easy to use and, most importantly, it saves you time and money.

Find out more about Academy accounting software