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Access Education Purchasing
Making multi-academy trust spend visible and compliant
In the current educational funding environment, Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) face increasing demands for financial transparency, governance and operational efficiency. Decentralised spending across multiple schools can obscure insight, hinder consolidation and increase compliance risk.
This article examines how MATs can transform their procurement and accounts payable functions to deliver central oversight, cost control and regulatory assurance.
The challenge of decentralised spend
A trust typically manages multiple schools, each with its own budgets, suppliers and approval workflows. Without a shared platform or standardised process, each site may act independently. The cumulative effect is often lack of visibility at trust level. Leadership teams may not have real-time awareness of spend commitments, supplier duplication or evolving patterns of expenditure.
Research confirms the challenge: many trusts still rely on spreadsheets and manual aggregation for procurement data, which limits their ability to respond proactively to financial issues.
Governance, audit and compliance considerations
MAT finance teams are accountable not only to their boards and governors but also to the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) and, where applicable, local authorities. Audit requirements demand robust records of approvals, commitments and contract awards.
A part of best practice requires a clear scheme of delegation, documented supplier databases and accurate spend categorisation.
When procurement and payment systems operate in isolation, documentation becomes fragmented, risk increases, and the burden on finance teams grows. Without consolidated processes, errors and delays become costly in both time and reputational capital.
Spend visibility as a strategic asset
Visibility of spend across all schools in a trust enables leadership teams to act strategically rather than reactively. Consolidated data provides insight into:
- Which suppliers are used most frequently across the trust
- Patterns of cross-school duplication and overspend
- Areas where economies of scale could be realised
- Forecasting and scenario modelling across multiple cost centres
One study concludes: “having access to in-depth information can help reduce costs and identify opportunities for further efficiencies.”
By moving spend visibility from monthly catch-up to real-time monitoring, MATs can intervene earlier, optimise budgets and allocate resources more effectively.
Technological enablers of control and consolidation
Automation and integration form two of the core enablers for modernising procurement and payment functions in MATs. Effective platforms provide:
- Automated invoice capture and coding
- Approval workflows aligned with approved delegation limits
- Budget-check integration at purchase-order or invoice-initiation stage
- Duplicate invoice detection and centralised supplier management
- Consolidated dashboards and reporting for trust leadership
For example, Access Education Purchasing, when connected with Access Education Finance, offers a combined ecosystem where purchase commitments, approvals and financial data exist within one unified environment.
Integration with other major accounting systems extends flexibility, enabling trusts to adopt the ecosystem without full system replacement.
Operational and financial benefits
By adopting centralised procurement and AP automation, MATs report significant benefits, including:
- Reduction in manual processing time across schools
- Lower risk of duplicate payments or overspending
- Improved audit readiness and reduced time spent on compliance
- More capacity within finance teams to focus on strategic initiatives rather than administrative tasks
These outcomes contribute directly to financial resilience, improved forecasting and strengthened governance - key priorities for trust leadership.
Implementation considerations
When a MAT considers moving to a unified procurement-and-payables platform, several factors require attention:
- Stakeholder alignment – ensure school finance managers, central teams and budget holders understand the changes and benefits.
- Data cleaning and supplier consolidation – prior to migration, supplier lists and spend categories should be standardised to enable accurate reporting.
- Change management – train users, build new workflows and communicate the new purpose of procurement processes.
- Integration strategy – ensure the new platform connects smoothly with existing finance systems or that planned migration is realistic.
- Governance update – revise schemes of delegation and approval policies to reflect new capabilities of automation
Conclusion
For MATs, the shift from manual, fragmented procurement processes to a unified, automated accounts‐payable ecosystem is not simply an operational upgrade. It is a strategic imperative. Financial leaders who harness this transition gain the visibility, control and assurance necessary in an increasingly demanding education funding and regulatory environment.
Solutions such as Access Education Purchasing, when implemented alongside Access Education Finance, establish the infrastructure for efficient, compliant and insight-led procurement across every school in a trust.
Explore how Access Education Purchasing can give your trust the oversight it needs.
