Simplifying Finance for International School Groups

Finance Software for Schools and Multi-School Groups

Make quick sense of complex accounts; always in balance - with no need to reconcile separate ledgers

Used in 58 countries

Multi currency, multi company andmulti lingual capabilities

Offering a true global reach to international groups

67%PS Financials is chose as the core accounting, purchasing, budgeting and reporting solution by 67% of all school groups in the UK

Success in Group

Maximising Financial Effi ciency for School Groups

Our history

PS Financials is the author of award winning Financial Management Software that is used by leading Commercial, Charity and Education organisations in the UK and worldwide.

From its original development in 2001, PS Financials has been designed to solve the accounting and purchasing problems of organisations with multiple, remote offices.

PS Financials have always understood the specific requirements of these organisations and their need for secure and instant consolidation. This is why PS Financials is by design a unified database solution and is proven to provide exceptional accounting, purchasing, budgeting and reporting solutions by more than 4,500 organisations in over 58 countries.

Background

Due to the experience of solving the requirements of multi-site Commercial and Charity organisations, in 2003 PS Financials was chosen by two large Independent School Chains and the first Sponsored Academy Federations. Building on these implementations and with a reputation for providing cost effective quality systems, PS Financials is now used by 67% of ALL Multi-Entity school groups.

Types of Organisations

PS FinancialsUnifi ed Model

Unifi ed structure – PS Financials

“With PS Financials, we are able to compare our individual Academies and have instant consolidation.”ARK Schools

PS Financials is the only unifi ed database system widely used in theSchool sector. Security restricts users to the data for their specifi cSchool, faculty, suppliers, bank or region etc.

Advantages of PS Financials

— Real time consolidation— Ability to have a single purchase ledger to enable economies of scale— Low cost of infrastructure— Low maintenance effort

— Ability to use one bank account— Flexibility to provide future proofi ng— Low maintenance of users— Centralised processing

Advantages of the Unifi ed Model

All data in one database

The ability to have a singlepurchase ledger to enableeconomies of scale

Low system maintenance

Real time consolidation– No timing issues

Central control

Reporting on oneunifi ed database

Real time comparison analysis

Reduced maintenanceof reports

Full cross Schooldrill down

Easy cross Academyreporting – comparefaculties etc

Single database upgrades

Simplicity of crossAcademy transactions

Single VAT reportand process

School

School

School

School School

School

School

“With PS Financials, we are able to compare our individual Academies and have instant consolidation.”ARK Schools

— Ability to use one bank account— Flexibility to provide future proofi ng— Low maintenance of users— Centralised processing

Group

School

SchoolSchool

School

School

School

School

Non –Unifi ed Model

Issues with a Non-Unifi ed Model

Competitive systems are designed around a non-unifi ed structurewith each School requiring separate databases.Consolidation requires subsequent uploading of each School’sdata into an additional consolidation database or the creation andmaintenance of multiple reports to provide a consolidated view.This additional ‘layer’ of work creates complications, timingdifferences and hinders comparative analysis.

Some non-unifi ed systems use one database but this is limiting as it cannot easily produce a balance sheet for an individual School. This limits the accountability of each School.

Some issues created by holding data in multiple databases

Increased maintenance of multiple databases– multiple back-ups

Consolidation is a process – not real-time– timing issues exist

No central control– multiple close downs

Reporting has to be across multiple databases

No real time comparison analysis

Increased maintenance of reports

Lack of cross Academy drill down

Complexity of cross Academy reporting– comparing faculties etc

Complexity of cross Academy transactions

Database upgrades performed multiple times

VAT requires multiple reports & adjustments

Our experiencereduces your risk

Support

Using our experience gained from providing the core financial andpurchasing software to multi-site organisations, we understandthe needs of Federations, MATs and MACs. We have created,documented and implemented the finance structures for all typesof groups. PS Financials can assist you throughout your expansion, including but not limited to:

Procedural

Procedural

Procedural

Documentation

Financial Process Support

Technical Support

Additional Resources

— Locally, globally and via complex ownership structures Multi company— Ability to have a single purchase ledger to enable economies of scale— Cloud based low cost of infrastructure— Low maintenance effort

— Low cost/effort of adding a school to your Group through automation— Performance Optimisation— Comparative analysis tools

— User training— Interim Financial Management— Establish Best Practice

— Customised manuals— Procedures

“PS Financials’ experience and supportwas invaluable in helping us expand to an 8 School group.”Faringdon Academy of Schools

““The Girls’ Day School Trust Background

One of the leading independent school groups, The Girls’ Day School Trust (GDST), had accumulated several different systems following years of growth to support its back-office financial management. Realising they needed a system that could handle growth and promote efficiencies, whilst meeting its specific needs as an independent school group, they turned to PS Financials.

The solution

The group wanted a bespoke system to meet their unique model needs which served its family of 23 Independent Schools and two Academies. PS Financials worked closely with the team to achieve this, including Lee Simpson, Financial System Manager, who has worked for the Trust for 30 years.

Lee shared his experience of implementing PS Financials’ system and how, with the right systems, institutions can simultaneously promote growth and refine operations. The unified ledger functionality, which enables all data to be stored in one place, “revolutionised the process” at GDST without affecting the way staff at local school level operated.

Powerful Drill-down capabilities

When reporting, PS Financials also enables users to analyse data at staff level by drilling down into each employee. The extensive architecture of the software means future improvements in efficiencies, such as centralising payment runs, can be executed easily. Lee said “It was comforting to know that the organisation can evolve with PSF’s support and functionality. It can be designed in any way to suit business requirements, even if you were not a school, I can see how the drill down capability and unified ledger aspect would be beneficial to any business”.

Strong relationship

What’s more, with a strong customer-supplier relationship, Lee preferred to call the relationship a partnership. “It’s not a standard transactional business, but more of apartnership over the amount of time we have worked and developed the systemtogether. We felt it was a great fit for the school group and as a result have not hesitated to recommend the software to other schools.”

As the Girls’ Day School Trust grows, the PS Financials team are on hand for any system enhancements and support required so the group continues to gain value from the system.

“We felt it was a great fit for the school group and as a result have not hesitated to recommend the software to other schools”

The Girls’ Day School Trust

““Oasis Community Learning Background

With 47 academies, Oasis Community Learning is one of the largest academy providers in the UK, having grown from 17 academies in the last few years. The organisation needed a robust and consolidated accounting and purchasing system to support its continued growth, which is why it replaced its previous accounting system with PS Financials in 2007. Since then, Oasis Community Learning has been impressed with the flexibility PS Financials offers and the levels of support provided.

The Solution

The system incorporates the ability to accept multi-level structures, enabling each academy to have its own analysis, which can be easily consolidated to provide an overall view for the organisation.

“The system allows us to attach further information to nominal codes, attach lists and define where items fall into groups, which from a consolidation point of view, most systems could not do.”

Supporting Users Across the Organisation

Oasis Community Learning has 52 users of PS Financials at organisation and academy level. They are predominantly finance staff but also include teachers who find the system straightforward to use. The web-based portal is also easy to use and users can access their own information from anywhere when they log into the Oasis network.

Saving Time and Effort

Oasis Community Learning has found that PS Financials saves the organisation time and effort, as well as giving them the flexibility to manage their finances across multiple sites. Oasis Community Learning cites the ability to export accounting information as just one example of how the software does this. Oasis Community Learning says, “We’ve never come across an accounting package that can export accounting information straight to other systems, including Excel, in the way that PS Financials does. That alone saves us so much time when you need to do a quick analysis or report.”

Future Plans

As Oasis Community Learning continues to grow, they can see the opportunities offered by additional facilities within the PS Financials system, which are not currently being used, such as seamless links to leading CRM and student record systems.

“I have never come across a software company that will make a software improvement within two weeks. Most companies will say, ‘We’ll try and do it in the

next upgrade,’ and then never do.”

Oasis Community Learning

“Background

The Diocese of Oxford is the administrative area of the Church of England, covering three counties: Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, and is the largest Diocese in the UK with 847 churches. The Diocese of Oxford decided to form a multi-academy trust, and their first academy joined them in September 2012. Initially, the Diocese purchased and implemented Corero (Civica Resource) as their financial system.

The Solution

The Finance Director decided it made sense to approach other financial software providers, and because the trust was particularly impressed by the way in which PSF was supporting other multi-academy trusts, she carried out research, spoke with the trust’s auditor and the finance directors of two other academies who had good experiences of changing to, and using PS Financials: “The feedback was universally positive.”

The Diocese of Oxford decided PSF was the ideal software solution for a multi-academy trust: “It was a no-brainer. It is pretty clear that PS Financials is the preferred choice for MATs, their experience will be invaluable in the set up of our financial processes.”

All Encompassing Reporting

Having a strong and all encompassing reporting system is very important to the Diocese. The ability for each academy and the central finance team to receive timely and accurate information is essential: “The PS Financials reporting system is fantastic, whereas Corero (Civica Resource) are too slow at getting their reports up and running.”

The Transition

The PS Financials education team are extremely helpful and approachable. “All of the people I have spoken with have been extremely supportive, particularly the post sales customer helpdesk. PS Financials have kept me in the loop and stayed in contact throughout. I am impressed with the speed at which everything has moved. We were not expecting training to start until January but this was brought forward to December!”

The Future

The Finance Director feels PS Financials is the ideal solution to restore confidence in the academies and is very pleased with the service: “Based on the experience I’ve received so far, I would absolutely recommend PS Financials, without question.”

Diocese of Oxford

““It was a no-brainer. It is pretty clear that PS Financials is the preferred choice for MATs, their experience will be invaluable in the set up of our financial processes.”

The Diocese of Oxford

“Background

Gates Cambridge was established by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in October 2000, to provide outstanding students and potential leaders from outside the UK with scholarships to The University of Cambridge.

95 post-graduate students join each year and over 1,400 scholars from over 100 coun-tries have been through the scheme. The Trust is regulated as a reporting charity to The University of Cambridge, which is itself directly regulated by the Higher Education Funding Council. The Trust has £208m assets and an annual spend of around £6.2m, most of which supports the 225 scholars in residence.

The Issues

David Lott, Director of Finance, explains the issues they faced with their previous finance system: “I had worked in the Finance Department at The University of Cambridge for three years before I joined the Trust. Prior to joining, the University were using a very old version of the Sage line 100 system at the time. This was not user friendly and was unable to store non-financial data against our students, which is essential.”

“In addition, we were heavily reliant on Excel in order to produce management and statutory reports. Our reporting process was extremely manual and arduous. I knew straightaway that we would need a new system.”

The Solution

The Trust reviewed the systems available in the market. Some were ruled out for a variety of reasons, including size, lack of flexibility, and price. PS Financials was the standout offering.

“I actually met the PS Financials team at an ICAEW conference for charities and spoke with the charity specialists at their stand. I also spoke to other providers, some of whom turned out to be far too expensive.”

“We then organised detailed demonstrations, highlighting PS Financials’ ability to meet the requirements of the Trust. We were also shown additional functions within the system that may be useful to us in the future, such as electronic procurement and web-based staff expenses.”

Gates Cambridge

““The important thing was that the system was straightforward to use, with anintuitive interface and easy access to our historical data from Sage”

Gates Cambridge

UK Accreditations:

Contact us PS Financials Ltd Park House Peterborough Business Park Lynch Wood, Peterborough PE2 6FZ

Telephone +44 1733 367 330 E-mail education@psfi nancials.com Website www.psfi nancials.com

2018 ©PS Financials Ltd

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales has accredited this software under the terms of its AccreditedIT Product Scheme. Purchasers should ensure that the software, its security features and related support meet their ownspecifi c requirements, as the Institute will not be liable for any damage whatsoever, incurred by any person, occasioned bythe use of the software, or any related products or services howsoever caused.

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