Choosing the right school accounting finance software
Well-organised school accounting system can help your school run smoothly. Schools are like any business and need to make sound financial decisions track your income and expenses be able to count for every dollar. Choosing the right school accounting software for your needs is just as important as any other software in your school.
Selecting the right school finance software product can be a complicated and daunting process, especially when the costs to purchase, implement, and maintain the product can be in the tens of thousands of dollars. Schools need to be certain that they are investing in the right school software that can meet current requirements and grow and adapt for the future.
Identify the need to change school finance software
Identify the integration with current or future planned software solutions used by the school, i.e. integration with the school management systems or learning management systems.
- Are you going to be using off the shelf solution like zero all MYOB or dedicated school finance package?
- Shortlist list vendors against your school requirements and available budget.
- Request vendor demonstrations and presentation to all your relevant key stakeholders who will be using the system verify with vendors that they can meet your school requirements as highlighted. Try and use the software yourself, to gauge its user-friendliness.
- Discuss with vendors selection, budgets and implementation process that again if it can meet your requested requirements I gather feedback from the vendors on their best practices suggestions to see if efficiencies can be gained.
Some areas that are unique for schools is complexities of student building requirements having options for split payments and fees across different parents community members. The handling having school excursion expenses. Individual debt arrangements, scholarships, hardship agreements. Other ways to consider is integration with school payment, to allow as many many different flexible arrangements for your school debtors.
Choosing the right school accounting finance software images www.idealphotography.com.au
Other finance-related areas to consider.
- Difficult family arrangements
- Debtor Billing needs for the school
- Handling spilt payment,
- GL, BAS reporting
- Alumni
- Document Storage
- Software Design for school users.
- School Community and Management, Adhoc charging
- Handling school Fundraising, Donations and bequeath.
- School finance workflows
- Document OCR integration
- Finance reporting and Dashboard Analytics
- Excursions management and payments
- Staff Scheduling, Adhoc staff Payments
- HR management
- School Debtor communication options
- Scholarships
- Hosting/ Technology Requirements
- Current and ongoing commitment support for the development of the software to meet ever-changing school Compliance
- Support, Service and Development
- Integrations with third-party providers, like school payment providers.
- Resourcing and training
- Data Conversion of current financial data.
- Implementation timeframes.
Consider whether a formal tender process needs to take place to assist in the evaluation process, do you need to seek outside school help to conduct that software evaluation process. With the help of an externally created School User Requirement List.
School Finance software providers
https://schoolsoftware.com.au/listing-category/australia-school-finance-software/
Also, consider reading Finance software for schools