It is imperative for educational institutions to handle funding and financial management effectively for it to function successfully. Uncertainty and financial pressures around school budgets are not uncommon. And it is about time that the schools started placing finance on their priorities list. With expectations on educational standards on the rise each day, it is but natural for a school to feel a degree of insecurity around the next stages of funding. School budgets do not always come protected and therefore institutions have to manage stresses due to increasing pay, inflation, employer pensions, and much more. Consequently, stakeholders and leaders need to take stock of the situation, right now.
Understanding The Role of Finance
Certainly, financial sustainability and long-term objectives have to be achieved through a strategy that begins with understanding the role of finance in support of the school. Fiscal perspectives warrant the delivery of educational objectives effectively and efficiently.
Funding, by itself, has graduated from its conventional back-office roots. Today there is more partnering, and networking alongside managers that support in crucial decision making. Finance also addresses the challenges the schools are facing. Whilst accounting and compliance are largely transaction-based activities, these have to be controlled well because the information generated and analyzed from this help evaluate future financial implications and foster directional decision-making. It is only by looking into the future that management accounting activities can attain solid foundations through constructive analysis of scenarios and implement long term financial planning. Then there are also other accounting activities such as budgetary planning, resource allocation, data insight, financial modeling, etc., that help face future financial uncertainties.
The Need For Automation
Rigorous financial management revolves around accountability and efficiency. With reservations over funding, even at its most basic level, it is extremely important to competently manage the flow of money in and out of an institution.
An effective financial management software system can precisely measure cash flows, optimize profitability and ensure compliance while maintaining lasting sustainability. Precision, speed, and reliability can be obtained only with the help of a technology that fortifies the foundation of financial management within an educational organization regardless of the pressures around it.
An Ideal Financial Management System
While the need for a strong financial management system is already established, off-the-shelf products can do little to contribute to accounting flow. These systems though easily available, are not tailored to suit a school’s administrative requirements. There are several tasks involved within an institution such as a collection of student fees, proffering installment plans and fostering parent-teacher communication, to name a few. Every school needs to assess its current administrative requirements before initiating a solution. For example, check if your system does have an Accounts Receivable function capable of providing comprehensive invoicing, receipting and reporting. An appropriate financial system will allow access to different people responsible for paying a child’s educational costs and will revolve around a student-centric billing system where the child is the driver in its entirety. Additionally, school administrators should also be able to track fund allocations and map it with student records. This way, the schools will be able to achieve their goal through multiple options and can avoid unnecessary human errors that can occur through manual work.
Smart School Management System
The Accounts Receivable function should be able to obtain the data that is stored within a student management system. This means the School Management Software should be fully integrated with the Accounts Receivable system to eliminate the time-consuming task of performing manual imports and exports of data. The system should be able to dissipate the contacts and the students associated with them into the accounts receivable system. In essence, the accounting system is seamlessly integrated into the smart school management system.
Features of a good financial smart school management system will include Accounts Payable, General Ledger and Asset Register that complement the accounts receivable system.
Ordering invoices through to payment and creditor management is accomplished through accounts payable
A comprehensive summary of all integrated ledgers and sub-ledgers can be obtained from the general ledger
Finally, the asset register maintains depreciation and insurance information.
IntelSchool Management System
Overall, IntelSchool proffers exhaustive school management software that deals with every accounting, financial reporting, and related complexities. It helps the institution operate efficiently while being able to elicit sophisticated reports for every module including Bank Reconciliation, Income & Expenditure A/C, Budget, and Cash/Bank Receipts and much more besides the usual Accounts Receivable/Payables.
Our automated financial management system integrates student billing with online enrollment. Office operations of an educational institution can be optimized through customized online enrollment contracts that are supported by tuition rates that vary according to grades, level and boarding criteria of the student.
Besides, automated credit facilities are applied for students with grants or those who have been awarded financial aid
Flexible payment options, including online payment deposits with credit cards and even e-check options, are made available.
Once contracts have been submitted, the invoices are generated automatically. The system also facilitates the generation of online statements, a school store, and even conveniently processes application fees. Additionally, the staff is empowered with an electronic approval system where teachers can submit purchase orders and other supporting documents through an intuitive interface. This order request is automatically transmitted to the general ledger account that receives a notification for pending order approvals. Once considered, approval is immediately conveyed to the teacher for purchases. All items can be easily marked as received and an email is triggered by notifying relevant offices about the purchase.
Furthermore, paper reports are eliminated, and key personnel is provided with access to a customized dashboard that provides an overview of all purchase orders and accounts. An intuitive reviewing and approving process with an easily navigable interface provides information about budgets for the subsequent fiscal year along with real-time general ledger activity.
Users can accordingly generate financial reports on the fly and leverage the power of the IntelSchool Management system that is also equipped with a set of predefined reporting modules comprising of the Balance Sheet, Income Statement, Statement of Fixed Assets, Trial Balance, Cash Flow Forecast and much more.
With our School Management System, institutions can enjoy and experience a customized accounting and financial management structure built particularly for your school, with comprehensive security access and automated updates and processing. We engineer online systems to deliver the highest levels of quality along with transparent communication and a completely cloud-based solution that can be accessed anywhere and at any time.
Furthermore, paper reports are eliminated, and key personnel is provided with access to a customized dashboard that provides an overview of all purchase orders and accounts. An intuitive reviewing and approving process with an easily navigable interface provides information about budgets for the subsequent fiscal year along with real-time general ledger activity.
Users can accordingly generate financial reports on the fly and leverage the power of the IntelSchool Management system that is also equipped with a set of predefined reporting modules comprising of the Balance Sheet, Income Statement, Statement of Fixed Assets, Trial Balance, Cash Flow Forecast and much more.
With our School Management System, institutions can enjoy and experience a customized accounting and financial management structure built particularly for your school, with comprehensive security access and automated updates and processing. We engineer online systems to deliver the highest levels of quality along with transparent communication and a completely cloud-based solution that can be accessed anywhere and at any time.
As one of the fastest-growing platforms, IntelSchool makes paperless classrooms an absolute reality.