Ivybridge Community College becomes an Academy

When Ivybridge Community College became a directly-funded academy in November 2010, its Principal realised that it would have to undergo a complete and thorough review - as an “outstanding” school, it would need to demonstrate its innovation, as well as the robustness of all its procedures.

Ivybridge realised from an early stage that the financial reporting requirement was not only completely different to that of a school, but that it offered them a great opportunity to review and optimise their financial control system with a new product.

Since implementing PS Financials’ software, Ivybridge has benefitted from:

• Improved management with less time spent chasing up paperwork;
   
• Better reporting systems, so that monthly, quarterly and annual reports can be easily produced on demand;
   
• Huge savings of administrative time;
   
• Additional reductions in academy operating costs; and
   
• Providing departmental budget holders with up-to-date and accurate information.

About Ivybridge

Ivybridge Community College is a new academy based in Ivybridge on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon. As an Academy, it specialises in sport, science and languages and now has around 2,200 pupils. Teaching students from a catchment area of over 100 miles, and from 14 primary schools, it is heavily oversubscribed and, for the past five years, has been described as “outstanding” by OFSTED.

New Academy Demands

Ivybridge’s existing FMS financial accounting software needed to be upgraded to meet its new financial reporting requirements as an academy. Financial accountability for academies is exacting because it is very different to the those of a maintained school.

Finance Officer, Jamie Vincent, explains how Ivybridge made their decision:

“We’d heard good things about PS Financials from other academy users and, after looking at a range of products, we chose PSF. We did look at other companies, but the deciding factor was that PS Financials was the best solution for an academy and by far the best solution for schools that had aspirations to expand by adding other schools.”

“PS Financials’ package is tailored specifically for the education market and they have a proven track record as a market leader in this sector, so we felt a lot more confident about their ability to deliver.”

Top-of-the-class solution

Ivybridge implemented PS Financials’ Accounting, Purchasing and Academy Reporting Pack. The Purchasing Module handles all purchase order processing, which is now operated online by budget holders instead of the Finance Department.

The end result is greater efficiency ­ a large Academy operating with only two members of finance staff.

The online Budget Holder Report is especially useful because academies have to follow Best Value principles in their expenditure of public money. Having so many processes automated, means that they have very accurate information at their fingertips for reporting purposes.

‘It is very easy to integrate feeder schools and increase the value that the software brings with little additional cost.’

Installation and support

PS Financials took four days to install in October 2010. PS Financials sells directly to the customer, and works with the customer to install the system and provide postinstallation support. This approach makes a lot of sense for the customer, since they are talking directly to the people who created the software, with no middle-men.

Vincent continues:
“I’m so happy with the software. I help out at other schools and sit with them while they’re learning how to use it, it is very easy to understand.
 

“Word gets around fast when a product is good and suddenly everyone wants the software. PS Financials is an example of this. Once you find a product that works, well you stick with it.”

Benefits and Future plans

PS Financials has cut down the process time for requisitioning and purchasing and increased the number of users who can order themselves without having to go through the Finance Department.Another benefit is that accounting staff can instantly check an orders online status.

The key objective of the software is maximum ease of use and minimum data entry. When non-finance staff are using the system, ease of use is extremely important.

Finance Officer, Jamie Vincent estimates that this package will pay back the Return-On-Investment (ROI) in two years’ time, making it very cost effective.

In May 2011, Ivybridge incorporated a local “feeder” primary school with 133 children. This expansion has been completed without the need for any more finance staff.

Vincent comments: “It is very easy to integrate feeder schools and increase the value that the software brings with little additional cost.”