SHERBORNE AREA SCHOOLS' TRUST IMPLEMENTS SAGE INTACCT FOR EDUCATION

Sherborne Area Schools' Trust (SAST) is a family of 18 schools across Dorset and Somerset, working together and seeking to ensure delivery of sustainable 0-19 educational excellence for all the children within their communities. With their commitment to delivering high-quality education, SAST sought to enhance their financial management capabilities by implementing a robust finance system.

Their existing finance system was proving to be admin heavy around banking and year end, along with other limitations that they wanted to address, including:

• Cost of scaling.

• Individual Payment runs for each school, even with one central bank account.

• General LEDGE, AR & AP not reconciling at year end.

• Manual process for sales invoices for boarding school.

SAST required a comprehensive financial management solution that could automate processes, improve accuracy, and provide real-time insights.

SAST partnered with ION to implement Sage Intacct for Education. Sage Intacct for Education is a true cloud finance system specifically designed to meet the unique needs of educational institutions.

ION worked closely with SAST to understand their requirements and configure Sage Intacct accordingly. The implementation involved migrating existing financial data and integrating the system with SAST's other software solutions. ION provided project management resource and comprehensive training to ensure a smooth transition to the new finance system.

ION CEO, Rob Mathieson, said: "It’s great to have been able to make such an impact for Sherborne Area Schools Trust and successfully implement Sage Intacct for Education. Our expertise in education technology and finance systems has enabled us to provide a tailored solution that meets their unique requirements and levels-up their financial operations. We are confident that this partnership will contribute to the trust’s continued success."

SAST Head of Finance, Chris Vigar, said: “We’ve had a great working relationship with the team at ION, and have now successfully launched a system that has the potential to deliver considerable time and efficiency savings in future, including migrating to a DofE COA system and nominal structure. We’ve been supported by the team beyond the initial go live and feel we have a partner we can collaborate with going forward.”

Through their collaboration with ION, SAST successfully implemented Sage Intacct for Education, elevating their financial management capabilities. The new finance system has brought automation, improved financial visibility, and enhanced control and compliance to SAST.