Beaumont School
How Beaumont School went from an "outdated" to "incredibly efficient" financial management system
When you take on a finance management role as the academy's looking to change systems you know you'll hit the ground running. That was the situation for Karen Graham when she became Finance Manager at Beaumont school in November 2021.
Eighteen months on, Karen reflected on how they navigated their decision-making and how the new system supports them today.
Based in St Albans, Beaumont School is a secondary single academy trust. With 1,400 students, it also has a large sixth-form centre.
No remote access
"When I joined the school, I had the disadvantage of working with the old financial management system for six months. A massive problem during Covid had been the lack of remote access. This was a major flaw. They couldn't remotely login, and as everything was paper-based, they had to come into school. Getting approval by email also meant keeping complex records. It was really hard," said Karen.
The school did achieve basic remote access, but it wasn't enough. And there were further problems. "Reporting was limited. Plus, the providers were about to stop supporting the system. We had to do something," she said.
Karen was also conscious of the DfE's chart of accounts changes. "The DfE had said we must all start aligning with their chart of accounts. Like many schools, we used our own, adding new cost centres when necessary. It wasn't yet mandatory to change to the DfE codes, but it made sense to adopt them before this happened."
Finding a supportive provider
Karen shortlisted three providers to tender for their new financial management system. A mix of larger and smaller businesses, one was Hoge 100 and Dimensions for Academies.
"Thankfully, most modern systems enable remote working now and most help you align with the DfE's chart of accounts. So, we could resolve two of our issues with a new system. When it came to Hoge 100 though, I particularly liked their Finance Portal. Many budget holders are teachers, and they often shy away from finance matters. So, having easy-to-use Finance Portal would be a good thing," said Karen.
She also liked the workflow from Finance Portal into Hoge's core accounting system. It matched the school's nicely and would mean an easier transition.
Personal service confidence
So, what clinched Beaumont School's decision to choose Hoge 100?
Karen explained:
"I couldn't find any bad reports about Hoge at all. We also felt confident they'd give us the best level of personal service.
When you have a query with Hoge, you don't create a ticket and wait, you pick up the phone and speak to a real person. Plus, the package is all-inclusive. You could call them daily and someone would help. Big providers don't operate like this.
So, if I'm brutally honest, that blew the others out of the park."
Two big changes at once
Beaumont School took the leap. But this was more than a system switch. They decided to align with the DfE's chart of accounts at the same time.
"We were changing our system and chart of accounts in one go. Personally, I think the system change is the smaller piece of work, but it's the one everyone talks about. Hoge were great at holding our hand. Liz and her team were so proactive - you don't know what they know. They talked us through everything, and we could pick Liz's brain whenever we wanted. They use a good plan, so Carla first booked all our sessions. Hoge continually explain what they need from you and what you must do. And as the system is so intuitive we flowed into it nicely," explained Karen.
Beaumont School installed Hoge's core system plus Finance Portal. Whilst the portal was mainly for budget holders, the finance team find it useful too.
Karen explained:
"I love working in Dimensions. I absolutely love it. My finance assistant prefers Finance Portal though. It's very user-friendly. Most of our budget holders just want to press a button. Non-finance people, their main job is to teach so they're a tough audience. Finance Portal is great for them as it's so easy. It also speeds up queries as we can handle it over the phone, both looking at the same screen."
Karen feels further training would help budget holders get more from the Finance Portal reporting suite. They could check budget progress every month and feel more in control. She's flagged the training need for a future inset day.
Efficiency, audit trails, and (almost) no paper
Moving to Dimensions for Academies has been a "game-changer" for Beaumont School.
The common theme is efficiency, and Karen had much to say about it.
"Take sales invoicing. It takes me 10% of the time it did with our old system. That's brilliant. It's so efficient.
A massive game-changer has been having a full audit trail electronically. Everything is visible for audit compliance - the date, the sign-off details. Everything. Now, when our auditors ask to see the end-to-end process for a transaction, we send it to them instantly. No hunting for paperwork. In fact, they could log in and find the information themselves. That's a massive improvement."
Beaumont School has ambitious sustainability targets and reducing paper use is key. Karen explained how they've reduced every payment run from a box of paper to two sheets.
"Before, we'd print off every invoice for stamping and approval. Every week I'd have a pile on my desk. Then all that paper would go to the head in a box before storing it for seven years. Now, every invoice is visible in the system. We receive them electronically and simply attach them to the record. I now print off a two-page banking document for the head to physically sign. We don't have a paper mountain anymore."
Karen's advice to other academies
What about that "personal service" promise? Is it stacking up after 18 months? Karen thinks so.
"I really trust Hoge 100 as a supplier. They're incredibly knowledgeable and I love dealing with them. Plus, the fact they work closely with the DfE means they're on top of any changes afoot. Hoge are very honest about what they're doing. They don't want to expand so much that they can't provide good personal service to their clients. You're never going to get anyone who's perfect, but I struggle to say anything bad about Hoge 100."
Having upgraded Beaumont School's financial management system and aligned their chart of accounts to the DfE model, Karen said academies should ask themselves some key questions.
"We don't know what's going to happen in the world, so it's important to check your system could work remotely. And given the DfE's chart of account changes, it's important to consider how well your system feeds into that return format.
Finally, I'd question the service you get from your current provider when you have a problem. Could you pick up the phone? Would you feel confident you'd speak to someone in real-time who'd say 'yeah, I can help you'? If not, I'd arrange a demo with Hoge 100."
