As the new academic year gets underway, now is a great time to review budgets, validate assumptions, and ensure your financial plans remain on track. This month's update includes practical resources to support budget monitoring, payroll reconciliation, upcoming events, and a look at what's coming next for Access Education Budgets.
Featured Focus for MATs: One Month In. Is Your Budget on Track?
With the first month of the academic year behind us, October is the ideal time for Multi-Academy Trusts to review their financial position and check whether budgets are performing as expected.
From staffing costs and pupil number changes to day-to-day operational expenditure, even small variations can have a significant impact on trust-wide financial forecasts. Regular budget monitoring, reviewing variances, and revisiting financial assumptions can help identify emerging pressures early, enabling finance teams to take proactive action rather than reacting to challenges later in the year.
Budget Monitoring Made Simple
Whether you're managing finances for a single school or a trust, regular budget monitoring is key to maintaining financial control throughout the year.
Our in-depth help articles provide guidance on comparing actual expenditure against planned budgets, understanding variances, and identifying trends early, helping you make informed financial decisions with confidence.
Staffing Is Your Biggest Cost. Are You Reconciling Payroll?
For most schools and trusts, staffing represents the largest area of expenditure, making it essential to monitor closely.
Using the Payroll Reconciliation function in Access Education Budgets, you can compare your actual monthly payroll costs against your budgeted staffing costs, helping you quickly identify and investigate differences.
With Payroll Reconciliation, you can:
Compare forecast and actual staffing costs
Review variances across salaries, National Insurance and pension costs
Investigate differences at employee level
Add notes against known discrepancies to maintain a clear audit trail
Schools & Academies Show â Free Pass for Customers
Join us on 18-19 November at Stand J40 for expert insights on financial sustainability, operational efficiency and compliance.
Missed Our Future of Access Education for MATs Webinar?
Our recent webinar gave customers an exclusive early look at the future of Access Education Budgets for Multi-Academy Trusts.
We shared our vision for trust-wide budgeting, discussed developments currently underway, and provided a preview of our product roadmap.
If you couldn't attend the live session, you can still catch up and watch the recording on demand.
How AI Became LET Education Trust's Newest Team Member
What happens when AI can work with your trust's own data, surface insights, identify risks, and answer questions in seconds?
As an early adopter of Access Evo, Michelle Williams, Chief Finance and Operations Officer at LET Education Trust, has been exploring exactly that. From generating reports and uncovering trends to reducing time spent searching for information, Michelle believes Access Evo has the potential to transform how trusts work.
Rather than spending hours pulling together data, teams can focus on analysing insights, making informed decisions, and supporting their schools.
"It's like having another member of staff"
Michelle Williams, Chief Finance and Operations Officer
"I would describe this as having a personal assistant who is there at your beck and call every day, every minute of every day."
Discover why Michelle believes Access Evo could help trusts move from reactive working to proactive management, and why she says it feels like having "another member of staff".
The ROI of Consolidating School Finance Software Across Your Local Authority
With school budgets under growing pressure and more maintained schools operating in deficit, local authorities need greater visibility, control, and efficiency than ever before.
Our latest article explores how consolidating finance, budgeting, purchasing and payroll systems across schools can deliver benefits that go far beyond cost savings. From reducing duplication and administrative workload to improving reporting, strengthening compliance, and giving central teams a real-time view across every school, the impact can be significant.
Discover how local authorities are using a unified approach to save time, improve decision-making, and help schools make every pound count.