Best School Accounting Software

What is School Accounting Software?

Accounting software is a type of application that records all financial transactions. However, educational institutes such as schools or colleges should use an accounting system specially curated for such establishments. This is the reason accounting software for educational institutions is being extensively used across the globe.

Suppose your school uses a default general software. In that case, you will face multiple limitations since they cannot be customized to meet school-specific requirements, including a collection of student fees, online storefront accounting, and communication between teachers and parents or guardians.

The administration of any school needs to keep a real-time track of fund allocation, which is then integrated with student records. You increase the chances of human errors when you ditch a centralized platform and instead opt for multiple software applications to perform different functions.

It also introduces several steps to the functions, which can be carried out using a single application. And this is where a school accounting system comes in. Best school accounting software helps you address the budget issues at your institute.

It automates accounting, financial operations, and other related back-office functions. School accounting systems are specifically designed to address the budgetary needs of school management and include tools such as accounting, billing software, accounts payable, purchasing and payroll. All these features are incorporated within a single administrative tool, making school management easy and seamless financial processes.

Why Is School Accounting Software Important?

Accounting software for schools is crucial because it makes it easier for them to maintain structured financial records and transactions. The software can handle accounts payable and receivable, set budgets, generate financial reports, and track income and expenses.

It can also assist schools in adhering to laws and reporting obligations and give stakeholders like parents, teachers, and administrators accurate financial information. Hence, school accounting software solutions can assist schools in operating more effectively and efficiently and making better financial decisions.

Who Uses School Accounting Software?

School accounting software solution is typically used by school administrators, finance and accounting staff, and other individuals responsible for managing the financial aspects of a school. Below are the main use cases of the student accounting systems.

1. Teachers

   Teachers can use school accounting software to monitor their classrooms' budgets, spending, and other financial data. In addition to managing student data, monitoring attendance and grades, and producing reports, the program can also be used.

   As a result, managing the financial aspects of their classrooms will be simpler for instructors, who will be able to keep efficient and organized. The software can also generate in-depth financial reports for school administrators, who can use them to monitor expenditure and budgeting across the entire institution.

2. Students

   Using accounting software for students, students can view their data, including account balances, transaction histories, and details of any financial aid or scholarships. The software allows students to see their grades, keep track of their attendance, and see any assignments or due dates that are approaching.

   Using the software, students could also examine any billing or payment information and pay their tuition or other school payments. Students may find it simpler to manage their money and maintain organization while attending school as a result.

3. Administrators

   School accounting software can be very useful for administrators to manage the financial aspects of the school district or institution. This software allows administrators to track school-wide spending, prepare precise financial reports, and manage budgets for better accuracy.

   Moreover, they can use the software to keep track of student data, including enrolment, attendance, and grades. Additionally, the program can manage employee data, such as payroll and benefits.

4. Business/Finance Officers

   Business and finance officers can benefit greatly from school accounting software. Reports on student achievement, school finances, and other important data can be produced using it. 

   Moreover, this tool can also be used to create invoices, conduct various accounting-related duties crucial to efficiently operating the school's finances, and manage accounts payable and receivable.

5. Auditors

   An effective school accounting software simplifies auditor inspection and analysis of a school's financial records. This software can provide auditors with complete data, including budgets, costs, revenue, and other financial details.

   This information can make it simpler for auditors to study and examine a school's financial records and spot any potential problems or inconsistencies.

Features of School Accounting Software

A comprehensive school accounting system can be used in colleges, universities, other educational institutions, and coaching academies. This application forms an inevitable part of the school management system, college management software and institute management software.

Below, we have listed some common features that arrive with almost all the best accounting software for schools.

1. Scalability

   To keep track of your annual expenses, a good private accounting system for schools must come with the option to maintain the records of students for different fiscal years. It should also ensure that the data is accurate and secure.

2. Records across multiple years

   Small businesses that do not have a dedicated IT team can outsource software development and maintenance to web design firms or other companies.

   These companies will purchase website monitoring software for use on customer sites.

3. Automated reports

   After you enter your data into the school accounting system, the application should be able to create reports from entries related to receipts and payments into trial balances and balance sheets.

4. Seamless workflow

   Usually, the best financial accounting software for schools follows a uniform workflow, which includes the following steps.

   Creating ledgers: It generates ledger accounts for all your related suppliers and vendors

   Posting account entries: The following account transactions are generated by school accounting systems:

   - Accounts vouchers, which include receipt, payment, journal, contra, and debit or credit notes

   - Detail payments and receipts

   - Bank reconciliation statements

   - Ledger

   - Trial balance

   - Final books, such as profit and loss statement, balance sheet, and income and expenditure statement

   - Books of accounts, which comprise a ledger for multiple accounts, cash or bank book, daybook, journal, sale register, purchase register, bank reconciliation statement

   - Records of collection of outstanding dues, like receivable amount, payable amount, collection sheet, outstanding aging analysis, and cash receipt report

   - Depreciation chart as per Income Tax Act

5. Additional features

   Additional features which you should check for before investing in a school accounting system are a collection of student fees, keeping track of inventory and equipment, integration with an online storefront, creation of custom receipts and reports, a separate module for donation/fundraising, online payments, management of payroll, tuition, and student profiles, options for multiple currencies, ACH bank transfers, the printing of checks, among others.

Benefits of School Accounting Software

Schools mustn't spend considerable amounts while investing in costly school accounting systems. They should also ensure they do not spend vital hours generating complex, detailed reports.

The ideal private school accounting software allows storing and accessing finance and accounting data through a centralized dashboard, where stakeholders can track data and perform required actions even remotely.

Hence, with the right accounting software for schools, you can organize all your accounting transactions using minimum resources. Below are the key benefits of an accounting system for private schools:

1. Centralized platform

   The best school accounting systems organize the accounting module of your establishment, which is the most complicated task in any institute. You can manage all the various day-to-day expenses through one application. It will store data and manage information related to bank transactions, student fee collection, and related expenditures.

   Apart from managing expenses and incomes, an accounting system for schools ensures that your data is safe. A complete day book keeps a count of daily transactions. You can even import data from other applications integrated with your system. It is a reliable, affordable and user-friendly option.

2. Access data from remote locations

   The best academy accounting software ensures efficient, transparent, and accurate financial and accounting records. This minimizes errors arising from manual calculations, cuts costs, increases productivity, and enhances revenue. What’s more? You can access all this data from any location off-site.

   Additionally, you can also track real-time financial data on smartphones and tablets. This data can be related to financial, accounting, procurement, and budgeting, enabling you to keep count of compliance requirements and financial status on the go.

3. No requirement for hardware or software installation

   An efficient and cost-effective option, cloud-based school accounting systems do not require hefty costs in installing hardware, software, or deploying IT staff. You do not need to spend extra by paying software license fees, especially when you pick cloud-based applications.

4. Import and track data

   The data import feature of private educating accounting software enables institutes to easily import vital information concerning staff and students from connected systems. This data can then be mapped into relevant fields as and when required. You can easily track and share workflows and approvals when you have all the data related to your staff in a single platform. Such an automated process promotes better collaboration between students, departments, staff members, and parents.

   Another obstacle faced by schools is to trace expenditures and reduce costs. A premium school accounting system enables you to capture financial data and accurately monitor it in real time, helping you stay organized at all times.

   This tool generates snapshots of your financial performance through comprehensive reports such as bill payments, receivables, balance sheets, taxation reports, budgeting, and inventory. Hence, you can make quick, better, and informed decisions. Accurate and actionable reports will ensure that you can analyze, measure and forecast academic performance.

5. Quick payments

   Accounting software for schools takes care of all functions, including fee payments during admission, enrollment, library, hostel, and transport. Fast, simple, and safe online or mobile payments help you ditch errors that arise during manual transactions.

6. Integration with third-party applications

   The best school accounting systems can integrate easily with third-party applications. These applications are fully customizable, versatile, and flexible, and you can scale them as per the requirements of your institute..

7. Real-time notifications

   Whenever your institute does bill payments or cash collections, school accounting software will send automatic notifications to students and parents through email, SMS and push notifications.

8. Benefits to stakeholders

   As we mentioned above, school accounting systems promote complete automation of operations, leaving more time to focus on strategic tasks. They help the management in making informed decisions and give access to parents so that they can have all the information about their wards online. So, these tools offer multiple benefits to different stakeholders. Let’s see how:

   1. Management

   The administrative department of educational institutes can reap multiple benefits from school accounting software by being up-to-date about different aspects of the establishment. They can use a single, centralized dashboard and manage records with zero redundancy. They can monitor effective communication between teachers, parents, and students and promote their schools' technological advancement.

   The management has full control over automated operations, can ensure optimal resource allocation, generate automatic timetables for teachers, and have microscopic and macroscopic views of the entire operations. Additionally, the management saves costs without investing in different hardware, software, and management modules.
   The administration can easily track individual modules, effortlessly detect errors, and create automated and quick reports within minimal turnaround times. With effortless data access from a single repository, they can check related profiles instantly in the accounting system for private schools. The department also does not require extra learning and IT skills to understand how to use the school's financial software. They can ensure high-level security of their data, design scalability when required, and employ a minimal workforce, leading to huge cost-cuts

   2. Parents

   Even working parents who do not have time to visit schools frequently can use the reporting system of school accounting software to keep track of their kids’ academic performance. They can maintain regular communication with the school and frequently interact with teachers, all from a remote location, using only the internet.

   Parents can additionally participate in school activities and get updates about their wards’ attendance, progress reports, fee payments, and events and vacations. Regular updates through articles, discussion forums, image galleries, and messaging systems are also other benefits of school accounting systems for parents.

   So yes, private school accounting software comes with multiple benefits. It includes several features, and you can choose a package tailored to your requirements. And in the tech-driven world, it is time for you to ditch traditional accounting systems and embrace a faster, more efficient, automated, and centralized module to manage all your school-specific accounting transactions

Things To Consider While Purchasing School Accounting Software

When buying school accounting software, there are several important factors to consider to ensure you choose the best solution for your needs likewise, budget, features, requirements etc. 

1. User-friendliness

   The software must be easy to use and navigate so that administrators and teachers can quickly and readily find the required data. The best school accounting systems should feature an interface that is easy to use, comprehend, and implement. You should be able to view all the transactions and reports with just the click of a button.

2. Integration

   The software should work easily with the school's other systems and programs, such as the student information and payroll systems.

3. Flexibility and customization

   The software must be adaptable and configurable so that schools can modify it to meet their own requirements.

   The software provider should offer continuing support and training to guarantee that users can utilize the software to its maximum potential and take advantage of its capabilities.

4. Budget

   The program's cost should be compared with its features and benefits to choose the finest solution that matches the school budget.

5. Cloud-based or on-premise

   The school should consider which type of solution they prefer, weigh the advantages and disadvantages of each, and make a decision.

6. Custom Report

   One of the key requirements for any School is to be able to create customized reports with required fields. This way, it makes your accounting process simpler and easier.

How Much Does School Accounting Software Cost?

The price of school accounting software can differ significantly based on the features and capabilities of the software, the size of the school district or institution, and other factors. While some school accounting programs are available as one-time purchases, others are available as subscription-based services.

Typically, school accounting software ranges in price from $35 to $250. Depending on your needs and features, you can choose the software.

Top 5 School Accounting Software You Need To Consider

School accounting software is software designed for schools to manage their financial operations. Typical functions include budgeting, payroll administration, accounts payable and receivable, financial reporting, and payment processing. 

School accounting software's objectives include streamlining accounting procedures and giving administrators the data they need to make financial choices. Below is the list of the top 5 school accounting software you should consider.

1. Aplos

Aplos is the best cloud-based school accounting solution for educational institutions, religious institutions, and nonprofits. The software offers several tools to help schools manage their financial operations, including reporting, bookkeeping, and budgeting.

Aplos also has facilities for managing employee wages and benefits, tracking donations, and creating invoices and other financial records. Additionally, the program is made to adhere to all applicable rules and laws and has strong security safeguards to safeguard private data.

Features

• Easy-to-use interface
• Pre-built financial reports
• Custom report creation
• Donation tracking
• Payroll and employee benefits management
• Invoice and financial document generation
• Compliance with relevant regulations and laws
• Robust security features

Pros

• Better accessibility for non-financial staff
• Help users make data-driven decisions
• Protects sensitive financial information
• Support and training provided

Cons

• Subscription-based pricing model may not be suitable for all schools
• Limited integration options with other systems

Pricing

• Aplos lite - $39.50 per month
• Aplos Core+ - $69.50 per month

2. Multiview ERP

Multiview ERP is an all-inclusive accounting program for schools created to aid in managing their financial affairs. The program is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution that runs in the cloud and provides a wealth of capabilities to aid schools in streamlining their financial operations.

Budgeting, accounting, and financial reporting, as well as facilities for managing purchases, inventory, and human resources, are some major aspects of Multiview ERP. To assist schools in making data-driven decisions, the software also features a variety of pre-built financial reports and the capability to build custom reports.

Features 

• Budgeting, accounting, and financial reporting
• Procurement, inventory, and human resources management
• Pre-built financial reports and custom report creation
• Payroll and employee benefits management
• Tracking of tuition and fees
• Automated billing and invoicing
• Integration with other systems 

Pros 

• Provides automated workflows for streamlined operations
• Compliance with relevant regulations and laws
• Advanced security features
• Mobile access

Cons 

• It may have a steeper learning curve for some users
• The pricing model may not be suitable for all schools
• It may have limitations in terms of scalability for larger schools with more complex financial operations

Pricing

• $150 per user, per month.

3. Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT

Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT is a comprehensive school accounting software designed to help educational institutions manage their finances.

The software features accounting, budgeting, fundraising, and reporting modules, as well as a dashboard that provides real-time visibility into financial data. It also integrates with other Blackbaud solutions, such as student information and fundraising systems, to provide a seamless workflow. 

The software is accessible via a web browser and also has mobile apps, enabling users to access and manage data from anywhere. Additionally, the software offers robust security features to ensure the safety and privacy of financial data.

Features

• Comprehensive financial management
• Accounting, budgeting, fundraising, and reporting modules
• Real-time financial data visibility through a dashboard
• Accessible via web browser and mobile apps
• Robust security features to protect financial data
• Automated workflows and approval processes

Pros 

• Provides better accessibility
• Automated and swift approval processes
• Analytics are highly accurate

Cons 

• High cost of implementation and subscription
• It may have a steeper learning curve for new users
• Users may find the interface and navigation to be complex

Pricing

• Offers custom pricing option.

4. Xero

Xero is an ideal cloud accounting software for small- to medium-sized enterprises. It offers several tools to handle finances, including invoicing, spending, bank reconciliation, and financial reporting while being easy to use and powerful.

Additionally, customers of Xero can work with their accountant or bookkeeper and access their financial information whenever, and from anywhere they choose. Users may also manage their accounts while on the road, thanks to the mobile app it has.

Features

• Allows for invoicing, expenses, bank reconciliation, and financial reporting
• Mobile app for managing finances on the go
• Wide range of integrations with other apps and services
• Strong security and compliance to meet accounting standards
• Automated workflows and approval processes

Pros

• Simple to use and powerful
• Accessible from anywhere, at any time
• The platform is easily accessible

Cons 

• The pricing can be on the higher side

Pricing

• Early: $13 per month.
• Growing: $37 per month.
• Established: $70 per month.   

5. Sage Intacct

Small and medium-sized enterprises, especially educational institutions like schools, can use Sage Intacct, a cloud-based financial management program.

General ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and cash management are just a few of the many financial management features it provides. Additionally, the program provides forecasting, reporting, and budgeting features that help schools understand their finances and make wise decisions.

Additionally, Sage Intacct provides a feature-rich and adaptable platform that can be tailored to the unique requirements of educational institutions and nonprofit organizations. For a smooth workflow, the software can also be connected with other systems, such as student information systems.

Features

• Robust security features
• Accessible via a web browser
• Automated workflows and approval processes
• Advanced reporting and analytics capabilities
• Customizable and adaptable to the specific needs of the school
• Compliance with accounting standards

Pros 

• Features tailored for school management software
• Ease of use and value for money
• Improved user interface

Cons

• Some users may find the system to be resource-intensive
• It may have a steeper learning curve for new users
• It may be costly for schools to customize the software to fit their specific needs

Pricing

• Provides customized plan. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, various accounting software options are available for schools to choose from, each with its own features and capabilities. Some popular options include Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT, Xero, and Sage Intacct.

Each software option offers a range of financial management capabilities, such as general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, cash management, budgeting, forecasting, and reporting tools. However, each of these software options also has its own pros and cons that schools should consider before making a decision.