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Financial Management Solutions: 4 Ways To Drive Institutional Success

By April 18, 2022April 25th, 2022No Comments

The larger the institution, the more complex its processes and volume of data. This is where financial management solutions (FMS) come in. These FMS solutions simplify this complexity by automating processes and operations relating to a higher education institution’s financial management. We examine the ins and outs of this kind of FMS solution and why this is the way of the future for higher education institutions.

What are financial management solutions for higher education?

Finance management software allows for all financial details of the institution to be managed from a single platform. Different financial transactional data related to fees, residence management, Payroll etc., is fed into the system in real-time. This software for finance provides a single consolidated view of all financial data across departments, allowing for effective and efficient decision-making.  

Without this kind of software for finance management, an institution would fail to function as these systems manage and control the flow of money in and out of the organisation. For a financial management solution to be truly effective within this kind of institution, it should aim to optimise profitability, manage cash flow, determine tax regulations, ensure legal compliance, and enhance the institution’s sustainability as a business.

 This kind of finance system utilises several tools and different processes to manage and govern income, expenses, resources, assets, and protect the organisation from financial fraud and theft. With this kind of system in place, higher education institutions will be able to reduce accounting errors, shorten invoicing cycles, ensure compliance with regulations and more.

How Do Financial Management Systems Fit into ERP Software?

When choosing a financial management system, an institution should look for integration with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. A fully integrated Finance ERP system provides higher education management with complete visibility over elements related to performance, operational efficiency, and factors that affect payroll and the institution’s finances. This kind of solution can provide an institution with one centralised system that houses all your institution’s data. With this kind of cloud or on-premise finance ERP software, higher education institutions can speed up processes, provide excellent student experience, reduce human error, save on costs, increase productivity, and more across all departments. One such solution is Adapt IT’s ITS Integrator which has a financial management solution.

Adapt IT’s educational, financial management solutions

ITS Integrator was developed, by Adapt IT Education, with the needs of higher education institutions in mind. This innovative software solution has been implemented across more than 55 higher education institutions in Africa, Ireland and New Zealand.

The ITS Integrator Financial Management Software is used by educational institutions, big or small, to oversee and govern all aspects of the institute’s finances. This software was designed to cater to the fun­damental function of financial control and to form an essen­tial part of management reporting. This includes managing income, cash flow, expenses, and assets to better maximise the institution’s profitability. The platform streamlines the process of invoicing and bill collection while eliminating accounting errors and ensuring compliance with regulations associated with tax and accounting.

The ITS Integrator Financial Management platform offers institutions an effective way to budget, invoice, send out financial statements, and manage cash, assets, etc. This dynamic finance management system makes managing your financial processes and services efficient and effective. With this software, institutions can:

  • Streamline financial processes – essential finance-related tasks and activities are consolidated, streamlined and automated in line with existing, changing and emerging regulations.
  • Create Consistency – this software enables institutions to implement formal procedures for handling financial transactions and activities, creating overall consistency within the institution.
  • Access Centralised information – This ensures that information is available across the necessary departments and institution units. This further facilitates accuracy and consistency.
  • Focus on Strategic planning – This platform provides critical information about the institution. This, in turn, aids in budget forecasting, new business opportunities, asset-based expenditure etc.
benefits of financial management solutions

Benefits of using a financial management system like ITS Integrator

From the above, it is clear that financial management systems like ITS Integrator fulfil a critical role in higher education institutions’ continued success and growth. This kind of innovative solution also provides institutions with the following benefits:

#1: Enhanced data security

A primary concern for educational institutions is the security of sensitive data. The accounting, finance, and audit activities must also offer comprehensive systems security with absolute data integrity integrated across the entire financial management solution. ITS Integrator’s financial management solution helps to protect this data against theft, fraud, and other illegal activities. Institutions can track audit trails, do error checks, and ensure data security.  This solution is built on a robust architecture with many advanced security features. One of which is role-based system access which prevents unauthorised access to confidential financial data. Adapt IT’s ITS Integrator solution also has data backup and recovery capabilities at scheduled times, which contains data loss and ensures data integrity.

#2: Easy reporting and forecasting

This type of financial management solution assists in enhancing decision making within the institution through reporting and forecasting capabilities. With this solution, you can create reports based on historical data to assist with accurate forecasting and enable you to predict future financial activities based on expenses, income, and revenue patterns. Reports are fully customisable, allowing you to create reports based on your specific needs and requirements. With these reports, you can track and manage the way funds are spent per department or division, check cash flow, streamline budget allocations, and several other elements.

#3: Offers collaboration and interaction

This finance solution provides flexible collaboration and interaction across departments within an institution. With the integration that this system offers, you will have complete visibility of data across departments. This consolidates the data and aligns operations, enhances communication, reduces complexity, and improves productivity.

#4: Provides ease and efficiency

This financial solution ensures data accuracy and eliminates the need for manual processes, like printing and outdated filing processes. These once time-consuming tasks can be automated and performed a lot faster with this solution. This saves staff time and reduces administrative burdens and saves the institution on resources and costs. This enhances efficiency, productivity, and the overall profitability of the institution.

Future of financial management in the higher education sector

There is no doubt that this sector is dynamic and ever-changing, and digital transformation significantly impacts this. As new technology is developed, institutions are being challenged to change how they are doing things, many institutions have been slow to move with the times, but this is now changing. The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the use of technology in every aspect of how this sector functions, from back-end to financial operations to how learning and teaching are taking place. More and more students are looking to personalise their learning experience, looking at remote learning as an option and wanting to have an outstanding customer experience. To meet these needs, institutions are turning to technology like financial management systems, which make managing elements related to operational processes, student fees, residence costs, invoicing, etc., more efficient and effective.

Technology today continues to adapt and change, with something new and innovative being developed every day. This is why you want to choose a financial management solution that has the potential to grow and develop as your institutions and the sector expands and changes. ITS Integrator’s financial management solution meets all these needs and more.

Adapt-IT-Educations-Financial-management-solutions

Conclusion

A financial management system is critical to a higher education institution’s success as it governs all aspects of the institution’s finances. This system assists in managing income, cash flow, expenses, and assets to better maximise the institution’s profitability. This integrated system provides complete visibility of all financial elements across departments, enhancing decision-making. As technology continues to evolve, these solutions must move with the times and offer scalability, agility, and flexibility to meet the changing needs of institutions in this sector. For more on this subject, download our Innovation in Higher Education Whitepaper.

Pravie Govender

Author Pravie Govender

Experienced Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the Tertiary Education Sector. Skilled in university business process analysis, business and systems project implementation, operational improvements and team leadership.

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