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Copy linkHow Altus Education found financial confidence with IRIS Financials
Altus Education Partnership, a Trust of four schools, has had great success in meeting the diverse needs of its expanding network of schools with the help of IRIS Financials. Managing the financial operations of a growing number of schools can be challenging, but over the last four years, IRIS Financials has evolved with Altus, making it a dream partnership.
Highlights
- IRIS Financials flexes around Altus Education Partnership’s model
- Automation tools have saved time and money for the Trust
- Fantastic support from the team at IRIS
Concerns for a growing Trust
Natasa Winder, Head of Finance at Altus Education Partnership, recently spoke to us about the Trust’s experience with IRIS Financials, and how the flexibility of the software stood out to her. She tells us, “I had no experience with IRIS Financials before I joined Altus Education Partnership, but I was appointed as the Finance Manager and my first main task was to implement IRIS Financials, so you can imagine how I felt!”
“It was a daunting task, to say the least, but it actually went incredibly smoothly. We had a fantastic project manager from IRIS and it was communicated perfectly so that I knew what to expect, exactly what I needed to do, and had clear deadlines.”
Natasa’s role now is to maintain the system, with the majority of her day to day role spent within IRIS Financials! She tells us, “You will probably find me creating nominals, cost centres, or ensuring year-end is completed! IRIS Financials provides us with such flexibility and fits within our model and I can tailor it to our needs, it’s a fantastic bit of software.”
Savings left, right and centre!
Since using IRIS Financials, Altus has saved both time and money. Natasa is thankful that the manual task of “extracting data and then collating the data into budget reports” has now been reduced to a single click of a button.
She tells us about life before IRIS Financials, specifically processing journals - “We had to constantly update our templates when it came to journals. Manually, we had to upload the templates and adapt them when we had a new budget. It was a nightmare.” Now, with the automation tools in IRIS Financials, the process is “Nice, easy, and very fast,” helping the Trust save both time and money, allowing employees to focus on other tasks.
“We have a process in place now for when we bring a new school into the Trust. That has been easy for us to set up, and it means the school very quickly becomes part of our centralised finance operation. You’d think there would be some resistance from the schools coming in, as changing your finance software could be seen as a daunting task, but because we’ve got the process down, it’s a seamless transition and the benefits speak for themselves.”
“We have completely eliminated complex paper transactions, and as a growing Trust it is critical that these processes are digital. Not only does this save a huge amount of time, but it also means we have a complete digital audit trail.”
A Financials superuser!
With its scalability, time-saving automation, and powerful reporting, IRIS Financials has transformed the financial operations of Altus Education Partnership.
Natasa tells us, “After four years, I have become a bit of an IRIS Financials superuser! There are not many things I can’t work out for myself now, and if I ever need support from the team at IRIS, they are fantastic. I do have to say our account manager at IRIS is absolutely fantastic and we have a great relationship. We are really happy with IRIS Financials and would highly recommend it to growing Trusts.”
