Aylesbury Vale Academy Reclaims 8+ Hours a Month with Sage Intacct

Aylesbury Vale Academy is a Single Academy Trust based in Aylesbury. In September 2025, working in partnership with TSG, the Academy migrated from a legacy Sage 200 desktop system to Sage Intacct — with AP Automation implemented alongside. The result: a finance function that has moved from reactive processing to proactive decision-making, with measurable time savings from day one.

The Problem Worth Solving

Finance teams in education face a challenge most CFOs will recognise: doing more with less. At Aylesbury Vale, the finance team was processing around 250 supplier invoices per month on Sage 200. Each invoice took 2 to 5 minutes to post manually. Straightforward in isolation, but cumulatively it meant end-of-day backlogs were the norm, not the exception.

Reporting was equally time-consuming. Meaningful financial insight meant exporting data to Excel: a process that delayed decision-making and left budget holders with limited visibility into what had actually been spent. Queries flowed back to the finance team as a result, adding further pressure to an already stretched function.

A Smarter Way to Work

Moving to Sage Intacct

With TSG’s guidance, the Academy migrated to Sage Intacct,  a cloud-based finance platform built for the demands of modern education finance. Built-in drill-down reporting and live dashboards replaced the manual Excel dependency, giving both finance staff and budget holders immediate access to real-time financial data. No exports. No delays.

“The move from Sage 200 and implementation of Sage Intacct has been a great success. The transition was smooth, the project efficiently managed and delivered on time. We received the support we needed during the onboarding process and continue to receive support to ensure that we are aware of and utilising Sage Intacct to its full potential.”
- Aylesbury Vale Academy

AP Automation

TSG recommended and implemented AP Automation alongside Sage Intacct. Supplier invoices are now scanned and recognised automatically. Coding rules are learned for repeat suppliers, reducing posting time to as little as 20 to 30 seconds for familiar invoices. Staff review details and VAT before approval - the system handles the rest.

Support

From day one, the transition was managed with the kind of care that education finance teams rarely experience from a technology partner. No surprises, no delays - just a structured onboarding process and the ongoing support to make sure the system keeps working hard for the Academy.

"Sage Intacct has improved our efficiencies and allowed budget holders to have better visibility with real-time insights and better financial control."
- Aylesbury Vale Academy

Ongoing Learning via TSG Academy

Implementation was only the starting point. The finance team gained access to TSG Academy — including weekly Sage Intacct sessions, recordings, and an on-demand resource library. Continuous learning is built into how the team now works, not bolted on as an afterthought.

The Impact in Practice

By saving an average of 2–3 minutes per invoice, the team now reclaims 500+ minutes (over 8 hours) every month. Invoice backlogs have been eliminated:

“Nothing sits in the tray at the end of the day – we’re clearing everything that comes in.”
- Aylesbury Vale Academy

The freed-up capacity allows the team to focus more on queries and value adding tasks rather than manual processing.

Improved Visibility & Fewer Queries

Sage Intacct dashboards give budget holders real time, self service visibility into their budgets with full drill down to transactions. This has significantly reduced routine finance queries:

“Having that visibility to drill into their budgets has stopped quite a lot of queries."
- Michelle Ferry, Aylesbury Vale Academy

“Sage Intacct has improved our efficiencies and allowed budget holders to have better visibility with real-time insights and better financial control.” 
- Trish Botha, Finance Manager

Finance teams spend less time answering basic questions, while managers have greater confidence in their financial position.

Responsive Support

Support from TSG has been consistently fast and proactive. Queries are typically acknowledged within the day, often via a phone call, and resolved quickly. Where issues need escalation to Sage, the team is kept informed throughout:

“You normally hear back within the day… the problems don’t linger. It’s really positive.”
- Aylesbury Vale Academy

Ongoing Upskilling

The finance team regularly attends TSG Academy sessions and uses recordings when live attendance isn’t possible. These sessions help users discover features they didn’t previously know about, while the online library supports self-paced learning — for example, building dashboards after implementation.

“It’s very informative and insightful. It often highlights features and functions that I was previously unaware of.”
- Trish Botha, Finance Manager

Why TSG?

Education finance leaders need a technology partner who understands the sector, not a reseller who learns on the job at their institution’s expense. For Aylesbury Vale Academy, TSG brought three things that made the difference:

• Proactive recommendations: AP Automation wasn’t part of the original brief. TSG recognised the opportunity and brought it forward. That kind of proactive thinking - grounded in sector knowledge - is what separates a genuine partner from a supplier.
• Responsive, ongoing support: Queries are acknowledged within the day, issues resolved quickly, and the team is kept informed when escalation to Sage is needed. No waiting. No lingering problems.
• Continuous learning built in: TSG Academy ensures the investment in Sage Intacct keeps delivering value well beyond go-live. For a finance function operating under resource pressure, that matters.

The Bottom Line

Aylesbury Vale Academy now has a faster, more transparent, and better-supported finance function — equipped to keep pace with the Academy’s needs today and into the future. For education CFOs and finance leaders considering a similar move, the evidence is straightforward: the right system, with the right partner, delivers returns that go well beyond the cost of the investment.

In Their Own Words

Nothing sits in the tray at the end of the day – we’re clearing everything that comes in. Having that visibility to drill into their budgets has stopped quite a lot of queries.

Michelle Ferry, Aylesbury Vale Academy

You normally hear back within the day… the problems don’t linger. It’s really positive.

Aylesbury Vale Academy finance team

It’s really informative — I’m often thinking, ‘wow, I didn’t even know you could do that.'

Trish Botha, Aylesbury Vale Academy