Spiral Partnership Trust is a Multi-Academy Trust of six primary schools, has a central team, specialist support for SEN (Special Educational Needs) children in the local area, and provides after school club provisions. Each school and provision operates as a different entity within the finance system.
Nine Different Entities and One Insufficient System
The main challenge was managing financial consolidation across multiple entities using Sage 200, which required downloading and manually combining data from each entity due to incompatible coding and a non-functional consolidation feature. This process was time-consuming, error-prone, and became unsustainable as the trust grew.
Sage 200 wouldn’t allow the Spiral finance team to amend journals; this meant they had to deal with reversals and re-entries for corrections and manual conversion of codes to meet DfE requirements for the returns.
Auditing and VAT returns were time-consuming and manual, requiring logging into multiple entities, downloading separate reports, and sending documentation to auditors individually.
These inefficiencies led to significant time loss and operational frustration.
One Dashboard, One System for Everything
As the Trust began to grow and gained one more school, the finance team wanted a system that would not only improve processes but could support future growth.
Spiral Partnership Trust migrated from Sage 200 to Sage Intacct. One database for everything, enabling seamless consolidation, easier reporting, and streamlined processes.
At the same time of the Sage Intacct implementation, Spiral Partnership Trust implemented a new budget software(IMP) which integrates smoothly with Sage Intacct, automating the transfer of actuals against budgets daily.
These changes enabled faster audits, simplified VAT returns, made code management easier, and gave the finance team the ability to amend journals directly, significantly reducing manual work and errors.
How Sage Intacct has Helped Spiral Partnership Trust
Since migrating to Sage Intacct, the finance team have seen the following benefits:
Faster consolidation: Consolidation and reporting have become much faster and more accurate, with the ability to generate consolidated or per-school reports at the click of a button, eliminating manual data aggregation.
Smoother audits: Audit processes have improved significantly, as auditors can now access their system directly to review invoices and documentation, reducing requests and back-and-forth communication.
Time saving: Time savings are substantial across multiple areas, including VAT returns (reduced from nine to one), journal corrections, and code conversions for DfE returns.
User-friendly dashboards: The finance team has found the new system easier to use, with features like copying invoices, automatic bank feeds, and interactive reports, leading to increased efficiency and satisfaction.
Ready for growth: The trust is now better positioned for future growth, as adding new schools and entities is much simpler with the new system.
Migrating our finance system from Sage 200 to Sage Intacct has significantly transformed our financial operations. Sage Intacct provides a single, unified database, enabling seamless data visibility, more efficient consolidation, and meaningful comparison across the organisation.
TSG support desk always offers assistance regardless of the complexity of the query. The ticket system allows questions to be answered at a convenient time rather than having to organise a phone call. Depending on the complexity of the issue TSG will respond with an email, phone call or Teams call. In addition, regular catch-up meetings with our Client Success Manager ensure outstanding items are addressed and provide an opportunity to explore further ways TSG can support and enhance our use of the system.
Victoria Thompson, Trust Finance Manager at Spiral Partnership Trust
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