Efficient financial reporting across the trust

Woodland Academy Trust was formed in September 2011 with three primary academies situated in the London Borough of Bexley. In January 2017, a fourth Kent primary school joined the Trust.

All three Bexley schools had already been using SIMS Financial Management System (FMS) before the trust was formed, as it was the main financial system used by the local authority. On converting to an academy trust, they decided to carry on using SIMS FMS to see if they could make it work as an academy finance system.

More recently, the trust also implemented FMS MultiView, which enables multi-academy trusts to monitor and support the financial management of all of the academies within their group. Sue Ashton, Woodland Academy Trust’s Finance Director, regularly uses the system.

“What we like about FMS is that it’s an education-based system,” explains Sue. “It’s user friendly, the screens are clear and it’s not a complicated business accounting package."