Two years ago our School returned to Education Services for our Financial Management and Reporting Services after having managed this work within the school for a number of years.

We have been extremely pleased with our decision.  The Education Services Team are professional, approachable and always willing to assist.  The systems they have developed for reporting have enabled us to have very clear understandings of our current and forecasted financial position.  Such information allows us to plan pro-actively to improve outcomes for students.

The Finance Department at Spotswood College, including our Board of Trustees Finance Committee,  have developed a highly effective partnership with Education Services.  Education Services efficiency, reliability and accessibility contribute significantly to our goal of ongoing school development and improvement.

We are delighted to remain one of the longest standing clients of Education Services in the Wellington region.  The outstanding personal and friendly service offered has always been valued, and has remained unwavering over many years.  Reports are always presented on time in a simple to understand format.  The ongoing high level of accuracy is amazing compared with our previous provider.  Education Services also provide a complimentary accounting service to the Wellington Regional Primary Principals’ Association which represents over 200 schools.  Their willingness to “give something back” to schools is also to be treasured.  Thank you!

I have been using Education Services for the past 5 years and have found them to be extremely efficient and reliable.  Their reports are comprehensive yet easy to read and I am able to share these easily with BOT members.  They are open to comment and have often supported the school with individual requests. 

I have no issue with recommending them to other schools.  They do the reports and it lets me get on with planning for better learning and teaching.  Keep it up! 

We changed to Education Services as our financial service provider in 2011 based on their depth of knowledge and experience in the education sector and my own positive experience of working with Education Services for five years at my previous school.  The transition to the new service was very smooth and we have found the Auckland staff efficient and easy to work with.  The online systems and monthly reports have all the key information to enable us to manage our budgets and financial planning in an effective and timely manner.  Changing to Education Services has been the right decision for our school.

As a first time client and Principal of Mission Heights Primary it is a pleasure to provide a reference for a company that we as a school are very proud of being associated with in managing the financial accounts for our school.

Very early in the first few weeks of our association with Education Services prior to the confirmation of a financial services provider for our school, we developed a common understanding of the services that we considered as critical for the overall management and timely execution of our school’s financial requirements for which Education Services was to assume full responsibility.  Our association with Education Services has grown in strength since they first started serving our school from the start of 2012.

Key aspects of our relationship with Education Services that are working well for us are:

 Effective and timely communication

We have moved from phoning each other on a daily basis to now talking every 3-4 days.  Jessica, our personal account manager’s availability for monthly and mid year catch up, budget reviews and other ‘on request’ adhoc meetings as and when we need them is appreciated.

Customer focused

We are delighted with how approachable our personal accounts manager is as well as how customer focused all the staff at Education Services are especially when Jessica is not available and they willingly offer to help.  Coming from a non-accounting background, Jessica’s ability to turn the jargon into everyday language is also very much appreciated.

Financial expertise

Besides the efficient management of monthly accounts and timely payments to creditors, Education Services works with us in timely review of budgets as required by the Board and refining our coding in the CoA (fundraising, donations, sponsorship, grants etc) which has been valuable for us as a new and growing school.

Timely Reporting to the Board

The two monthly reports to the Board both summary and full reports include commentary notes and visual graphs of actual expenditure versus our annual budget forecast.  This timely and regular feedback is useful to the BOT in monitoring and understanding the monthly trends of expenditure for our school which is still very new with a growing roll.

We see our school’s partnership with the team at Education Services and Jessica our accountant as an effective and useful one that we hope will continue to grow stronger in future years.

Having worked in trusteeship now for 17 years between different schools I have experienced both personally in one of my schools and the many comments given us by our membership that Education Services offer a quality service second to none to our membership.  We all need the benefit of their experience, in these recession times, to enable us to get the best return for our dwindling dollars.  They are always professional and willing to assist wherever they can.  Just of word of warning though – get to them early, before you make the hard decisions so that they do not become just the financial database but a proactive, supportive and productive member of your school team.

April Tauelangi, Chairperson NZSTA Waikato, Board Member Te Koru Puawai & BOT member Hamilton Girls High School

Education Services have provided a complete financial-property package for our school for many years.  Specialising in working with schools, Education Services have knowledge of MOE systems and guidelines second to none.  We know that their work will support our school to meet requirements, and with these ever-changing, that’s important.  Financial and property management is inseparable, and the service provided by Education Services to manage this as a package makes sense for us.  Monthly and annual financial reporting, annual audit and asset management is stress-less.  Property planning and review, project management, and the ‘financial side’ of property projects are taken care of.  The work done by Education Services allows our school managers and administrative staff to attend to other work.  All in all, it’s a very efficient solution!

We have used Education Services to manage our property arrangements for quite some years but we always managed our own finances with our own staff.  We didn’t appreciate how vulnerable this made us until our finance executive officer became ill.  It was then that we realised the risks we were taking and the Board of Trustees had no hesitation in joining the many schools being financially managed through the team at Education Services.  We are in our fifth year with Education Services and I can honestly say that we not only have peace of mind but we have been able to reduce the cost of managing our finances because we no longer need to employ full time staff just to deal with finance.  This change has been a win win for us.

Education Services provides for schools financial management that is second to none. 

Since arriving at Evans Bay Intermediate School we have changed to Education Services. Having worked with them in my previous school I was well used to the highly effective service that they provide. 

The job of managing school finances has grown enormously over the years. It is a huge job, far too big for one person in any school office to do. 

Education Services provide me with complete peace of mind in the critically important area of school finances. 

The monthly reports which include graphs, allow the Board to see at a glance how well the school is tracking financially throughout the year. 

The staff at Education Services are superb to deal with too!

Wendy Esera, Former Principal, Evans Bay Intermediate

Education Services have proven to be leaders in their field of financial management and reporting. 

The information provided for audit by them is of the highest standard and leads to an effective cost efficient audit. By contrast the audit function of those schools who take on their own financial management is generally more difficult, which results in significant audit cost increases and delays in completion times. 

We commend most highly the professional service provided by Education Services.

Silks, Chartered Accountants