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.

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

"WOW" what a difference Education Services has made to our efficiency and much more than just fiscal efficiency. It has also allowed us to be more accurate with strategic planning ensuring we get the best value from our funds. 

Steve was invaluable to our school as we transitioned from a executive officer system to that of Education Services. He assisted our whole office team to get the new systems up and running and ongoing help is readily available and timely - no question is a dumb question for ESL. 

Steve also walked us through a quality budgeting process and I rate this as some of the most relevant professional development I have received as a first time principal. 

We have had the freedom of designing our budget with codes to align with school priorities and the reports are extremely easy to use - especially for a new Board. 

We strongly recommend this service to all schools.

Laurayne Tafa, Principal, Stanhope Road School, Auckland