Welcome to the third product blog for Bromcom’s Finance module. So much has happened in the past few months; it has been a blur. We have had;
- Establishing new financial help desk and support services
- Formulating and delivering training courses to schools
- On boarding the first waves of schools to go live with Bromcom Finance; we now have maintained and academy type user schools
- Supporting User groups meetings
- Discussions have started with multiple academy trusts
- Feedback from users and prospective users leading to further developments and enhancements
- Continued investment in Bromcom Finance with its target to provide the most comprehensive software as a service financial management solution for all schools of all phases and types.
Need help of support operating Bromcom Finance?
We give you more options. For many years now, Bromcom has been working with local authorities and third party support organisations to facilitate more support choice. Indeed, it is common that schools in a region will seek helpdesk and related services for all their core management systems from a single party. Bromcom has been supporting this approach for years with many third parties providing Bromcom MIS helpdesk services as part of a package of services they offer. With Bromcom Finance now being picked up by third parties, we have been actively working to extend the choice to schools to ensure they continue to get their financial operational support and product support from the same party if they wish. Bromcom has also been extending its helpdesk services to take Bromcom Finance into its directly supported services. It is set up to give product support and assistance, as opposed to financial management advice; however, we know that the edges become blurred at times and are monitoring the type of calls received and may in the future offer financial consultancy services as an optional service. The number for Bromcom Finance Helpdesk is 020 8290 7195 and for Finance 020 8290 7177.
Many new reports
Over past few months many new reports have been added to Bromcom Finance in response to requests of our users, and this is continuing. The new reports include;
- Cost Centre Summary by Cost Centre / Holder
- Trial Balance Ledger Code Balances
- Budget Monitoring by CFR
- Budget Monitoring by Cost Centre
- Budget Monitoring by Holder
- Non Invoiced income
- Aged Creditor Report
- Bank History report
- Bank Reconciliation and Unreconciled
- (Inland Revenue Section 16 VAT 126 report (academies)
We have also made enhancements to existing reports such as the Cumulative Expense Analysis, which now shows the ledger type.
We now have an provide a function called Third Party Exports , which enabled you to generate exports to TSV and CSV standard matching the content format exactly as requested by certain Local Authorities used by accepting imports from FMS. The reports supported are the Cumulative Expense Analysis, Journal Audit Trail and Trail Balance by Income and Expenditure.
Other Developments
Audit History?
Quick access to audit trails? A number of screens in Finance now have a “History” button, which gives access to;
Don’t forget to take copies of purchase orders and remittance slips
Want to be sure you have a record of every purchase order and remittance advice email sent? Just add a school email address to the “BCC” section in the email set up options.
Extra filter for bank reconciliation
Attachment for Journals and Accounts Payable Invoices & credit notes
We have extended the facilities to attach documents as a direct result of user feedback. Previously you could attach documents to suppliers, purchase orders and customers but now, you can also attach documents directly to invoices, credit notes and manual journals. What’s more, you have direct access to view images in a pop up window as below.
Extra filter for bank reconciliation
During bank reconciliation, you can now look at reconciled items, unreconciled items or both when reviewing your statements. You can also now clear any comments made when saving incomplete statements.
Keeping a copy of the BACS file and improvements to the Payment Processing enquiry
Did you know that Bromcom now keeps a copy of BACS files? You can access the file by opening the Payment Run page. The Payment Processing enquiry page now shows additional information about each payment run for better oversight of your payments.
Budget planning and cost Centre Allocation
You can now have cost centres auto track increases and decreases to budgets, giving greater flexibility about how you maintain budgets.
Cancel a payment?
Have you ever made a mistake selecting the wrong invoice to pay? Previously you could cancel cheques and BACS payments, but now you can also cancel Card Payments. Just simple things to make your life easier.
Electronic signature for Purchase Orders
Another example of user feedback swiftly converted to product enhancement; is how we implemented electronic signatures. Some schools using the email function to send purchase orders wanted to attach electronic signatures to their orders. With Bromcom Finance you can now set up your electronic signatures and the system will attach them to your orders as it send emails them out to your suppliers.
Keep drilling
One of the key features of Bromcom’s web solution is how we are trying to give you flexibility to drill own or carry out functions from multiple places. We are trying not to dictate your workflow and instead let you can find what works best for you. To this end, you will find that in purchase orders, invoices and credit notes for example, that you can click to open the supplier or the associated payment run. In the payment run you can click to open the invoice. In the supplier or customer click to open any associated activity. In the bank reconciliation, click to open up the cashbook journal etc. We are continuing to develop drill down capabilities and would be delighted to hear from our users if you would like any additional drill downs.
Want a preview and to discuss the product or developments?
Please come alone to see the latest developments at the Schools & Academies Show 2019, running 13-14 November at the NEC, Birmingham, or call our sales team on 020 8290 7171.
The perfect solution for MAT finance?
I have started to discuss financial management requirements with MATs and this is growing pace as we approach the end of 2019. If you are interested in finding out more, please contact simon.lewin@bromcom.com.
As always, I would be delighted to receive feedback that you may have on how best to support Financial Management in schools with an effective Financial Management software solution. I look forward to hearing from you!
