BPET Processes 6 Times More Invoices Without Extra Staff Using PLANERGY
- Company Overview
Bellevue Place Education Trust (BPET) is a London-based multi-academy trust overseeing 12 primary schools. As the trust expanded, managing procurement and finance became increasingly complex.
High licensing fees, manual invoice processing, and limited budget visibility slowed down operations and restricted growth. BPET needed a scalable solution that could reduce costs, improve transparency, and streamline financial management across the trust.
- Why PLANERGY
In 2023, BPET implemented PLANERGY to replace Civica Financials, their outdated finance software. PLANERGY provided unlimited user licenses, automation for invoice scanning and matching, and real-time dashboards for budget oversight.
Its seamless bi-directional integration with Xero meant BPET could extend procurement and approval capabilities to teachers, head teachers, and budget holders without expanding the finance team. According to the finance team, “PLANERGY has been like adding an extra member to our team without the associated costs. It’s intuitive, scalable, and incredibly efficient.”
Key Challenges
- Civica’s restrictive licensing model limited user access, forcing manual user management.
- Lack of real-time budget tracking made it difficult for stakeholders to monitor spending, leading to overspending and confusion.
- Expensive per-transaction fees added unnecessary costs, particularly for small, frequent invoices from suppliers like Amazon.
- Invoice processing required manual intervention, creating inefficiencies and increasing admin burden.
Key Benefits
- Unlimited user access allowed all relevant stakeholders to manage procurement without extra licensing costs.
- Automated invoice scanning and matching eliminated manual processing, saving time and reducing errors.
- Real-time dashboards provided visibility of budgets, commitments, and remaining funds at school, department, and trust level.
- Seamless integration with Xero enabled smooth operations without restructuring the finance team.
The Story
Customer
Bellevue Place Education Trust
Key client
CFO
Industry
Education
Company Size
200+ employees
Before PLANERGY
Before PLANERGY, BPET relied on Civica Financials, a costly and inflexible system. Only a fixed number of users could access the platform, which meant constantly adding and removing users as needs changed.
The finance team spent hours manually processing invoices, and approvals were slow and inconsistent. As the trust grew, the system became even harder to manage.
Budget holders had little insight into their available funds, often leading to overspending or bottlenecks.
Civica’s per-transaction fees added to the burden, charging the trust extra for small, frequent purchases. The lack of automation compounded these issues.As the finance team explained, “Before PLANERGY, we manually processed 100 invoices a week. It was time-consuming and expensive.”
After PLANERGY
With PLANERGY, BPET scaled its financial operations without increasing headcount. Automated invoice processing increased throughput from 100 to 600 invoices per week with the same finance team.
“Now, with automated invoice processing, we handle 600 a week—using the same team. That’s a massive boost in productivity!” the finance team reported.
Unlimited user access opened the system to teachers, head teachers, and budget holders across all 12 schools, giving them real-time visibility of their budgets and commitments.
This transparency improved financial discipline and reduced overspending. PLANERGY’s dashboards provided instant insights at the trust, school, and departmental levels, replacing the patchwork spreadsheets previously used for reporting.
The transition also cut costs. BPET eliminated Civica’s per-transaction fees and avoided the expense of creating new setups when onboarding schools.
With PLANERGY, new schools could be added in minutes instead of weeks, making expansion smoother and more affordable. Staff adoption was quick thanks to PLANERGY’s intuitive design, and regular support from the PLANERGY team ensured the system kept evolving to meet BPET’s needs.
The result was a finance operation that was more efficient, transparent, and cost-effective. “PLANERGY has been like adding an extra member to our team without the associated costs. The system is intuitive, scalable, and incredibly efficient. It’s a game-changer for our trust.”
Testimonials
“PLANERGY has been like adding an extra member to our team without the associated costs. The system is intuitive,
scalable, and incredibly efficient. It’s a game-changer for our Trust.”
Marwa Sadek
CFO
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