Author: Somerset Education

This year schools are telling us they want to understand industry trends and find solutions to address increasing costs, especially wages, and how to set affordable fees whilst funding capital expenditure and debt servicing.

This is not surprising given preliminary results show average expenses for independent schools rose 10% in 2023 over the prior year and income is struggling to keep pace.

With cost pressures expected to continue in 2024 and 2025, how do schools set fee levels to sustainably fund capital expenditure and debt servicing?

💡 | Solutions

To address these questions, some steps schools can take include the following:

• Develop a detailed budget to at least 2028 which also calculates your school’s past and budgeted key ratios (including income and expenditure per student, net operating margin, staffing, cash reserves, debt and debt servicing) to highlight trends and address areas of concern — be like the canary in the mine to raise warnings.
• Use ratio averages of similar schools to pinpoint areas for continual improvement and inform strategy. 🎬 This video may assist — 20-minute crash course on school analysis. 
• Uncover potential efficiencies to restrain fee increases and maintain adequate operating surpluses to meet capital expenditure and debt servicing needs. Don’t over borrow.
• Test strategies using a financial forecasting tool before updating your detailed budget.

📈 | How we can help

• Financial Survey for Schools (FSS) — join over 600 participating schools to make data-driven financial decisions with confidence by analysing trends in your performance plus compare with similar schools. Every participant adds to the comprehensive dataset which benefits all schools and drives industry progress.
• Budget Model — If you don’t have a reliable school budget model, contact us because we have a very detailed three-way (comprehensive income, financial position and cash flow) model that references back to sample average KPIs that you can obtain from the FSS.
• SKI Scenario Builder™ — use this FSS tool to easily evaluate the financial impact on budgets for changes in key metrics and test strategic scenarios. This tool reduces forecasting to seconds enabling you to meaningfully discuss strategies while the key decision makers are in the room.

FSS | Participate now to take advantage of early bird prices 
Even though the FSS is always open and can receive participant data at any time until April 2025, schools are encouraged to complete their 2023 school-year data entry by 30 September 2024 in readiness for the 2024 strategy and budget season.

Participation starts from AU$913 including GST (half price if less than 250 enrolments). This includes an early bird discount if you complete data entry by 30 September 2024.

Q | Any questions?

For more information about the FSS or our budgeting and reporting tools, please do not hesitate to contact Cathy or Jessica at survey@somerseteducation.net or call 1300 781 968 (from outside Australia +61 7 3263 5300).

If I can help in any way with the financial governance of your school, please contact me at john@somerseteducation.net or mobile 0417 618 899.

We look forward to your ongoing support, or if new to the survey, we warmly welcome you joining in.

Haven’t entered your data yet? Don’t worry it’s not too late you can participate at any time but early bird participation prices* end on 30 September, 2024.

Our mission is simple: equip schools with knowledge and confidence to make informed financial decisions, mitigate risk and reduce financial worries… with ease. So, joining the Financial Survey for Schools (FSS) not only empowers you with data-driven decisions but also contributes to innovation and continual improvement of the sector. Every participant adds to the comprehensive dataset benefiting all schools.

So why wait, participate now and be part of the largest and longest running school financial survey in Australia and New Zealand.

R&D improvements to school financial sustainability reports
Somerset Education has unparalleled experience in school business with almost 40 years in chartered accounting including almost 30 years dedicated to non-government school financial health. John’s Masters research identified attributes of financially sustainable schools and his current PhD is aimed at predicting and prevent financial stress in schools — benefiting participants no matter the size of the school.

🎬 This 5-minute video is worth watching to see how reports have benefited from research in the past 12 months. Also new this year is, our first Early Learning Centre (ELC) industry benchmarking report.

Access to FSS Reports 
Please log into the Somerset Portal and then:

1. Accept updated Terms and Conditions (if required)
2. Select a sample of similar schools
3. Generate your reports.

To assist you with accessing the Portal, here are the step-by-step instructions: Navigating the Somerset Education Portal.

Updated | 20-minute ‘crash course’ video to help you read and analyse FSS reports 
Watch this recently updated video to help analyse your school’s FSS reports. The great thing about this video is that you can ‘pause’ or ‘replay’ as you view your reports. Hope you find this useful.  🎬 Here’s the video link.

Q | Any questions?

For more information about the FSS or our budgeting and reporting tools, please do not hesitate to contact Cathy or Jessica at survey@somerseteducation.net or call 1300 781 968 (from outside Australia +61 7 3263 5300).

If I can help in any way with the financial governance of your school, please contact me at john@somerseteducation.net or mobile 0417 618 899.

We look forward to your ongoing support, or if new to the survey, we warmly welcome you joining in.

Many thanks for your support of the Financial Survey for Schools (FSS).

Positive Feedback
The Financial Survey for Schools (FSS) has been operating for almost 30 years, growing to over 600 participants in 2023 from Australia and New Zealand. It represents 70%+ of enrolments in Australian Independent schools. With average satisfaction of 4.2 stars (out of 5) and 10 out of 10 recommending it to others, we are confident the FSS is valued by the sector.

Figure 1: Results of satisfaction survey conducted April 2024.

Innovation
We discussed feedback at a survey committee meeting represented by Association of School Business Administrators (ASBA), Catholic Education Business Administrators (CEBA), Association of Independent Schools (AIS), and Netstrategy (IT and cybersecurity specialists). Outcomes include first time Early Learning Centre (ELC) benchmarks, improved IT survey benchmarks among other continual improvements.

Participate now
With your AGM and Commonwealth Financial Questionnaire (FQ) done, it’s the perfect time to complete the survey. Joining the Financial Survey for Schools (FSS) not only empowers you with data-driven decisions but also contributes to sector innovation and improvement. Every participant adds to the comprehensive dataset, benefiting all schools. So, why wait? Let’s create a benchmarking resource that sets the standard for non-government school financial sustainability and drives industry progress.

Participation currently starts from A$913 including GST (half price if less than 250 enrolments). This includes an early bird discount if you complete data entry by 30 September 2024. [Note: 2024 (2023 school-year) data entry remains open as we transition to 2023 school-year reports available from 1st August 2024. We will turn off 2022 school-year reports on 15 July 2024.]

2024 FSS (2023 school-year) sneak peek
We appreciate growing financial pressure from large wage increases, payroll tax for some schools, over budget capital expenditure, changes in government funding and financial pressure on families during this period of high inflation. Survey participants can use the FSS to identify efficiencies and subscribe for our SKI Scenario Builder™ tool to model changes to key budget inputs and instantly re-forecast financials, key ratios, and risk assessment — a must have tool for schools.

Early 2023 school-year results indicate a 4% increase in expenses, reduced operating surpluses mitigated by reduced debt. Our new ELC survey indicates a strong contribution to operating surplus especially if ELC wages are kept close to the average of 66% of income. The improved IT survey indicates an average recurrent IT expenditure of A$850 per student; 67% of schools have adopted a cybersecurity framework but only 35% of boards have a governor with IT experience.

Participate in the FSS to compare your performance with similar schools in these and many more crucial ratios to help inform decisions — your statutory and fiduciary responsibility.

🎥 NEW | To ensure every school has access to important videos, we are pleased to announce our Financial Governance Training Videos as well as our ‘How to…’ Instructional Videos are now available on-demand for those who wish to undertake further training. To access the videos here is the link: Training Videos.

For more information about the FSS or our budgeting and reporting tools, please do not hesitate to contact Cathy or Jessica at survey@somerseteducation.net or call 1300 781 968 (from outside Australia +61 7 3263 5300).

If I can help in any way with the financial governance of your school, please contact me at john@somerseteducation.net or mobile 0417 618 899.

We look forward to your ongoing support, or if new to the survey, we warmly welcome you joining in.

Presented by John Somerset FCA, Director, Somerset Education
(Audience: Principals and Governors — but all welcome).

Accounting is a language of financial storytelling told in dollars 
As with all stories there can be variations in how it is told. Principals and Governors are ultimately responsible for the school’s finances yet in many cases are not trained in how to read the financial story.

Although I am a Chartered Accountant, I did not study accounting at school and therefore initially struggled with accounting concepts at university. So, I understand how confusing the financial story telling can be.

Join me for this one-hour webinar and I will explain in simple terms how to read your school’s financial story.

We will then build on these foundations using ratio analysis to help you assess the relative financial health of your school to inform decisions — your fiduciary and statutory obligation.

👩‍💻 The webinar content:

• Your legal obligation regarding financial statements
• ‘Accounting 101’ — the financial essentials
• Top three questions to ask your financial team.

📚 By attending, you will:

• Learn the basics of financial accounts
• Understand where your school sits relative to other schools and why this matters
• Know what data is important and what questions to ask.

🗣️ About me, John Somerset 
With 38 years in chartered accounting, I specialise in financial governance for non-government schools. My mission is simple — empowering schools with financial confidence to inform financial decisions and reduce financial stress.

Find out more about the expertise of Somerset Education in governance, training, and financial sustainability: Link to Team Profiles 

🚀 Webinar details:
Date: Tuesday 28 May 2024
Time: 7:00am to 8:00am (AEST) via Zoom

👉🏻 Register here:
Registration fee: A$99 (inc GST) per Registrant*
Register here: Zoom
*Note: Please register even if you’re unable to attend the ‘live’ webinar as the recording is available to all Registrants up to thirty days after the webinar.

For more information about the FSS or our budgeting and reporting tools, please do not hesitate to contact Cathy or Jessica at survey@somerseteducation.net or call 1300 781 968 (from outside Australia +61 7 3263 5300).

If I can help in any way with the financial governance of your school, please contact me at john@somerseteducation.net or mobile 0417 618 899.

We look forward to your ongoing support, or if new to the survey, we warmly welcome you joining in.

• Historical and Somerset Key Indicator (SKI) Reports to analyse past and future changes in your school’s performance.
• Financial Performance Report to compare over 60 ratios with similar schools and identify strengths and weaknesses.
• SKI Scenario Builder™ for real-time adjustments and financial forecasts and risk assessment — new for 2024
• IT Benchmarking Report 
• ELC Benchmarking Report — new for 2024
• Plus, enjoy the convenience of a 24/7, 365-day self-service portal, and rest easy knowing that 10 out of 10 participants recommend the FSS to others.

Many thanks for your support of the Financial Survey for Schools (FSS). Joining the Financial Survey for Schools (FSS) not only empowers you with data-driven decisions but also contributes to sector innovation and improvement. Every participant adds to the comprehensive dataset, benefiting all schools.

Key Dates 
In preparation to receive the 2023 school-year data, at 5pm Friday 19 April 2024 we will close Option 1 Enter Financial Data – 2022 School Year on the FSS portal. You will still have access to your 2022 school-year reports (Options 2 to 9 on the Somerset Education portal) until mid-July 2024. 

This means that after 19 April 2024, you will no longer be able to enter or change 2022 school-year data.

If you do not have a copy of your 2022 school-year data, please go to Section 10 of the survey (via selection 1 on the portal) to download a pdf version — see screen shot below:

For Australian schools, data input for the Financial Survey for Schools is based on the latest Commonwealth Financial Questionnaire which should be available soon. We plan that from Monday 22 April 2024 you will be able to enter the 2023 school-year data into the FSS. And we aim to have 2024 reports (2023 school-year) available from 1 August 2024.

Benefits of Annual FSS Participation
Identifying adverse trends in key financial ratios and responding in a timely manner by comparing with similar schools is crucial for financial sustainability. We therefore advise annual participation in the FSS. Most schools do participate every year and will now receive a discount in appreciation of their annual support of this valuable industry resource.

Therefore, if you have not yet completed the 2022 data there are several reasons for doing that now before we close off 2022 school-year data entry on Friday 19 April 2024.

Further Information
About our Survey | here is link: https://www.somerseteducation.net/survey/

🎬 To watch our video on the revolutionary financial forecasting tool — SKI Scenario Builder™ | here is link: https://www.somerseteducation.net/ski-scenario-builder-revolutionise-financial-forecasting/ 

We thank you again for your continued support of the Survey. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us either via phone 1300 781 968 or email survey@somerseteducation.net.

As a valued member of the non-government school sector, your contribution to the continual improvement of the Financial Survey for Schools (FSS) is invaluable.

Irrespective of whether your school participated in 2023, could I trouble you to please complete this six-minute Feedback Survey on the FSS .

Your feedback will directly influence improvements to the FSS and is a tangible way to contribute to the sector.

Thank you again for your support of our mission to help schools make confident financial decisions, maintain sector financial health, and positively contribute to the education of youth.

We look forward to our continual relationship with you and your school.

For more information about the FSS or our budgeting and reporting tools, please do not hesitate to contact Cathy or Jessica at survey@somerseteducation.net or call 1300 781 968 (from outside Australia +61 7 3263 5300).

If I can help in any way with the financial governance of your school, please contact me at john@somerseteducation.net or mobile 0417 618 899.

We look forward to your ongoing support, or if new to the survey, we warmly welcome you joining in.

• Case studies highlighting both sound and challenged financial health in schools
• Insights into maintaining financial sustainability for schools
• A recap of key performance indicators (KPIs).

• Utilise the Staff Estimator™ to compare 2024 staff numbers with similar schools
• Leverage our SKI Scenario Builder™ for forecasting likely financial outcomes to December 2024 and beyond
• Feel empowered to become an expert advisor and contributor to your school’s financial position.

For more information about the FSS or our budgeting and reporting tools, please do not hesitate to contact Cathy or Jessica at survey@somerseteducation.net or call 1300 781 968 (from outside Australia +61 7 3263 5300).

If I can help in any way with the financial governance of your school, please contact me at john@somerseteducation.net or mobile 0417 618 899.

We look forward to your ongoing support, or if new to the survey, we warmly welcome you joining in.