With a function-rich platform like Unit4, it’s easy for individual features – including potentially very useful add-ons – to fly under your radar. This is especially pertinent to long-term users of Unit4 Financials by Coda: courtesy of Unit4, enhancements have come thick and fast over recent years, and there may easily have been some you’ve missed!

If you first encountered Coda a few decades ago, you may have noticed a procurement and invoice matching module was available. However, built by Science Systems and badged as a Coda product, this was a separate application from the core Coda system. Interfacing ensured data exchange between Coda and the procurement module, but they were essentially two independent systems.

The significant change came in 2011 with the release of Unit4 Financials by Coda, Version 11. From then on, Unit4 offered (and still provides) two separate optional modules, one for procurement, and one for invoice matching. Unlike the previous app, these modules are both integrated within the core Unit4 Financials platform, sharing the same database and business logic.

For users, this means seamless processes with no duplication of effort. You create a new supplier, fill in the relevant details, and the new record feeds through automatically to the procurement and invoice matching modules.

Purchase order processing and the need for invoice matching often go hand-in-hand. So why is there a separate module for each one?

First off, let’s take a look at what each module covers:

‘Why wasn’t I made aware of this spend before the budget was set? Why am I only being told of it now? Why are we still using this supplier?’ With manual or ad-hoc approvals, there’s the constant risk of maverick spend, i.e. employees committing to purchases without approval and without budget holders being able to control what’s happening.

A procurement module empowers you to standardise and streamline the approvals process. Once a PO has been issued, it is immediately routed to the relevant budget holder or manager. Different levels of approval can be applied based on, for instance, spend category or amount. Meanwhile, integration with Unit4 Financials means you can check whether sufficient budget is available before allowing the request to proceed. The result? You decide on the approval rules you want to apply, and the system ensures they are adhered to.

For inventory, it’s not always a simple case of placing an order, receiving the items in one neat dispatch, and settling the invoice. Multiple shipments, partial deliveries, swaps, and supplementary orders are all to be expected. But they all create additional variables in terms of keeping track of what has been received and paid for. It’s also where the scope for error and wasted cost is greatest.

An invoice matching solution makes it much easier to handle these complexities through customised controls. This includes the ability to track and manage partial shipments, ensuring that the invoiced amount matches the quantity of items received. It is also possible to apply fine-grained matching rules to handle multiple layers of conditions, such as different tolerance levels for different product categories, separate rules for high-volume or low-volume items, and differentiation between full and partial deliveries.

For any finance manager charged with cutting out wasted spend, Unit4’s Procurement and Invoice Matching modules can offer easy wins in multiple areas.

As we’ve seen, the implementation of tightly controlled approval workflows makes it easier to control budget overspending. It reduces the chances of employees going off-piste and ignoring your procurement policies.

Beyond this, accurate and error-free invoice matching makes it much easier to ensure that payments made are a reflection of goods actually received, avoiding not just overpayments but also penalties for late payments.

The other big advantage from a costs management perspective relates to visibility. Linking to both the wider Unit4 ecosystem and any other applications you have in play, with enhanced procurement and invoice matching capabilities, you are much better equipped to track purchasing activity in real time. This can give you valuable intel on areas where costs can be reduced, whether it’s by adjusting purchasing volumes or switching to more cost-effective and reliable suppliers.

To be effective, software training needs to be directly relevant to day-to-day user needs. And especially with a feature-rich solution like Unit4 Financials by Coda, there’s no point in trying to teach every user about every new and existing aspect of it – otherwise, you’re just going to cause training fatigue.

For example, one team member is your core accounting expert. Another handles the bulk of credit management queries. A further team member is your go-to person for asset management. These are all subject matter experts (SMEs). Consider a targeted approach by delivering training to SMEs on aspects of Unit4 Financials by Coda that are directly relevant to their areas of expertise.

SMEs tend to be particularly good at understanding the training content for their peers, so when they pass that knowledge on throughout your team, it makes it more relatable.

Let’s say a set of new features has been rolled out as part of the Unit4 Financials Continuous Upgrade programme – or you’ve just implemented a new sales invoicing add-on. You don’t have to train the entire finance team to use these features all in one go.

Instead, consider focusing the training on one or a handful of champions. These individuals can then cascade the training to other employees within the organisation as needed. This can be a much more time and cost effective way of distributing the knowledge through the business than training everyone simultaneously.

There are plenty of Unit4 resources out there.

Unit4’s customer and partner community, Community4U, is one of the best. Comprising dedicated forums devoted to specific Unit4 solutions (including Unit4 Financials) enables you to engage with other customers and partners, get in touch and ask questions, access training resources, and get best practice tips.

(All Unit4 Financials by Coda customers have access to Community4U.)

Millennium Consulting can put together a personalised Unit4 Financials by Coda training programme built for your needs, delivered in-person or virtually.

Perhaps your team is due a best practice refresher course to ensure you are making the most of your Unit4 Financials investment. Do you want to explore new possibilities following migration to the cloud? Or do you have a group of new employees who need to be onboarded?

For expert, hands-on and role-specific training delivered by an elite Unit4 Partner, find out what’s possible here: https://millenniumconsulting.com/unit4financialsbycoda/training/

Make use of free webinars!

Workflow functionality, invoice matching, FP&A Lite, how to use hierarchies… if there’s a specific aspect of Unit4 Financials by Coda that you’re unsure about, chances are there’s a recorded webinar or video that explains it. To start exploring, try the following:

• Millennium Consulting’s upcoming events: https://millenniumconsulting.com/events/
• Unit4 Financials User Group: https://financialsusergroup.com/
• Community4U: https://community.unit4.com/
• Millennium Consulting’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@millenniumconsulting95
• Unit4’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@unit4

Long before Unit4 announced that it was going completely cloud-based, a large segment of Millennium Consulting’s work already consisted of helping move customers over to the SaaS version. For us, this is very much home territory; if an issue arises linked to a migration project, it’s pretty much guaranteed that we’ve encountered it before and worked out a solution.

Ensuring data integrity, dealing with third-party integrations, formulating a backup strategy, managing the people involved against a backdrop of existing commitments, encouraging user buy-in: your Unit4 Financials by Coda cloud migration project should give you experience in these and many other areas, and these lessons can be applied to whatever further SaaS implementations your business has in store for the future.

And while theoretically doable, struggling through the process alone rarely makes good business sense. Not least, because you can end up expending considerable resources and painstakingly addressing issues that others have fixed countless times, the ROI on expert input can be highly attractive, even more so when the lessons learned can be applied to future projects.

Never underestimate the value of a fresh perspective. There are more modern ways to connect to Unit4 Financials by Coda; in some cases, the legacy connections you have won’t work. For some applications, the idea of integration with Unit4 Financials might have previously been deemed too difficult to contemplate, leaving teams to grapple with manual data lifting and shifting as a workaround. Middleware and custom scripts are in place in other cases, but these legacy fixes have become less effective as data volumes have increased over time.

There are multiple ways to connect to Unit4 Financials by Coda (Millennium Consulting’s dataBridge is one example). Migration offers the ideal opportunity to review your integrations thoroughly, identify better ways to streamline data movement between different sources, and drive operational efficiency.

Unit4 Financials by Coda offers a powerful Azure-based replicated database service as part of its cloud solution. This service creates a copy of your production data and places it in an optimized environment, providing you with faster, easier, and more efficient data access. While direct access to the database is not typical in SaaS products, this service ensures you can retrieve your data whenever needed, enhancing your data management capabilities without compromising security.

Security is paramount and implementing single sign-on (SSO) is crucial to safeguard your organisation. With the tools and functionality at your disposal, you’re fully equipped to integrate SSO seamlessly. Our team provides the expertise needed during migration to ensure a smooth implementation. Adopting SSO not only strengthens your cyber resilience but also fosters best practices in cybersecurity across your organisation.

Use your transition to the cloud with Coda as a catalyst to modernise your entire business. This journey provides the perfect momentum to begin migrating the rest of your infrastructure, driving efficiency and innovation across your organisation.

Currently, the supply of education provided by an “eligible body” is exempt from VAT. Academies, colleges, universities, and independent schools all generally fall under the eligible body umbrella. The exemption also covers the provision by eligible bodies of goods and services “closely related” to the supply of education (e.g. catering, boarding, and sporting facilities).

Prior to the general election, Labour said it would remove this exemption as it applies to independent schools and apply the current standard rate of 20%. Post-election, the proposal was included in the King’s Speech. Therefore, it seems certain to go ahead.

The government will need to amend existing VAT legislation in order to remove the eligible body exemption from private schools while retaining it for colleges, universities, and academies.

However, there are multiple potential grey areas that will need to be addressed in any legislation. For instance, Labour previously confirmed that the new VAT regime will not apply to pupils with an educational, health, and care plan (EHCP). Will fees for pupils with an EHCP remain exempt in their entirety – or only to the extent to which the school receives payment from a local authority? What about schools which support pupils with particular needs, but who may not have an EHCP? Will nursery services provided by independent schools also be covered? What about institutions that provide education within specific targeted sectors (e.g. religion)?

All of these issues will need to be clarified in the draft legislation.

The government has stated its intention to press ahead with the changes as soon as possible.

As detailed above, changes will need to be made to primary legislation, although given the size of the government’s majority, it is likely that even with some deliberation and consultation, these changes will be pushed through relatively quickly.

Most likely, the next big announcement will come in the October Budget, with legislation and guidance for schools published shortly afterwards. The new rules could conceivably start applying to fees from September 2025.

Matters to consider include the following:

MTD compliance 

If yours is one of the majority of independent schools not currently registered for VAT, you will likely need to register shortly after the law changes and within the specified timeframe.

For many bursars, this will mean first-time contact with HMRC’s MTD (Making Tax Digital) VAT regime. In summary, MTD compliance involves filing your VAT return through functional compatible software, keeping records digitally, using digital links to transfer or exchange data, and using the checking functions within your software to ensure returns are accurate.

As an early preparatory step, you should ensure that your current systems can accommodate this extra compliance step. Does your current accounting software include MTD capabilities? Are you clear on how to set it up?

Managing the administrative burden

As we’ve seen, the precise rules still need to be firmed up. However, it’s easy to see how schools could find themselves having to apply a complex mix of exemptions and partial exemptions on a pupil-by-pupil basis—especially when it comes to pupils with specific educational needs.

In addition, there may be extra rules to negotiate—again, potentially on a pupil-by-pupil basis—regarding ancillary services, such as nursery provision, transport, and tuition.

Rather than simply bracing for impact before the rule change is introduced, this is the right time to review your existing capabilities. Special emphasis should be on automated invoicing and tax calculations: reducing errors and saving time.

Exploring what’s feasible

To what extent can we absorb the impact of the change, and how much of it will we need to pass on to parents? This is the big question for school leaders. All eyes are on finance teams to provide the answers.

For this, you need the whole picture. In particular, a corollary consequence of VAT registration will be that VAT on costs will be recoverable in new areas (e.g. maintenance, agents fees, building works, and professional services). The same goes for VAT on capital items, such as buildings that are less than ten years old. All of this should be looked at when analysing the financial impact of the change.

Avoiding expensive mistakes

What if we announce a fee freeze for the next three terms to assuage parents’ fears? What if we announced an increase of no more than 5% per school year for the next couple of years? What if we instigated a fees-in-advance scheme?

In terms of formulating a response, there are multiple possible options out there. Asking “what if?” is easy; the hard part is formulating answers you can trust.

How do we formulate a plan, come up with a revised fees policy – without sleepwalking into a major cash flow crisis further down the line? There are no easy answers.