We hosted our first webinar of 2024 discussing Leeds City School District and how they've partnered with MySchoolBucks to streamline student fee collection district-wide. Heartland sales rep, Jeff Olek, chatted with the CFO of Leeds City, Ryan Miller, to discuss their journey from why he chose MySchoolBucks to what tools have been most useful along the way.
Check out a few highlights from their conversation or watch the recording below:
What needs were you looking to fill with MySchoolBucks? (2:30)
When Leeds City started looking for a program to accept credit card payments ten years ago, Ryan was determined to find a solution that streamlined the payment process. His district briefly tried a different software, but instead of saving them time, it added more work for both staff and teachers.
Leeds City’s nutrition program was already partnering with Heartland for their cafeteria’s Point of Sale system, which included using MySchoolBucks for meal payments. When Ryan learned that MySchoolBucks could also manage payments for fees outside the cafeteria, he was interested in learning more. Not only would MySchoolBucks help simplify payment processing, but it also integrates smoothly with their Student Information System, PowerSchool. This integration would allow them to seamlessly assign fees students in PowerSchool and automatically invoice parents through MySchoolBucks.
What are the greatest benefits and efficiencies you have found in collecting fees online? (5:54)
Being a parent in the district himself, Ryan has three kids who attend different schools in the district and participate in numerous school programs. He truly understood the value and need for giving parents one place to pay and register for any student-related activity. With MySchoolBucks, the process was made simple with a single login where you can pay invoices, utilize the school store for easy checkout, and add money to your student's lunch account.
Ryan also spoke about how MySchoolBucks has helped to simplify his bookkeeper's jobs while giving him the control and visibility he needs to oversee and manage funds centrally from one platform. With nearly 13,000 invoices created in 2023 and almost 14,000 activity-related payments made, Ryan’s district has found invoicing to be incredibly valuable. With invoicing, his bookkeepers can now spend less time tracking unpaid fees, and Ryan can reconcile accounts faster. Teachers and program staff no longer have to be cashiers of money or spend time trying to collect payments from their students for activities. By eliminating much of these manually tasks of collecting and managing funds, it's estimated that Leeds City saved roughly saved 47 days of work for their staff!
In addition to time savings, the instant communication and invoice reminders helped ensure parents paid the fees they owed in a timely manner. As a result, at the end of the 2022-23 school year, they ended the year with less than 1% of fees still outstanding. Many schools are grappling with the challenge of collecting outstanding student fees, like meal debt. Finding the right solution to tackle that challenge has had positive implication for Leeds City and their student programs.
As a CPA and a CFO, what have you found most helpful on the accounting side of your operation? (16:25)
Ryan said he aimed to have a centralized platform where he could easily monitor all transactions across the four schools, with the funds from all schools flowing into one bank account. It used to take him 2-3 weeks to reconcile an account manually using receipt books, but now he can reconcile the account in just 30 minutes. The ability to run reports quickly and find the specific information his bookkeepers needs has been another benefit.
Leeds City wanted a single system that would bring centralized visibility to all payments and deposits across the district. With MySchoolBucks, the central office can readily oversee the activities of the bookkeepers without having to be physically present at a school.
MySchoolBucks also simplified the auditing process at Leeds City. In the past, auditors had to go through multiple physical boxes of paper receipt books to verify deposits and payments. In the beginning with MySchoolBucks, Ryan was easily able to generate reports from MySchoolBucks for auditors to review required payments information all in one spreadsheet. Since then, he's gone one step further to streamline this process by giving auditors direct access to MySchoolBucks. Now their auditors can log in directly to MySchoolBucks themselves to view deposits, transactions, and all the details they need, even down to which bookkeeper managed an account change. Ultimately, saving more time for both Ryan, his bookkeepers and their team of auditors.
Before and during the webinar, we collected attendees' questions for Jeff and Ryan. They covered topics from what to do if you’re considering MySchoolBucks, how early to start the implementation process, and what process Ryan thinks has been most helpful in collecting fees. Take a look at the webinar below to hear the answers to these questions and more!
