Managing school finances is a critical part of ensuring smooth operations and financial sustainability. Sentral for Independent Schools continues to innovate and simplify financial workflows with the latest enhancements to the Fees, Billing, and Payments module. These two new dashboard features – Alerts and Cash Flow Forecasting – are designed to give school finance teams greater visibility, control, and foresight over key financial data.
Let’s take a closer look at what these updates mean for your school, and how they can help streamline your processes and improve decision-making.
1. Real-time alerts now available on the Fees & Billing dashboard
The newly introduced Alerts section on the Fees, Billing & Payments homepage is a game-changer for school finance staff. It provides immediate visibility into issues that may require attention – no more digging through reports or waiting for issues to escalate.
What the alerts cover:
- Failed scheduled payments – Be promptly notified of failed transactions so you can take timely action.
- Potential overpayments – Easily identify payment schedules that may result in paying more than the invoice amount.
- Portal access issues – Know which debtors are unable to view their invoices or fees in the Parent Portal and assist them quickly.
- Failed syncs – Stay on top of any data sync failures before they impact billing processes or reporting.
Why this matters:
- Save time by surfacing important issues directly on your dashboard.
- Proactively manage risks by addressing potential problems before they affect financial outcomes or parental engagement.
- Improve parent satisfaction by reducing payment-related frustrations and improving transparency.
Each alert is interactive – clicking on any item will take you directly to a detailed list, allowing for fast resolution and follow-up.
2. Visualise future income with cash flow forecasting from Sentral Pay
Planning and predicting cash flow is vital for long-term financial health, and now, Sentral’s dashboard provides a clear, visual breakdown of expected cash flow based on scheduled Sentral Pay transactions.
Key features of the cash flow analysis:
- Total invoiced for the selected school year.
- Total paid, including allocations from credit notes, overpayments, and prepayments.
- Upcoming scheduled payments, broken down quarterly via Sentral Pay.
- Unpaid and unscheduled amounts, helping to highlight potential shortfalls.
All figures are displayed as percentages of the total invoiced, offering at-a-glance insights into your school’s financial trajectory.
Benefits for finance teams:
- Accurate forecasting for budgeting and cash flow planning.
- Early identification of potential cash flow gaps.
- Informed decision-making around fee policies, follow-up procedures, and resource planning.
3. Even more enhancements you’ll love
Sentral’s commitment to improving usability and streamlining workflows continues beyond the dashboard. Here are some of the other recent updates designed to make your experience even better:
- Improved User Experience (UX) in the registers
You can now sort filtered results and search within those filtered results, making it easier to locate the data you need – fast. - Seamless navigation from invoices to activities
Previously unavailable, this new functionality lets you quickly navigate from an invoice directly to the related activity for better context and faster reconciliation. - Bulk flagging for students
Add flags to multiple student records at once – a major time-saver compared to the previous one-at-a-time process.
- View emails sent to specific debtors
Within a debtor’s record, you can now view the history of emails sent – improving communication tracking and transparency. - Parent self-service: Update payment methods
Parents can now update the payment method being used for an active payment schedule directly via the Parent Portal.
If a parent updates an existing saved payment method (e.g. to update an expired credit card), the remaining instalments of their active payment schedules will automatically use the new payment details – ensuring a smooth continuation of payments without manual intervention.
The bigger picture: More control, less complexity
Together, these new features help finance teams move from reactive to proactive. By delivering real-time alerts, insightful forecasts, and smarter tools, Sentral continues to support Independent schools in running more efficient, transparent, and responsive financial operations.
Whether you're managing a small school or a large multi-campus institution, these tools ensure that no detail goes unnoticed – and no dollar unaccounted for.
Ready to explore these new features?
Log in to your Sentral portal today to experience the enhanced dashboard and all the added functionality – and empower your finance team with the tools they need to succeed.
Not using Sentral's Fees, Billing & Payments yet?
Click here to see how Sentral can streamline operations, improve cash flow, and elevate the parent experience.
