A Fresh Look at Financial Services

In a sector where the costs of compliance continue to rise, and the demand on resources seem endless, is it a comfort to know there’s a team of financial professionals who will always have your back and let you get on with leading your school?

We have your back

CES has been partnering with schools like yours for more than 25 years. Over that time, we have kept pace with the fast-changing educational environment by supporting our clients to:

Keep compliance costs under control;
Make informed decisions by having better data and information to hand;
Manage risks for true peace of mind;
Overview of financial performance for your school.

Your responsibilities as a leader

As a principal or trustee, getting the very best from your resources so that you deliver optimal outcomes for your students and their families are your number one priority. It is an honour and privilege to be an educational leader, but the bottom line is that you are legally responsible for the financial decisions made by your school.

This means that you need the best information available, and you need to know your school’s resources are being lawfully accessed at all times.

At CES, we’re geared up to support you in your statutory roles and responsibilities with best practice. Because simply put, the buck does stop with you.

Our support reduces your costs

We tailor our wide range of financial services to your school’s specific needs at a vastly lower rate than the cost of employing specialist sta. We estimate our services come at 1/10th of the cost of you employing a financial sta member.

That’s a lot of money freed up for improving the education of your tamariki.

At CES our core business is providing quality financial services to schools. That’s what we do, day in and day out. Plus we do it better than anyone else for the price.

We are your school’s personal accounting professional, without the eye-watering billable minute price-tag.

When you partner with us, we guarantee:

A respectful, relationship-based service that is designed to suit your needs;
Your own qualified accounting staff to provide specific, individualised advice on all of your school’s financial needs when you need it;
24/7 access to your school’s financial records;
Up-to-the-minute technological platforms that meet all forms of compliance reporting and analysis and work in with your own systems and processes;
Elegant and usable reports that make sense to your stakeholders;
Timely execution of your key compliance tasks: accounts payable, GST returns, sta reimbursements, fixed asset registers, depreciation schedules, board fees and annual accounts;
Support for your audit needs;
Advice on preparing your budgets;
Investment advice and management;
Tailored support and training for your key people when and as you need it.

Our support reduces your risk of fraud

Let’s use the ‘F’ word for a moment. Fraud. It’s a simple fact that by using CES, you will have much greater protection from the risk of fraud and financial mismanagement in your school.

We all know that fraud and financial misappropriation are a growing concern for boards and principals around the country. And rightly so.

No one wants to see their school in the media due to financial mismanagement. No one wants to go to court to prosecute a staff member for fraud.

But this happens in New Zealand year in and year out.

The Auditor-General has made it abundantly clear that for the $750,000 of taxpayers’ money that is, on average, defrauded in schools each year, it is more than likely the result of lax financial controls, and opportunities left open for individuals to abuse their positions in schools.

These are known risks for which boards and principals must take full responsibility.

Most of the fraud incidents in schools (75%) were committed by one internal person acting alone, typically at an operational staff level.

Report ‘Keeping Fraud at Bay: Investigation into School Fraud’, Office of the Auditor-General.

Our team of highly qualified and experienced professional accountants can dramatically reduce these risks by working hand-in-hand with you to shore up your safety from criminal activity in your school.

Why would you risk anything less than the best security you can get?

To learn more about how CES can partner with your school to provide you with a seamless service that empowers and protects you and your school, get in touch with us today. We would love to tell you more.