Case Study

From Manual Reconciliation to Real-Time School Operations

How a State Board school in Mangalore replaced disconnected systems with ERPfied

State Board School900+ StudentsMulti-Entity Operations

Key Outcomes

Unified academics, finance, HR, and transport in one platform

Real-time dashboards replaced month-end consolidation

Accurate usage-based transport billing with no manual recalculation

Daily bank reconciliation with immediate discrepancy detection

Audit-ready operations with clear trails across entities

How a State Board School Unified Academics, Finance, HR, and Transport Across Multiple Entities Using ERPfied

School & Organization Profile

Board

State Board

Type

Mid-sized private school

Students

900+

Staff

Teaching, administrative, transport, and support staff

Organizational setup

The school operated through separate legal entities to manage education services and transport operations. Both entities were operationally interdependent and shared student, staff, and financial data.

Prior to ERPfied, there was no single platform providing unified visibility across academics, finance, payroll, procurement, and transport.

Challenges Before ERPfied

Disconnected academic and finance systems

Academics such as attendance, admissions, and examinations were managed using a local school management software. Accounting and finance were handled separately using Tally.

This resulted in:

  • Manual posting of fee collections into accounting
  • Delayed availability of financial data
  • Regular reconciliation differences

Operations spread across multiple entities

Academic operations and transport services were managed under different entities, requiring constant coordination.

This led to:

  • Manual inter-entity adjustments
  • Limited consolidated financial visibility
  • High dependency on individual staff members

Transport operations were difficult to manage efficiently

The school's transport model was dynamic and operationally complex:

  • Pick-up only
  • Drop only
  • Both pick-up and drop

Parents frequently requested:

  • Route changes
  • Pickup or drop location changes
  • Changes in transport type within the same month

While these scenarios were handled operationally, managing them efficiently required manual recalculations and repeated corrections, increasing effort and error risk.

Handling of non-chargeable transport days

Transport charges needed to exclude:

  • Dasara holidays
  • Declared school holidays
  • Other non-operational transport days

These exclusions were handled manually, leading to:

  • Inconsistent billing
  • Parent queries and disputes
  • Additional reconciliation work

Limited real-time management visibility

  • Fee and transport collection data was not available in real time
  • Payroll and procurement were tracked separately
  • Bank reconciliation was periodic rather than daily
  • Management depended on consolidated reports prepared after the fact

Audit preparation involved manual compilation across systems and entities.

Before ERPfied

Tally
School SW
Excel
Manual
Disconnected systems
Manual reconciliation
Operational silos
Multi-entity complexity
Delayed reports

After ERPfied

ERPfied
Unified Platform
Single unified platform
Real-time visibility
Integrated finance & operations
Multi-entity support
Audit-ready reporting

Why ERPfied Was Chosen

The school was looking for:

  • A single unified platform across academics, finance, HR, payroll, procurement, and transport
  • Proper handling of operations across multiple entities
  • Accurate and transparent transport billing
  • Real-time operational and financial visibility
  • A system capable of replacing both local school management software and Tally

ERPfied was selected because it provided a connected ERP architecture with a finance core linked to all operational modules.

Transition Approach

To ensure zero disruption to daily school operations, ERPfied was introduced in parallel with the existing systems.

  • The existing school software and Tally continued as the operational master initially
  • ERPfied was run alongside, with daily academic, fee, transport, payroll, and expense data transferred into ERPfied
  • Both systems were kept in sync through close coordination between school staff and the ERPfied team

As management and staff began seeing consistent operational results and real-time visibility in ERPfied, usage of the older systems was gradually reduced and eventually discontinued.

A dedicated coordination effort between the school team and ERPfied ensured a smooth, controlled transition without impacting day-to-day operations.

Results After ERPfied Adoption

Improved fee and transport collections

  • Parent communication for fee and transport reminders became consistent and timely
  • Clear visibility of academic and transport dues
  • Reduced billing disputes
  • Improved overall collection efficiency

Accurate, usage-based transport billing

  • Route and pickup changes within the month reflected correctly
  • Transport type changes applied without manual recalculation
  • No billing during non-operational days such as Dasara holidays
  • Transport revenue aligned closely with actual usage

Real-time management visibility

  • Live dashboards covering fees, transport, payroll, and expenses
  • Reduced dependency on month-end consolidation
  • Faster and more confident decision-making

Daily bank reconciliation

  • Bank entries reconciled on a daily basis
  • Discrepancies identified immediately
  • Faster month-end and year-end closures

Audit-ready operations

  • Clear audit trails across all entities
  • Linked academic, financial, payroll, procurement, and transport data
  • Reduced audit preparation effort and improved compliance confidence

Outcome

The school transitioned from managing disconnected systems across entities to operating through a single unified ERP platform.

ERPfied brought structure, transparency, and operational control across academics, finance, transport, HR, payroll, and procurement, enabling leadership to focus on governance, stability, and long-term growth rather than reconciliation and manual coordination.

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