How Sussex Students’ Union Modernised Finance Operations and Saved the Team Five Days a Week

University of Sussex Students' Union Building

University of Sussex Students’ Union transformed finance across its charity and commercial operations, replacing disconnected systems and manual workarounds with automated processes and clear, efficient reporting.

Background

University of Sussex Students’ Union (USSU) operates across two separate legal entities. It is a registered charity with a £3.5M trading subsidiary that runs bars, cafés and shops, alongside hundreds of student-run clubs and societies.

The Challenge

USSU’s finance team was struggling with a system that had reached its limits. The team had Sage 50 installed on PCs and running on a server. It was routinely unstable.

“I was convinced the finance system was one day going to crash so badly that we wouldn’t be able to get it back up again.” James Hann, CEO

The system had been held together by workarounds over the years but these merely added to the complexity. For Finance Manager Aarun Palmer, the day-to-day reality was relentless manual work and a lot of wasted time.

“We all would leave 20 minutes at the end of the day just to do the backup. And whilst it was running, we couldn’t really do anything else.” Aarun Palmer, Finance Manager

At month end, the team had to manually check and transfer hundreds of purchase order records from a separate bespoke system into Sage.
Daily banking sheets from commercial outlets arrived on paper. They had to be manually reconciled and keyed into a spreadsheet.
Department heads managed budgets in Google sheets.
With commercial outlets using different payment providers, inconsistent references meant income reconciliation was a real problem. Unmatched amounts were written off.
To produce management reports, Aarun had to manually download reports for each legal entity and re-key figures into spreadsheets. The process took weeks.
In-year reporting was inaccurate because prepayments and accruals were left to year end rather than handled monthly.

“If reporting doesn’t happen until a month after the end of the period, you can’t operate in a commercial arena. You need up-to-date financial information.” James Hann, CEO

James and Aarun both knew the system needed to change, however Aarun had never led a finance system migration before. Having seen software migrations go badly at other universities, CEO James knew they would need external expertise to support Aarun and his team.

“When I spoke to Tony at Whitegate, I understood more about his experience of doing exactly this with other students’ unions.” James Hann, CEO

James was aware of Whitegate’s Managing Director Tony Reissner’s previous work at both Exeter Students’ Guild and University of Arts Students’ Union. From experience, Tony understood USSU’s structure, reporting complexity, pressures and financial year constraints.

Group of ethnic multicultural students in sitting at table library. Students are talking and reading.

Whitegate’s Approach

Review

Tony began by mapping processes, department structures and codes, as well as the integrations (and gaps) between systems and data.

The review produced a clear picture of where manual effort was concentrated, where data was out of sync and where automation was possible.

For example, SUMS, the app that students used to sign up, buy tickets and pay for societies, had a different coding system to Sage, creating reconciliation problems.

System Evaluation

Tony led a structured software evaluation with a shortlist that included iplicit, AccountsIQ, Microsoft Business Central, Aqilla and Xero.

Iplicit was chosen on functionality, its modern cloud-native interface, its dominant position across the SU sector and its integration with student expenses app, Konnect 365. Being able to handle multiple budgets and mid-year reforecasts for the same financial year was also a key factor.

Implementation, coaching and support

The timeline was tight with the new financial year approaching. Tony worked alongside the implementation consultant to keep the project moving. Extending way beyond scoping, Tony’s role included managing the pace of the project, solving problems as they emerged and taking the pressure off Aarun at critical moments.

“It was great that I had that working relationship with Tony, that I could be open, honest, and ask for support when I needed it.” Aarun Palmer, Finance Manager

What Changed?

Purchase Orders

Aarun retired the bespoke PO system. Invoices are entered once in iplicit and flow directly into the ledgers.

Connecting data

The EPOS systems across all outlets were being migrated at the same time. Tony built new reconciliation templates that pulled data directly from the new EPOS system, matched it automatically and generated import files for iplicit. This removed manual data entry from the daily banking process completely.

Income reconciliation

Each commercial outlet now has its own income control account. Receipts from each payment provider are matched accurately, to the penny.

Budgeting

Budgets are now held in iplicit and phased by month, reflecting actual expected activity. The system supports multiple budgets and mid-year reforecasts.

Management Reporting

Aarun built the management report templates himself, using an Excel plugin that pulls live data from iplicit. He can refresh accounts for both legal entities in one click.

Student Expenses

Club and society committees can submit expense claims by photographing receipts with their phones. Students can see their group’s live profit and loss at any time.

Bank feeds

Bank data now flows automatically into iplicit.

“We’ve got way better control over the accounts and better confidence in what they’re providing us information-wise, instead of it being a big surprise at the end of the year.” Aarun Palmer, Finance Manager

The Results

“People are not having to do tasks that almost seem… pointless. They were having to undertake tasks that shouldn’t need to be done.” James Hann, CEO

Better processes for everyone

The impact has been felt across the whole organisation from the finance team’s workload, to the quality of reporting. Managers can log into iplicit directly to see departmental spend. Student trustees receive cleaner, faster management accounts. USSU’s external accountant has noticed the improvements too and VAT returns are much easier to prepare.

“When budget holders stop maintaining their own spreadsheets, you know you’ve got a finance system that’s doing what it needs to do.” James Hann, CEO

Management accounts in days rather than weeks

Aarun produces management accounts for both legal entities in five working days from month end. Previously, that process required hours of manual downloading, re-keying and checking across two companies.

“I just hit a button and it’s done.” Aarun Palmer, Finance Manager

Substantial time savings

The finance team has saved five days a week on manual processing.

“The newly-designed system saves five days of finance team time a week. It completely changes how we work.” Aarun Palmer, Finance Manager

Personal development

For Aarun, the change has been transformational in a more personal sense too. He now spends his time on work that really matters: supporting managers; improving processes; and developing the system further. He is currently advising another students’ union, drawing on his own experience to help them navigate their transition.

Reflecting on the project a year down the line, James is direct about the lesson for other CEOs in similar positions:

“I don’t think it’s possible to do a finance project of this scale without help. If you can project plan it out and you don’t see you need external support, great. I don’t know how you would do that.
It’s an expensive project. But nobody is now remembering how much we spent. They’re remembering how it’s come through and seeing how much we have gained.” James Hann, CEO