Today’s school business officials and finance teams assume many responsibilities to secure, allocate, and manage resources to support their goals. These vital leaders must constantly evolve alongside the developing needs of the students, schools, and communities they serve.
Many school finance teams are adopting technology to streamline financial planning and budgeting, accelerate reconciliation and reporting, and improve transparency for audits. Financial management of events can be particularly tedious and time-consuming, especially with paper tickets and cash payments.
With traditional ticketing, finance teams and event staff are often faced with counting cash, monitoring cashboxes, and physically transporting significant sums for deposits. The logistics involved with cash payments can be prone to errors, even for the most diligent staff members.
Cash payments also create security vulnerabilities that can be avoided with digital payments. In a recent survey of high school bookkeepers, 50% of schools said they have safety concerns with cash.
These efforts and concerns quickly become magnified when schools host multiple events across campus throughout the year. It can also be difficult to achieve accurate and transparent reporting at the district level.
Thousands of schools nationwide have realized the shortcomings of cash payments and have adopted digital ticketing for athletics, performing arts, dances, camps, and other activities. By managing events digitally, finance teams can save time and balance all events in a single platform for ticketing, reconciliation, and reporting.
Ticket presales can help school bookkeepers and finance teams budget accordingly for event staff, promotions, and security while fostering community engagement. Schools can introduce pricing strategies like early-bird specials to create excitement for the event and incentivize fans to buy tickets in advance.
Selling tickets ahead of time can also provide more insights for staffing and security needs. With presales reports, school finance staff can confidently answer questions about expected crowd projections and allocate expenses accordingly.
For example, if ticket presales are high and an event could potentially sell out, finance teams can adjust staffing and notify fans of the limited number of tickets still available. On the other hand, if ticket presales are lower than expected, then the school has the opportunity to promote the event and consider other incentives to drive attendance.
This knowledge is powerful and can help finance teams and event staff be more proactive when managing events at the school and district levels.
Event reconciliation for schools and districts is dramatically faster and more accurate with digital ticketing. According to a recent survey, reconciling one event with cash takes 74 additional minutes on average.
Events can generate significant revenue for schools and districts. With cash sales, someone must physically count the cash to ensure it matches the number of tickets sold. Oftentimes, this has to be done two or three times to ensure accuracy. Once the cash has been counted and verified, someone must transport it safely for deposit. This is yet another step in an already tedious process, and it creates security concerns that can be easily avoided with digital payments.
With digital ticketing and payments, schools and districts can reconcile events with just a few clicks. Rather than counting cash and ticket stubs, school finance staff can simply view the event summary report, compare it to the payment statements, and close out the books. Reports and payment statements can be easily downloaded, saved for records, and submitted to the district.
School bookkeepers play key roles in the audit process, as they are trusted with risk management, governance, and operations in addition to financial responsibilities. Audits can be grueling for any school or district, as all revenue and expenses must be documented and accounted for clearly. Based on a recent survey, just 25% of schools are confident in the accuracy of their audits with cash.
In a cash-based environment, a successful audit requires impeccable note taking to specify the source of all funds. Schools typically must provide a breakdown of ticket revenue for every event hosted on campus. Even fantastically run organizations can struggle to manage this level of detail consistently.
With digital ticketing, every ticket transaction is accounted for instantly. Bookkeepers can receive automated ticketing reports and payment statements. They can also pull custom data as needed. Additionally, they can specify a precise date range of events to include in reports based on audit requirements.
The ease of reporting saves significant amounts of time, ensures accuracy and transparency, and provides peace of mind during audits.
School finance teams are at the heart of the administration of highly complex endeavors that are constantly evolving to address the unique demands of their communities. By embracing technology to streamline event finances, school finance teams can save time, increase revenue, and focus on what matters.