The best finance system features to look for in 2026

By 2026, the question most school finance teams are asking has quietly changed.

It’s no longer, “Does this system do finance?”
It’s, “Will this system help us run finance properly - across multiple schools, tighter budgets, stronger governance and higher reporting expectations?”

For bursars, School Business Leaders and MAT finance teams, the pain points are familiar: reporting takes too long, data isn’t consistent across schools, approvals add friction, and month-end becomes a cycle of chasing, checking and rebuilding spreadsheets. Even when the numbers are right, getting to them often feels harder than it should.

So what should schools and trusts be looking for in a finance system now?

Not more features for the sake of it - but the right features that reduce pressure, increase clarity, and improve control without adding admin.

Real-time reporting that answers real questions

A dashboard isn’t helpful if it doesn’t tell you what you need to know in the moment.

The best systems in 2026 will make it easier to answer the questions that actually drive decisions:

Where are we against budget today?
Which schools or departments are drifting?
What’s changed since last week?
What’s likely to happen if the current trend continues?

Real-time reporting matters because it replaces uncertainty with visibility. It reduces the lag between “something has changed” and “we’ve noticed”. And in a trust environment, that lag is usually where problems grow.

In-system KPIs, not spreadsheet KPIs

Most finance teams don’t struggle because they lack data - they struggle because they spend too much time translating data into something usable.

That’s why in-system KPIs are becoming a baseline expectation. When performance indicators live inside the system, teams spend less time exporting, reformatting and explaining, and more time acting.

The aim isn’t more reporting. It’s less reporting work.

Consistency across schools and departments

As MATs expand, inconsistency becomes expensive. Not financially - operationally.

When schools code the same type of spend in different ways, you lose comparability. Trust-wide reporting becomes slower. And year-end turns into a clean-up exercise.

A modern finance setup should support consistency as standard - enabling schools to work in ways that still roll up cleanly to trust reporting. The more consistent your foundations are, the easier everything becomes: budget monitoring, trustee reporting, forecasting, audit preparation.

Consistency is what turns finance from reactive to reliable.

Controls that protect without slowing people down

Schools want stronger controls. They also want fewer bottlenecks.

In 2026, the systems that win will be the ones that make approvals feel natural - not painful. That means clear permissions, clean approval routes and full audit trails, without a process that becomes so rigid it stops people doing their jobs.

A good approvals process isn’t one that’s complicated. It’s one that’s visible, accountable and simple to follow.

Cleaner workflows for bank, creditors and VAT checks

Ask any school finance team where time gets lost and you’ll hear the same themes: month-end checks, exception chasing, and “that one thing we meant to fix”.

Modern systems should support consistent routines that make it easier to keep data tidy throughout the year - so checks are calmer and more predictable.

It’s not about removing finance work. It’s about keeping the work organised, consistent and easier to manage across multiple schools.

Audit readiness as a by-product, not a project

Audit season is intense enough without having to recreate the year.

The strongest finance setups in 2026 will make audit readiness feel like a natural outcome of normal processes: clear records, structured approvals, and a transaction trail that makes sense.

When that happens, finance teams spend less time answering repeated queries and more time focusing on the trust’s priorities. And the audit becomes less disruptive to everyday work.

A finance platform that fits into the wider school stack

Schools don’t want standalone systems anymore. They want systems that fit alongside the tools they already rely on - including online banking and spend management workflows - without double-handling and re-keying information.

A good finance platform should feel like it’s part of one coherent setup, not an isolated piece of software that forces workarounds.

Implementation that respects the school year

Finally, one of the most overlooked “features” isn’t inside the software at all.

It’s rollout.

If implementation disrupts term-time operations, it creates resistance. Schools don’t have capacity for a drawn-out change project. They need training that’s practical, support that’s responsive, and a go-live process that is structured and realistic.

In 2026, the best providers won’t just sell a platform - they’ll help it stick.

What this means for schools and trusts

The finance systems that stand out in 2026 won’t be defined by the longest feature list. They’ll be defined by what they help finance teams achieve:

• clearer trust-wide visibility
• stronger control with less friction
• fewer manual reporting routines
• calmer month-end and year-end processes
• better confidence for trustees and auditors
• more time for planning and decision-making

That’s what modern school finance needs: less noise, more clarity.

Where XfE fits

XfE is built specifically for schools and Multi-Academy Trusts, which means it’s designed around the realities of education finance - not adapted from a generic business setup.

It supports trust-wide consistency across schools and departments, gives finance teams real-time reporting and in-system KPIs for clearer decision-making, and strengthens control through structured workflows and secure approvals via PLANERGY Spend Management.

The result is a calmer finance function: less time spent rebuilding reports, fewer last-minute surprises at month-end and year-end, and more confidence when trustees and auditors need answers quickly. If you’re reviewing your finance system for 2026, XfE is well worth a look.

👉 Book a 20-minute XfE walkthrough

‍