“Built specifically for how MATs actually run”: New IMP Finance system launched by Exeter-based IMP Software

IMP Software, trusted by more than 570 MATs and 6,500 schools across England, has announced the official launch and roll-out of IMP Finance, a next-generation finance platform developed specifically for multi-academy trusts.

Part of the IMP unified platform alongside IMP Planner, IMP Purchasing and IMP ICFP, IMP Finance is built on budget-led design, ensuring accuracy at source and workflows shaped around real trust life. Because IMP Finance is part of the unified platform, not connected to it, there is one set of finance codes, one chart of accounts, one version of the truth. In essence: ‘What your budget says and what your finance system says are always the same thing’.

Will Jordan, Co-founder and CEO of IMP Software, said: “Most finance tools were not developed for MATs. Coding varies between schools and month-end becomes a correction exercise. IMP Finance, which we have shaped in collaboration with our customers, changes this which is incredibly exciting. We replace corporate complexity with a MAT-first model. Every posting, approval and report supports cleaner data and stronger control. It is one financial environment built for MAT accuracy. IMP Finance is the next step in budget-led finance built specifically for how trusts actually run.”

Key benefits include:

• Budget-led posting: Unlike with other tools users select recognised “budget pots”, rather than nominal codes, ensuring postings land correctly first time, cutting coding errors, and reducing month-end corrections.
• Power and precision in approach: MAT finance teams get 100% of the functionality they need with only 20% of the administrative overhead of legacy systems. The platform focuses purely on education finance.
• MAT-native design: IMP Finance is built around the way MATs actually work. Schools, trusts and the structures finance teams manage every day are not mapped onto a generic platform, they are the foundation that everything is built on.

IMP Finance is set to revolutionise MAT finance with smarter workflows and complete visibility across the trust. Handling everything that would be expected from a finance system, from journals and credit note to supplier payments, bank reconciliations, VAT returns and payment runs, the system is designed specifically for MATs so every task works the way a trust finance team needs it to, simply and without unnecessary complexity. Every transaction is fully traceable, with a clear record of what was posted, by whom and when, giving finance teams the confidence and control that comes from a clean, reliable audit trail. Flexible analysis fields enable MATs to track projects, trips and staffing costs against the right budget lines, removing the need for manually-produced spreadsheets and providing instant insight across the trust.

By bringing budgeting, finance, purchasing and workforce planning together in the IMP unified platform, live budget limits, staffing costs and purchase commitments are always visible, keeping financial data accurate at source. For the first time, underpinned by budget-led finance, IMP Finance empowers MAT finance teams to eliminate complexity, gain clarity, and maintain full control across the entire financial cycle.

Warren Porter, Head of Education Strategy at IMP Software, commented: “For years, the sector has been asking for a finance system built specifically for multi-academy trusts, and it is finally here. Not a corporate system adapted for education. Not a platform requiring workarounds and spreadsheets to make it work. A finance system designed from the ground up for how MATs actually operate. Users benefit from access to our best in-class support team, with average responses less than one minute, provided by former MAT finance professionals who understand sector challenges.”