Any Independent Schools using Bromcom?

[CyBeRkId2002]

Hi all,

 

As the title, are there any Independent Schools out there using Bromcom as their MIS, and if so how have you got around the quite glaring issues of Fee Billing.  I am led to believe it is possible but I just can't understand how 

 

My findings so far are:

• Bromcom (and Arbor for that matter) do not generate Fee Invoices inside the MIS - quite understandably as they are not targeting (or quite ready for) the Independent sector as it stands.
• The only fit for purpose Financial Management system that does the billing process (working out how much to invoice based on parental relationships, discounts etc.) inside the finance package, rather than the MIS, is PASS Finance
• PASS Finance have a manual import facility which is fairly complex (as it understandably needs to be) which will be prone to failure if anything on the MIS reporting or PASS import changes (unlikely but possible).  The larger issue is that...
• As we use Admissions+ (I believe) to collect Direct Debit details and Bromcom / Arbor do not have anywhere to store the information then some kind of matching is going to be needed between all three systems prior to import to get this into PASS Finance.  This means almost constantly as we all know details change over time.  This makes it, in my eyes, almost infeasible.  

 

I am just curious if anyone has got around this huge hurdle as we would like to at least investigate Bromcom as an option.

[DWilson1997]

Not much help - but having recently looked into this your findings are correct. It is worth noting if you are using SIMS as your general ledger you will need to ensure the new solution does that too unless that can be achieved by your finance system.

 

Another one is I looked at was Furlong FeeMaster | Streamlined School Fee Management Solutions - not sure if it is viable option.

[DWilson1997]

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Edited April 4, 2025 by DWilson1997
wrong thread

[Jamman960]

At a previous school I looked into it all and couldn't figure out a way ahead and ended up going for Engage MIS instead, Arbor would have been a good fit if it hadn't been for those pesky fee bills!

 

Its a shame there's no external bolt-on or standalone system that'd handle them, current school/trust are using Sims Independent fairly successfully with a few extra bolt-ons