FMS6 to be restricted, no choice but to move our data to their cloud and FMS Connect!

[chazzy2501]

(FMS is part of SIMS)

 

Seems that our Finance team have been told that they must prepare to move to a cloud platform for FMS.. Our Finance didn't ask for this it was just told to them in an email. 

 

FMS6 will be restricted after 6th next month.. What ever that means. 

 

Then instructions on how we prepare our data to be uploaded to their cloud service.  

 

So now I'm immediately hostile to this process. I don't like strong arm tactics. It seems I was also unaware that "parentpay" purchased SIMS.   

 

I'm now writing a snooty email to the migration team about these demands..

 

Who will have access our cloud data? Is it encrypted? (not just the transport) Where is it stored, who will guarantee data integrity, backups and service up time?  How will we be compensated when you lose control of the data in a possible data breach?

 

Miffed in Dorset...

 

EDIT: Seems alot of this was decided by DCC, so now to SAFSO...

Edited June 10 by chazzy2501

[Boredguy]

Errm ParentPay purchased ESS 5 years ago hence all the forum buzz about the terrible "SIMS Connect" they've tried to get people to move to, and the nightmare with the contract renewal lengths etc.

 

There have been posts recently from people who moved to the new FMS only to have to be moved back as it didn't work.

It's strong arm issues that are causing a lot of IT staff to pray their Finance team want to move away from FMS to alternative products (Thankfully we moved to Sage 9 years ago)

[flipthebit]

ParentPay seem to be trying their best to encourage me to move MIS and all their other products at the next opportune moment. Whoever's idea it was to treat schools in the way they do will probably not take responsibility when all their business disappears in the next few years.

[pete]

There's a thread about this over on Anme where a school/trust pushed back and ParentPay relented.  May be worth a read.

[BKGarry]

We are a school that uses Arbor for the MIS but FMS for Finance, and we haven't been told this yet but we have received a quote for the next 3 years, which is up a large percentage, per year, than previous.

 

I have been told it is cheaper than Sage, but and this is the thing, we are beholden to the LEA for what Finance packages we can use, and apparently (I do not know how much this is true etc just what I have been told) that Arbor's offering does not use "good financial practices" but I am not sure if that is actually true or if it is the way it does it is different so it looks like it is.

I am not looking forward to the move to "New" FMS, as the reporting is still within a hosted version of FMS6 and been told this is a "temporary stopgap measure", and I do not like when any company says something is this, because I am like, errrrrrr so not finished then.......

Also, that means we will still have the thing where the export as an excel document (required by the LEA in that format not CSV) is still an Excel 4.0 formatted spreadsheet, so you have to change the default security settings in office.

[chazzy2501]

SAFSO tell us it was in a contract we've already signed  The reduced term length contract... Now Finance are reviewing that contract and are perturbed as they don't feel it was presented as that... just ongoing support.

 

 

[Steve21]

There was a massive section in this years renewal regarding the FMS changes (One of the reasons we jumped ship this year) - The last I heard from schools that didn't move is that they're still not finding the new FMS fit for purpose though and lots of schools who moved over are now being moved back by ParentPay again as a temporary fix, so would be worth pressing on that side of things as to whether it's actually likely to move anytime soon!

Steve

[BKGarry]

I have just had a very strange thought, and it is just a thought, no evidence and not moved to New FMS at all yet.

The reporting is not in New FMS for things that you have to go back to FMS6 to run them. Now, does that mean new FMS is actually using the same DB or a new DB with a sync happening to translate them into the old DB. But also, there has been advertising for a long time now in FMS6 about using Finance Reports online, so are those reports not good enough or something or never completed? As those reports have been pushed but are not the ones that people are going to be using when they first move over.

[Steve21]

It depends which "new" one you're referring to as there's two... 😛 

There's the "new" FMS in cloud which is really just a migration of database to a VM and includes the new reporting tools

Or there's the "new new" FMS which is the full cloud rebuilt one. 

The contract renewal mentioned a "short term" move to the "new" one, followed by a full move to the "new new" one down the line

Steve

[BKGarry]

So "new" is FMS6 in the connected environment and "new new" is the full cloud one but still reports going back to FMS6 at the moment?

I am thoroughly confused right now with the whole thing, would be nice for there to be some decent public migration documentation of what is going where and how the data is held etc

[chazzy2501]

4 minutes ago, Steve21 said:

It depends which "new" one you're referring to as there's two... 😛 

There's the "new" FMS in cloud which is really just a migration of database to a VM and includes the new reporting tools

Or there's the "new new" FMS which is the full cloud rebuilt one. 

The contract renewal mentioned a "short term" move to the "new" one, followed by a full move to the "new new" one down the line

Steve

That complicates things, as I assumed new new cloud... FFS. 

[FN-GM]

18 hours ago, chazzy2501 said:

SAFSO tell us it was in a contract we've already signed

 

Sounds like someone is signing contracts without performing due diligence. 

[itskdog]

On 11/06/2026 at 08:33, BKGarry said:

I have been told it is cheaper than Sage, but and this is the thing, we are beholden to the LEA for what Finance packages we can use, and apparently (I do not know how much this is true etc just what I have been told) that Arbor's offering does not use "good financial practices" but I am not sure if that is actually true or if it is the way it does it is different so it looks like it is.

 

Arbor Finance is a rename of RM Finance after they bought RM Integris (which shared the same UI, and therefore presumably codebase, so they came as a package deal) and removed the RM Unify integration for sign-in.

[BKGarry]

OK, I am putting this here, to help with clarification on FMS terminology used in a recent meeting:

FMS6 Connected/Hosted - They want to move everyone to hosted FMS6 by the end of the calendar year, they will refer to this as FMS6
"New" FMS (The one that has the cloud front end) - This is being called just FMS in talks, which is where a lot of confusion is happening.

 

On the plus side, there is a way of just making accounts in SIMS ID without the need for SIMS .net, managed in The Cloud

Having getting quotes from competitors, and still being beholden to what the central LEA Finance team will support (the MIS Support arm will support anything in their framework but the Finance team will all support 3 Finance Systems), FMS is the cheapest option (that we were quoted for) that supports Double Line Book keeping, which is where some cheaper ones, such as one competitor only does Single Line Book Keeping, which is something to do with Creditor and Debtor lines, which I don't quite understand myself but is a big thing

[chazzy2501]

When they host: you have 10 days to move the data from their system if you cancel the agreement. They will only refund the cost of the term of the contract if they lose control of the data. You only have 5 days to object to a new data handler they choose. They can use your data for training purposes (after undocumented anonymisation). The data will be scanned by their team for unacceptable content. The only support "core service" 08:00 -17:00 excluding bank holidays.  21 concurrent user limit and they can restrict your access or charge 20% extra if you go over.. No word on EXIT fees if you want the database in a useful format. it is POSSIBLE the data is accessed outside the EU.

 

and other issues in the TOS. 

 

What surprises me is the nonchalant attitude from management and governors. 

[Ratcliffepg]

The new FMS is delayed, basically current FMS cloud hosted, we have been through the process.

[Anonymous2000]

From what I understand the choices are:

FMS on premises - don't think I have heard anything about this dying yet.

FMS Connected - basically a link to a hosted FMS server - same software etc. Just hosted on someone else's box

FMS Next Gen - the all singing fully cloud version that they implemented then pulled as it didn't work. I believe they are currently testing it again after "modifications"

 

My understanding of the Arbor Finance package is that our LA ultimately use Oracle and the exports from Arbor Finance don't have the right information/fields etc to be imported to that where as FMS does.

 

Be interesting to see how it all pans out.

[chazzy2501]

50 minutes ago, Anonymous2000 said:

From what I understand the choices are:

FMS on premises - don't think I have heard anything about this dying yet.

FMS Connected - basically a link to a hosted FMS server - same software etc. Just hosted on someone else's box

FMS Next Gen - the all singing fully cloud version that they implemented then pulled as it didn't work. I believe they are currently testing it again after "modifications"

 

My understanding of the Arbor Finance package is that our LA ultimately use Oracle and the exports from Arbor Finance don't have the right information/fields etc to be imported to that where as FMS does.

 

Be interesting to see how it all pans out.

We got this in our email: "Please refer to my email sent previously – this contains details of the move process and your next actions. As a reminder, if the move process is not scheduled as per the timeline below, then access to local FMS6 will be restricted by Monday 6^th July 2026."

 

 

[Anonymous2000]

1 hour ago, chazzy2501 said:

We got this in our email: "Please refer to my email sent previously – this contains details of the move process and your next actions. As a reminder, if the move process is not scheduled as per the timeline below, then access to local FMS6 will be restricted by Monday 6^th July 2026."

 

 

Thanks. Very interesting. I wonder if it is a regional thing (I am in Lancashire). They haven't given you a lot of time to say the least. 

[Jobos]

We are have submitted the first forms but it's come to a stop as they want a bunch of .exe whitelisting which I think are used for remote support but I'm unable to get a list of domains where the .exe are stored. Downloading of .exe are blocked of course so when I asked them to clarify what domains they want white listing they sent the same link I already had https://docs.beyondtrust.com/rs/docs/on-prem-network#ports-and-firewalls 

 

[Jobos]

On 19/06/2026 at 16:09, Anonymous2000 said:

Thanks. Very interesting. I wonder if it is a regional thing (I am in Lancashire). They haven't given you a lot of time to say the least. 

 

We got the same 

Quote

Moving to a single, cloud-based platform allows us to deliver a more secure, reliable and continuously improving service for schools while reducing the technical burden on school finance teams. This is a mandatory move, and so your school will need to transition to FMS Connected by the end of the move period. If the move process is not scheduled as per the timeline below then access to local FMS6 will be restricted on Monday 6^th July.

 

Your move timeline 

 

The move to FMS Connected:

Step 1: By Friday 3^rd July: Documentation and booking must be completed  

Step 2: Between Monday 6^th July and Friday 31^st July: Your selected move period 

 

Step 3: Later in the year - Move from FMS6 Connected to FMS 

 

 

[Bromcom_Kirsty]

On 19/06/2026 at 08:31, BKGarry said:

OK, I am putting this here, to help with clarification on FMS terminology used in a recent meeting:

FMS6 Connected/Hosted - They want to move everyone to hosted FMS6 by the end of the calendar year, they will refer to this as FMS6
"New" FMS (The one that has the cloud front end) - This is being called just FMS in talks, which is where a lot of confusion is happening.

 

On the plus side, there is a way of just making accounts in SIMS ID without the need for SIMS .net, managed in The Cloud

Having getting quotes from competitors, and still being beholden to what the central LEA Finance team will support (the MIS Support arm will support anything in their framework but the Finance team will all support 3 Finance Systems), FMS is the cheapest option (that we were quoted for) that supports Double Line Book keeping, which is where some cheaper ones, such as one competitor only does Single Line Book Keeping, which is something to do with Creditor and Debtor lines, which I don't quite understand myself but is a big thing

 

This is correct - in simple terms Arbor Finance is a cashbook system where FMS and Bromcom Finance support Double Line Book Keeping which is why your LA have made the comment about not following best practices as there are no control lines to effectively balance the books.  

[russlp]

Yeah this is why we ended up going with Bromcom as a maintained School, their finance system was fully compatible with our LA whereas Arbor wasn't at the time so that limited our options a bit. (Not sure if anything's changed now) We were nervous around the finance move but it's working well so far thankfully. 

[enbiggen]

We were meant to have our database taken between 10-10.30 today, but they haven't been in touch. I've emailed our contact (in the time-slot, and after it) but haven't had a reply yet. Is anyone else being transferred today, and have you had any issues?