Every spring, schools are faced with the arduous task of setting their budgets. Decisions have to be made about how and where to cut spending, and administrators look in all areas to make changes that will positively impact their budget without compromising the quality of education and services offered to their students.
Rather than sacrificing the educational experience though budget cuts, administrators can look for ways to streamline processes that can actually add to the bottom line.
- Implement systems that automate procedures such as online registration, progress reports, lottery management, and general communication with parents. There are many technological systems that schools can take advantage of to eliminate unnecessary costs while benefiting their processes.
- Have a process in place to collect administrative fines and fees. Lost items such as textbooks, laptops, and library books account for a good percentage of revenue loss. Use of a merchant processing account will allow parents to easily make payments for these unrecovered items, allowing the school to recoup fees that would have otherwise been losses.
- For most schools, fundraising is a necessity. With online fundraising, students can raise money from friends and family members near and far to support school-related activities such as jog-a-thons, read-a-thons, and more. When coupled with the use of a webstore, online registration enables schools, boosters, and parent organizations to become more effective in their fundraising efforts.
By thinking in a resourceful and innovative manner and utilizing available technologies, schools can experience significant savings without significant budget cuts.
