Understand the numbers behind your next intake.

An education provider’s financial picture starts well before a student attends the first class. Course planning, enrolments, trainer availability, delivery costs and the timing of receipts all need to fit together. A promising intake can still create cash pressure if the costs arrive before the revenue.

Target Advisory works with RTOs, training organisations and education businesses on accounting, budgeting, reporting and practical finance questions. Our education-sector finance experience helps us connect the accounting records with the way a provider actually operates. Based in North Sydney, we can support providers elsewhere through cloud systems and online working arrangements.

Connect the student records with the accounts

Student systems and accounting systems often answer different questions. One records enrolment and delivery activity; the other records financial transactions. Management needs a dependable way to connect the two, including student receipts, outstanding amounts, refunds and the underlying course information.

We begin by understanding your systems and existing process. That helps identify reconciliation gaps, unclear responsibilities and information that is difficult to retrieve. A practical improvement might be a clearer monthly reconciliation or a reporting structure that makes revenue and costs easier to follow.

Look at course delivery from more than one angle

Total revenue does not show which activities are contributing to the business. A course may require a different staffing arrangement, delivery format or level of support from another. Changes in class size can also affect the economics without an obvious change in the advertised fee.

We can help management examine revenue, delivery costs and margins at a useful level of detail. The right approach depends on the records available and the decisions being made. The objective is to understand what drives the result before committing more resources to a program.

Give the next intake a financial test

A forecast is most useful when its assumptions can be discussed. Expected enrolments, commencement dates, trainer costs and the timing of student payments should be visible. A second scenario can then show what changes if enrolments are lower or receipts take longer than expected.

For example, a provider considering an additional intake can examine the costs that would be committed before the final enrolment number is known. That gives management a better basis for deciding when to proceed and what to monitor. Our financial modelling and CFO support can assist with these decisions.

Prepare financial information that others can follow

Directors, finance teams and external advisers need reports with a clear connection to the records underneath them. Consistent working papers, reconciliations and explanations of assumptions make financial questions easier to answer. This matters when the information is needed for planning, funding discussions or a defined regulatory process.

We scope accounting, budgeting and financial reporting support around the requirement. If a matter involves ASQA, TEQSA, an audit or a legal interpretation, we clarify our role and the input required from the appropriate specialist. Accounting support does not by itself establish regulatory compliance or provide an audit opinion.

Work with the people already in place

You may have a capable bookkeeper but need stronger reporting. You may have a finance employee who needs support with a model or management pack. We can work alongside the existing team and agree how tasks, reviews and information requests should be handled.

Our service overview covers ongoing finance support and project work. The pricing page provides starting points, with specialist education work scoped to its requirements. Browse our Insights library for further reading on education finance and business decisions.

Let’s talk about your education business