Charter Impact and Procurify Partner to Modernize School Operations

Charter Impact is helping to pave the way for bright student futures. Their clients — nearly 100 charter schools serving over 90,000 students total — share the same mission. The challenge is that charter school teams often find themselves stretched extremely thin, having to juggle multiple responsibilities to meet both educational and operational needs.

On the one hand, they’re dealing with dwindling enrollment and navigating a maze of compliance requirements. Manual and inefficient operational processes create administrative burdens, leaving staff to grapple with overwhelming obligations and unclear responsibilities.

These difficulties are compounded by irregular funding patterns — for example, a lot of one-time funding disappeared post-COVID — making strategic financial management and cash flow planning crucial yet complex.

These multifaceted challenges underscore the need for innovative solutions to support and sustain the vital work of charter schools.

At the heart of Charter Impact’s success are its core values: client-centric approach, collaborative spirit, adaptability, and grit. Samantha shares, “People feel like they can finally exhale,” emphasizing their commitment to providing schools with the support they need to thrive.

Charter Impact employs a team of experts specializing in finance, accounting, accounts payable, payroll, student data, and IT, crafting a customized and comprehensive team for each client. Clients have direct access to their dedicated team members to ensure fast communication and collaborative problem-solving. This approach ensures that clients benefit from a diverse range of expertise, tailored to address their unique challenges.

For example, their in-house student data team is adept at handling complex reporting requirements like CALPADS (which tracks student demographics) and ensuring schools receive maximum funding based on accurate student data. For customers needing help with process inefficiencies in their back-office workflows, Charter Impact steps in to identify and implement the most effective technology and systems, streamlining their processes and enhancing overall performance.

Charter Impact first learned of Procurify from a client facing a very specific procurement challenge: Blue Ridge Academy was handling an overwhelming volume of invoices, between 600 to 800 per week, with a process that was largely manual and inefficient.

Blue Ridge Academy was relying on a manual process for purchase orders, resulting in cumbersome and time-consuming work. This approach not only strained already limited administrative resources but was also prone to errors due to manual data entry, such as copying and pasting of links, tax, and shipping information.

Understanding the need for a software solution that was user-friendly and could be easily adopted school-wide was crucial. Charter school staff aren’t typically experts in finance software, so ease of use was paramount to promote productivity and ensure compliance. Additionally, given the unpredictable funding patterns faced by charter schools, there was a critical need for enhanced visibility and control over budgets and spending, which would aid in more effective cash flow management.

After completing a thorough due diligence process, the Blue Ridge team determined that Procurify was the best procure-to-pay software solution to meet their needs.

Procurify’s user-friendly interface and automated workflows made the procurement process more accessible and less intimidating for families and staff. Within weeks, Blue Ridge Academy found that its procurement process became significantly more efficient, with streamlined approvals and reduced processing times: approvals that previously took 6-8 weeks were reduced to half a day.

Today, Procurify provides many of Charter Impact’s clients with much-needed relief from manual administrative burdens. Beyond increased operational efficiency and streamlined procurement processes, Procurify is also playing a pivotal role in enhancing strategic financial management and cash flow planning, even when dealing with unpredictable funding.

With real-time visibility into budgets and spending, schools can track expenses closely, identify potential savings, and make more informed spending decisions. This has proven particularly valuable in forecasting cash flow needs and managing limited resources more effectively.

With access to the right tools and best practices, charter schools like Blue Ridge Academy stand to benefit greatly. Through partnerships with industry leaders like Charter Impact and the adoption of advanced technology such as Procurify, these schools can enter a new era of efficiency and strategic focus.

This collaboration enhances visibility and control over their financial management, a crucial advantage in the face of unpredictable funding. It allows for the strategic allocation of resources, fostering greater financial stability. Automated processes significantly alleviate administrative tasks, enabling schools to channel their energy and resources toward their primary mission: education.

In other words, with a little help, charter schools can free up precious time and money to focus on what really matters: delivering high-quality educational experiences to their students.