A smooth upgrade and stronger reporting: Discovery Trust on IRIS Financials

When Discovery Trust upgraded from IRIS Financials V6 to V7, the experience was simpler than expected. “The actual process itself went really smoothly. We didn’t have any issues,” says Steve Orton, Chief Finance and Operations Officer at Discovery Trust.

With 21 schools and a budget of about £75m, the trust is growing fast and wanted to keep disruption to a minimum. The upgrade ran in the background with no data issues. Purchase invoices now flow in automatically, year-to-date actuals feed management reports alongside forecasts, and ad hoc audit analysis happens inside the system, with no Excel exports. Here, Steve shares the trust’s journey to V7 and how it’s helping the finance team work more efficiently, with stronger controls.

Supporting trust growth without disrupting finance operations

As Discovery Trust grew, it reconnected with its IRIS account manager to look at how its finance setup could keep pace, and V7 came up.

The trust runs a centralised finance model. Finance business partners handle budgets, forecasts, and management accounts. A finance manager, officer, and apprentice handle transactions, reconciliations, and internal audit support. Primary schools have no finance staff – only admins who pass work to the central team – while the secondary and special schools have part-time finance roles that act as an extension of it.

Growth was already adding to that workload, and because the central team supports all 21 schools, any change to the finance system touches every one of them. The 21st school joined on 1 September, and planned expansion should move the trust from medium-sized to large within a year or so. Upgrading mid-growth, alongside other changes, felt like a lot to take on, and the team was nervous about making several changes at once.

Making the move with confidence

Reassurance from the trust’s IRIS account manager and team helped Discovery Trust decide to go ahead, and the upgrade bore it out. It ran in the background, the data carried over, and no issues arose.

Planning did the rest. The trust went live at the September year-end, and the account manager arranged a dedicated V7 training session after it. Attendance was staggered by role, so the whole team wasn’t out for two days. Steve explains: “Because it had been planned and we had that opportunity to influence that sequencing, it allowed us to lessen the impact on the team.”

The training was tailored, too. Early on, some staff felt V6 had better functionality, which Steve puts down to gaps in training, so the trainer phoned him beforehand to find out where the team needed support. “She wanted to know the bits that we were struggling on, and some of the specifics, so she could tailor the session,” he says.

The top tips and shortcuts content was the part the team valued most. That early view didn’t last. Once the team had been through the training, they could see V7 was the stronger system, especially for reporting and analysis.

Stronger reporting, greater efficiency, and tighter controls

Reporting is where Steve sees the biggest step up. “The reporting, the analysis that you can do from V7, it’s stronger than V6. There’s a lot more diving into the data, a lot more flexibility around reports, formats, layouts.” For ad hoc audit requests, that means building the analysis inside IRIS Financials rather than exporting to Excel. “You can go in, tell it what you want, you can move things around and then you get it.”

Day-to-day processing has improved too. Purchase invoices now flow into IRIS Financials automatically, which Steve calls “hugely beneficial for efficiency” for the finance team. Controls are tighter: “The check on the bank details… that’s really powerful for us. And from an order perspective, that really strengthens controls.” When the trust moved to general annual grant (GAG) pooling, restructuring budgets and cost centres was straightforward: “If we need to create a new cost centre for the schools, well, we just do it. It’s really quick.”

IRIS Financials also gives trusts the flexibility to keep the other tools they use and love. For Discovery Trust, that means year-to-date actuals feed management reports alongside forecasts. “Without that link, we won’t be able to be as efficient or as effective with the reporting.”

Building on success with further automation

Discovery Trust isn’t finished yet. The bank feed is next, and Steve expects it to make bank reconciliation more efficient still. For trusts planning the upgrade, his advice starts with timing: “Think about and plan when you want to hit that go live button. Make sure that the team have got that capacity to absorb the training.” Work closely with the trainer, check for coverage gaps, and don’t assume staff already know the system. Knowledge is lost as teams change, and refresher training helps long-serving colleagues too.

Thinking about upgrading?

Speak to your account manager about the upgrade, go-live timing, and role-based training, or see the latest version in action with a demo.