Fees, payroll, procurement and capitation all post to one double-entry ledger. Produce the trial balance, statement of financial performance, balance sheet and vote head analysis for any period, in IPSAS or IFRS terms.
Part of Elimu SMS · public and private schools
Public schools in Kenya report under IPSAS and track spending by vote head, while capitation from the government has to be accounted for separately from fees. Private schools report under IFRS. In both cases, the auditor wants a trial balance that balances, a balance sheet that ties to the bank, and a clear trail from every figure back to the original receipt or invoice.
Many schools still run fees in one system, payroll in a spreadsheet and the accounts in another package, then reconcile them by hand at the end of the year. Every hand-off is a chance for the numbers to disagree.
Elimu SMS keeps one general ledger for the whole school. Fee receipts, M-PESA payments, payroll, procurement and income-generating activities post to it automatically as double-entry journals that cannot be overwritten. The accountant can produce the full set of financial statements for any period, switch between IPSAS terminology for public schools and IFRS for private schools, and drill from any figure down to the journal behind it.
Built for school bursars and accountants, with the controls auditors and Boards of Management expect.
Book a free demoEvery posting is double-entry and append-only, so the trial balance always balances and nothing can be quietly changed.
Statement of financial performance, statement of financial position, cash flow and trial balance for any date range, with a one-click IPSAS/IFRS switch.
See income and spending by vote head, with budget against actual for each department.
Track government capitation separately from fees, set budgets and watch commitments against them.
Upload the bank statement and Elimu suggests matches against the ledger, flagging anything that doesn’t agree.
Farm produce, hall and bus hire and other IGA income tracked with their own accounts, feeding the same ledger.
Demo school data. See all screens
| What to check | Typical setup | Elimu SMS |
|---|---|---|
| Fees and accounts | Separate systems reconciled by hand | Fees, M-PESA and payroll post to one ledger |
| Reporting standard | One format | IPSAS for public schools, IFRS for private, one setting |
| Vote heads | Tracked in a spreadsheet | Vote head analysis built in |
| Audit trail | Edits overwrite history | Append-only journals and a permanent audit log |
| Year end | Weeks of reconciliation | Statements available for any period, any day |
Yes. It produces IPSAS statements for public schools, including the statement of financial performance, statement of financial position, cash flow and vote head analysis. Private schools can switch to IFRS terminology.
Yes. Capitation is tracked separately from fee income, with budgets and spending against it.
Yes. Upload the bank statement and Elimu suggests matches with the ledger, flagging unmatched items for review.
No. Journals are append-only. Corrections are made with reversing entries, and every sensitive action is recorded in the audit log, which is what auditors expect.
Yes. Accounting is part of Elimu SMS at KES 100 per learner per term with all modules included, and the first term is free.
Book a free demo and we’ll walk your bursar and accountant through the finance module with a demo school’s books.
