How Al-Noor Academy Cut Administrative Workload by 45% in 8 Weeks

The situation before

Al-Noor Academy is a 600-student independent school in Birmingham with 45 members of staff. When their principal contacted us in September 2024, they were managing attendance in one system, fee collection through a mix of bank transfers and manual receipts, and timetabling in a shared spreadsheet that two people were always inadvertently editing simultaneously.

The admin team of three were spending roughly 60% of their combined time on data entry and reconciliation. End-of-term reports required a week of manual collation. Fee collection was running two to three weeks behind, and chasing late payments was largely manual.

What we implemented

OneSoft School ERP was deployed in an 8-week implementation covering: student information and admissions, attendance (integrated with their existing biometric terminals), fee management with automated reminders and parent portal, timetabling with teacher availability and room management, and end-of-term report generation.

The key integration point was their existing biometric attendance hardware — rather than replacing it, we built a connector that pulled daily attendance data directly into the ERP, eliminating the manual transfer that had previously taken two hours every morning.

Results at eight weeks

• Daily attendance processing: from 2 hours to 12 minutes
• Fee collection speed: average collection period reduced from 23 days to 9 days
• Outstanding fees: reduced by 67% through automated reminders via SMS and parent portal
• End-of-term report generation: from one week to four hours
• Admin team time freed from data tasks: approximately 45%

"We had resigned ourselves to the chaos. It turns out the chaos was optional — we just needed a system that actually connected everything. The difference to the team has been transformational."

What made it work

Three things stood out in this implementation. First, we spent the first two weeks mapping their existing workflows before writing a line of configuration — understanding how they actually worked, not how they thought they worked. Second, we trained all three admin staff together, so they built shared muscle memory rather than relying on one champion. Third, we stayed in weekly contact for the first month post-go-live, catching issues before they became habits.

The school is now working with us on phase two: a parent communication portal and a module to manage their after-school clubs and fee collection. The bedrock of the first implementation made the second phase considerably simpler to scope and price.