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The Access Group

Access Education Budgets

Access Education Budgets is a cloud based budgeting and forecasting tool allowing Maintained and Independent Schools, Academies, MAT's and Local Authorities to accurately set their in year budget, forecast up to 5 years and create multiple scenarios supporting more informed, strategic decisions to be made.

Features

  • Accurate 5-year budgets based on CFR / ESFA reporting structures
  • Monitor actuals against budget- dynamic link to Access Education Finance
  • Staff expenditure scenario modelling tools
  • Central layer (including payscales) budget planning and reporting for MATs
  • Wide variety of reports including the ESFA budget forecast return.
  • Integrations to FMS6, Iris, including data extract via export interface
  • Automatic pay adjustments (including materinty) and pension calculation.
  • Integrations to HR & MIS. Access Education People, Arbor, SIMSP7
  • Consolidated reporting for local authorities
  • Payroll Reconciliation

Benefits

  • Improve operational efficiency and maximise resource utilisation
  • Increased visibility across multiple years, avoid deficit situations
  • More efficient reporting across multiple establishments - MATs & LAs
  • Speed up modelling multiple "what if" scenarios on budget plans
  • Better visibility of actual spend and staff expenditure against budget
  • Quciker access to information via cloud-based hosting
  • Flexiblity with mobile and tablet functionality, iOS, Android, Windows
  • Integration with Access Education Curriculum for ICFP
  • Instant read only access for governors via the cloud
  • Quick implementation, easy adoption and minimal disruption

Pricing

£500 a unit a year

  • Education pricing available

Service documents

Request an accessible format
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at Natalie.GilesGrant@theaccessgroup.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 13

Service ID

3 3 6 0 5 3 8 7 5 9 6 0 8 9 9

Contact

The Access Group Natalie Giles-Grant
Telephone: 01206322575
Email: Natalie.GilesGrant@theaccessgroup.com

Service scope

Software add-on or extension
Yes, but can also be used as a standalone service
What software services is the service an extension to
Powered by Access Workspace for Education, Access Education Budgets has a dynamic link to Access Education Finance and third party links to other finance systems.

Access Education Budgets also links with our HR Product, Access Education People.
Cloud deployment model
Public cloud
Service constraints
None.
System requirements
Internet Access via supported browsers (html5 enabled)

User support

Email or online ticketing support
Email or online ticketing
Support response times
We use an automated ticket system to record customer case detail and an acknowledgement email is sent to the customer immediately upon receipt
User can manage status and priority of support tickets
Yes
Online ticketing support accessibility
None or don’t know
Phone support
Yes
Phone support availability
9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
Web chat support
Web chat
Web chat support availability
9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
Web chat support accessibility standard
None or don’t know
How the web chat support is accessible
WCAG 2.0 AA.
Web chat accessibility testing
The webchat software is currently being widely used across multiple other divisions within the Access Group
Onsite support
Yes, at extra cost
Support levels
The Essential Success Plan is included as part of your Access subscription, and is there for you online anytime of the day or night with access to our Knowledge Base and Community.
The Standard Success Plan is a more reactive service including telephone and email support, speedy response times and access to our lovely customer success teams. You’ll also get the chance to be involved with exciting product updates and webinars from our team of experts. The Standard Success plan is 15% of the annual software cost per annum.
The premier Success Plan delivers a proactive service including your very own support contact and a customer success manager who will get you on the road to success and help you stay there. The Premier Success plan is 25% of the annual software cost per annum.
Support available to third parties
No

Onboarding and offboarding

Getting started
We believe wholeheartedly that the functionality that our software offers our customers is very important, but it is only half of the value equation - how the system is rolled out is critical if full value from your new investment is to be achieved. We also know that you may view new software implementations with some trepidation and many customers can find this period daunting. In fact for some customers, this may be the first software roll out they have managed. We recognise this and we have designed our implementation services to help ensure you have a great experience and are looked after along the way, so that the whole process is less daunting
Service documentation
Yes
Documentation formats
  • HTML
  • PDF
End-of-contract data extraction
Users can extract required data via a range of reports.
End-of-contract process
As per standard contract agreement data is retained for 28 days past contract end. All data is then securely deleted and removed from the system.

Using the service

Web browser interface
Yes
Supported browsers
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Chrome
Application to install
No
Designed for use on mobile devices
Yes
Differences between the mobile and desktop service
Access Education Budgets is completely web based meaning the software can be accessed on any browser enabled device.
Service interface
No
User support accessibility
None or don’t know
API
No
Customisation available
Yes
Description of customisation
Areas of the software can be customised to suit the school, academy, LA or MAT's requirements such as payscales, pay adjustment types, inflation factors job types and funding headings. This is depending on user access.

Scaling

Independence of resources
Access Education Budgets is a load-balanced, multi-tenant service. The load balancer monitors the web servers continuously and will dynamically reassign requests if one of these servers crashes.

Analytics

Service usage metrics
No

Resellers

Supplier type
Not a reseller

Staff security

Staff security clearance
Conforms to BS7858:2019
Government security clearance
Up to Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS)

Asset protection

Knowledge of data storage and processing locations
Yes
Data storage and processing locations
United Kingdom
User control over data storage and processing locations
No
Datacentre security standards
Complies with a recognised standard (for example CSA CCM version 3.0)
Penetration testing frequency
At least once a year
Penetration testing approach
‘IT Health Check’ performed by a Tigerscheme qualified provider or a CREST-approved service provider
Protecting data at rest
  • Physical access control, complying with another standard
  • Encryption of all physical media
Data sanitisation process
Yes
Data sanitisation type
Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation
Equipment disposal approach
Complying with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v.30, CAS (Sanitisation) or ISO/IEC 27001

Data importing and exporting

Data export approach
All reports can be exported to Excel, CSV or PDF
Data export formats
  • CSV
  • Other
Other data export formats
  • XLSX`
  • PDF
Data import formats
  • CSV
  • Other
Other data import formats
XLSX

Data-in-transit protection

Data protection between buyer and supplier networks
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
Data protection within supplier network
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway

Availability and resilience

Guaranteed availability
We will use commercially reasonable efforts to make the SaaS available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, except for unavailability during emergency or routine maintenance.
Approach to resilience
We operate a dual active-passive environment and all hardware components are provided at N+2 level or greater. More details are available on request.
Outage reporting
Users can subscribe to email alerts giving updates on scheduled maintenance and outages.

Identity and authentication

User authentication needed
Yes
User authentication
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Username or password
Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels
We operate role profile based Access Control - based on least privilege access. This applies to all our services
Access restriction testing frequency
At least every 6 months
Management access authentication
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)
  • Username or password

Audit information for users

Access to user activity audit information
Users have access to real-time audit information
How long user audit data is stored for
At least 12 months
Access to supplier activity audit information
Users contact the support team to get audit information
How long supplier audit data is stored for
At least 12 months
How long system logs are stored for
At least 12 months

Standards and certifications

ISO/IEC 27001 certification
Yes
Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001
ISOQAR
ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date
01/09/2014
What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover
Nothing is excluded from the Standard
ISO 28000:2007 certification
No
CSA STAR certification
No
PCI certification
No
Cyber essentials
Yes
Cyber essentials plus
No
Other security certifications
No

Security governance

Named board-level person responsible for service security
Yes
Security governance certified
Yes
Security governance standards
ISO/IEC 27001
Information security policies and processes
All controls included within Annex A of the ISO27001:2013 standard.
Statement Of Applicability (SOA) available on request.

Operational security

Configuration and change management standard
Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
Configuration and change management approach
All change management is undertaken in line with ISO27001:2013 using JIRA for audit purposes.
Vulnerability management type
Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
Vulnerability management approach
Patched and audited by our patch management system. All non-critical OS patches are applied within one calendar month of release, first into pre-production and then into production, as part of the scheduled maintenance window.
AV Updates - Signatures are updated hourly. / Rules are reviewed at minimum every 3 months. Logs are reviewed at minimum every 3 months.
Access staff responsible for the maintenance of our hosting services subscribe to industry newsletters, belong to various security forums and we additionally receive notifications from our vendors.
Protective monitoring type
Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
Protective monitoring approach
We have traffic monitoring and content based alerting which alerts on changes to the site and/or traffic flows implemented at infrastructure and application level. We proactively monitor third party suppliers (hardware, OS, application/web and database server software) vulnerability reporting and security fix availability. Any vulnerabilities found and fixes provided by third party suppliers are patched by our infrastructure team in a timescale appropriate for their level of severity. Any penetration test findings are fixed by Development in a timescale appropriate for their level of severity. Our infrastructure response is within 1 hour in the SLA period 8am-8pm Monday – Friday.
Incident management type
Conforms to a recognised standard, for example, CSA CCM v3.0 or ISO/IEC 27035:2011 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
Incident management approach
We operate a robust incident management process in line with ISO27001:2013
Staff are encouraged to report all incidents using a pre-defined process using a form available on our Company Collaborate site
Incident reports will be provided following forensics and closure

Secure development

Approach to secure software development best practice
Independent review of processes (for example CESG CPA Build Standard, ISO/IEC 27034, ISO/IEC 27001 or CSA CCM v3.0)

Public sector networks

Connection to public sector networks
Yes
Connected networks
Joint Academic Network (JANET)

Social Value

Fighting climate change

Fighting climate change

Access UK Limited is a Software author and provide associated services, including Hosting, Payroll Bureau and Payment services. We recognise that although we do not undertake manufacturing, our day to day operations will have impact on the environment at global, national, and local level. We are committed to the care of the environment and the prevention of pollution. •Access ensures that all our operations are carried out in with the minimum adverse effect on the environment but implementing many available resources and approved processes •We protect the environment by striving to prevent and minimise our contribution to pollution of land, air, and water •We keep wastage to a minimum and maximise the efficient use of materials and resources, and manage disposal of all waste in a responsible manner •We use energy, water, and natural resources wisely and prevent pollution by minimising waste, recycling whenever possible and properly disposing of waste that cannot be recycled. •Our management processes are developed to ensure that environmental factors are considered during planning and implementation •We raise employee awareness and encourage best practices for sustainability at work
Equal opportunity

Equal opportunity

We want everyone to feel at home at Access, knowing that they are valued for what they do, not who they are. We want people to feel that they truly belong here regardless of their age, gender, race, sexual orientation, or anything else that makes them individual; after all, if we were all the same it would be a pretty dull place. We love the fact that we’re all different. Having more diverse perspectives at work improves how we run our business, helps us support our customers, and when you think about it, it's just more fun. For us, this all starts with helping everyone feel part of the family and being at their best every day, making Access a place where everyone can love what they do and do what they love. We all have regular check-ins with our leaders, take part in monthly employee surveys, have lots of chances to share our views and ask for help, and with our own learning system, 'Access Shine', we really can make things even better each and every day. At Access we'll always hire the best candidate but we're continually looking for creative ways to increase the mix of diverse candidates into our recruitment process. On the basis that you ‘have to see it, to be it’, one thing we're doing is sharing more stories to celebrate the wonderful diverse range of talent we have at Access. It is important for us that our employees understand and reflect the customers and communities we support, and we want everyone to feel at home here, knowing that they are valued for what they do, not who they are. We want people to feel that they truly belong here regardless of their age, gender, race, sexual orientation, or anything else that makes them individual.
Wellbeing

Wellbeing

Access places specific emphasis on the health and wellbeing of its staff and provides a “Well-being” hub in workspace that provides support for Mental Health, Finances, Social, Physical, Emotional and purpose. Assistance from Health Assured is available for all staff and there are training resources for “working in the new normal” and “Mental health and wellbeing” . Access also has “well-being” champions throughout the organisation. This is supported by monthly employee “check in” surveys and offers of flexible working for staff to meet caring commitments.

Pricing

Price
£500 a unit a year
Discount for educational organisations
Yes
Free trial available
No

Service documents

Request an accessible format
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at Natalie.GilesGrant@theaccessgroup.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.