Civica UK Limited

Civica Financials for Education

Improve financial management and processes with a single database, multi-company solution designed for schools, Trusts and Colleges.

Reduce costs, drive efficiencies and minimise manual input using configurable workflows, automated procurement processes and bank reconciliation with real-time integration. Includes general ledger, cashbook, asset management, budgeting, creditors, debtors and procurement modules.

Features

• Accurate, auditable financial records and data
• Single database, multi-company functionality​
• Easy to scale
• Intuitive user experience, enabling smooth onboarding
• Comprehensive feature set
• Extensive out of the box reporting
• Excel import and export are supported
• Online purchasing integration (punch-out) with key suppliers
• Tax Digital compatible and supports your GDPR strategy
• Statutory reports (ESFA/DfE) included as standard

Benefits

• Delivers cost savings and efficiencies through more effective staff deployment
• Automates manual processes and removes duplication of work
• Improves financial transparency with a consolidated financial view and drilldown
• Reduces inaccuracies, minimise costs and the need for specialist knowledge
• Comply with statutory requirements and complete accurate statutory returns
• Make better decisions with integrated budget and financial planning
• Forecast more accurately with easily applied financial models
• Improve security & compliance with user-defined authorisation levels
• Reduce errors/duplicates with automated processes & online validation
• Improve financial transparency drill-down of financial views

£6,455.00 a unit

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Skills Framework for the Information Age rate card

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

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 g-cloud@civica.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

877994393744025

Contact

Civica UK Limited
+44 (0) 3333 214 914
g-cloud@civica.co.uk

Service scope

• Software add-on or extension: No
• Cloud deployment model: Private cloud
• Service constraints: As a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution, there are no hardware constraints. The target service hours for the solution are 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 365 days per year. Civica proactively monitors the critical elements of your service during the service hours, i.e. 24 x 7 x 365, and any significant events will automatically alert our monitoring teams.
• System requirements:
  • Industry standard web browser
  • A device to access the web browser on
  • Printer for local printing

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: The severity of the Support ticket determines the maximum response time; The severity is set by the criteria below: 1. Business Critical 2. Major Operational 3. Minor Operational 4. Inconvenience 5. System not impeded An initial response SLA all support ticket is as follows – Severity 1 - Within 60 minutes of logging the call with Civica. Severity 2 - Within 3 hours. Severity 3 - Within 9 hours. Severity 4 - Within 18 hours. Severity 5 - Within 18 hours. The Support team are available between the hours of 9.00am to 5.00pm Monday to Friday. Excluding UK bank holidays.
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: Yes
• Online ticketing support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
• Web chat support: No
• Onsite support: Yes, at extra cost
• Support levels: The severity of the Support ticket determines the maximum response time; The severity is set by the criteria below: 1. Business Critical 2. Major Operational 3. Minor Operational 4. Inconvenience 5. System not impeded An initial response SLA all support ticket is as follows – Severity 1 - Within 60 minutes of logging the call with Civica. Severity 2 - Within 3 hours. Severity 3 - Within 9 hours. Severity 4 - Within 18 hours. Severity 5 - Within 18 hours. The Support team are available between the hours of 9.00am to 5.00pm Monday to Friday. Excluding UK bank holidays. An account manager would be allocated, they will meet with you on a regular basis (usually quarterly) to discuss with you any problems, plans or changes that you may wish to make. The support of our Help Desk is provided remotely.
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: Civica has a proven track record delivering successful implementation projects on time and budget. Our experienced UK based project team work collaboratively through every phase of the project. Full implementation services are delivered based upon Prince methodology and include the following: • Project management • Software installation and setup • Data migration/conversion consultancy and services • Training services (on-site and online) • User Documentation; ; The product comes with online searchable help for each screen and can be added to and personalised by the user including links to web training guides and illustrations. ; ; As part of the setup of the service we provide on-site training for the senior users of the system who would usually provide end user training, However at additional cost we can also provide onsite end user training if required. ; ; Full technical and software manuals are provided as are training manuals for each module / service. These may also be edited and recopied for internal use by the customer at no additional cost. ; ; In person consultation to assist with individual configuration requirements and set up together with advice and guidance on importing historical data to any of the service modules and producing management / system reports.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats: PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: Data is made available via Civica Financials product functionality. Ensuring that data can be readily extracted from the solution as required. In the event of offboarding from the service, Civica will make available an electronic copy of the data in Civica's standard electronic format at an agreed cost. More bespoke offboarding support can be provided, which may incur an additional cost.
• End-of-contract process: At the end of the service and post offboarding, Civica will securely remove and delete Customer data. Data can be made available during the offboarding process as per the 'End-of-contract data extraction', and as per contractual agreements with the Customer.

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Supported browsers:
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Chrome
• Application to install: No
• Designed for use on mobile devices: No
• Service interface: Yes
• User support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AAA
• Description of service interface: Civica provides a browser based interfaces for performing all tasks within the system. Access is controlled by User Permissions, which define the modules that users can access and the tasks they can perform. ; ; Civica provide public access to the system via web portals for enquiries regarding invoicing and payments; this is controlled by specific user names and passwords and is a read only function.; ; A number of interfaces are available to third party solution, including via purpose built APIs and flat file exchange.
• Accessibility standards: None or don’t know
• Description of accessibility: The service is accessible through a browser and all system functionality is available from account and transaction creation to payments. There are a number of administration functions that are performed through an secure FTP service, these included data load and export from and to alien system (Cash Receipting, Revs & Bens, HR etc.)
• Accessibility testing: We have tested our interface to tools designed to test software against the needs of a wide variety of users requiring assistive technology.
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: Dependant on application/module.; The API layer is leveraged to deliver point to point integration with pre-defined third party solutions.
• API documentation: No
• API sandbox or test environment: No
• Customisation available: Yes
• Description of customisation: Civica Financials is a highly configurable solution, providing Schools, Trusts, Colleges with the ability configure the solution to meet their specific needs, including the ability to configure reports and dashboards, customise enquiries, as well as configure Chart of Accounts as required.

Scaling

• Independence of resources: Civica Financials is delivered via a multi resident approach to the Cloud. Enabling Schools, Trusts and Colleges to benefit from the security, resiliency and availability of the Cloud, whilst maintaining independence and assurance that their Civica Financials solution will not be impacted by the demands of others utilising Civica Financials. Each Customer has reserved resources dedicated specifically to their Civica Financials solution, meaning that you can be confident that your Civica Financials solution will be available and performant when you need it.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: Use of support services.
• Reporting types: Reports on request

Resellers

• Supplier type: Not a reseller

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Other security clearance
• Government security clearance: Up to Developed Vetting (DV)

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: Supplier-defined controls
• Penetration testing frequency: At least once a year
• Penetration testing approach: In-house
• Protecting data at rest: Physical access control, complying with another standard
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type: Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
• 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: Data can be exported from the solution by leveraging inherent reporting capabilities within Civica Financials. For more bespoke data export requests, such as in relation to exercising GDPR rights, the Civica Financials Support team or your Civica Account Manager should be contacted.
• Data export formats: CSV
• Data import formats:
  • CSV
  • ODF

Data-in-transit protection

• Data protection between buyer and supplier networks:
  • Private network or public sector network
  • 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: Civica standard service hours are 24x7, during which time we guarantee an availability of 99.5% (excluding any planned maintenance). Should the service availability not be achieve then a service credit regime will come into force.
• Approach to resilience: Available on request.
• Outage reporting: Infrastructure is monitored 24x7, and any outages will be recorded on an event management solution and managed in accordance with our Incident Management process, which will ensure the customer is notified as appropriate. ; ; Scheduled maintenance will occur outside the hours of 07:00 and 19:00 Monday to Friday excluding UK Bank Holidays. Maintenance will be arranged with a minimum of 3 working days’ notice, and will include a detailed description of the planned works, planned outcomes, and a detailed back-out plan, unless otherwise stated.; ; Both planned and unplanned outages will be included in standard service reports.

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Username or password
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Two factor authentication.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least once a year
• Management access authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)

Audit information for users

• Access to user activity audit information: Users contact the support team to get 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: 07/11/2023
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: NA
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: Yes
• Who accredited the PCI DSS certification: Viking Cloud
• PCI DSS accreditation date: 11/08/2023
• What the PCI DSS doesn’t cover: Scope limited to CivicaPay service
• Cyber essentials: Yes
• Cyber essentials plus: No
• Other security certifications: Yes
• Any other security certifications:
  • ISO27701
  • ISO22301
  • PCI-DSS
  • Cyber Essentials

Security governance

• Named board-level person responsible for service security: Yes
• Security governance certified: Yes
• Security governance standards:
  • ISO/IEC 27001
  • Other
• Other security governance standards: CyISO27701 - Privacy Management; ISO22301 - Business Continuity; PCI-DSS; Cyber Essentials
• Information security policies and processes: In order to provide a wide range of services to public and private sector organisations, Civica maintains an active information security programme. This programme requires regular internal and external audit inspection of both physical and logical data protection structures. The policies and procedures are aligned to ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials Plus certifications.

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 hosted assets metadata is stored in a Configuration Management Data Base. This data base is access controlled to authorised staff only. The CMDB provides information essential to the secure hosting of client critical services.; Civica's Change Management process ensures that all changes are considered and planned, and appropriate, and that there is a clear audit trail of all changes.
• Vulnerability management type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Vulnerability management approach: Civica has vulnerability management processes in place for ISO27001 and PCI-DSS. These processes are externally audited on an annual basis to ensure continued compliance.; ; For external vulnerability scanning, Civica employs the services of an external ‘CHECK’ approved provider to perform an annual penetration test against the external management IP interface. Supporting this, Civica is also certified to the CESG approved Cyber Essentials scheme. For high value financial hosted system, Civica also maintains a PCI-DSS v3.2 certification. In scope systems are subject to month internal and external vulnerability scans as well as a full penetration test twice a year.
• Protective monitoring type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Protective monitoring approach: Civica take a proactive approach to information security through a process of continual monitoring and review. As part of a documented risk assessment methodology to identify and manage information security risks a dedicated security team update the risk register monthly. ; Civica has a network monitoring solution in place ‘OpsView’ as well as a full antivirus and anti-malware solution. These technologies check the hosted services for errors, infections and unexpected network traffic and are support by Cisco IPS/IDS at the perimeter layer. This monitoring service provides defence in depth, against compromise, by detecting infections and suspicious networking activity within the environment.
• 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: Civica have developed an Incident Management process (PRM07) under ISO 20000 standards which details both the Incident and Service Request Management processes. ; ; The Civica Service Desk manages end user Service Requests, Incidents and Requests for Change (RFCs) which can be logged by telephone and web portal. ; ; Monthly customer reports will detail incident information.

Secure development

• Approach to secure software development best practice: Conforms to a recognised standard, but self-assessed

Public sector networks

• Connection to public sector networks: No

Social Value

• Social Value:

  Social Value

  • Fighting climate change
  • Tackling economic inequality
  • Equal opportunity
  • Wellbeing

  Fighting climate change

  As a company, we’ve made an ambitious commitment to achieve Net Zero Carbon emissions by 2040 (or sooner) by supporting our customers net zero ambitions, creating software with inbuilt sustainability and reducing our own impact.; ; Our Carbon Reduction Plan demonstrates our ambition to become industry leaders in reducing our environmental impact in support of the UK’s Net Zero Target. Underlining this ambition, we are focusing not only on our direct emissions sources but also actively engaging with our wider supply chain to understand, measure and develop meaningful emissions reductions targets in line with our Net Zero Target.; ; We are accredited to the ISO14001 Standard and to support delivery of our commitment our Environment, Social Value and Governance provides clear focus for the ongoing development of our environmental policy.; ; • We develop innovative software-based services that reduce power requirements.; • We help customers opt for more sustainable choices, through digital platforms/apps which remove paper, support flexible/agile working, underpinned by cloud-based services employing energy efficient technology.; • We support carbon neutrality with workforces/facilities to reduce carbon consumption over 10-years.; • We prioritise the use of green energy in Civica owned facilities within the next 10 years.; • We promote recycling through our ‘Zero to Landfill’ and ‘Zero Print’ schemes.; ; Our commitment to continue to promote with employees and customers a much greater responsibility and leadership in eliminating unnecessary single-use plastics; we will continue to look to make more innovative and systematic changes to further reduce our use of single-use plastics across the organisation and to openly share our outcomes and learnings.; ; We undertake SECR Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting on our environmental footprint and the progress we are making to becoming Net Zero. ; ; Our commitment to fighting climate change will help deliver the policy outcomes for fighting climate change under PPN 06/20.

  Tackling economic inequality

  Civica is committed to building an inclusive and diverse culture that tackles inequality in employment, skills and pay. We promote equal opportunity through all our activities and ensure rights for all employees are always protected. We are listed as a 2020 Financial Times Diversity Leader and we are a ‘Gold’ Investors in People company. ; ; We have increased our focus and commitment to ensure we proactively implement equal and non-discriminatory treatment to all our workers. We have implemented a Diversity & Inclusion Strategy and have a Diversity and Inclusion Lead to drive the implementation of this strategy. This aims to tackle inequality in recruitment practices, team development, skills and pay through the following actions:; ; • We are a Living Wage accredited employer.; • We recruit locally to where services are delivered.; • We are committed to developing the skills of young people near our client’s businesses e.g., for a local authority, we have developed a programme of engagement workshops for young people with the potential for digital work experience. ; • Our staff act as mentors for Youth Enterprise schemes in schools/universities.; • We are a member of the 5% club, an industry-led initiative focused on creating momentum behind the recruitment of apprentices into the UK workplace. ; • Over 2.5% of our workplace is made up of apprentices or graduates and we intend to increase this to 5% by the end of 2025.; • We provide our own apprenticeship programme for managers, giving them access to training and development that may not be accessible outside the workplace.; ; Our commitment to building an inclusive and diverse culture will help deliver the policy outcomes for tackling economic inequality under PPN 06/20 and will dramatically improve job prospects and increase earning potential for the young and job seeking communities.

  Equal opportunity

  Civica is committed to providing equal opportunities and building an inclusive and diverse culture. The more diverse our workforce, the more informed the decisions we can make for our customers, supporting the communities in which we work. ; ; We are proud to have been ranked as one of the top European companies for workforce diversity and equality, as chosen by in the Financial Times in 2020.; ; We are committed to building and maintaining an inclusive and supportive culture where diversity thrives:; ; • To ensure our recruitment practices support the attraction and hiring of diverse candidates, all vacancies are advertised on multiple Diversity & Inclusion platforms. ; • We run attraction campaigns targeting females and BAME applicants. We use a process of anonymised applications, competency-based questions and scoring to remove bias. We also use decoders to ensure job advertisements use gender and culturally neutral language. We also ensure mixed panel interviewing.; • We advertise vacancies on https://disabilityjob.co.uk/ and share diversity statements on all job adverts.; • We have made training on diversity and inclusion mandatory.; • We aim to ensure increased diversity of new starters in technology/sales/leadership roles by 10% per annum over the next 3 years.; • We aim to ensure that at least 50% of shortlisted people are being considered from a diverse background for roles above £35k.; • We promote affinity groups within the company who represent a group of people linked by a common characteristic, often underrepresented, or historically excluded, which acts as a ‘safe space’ for such individuals. This identity could be related to race, gender, sexual orientation, language, nationality, physical or mental ability, socioeconomic class, family structure, religion, amongst others.; ; Our commitment to providing equality of opportunity will support the delivery of the policy outcomes for equal opportunity under PPN 06/20.

  Wellbeing

  Civica actively promotes a mentally healthy workplace and workforce integrating mental health and general wellbeing in all that we do from recruitment, appraisals to strategic management.; ; Through our Health and Wellbeing Policy and 40+ Mental Health Champions we encourage a flexible and realistic work/life balance. Our HWP provides a foundation to support both the mental and physical health of our staff through: ; ; • Employee Assistance Programme and online Wellbeing Hub, which provides 24/7 access to websites, e-mail, phone and face-to-face counselling on all personal issues.; • Aviva DigiCare+ Workplace App providing external mental health consultancy.; • Mental Health Champions who support colleagues’ wellbeing in the workplace.; • RedArc Personal nurse service.; • Management Coaching - managers are trained in GROW (Goals, Reality, Options and Will) and in being Health and Wellbeing Advisors, supporting employees with mental/physical health needs.; • Health assessments/advice aimed at improving physical health.; • Cycle to Work scheme to aid physical and mental health.; • Weekly fruit drop for offices, encouraging a healthier diet.; • We provide free eye tests for all VDU users, encourage staff to take advantage of NHS flu vaccinations services, and support people wishing to use the NHS Stop Smoking Service.; ; We also support our customers’ and communities’ through The Civica Foundation, our home for all charity, community, volunteering and social value. Our Days of Difference initiative gives every Civica employee 3 days a year to make a difference to charitable or community causes. Our employees can use this individually, join-up as a team or take part in Civica coordinated events. ; ; Suppliers/subcontractors are subject to Civica’s Sub-contractor Selection Process as defined in our ISO9001 QMS, which includes criteria for assessing health and wellbeing policies.; ; Our commitment to providing equality of opportunity supports the delivery of the policy outcomes for Wellbeing under PPN 06/20.

Pricing

• Price: £6,455.00 a unit
• Discount for educational organisations: No
• Free trial available: No

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Skills Framework for the Information Age rate card

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

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 g-cloud@civica.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.