{"id":33982,"date":"2025-09-17T17:19:49","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T16:19:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/?p=33982"},"modified":"2025-09-17T17:19:53","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T16:19:53","slug":"administration-202-date-preference-for-changes-to-schools-ledger-and-item-codes-maintained-schools-only","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/administration-202-date-preference-for-changes-to-schools-ledger-and-item-codes-maintained-schools-only\/","title":{"rendered":"Administration 202: Date preference for changes to schools\u2019 ledger and item codes &#8211; Maintained schools only"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Dear School Business Manager,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When Devon County Council (DCC) introduced its new financial system, Unit 4, we needed to update the ledger and item codes we use. \u00a0To minimise the impact for schools, we continued using the existing codes via an interface with Unit 4. \u00a0Although this approach has generally been effective, it may lead to complications in instances where multiple FINEST codes are consolidated into a single Unit 4 code, for example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We shared in previous Bursar Briefings the likely need to change schools\u2019 financial codes once we had gone live with Unit 4.&nbsp; We now want to seek your preference on when you would like that to happen, choosing between either the start of the financial year <strong>April 2026<\/strong> <strong>or April 2027<\/strong>.&nbsp; To ensure a consistent and manageable implementation, the code change will be applied simultaneously across all maintained schools at the start of the financial year. &nbsp;Due to system constraints, individual or mid-year implementation dates cannot be supported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Please click on this <a href=\"https:\/\/forms.office.com\/e\/NpQa4daGyH\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>LINK<\/strong><\/a> to select your preference by <strong>Friday<\/strong> <strong>3<sup>rd<\/sup> October 2025<\/strong>. \u00a0We want to base the timing of this change on a clear preference from School Business Managers\u2019 feedback. \u00a0Please take a moment to complete this short 2-minute survey to share your views.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Areas to consider to help inform your choice:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Finance Code Interface:<\/strong>\u00a0While the interface between school finance systems and Unit 4 is operational, some issues have arisen, as anticipated. These challenges are likely to increase over time as the two sets of finance codes continue to diverge.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Alignment with iTrent:<\/strong>\u00a0Standardisation is important, particularly as iTrent is already using the new financial codes.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Familiarisation Requirements:<\/strong>\u00a0Staff will need time to become fully familiar with the new financial codes and processes.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Working with other departments in DCC: <\/strong>DCC are using Unit 4 codes already and moving schools into the same terminology will facilitate ease of working on both sides. \u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Budget Setup: <\/strong>It is likely that Access budgets will remain on FINEST codes for 2026-2027. DCC will provide a method that will allow schools to convert Access budgets to UNIT 4 codes to upload the converted budgets into Bromcom ready for 2026-2027.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>To reduce the workload for schools, the majority of tasks associated with updating the codes will be carried out by the School Finance Consultants on your behalf. \u00a0To enable this support, DCC Education Finance Consultants will <strong>require remote access<\/strong> to your finance system. \u00a0If access is not granted, the responsibility for setting up the new codes will rest with the school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many thanks<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>DCC Education Finance<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p><a id=\"_msocom_1\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear School Business Manager, When Devon County Council (DCC) introduced its new financial system, Unit 4, we needed to update the ledger and item codes [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1113,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-administration"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 05:59:44","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1113"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33982"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33983,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33982\/revisions\/33983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}