IMP Planner
The budgeting, forecasting, & reporting platform for MATs
- Work from one pot of data
- Trust your numbers with embedded calculations
- Integrate seamlessly with any finance system
- Keep budgets current with continuous reforecasting
- Maintain momentum with proactive support
Supporting over 50% of MATs nationwide - 500+ MATs & 5,500+ Schools
What is IMP Planner?
IMP Planner is the only budgeting, forecasting, and reporting solution built exclusively for MATs. Unlike school-based systems with MAT add-ons, it’s designed from the ground up to handle the complexity of multi-school financial management.
With a single, unified platform, you can make MAT-wide budget changes at scale, ensure consistency across schools, and eliminate inefficiencies from disconnected systems. IMP Planner integrates with your finance system to bring in actuals, combining them with forecast data to drive accurate forecasting and future-year budgets.
Developed alongside MAT finance teams, IMP Planner continuously evolves to meet real challenges—giving you the tools to manage budgets confidently and make smarter financial decisions.
What good MAT-first budgeting looks like with IMP Planner
A single source of truth
Built specifically for MATs, IMP Planner utilises a single pot of data, meaning budget consolidation is a natural by-product. With centrally controlled assumptions and budget drivers, you gain unrivalled visibility, control and the ability to edit all school data from one place.
Say goodbye to multiple logins and make MAT-wide changes at scale. Plus, perform scenario planning for your entire MAT in minutes, keeping your budgets agile and accurate amid an ever-changing financial landscape. Simple. Solid. Smart.
Powerful, continuous budget forecasting
IMP Planner automates the process by combining finance, forecast, and payroll data to ensure you can always accurately and efficiently predict your year-end outturn. Our iterative approach ensures you automatically shape your future budget years, meaning the slog of budget setting is a thing of the past!
Granular reporting at every level
We hold all your key budget drivers, including pupil numbers, staffing details, and actuals. This allows you to drill down into the root of any budgeting, forecasting, or actuals number with just a click. Our centralised budget data and flexible reporting suite enable you to run and re-run reports by school, hub, or MAT level for complete visibility and control.
Transactional-level finance system integration
IMP Planner integrates effortlessly with your finance system, keeping everything perfectly aligned with automatic Chart of Accounts (CoA) synchronisation. Sync actuals in real time and push budgets back – all at a transactional level. Gain instant clarity by drilling down into the numbers.
Automated embedded calculations
IMP Planner automates key calculations like Central Charge, Pupil Premium, DFC, and RPA, ensuring consistency and reducing manual errors. Change key budget drivers, such as pupil numbers, and watch these flow through and update future budgets, ensuring your latest assumptions can be applied to your 3-5 year plans instantly. Say goodbye to manual spreadsheets and hello to automated, trustworthy calculations.
Proactive support. Not email tennis
Experience fast, human-centric support with real-time chat, Zoom, or Teams sessions. Our proactive approach, backed by our comprehensive help centre ‘IMP Help’ and 30-second average chat response time (by a human), ensures any issues are resolved quickly and effectively. Say goodbye to email tennis with long waits and resolution times, and hello to seamless, proactive support that drives your budgets forward.
Your own personalised MAT finance benchmarking report
If you use IMP Planner, you will receive a personalised, forward-looking MAT finance benchmarking report – tailored to your MAT. Each report provides you with a deep understanding of how your MAT compares to others with similar characteristics, offering valuable insights to drive better financial decision-making.
Each report will help you:
- Highlight your Trust’s strengths
- Identify areas for improvement
- Support your strategic planning
Features that evolve with MATs
From the start, IMP Planner has been built in partnership with MATs. The result? A budgeting platform packed with tools that drive your trust forward.
One database
Providing consolidated pay scales and trust-wide settings. Access all data from one platform.
Embedded calculations
Save time with pre-set, automated calculations calculated for every school & every year.
CoA sync
Ensuring your finance system & Planner data always align so you can trust your numbers.
Actuals & budget
Seamlessly pull in actuals & push budgets between your finance system.
Excel compatible
All IMP Planner screens can be dropped to Excel, amended, & pushed back in.
Granular permissions
Maintain absolute control & consistency, through granular security profiles & MAT-defined assumptions.
Benchmarking Report
Compare your MAT’s trajectory to other similar MATs in your Trust’s peer group.
Don't take it from us!
IMP customers are at the heart of everything we do. Hear what they have to say about us and what different our solutions are making at their trusts.
Smarter MAT Finance starts here
Learn how IMP Planner can transform your MAT’s financial planning
Frequently asked questions
How do I get all my existing school budget and establishment data into IMP?
We don’t just send you a spreadsheet for a system you don’t know how to use and ask you to populate it, our bespoke implementation process is run by our in-house team of MAT system experts. They’ll take your best available data in what ever format you have it and get to work, checking in regularly to make sure things like budget calculators and staffing calculations are working in the way you expect.
What makes this different to our current school budget management system?
Unlike other systems which treat schools as silos and have consolidation reports added around the edges, Planner is built specifically for MATs. All schools sit within the same pot of data using a single set of centrally controlled assumptions and budget drivers. With unrivalled visibility of your school budgets, Planner allows MATs to maintain agility and control amid an ever changing financial landscape.
Can I use Planner to monitor my budget and reforecast my full-year position?
Through an iterative approach, Planner utilises intelligent functionality to take away the manual and laborious task of monthly reforecasting. Notes are embedded into reports and actuals are pulled in at a transaction level from your finance system meaning all of your forecasting and reporting work takes place inside Planner. Each monthly forecast has its own dataset which can be used to demonstrate and explain how your position is changing month to month.
Will Planner facilitate our MATs approach to financial management and operating model?
We work with MATs of all different shapes and sizes. Some GAG pool, others top-slice. Some are centralised with others completely decentralised. No matter the approach Planner is completely flexible, handling your MATs reporting structures and evolving with you over time should your approach to financial management change.
What reports are available?
Including Trust-wide forecast oversight, granular staffing details, KPI’s, multi-year budget summaries and monthly forecast reports, we have a significant number that can be used to support with the preparation and analysis of budgets and forecasts. Every report is consolidated but can be run by hub, school type or for an individual school.
What finance systems do you integrate with?
We have automated integration with Iris Financials (PSF), Sage line 200 and Hoge 100. We work with all other finance systems to provide smooth integration using Excel import/export functionality.
What do existing IMP Planner customers say?
We’re proud to be rated ‘Excellent’ on Trustpilot by IMP Software customers, you can read the reviews in full here. We also have a host of great case studies which you can view here.
How much is IMP Planner?
Our pricing is tailored to your trust, factoring in the number of schools and school types.
Switching to IMP Planner typically saves the equivalent of a full-time employee for every three schools you manage. By streamlining your budgeting process, IMP Planner reduces manual errors and spreadsheet dependency, freeing your team to focus on making informed decisions that drive your MAT forward.
To get a personalised quote, visit our pricing page, where you can share your trust’s requirements with our team of MAT finance experts.
