Pricing

One fixed price to start. No surprise invoices.

You should not have to book a call to find out what something costs. Here is the whole model: a fixed-price diagnostic first, and everything after it scoped from what the diagnostic finds. You can stop after any step.

The Messy Middle Map

A fixed-price finance process diagnostic

$2,500 fixed · 2 weeks

Every finance role has monthly outputs: the board packet, the close, the allocations, the reconciliations. Between the raw exports and the finished output sits the messy middle. Downloading, cleaning, coding, cross-referencing, reformatting, checking. The Map is a two-week diagnostic of yours.

What you get

  • Three to five of your recurring finance processes mapped end to end, with the hours and the error surface quantified.
  • One working automation built and running before the diagnostic ends, usually the coding or assembly step that eats the most time. You keep it either way.
  • A prioritized plan: what to automate next, what to leave manual, and why.
  • A fixed price agreed before we start. The fee credits toward any build signed within 60 days.

The engagement model

How engagements work

01

Scoping call

Free, 20 minutes. You name the recurring task that eats your week. We tear it down live and tell you honestly whether automation helps.

02

The Messy Middle Map

$2,500 fixed, two weeks. The diagnostic above, including one working automation.

03

The build

Optional. Automations scoped from your Map, from $5,000 for a single process up to $30,000 for a fully customized build that runs several processes end to end.

04

The monthly run

Optional. We monitor the automations, adjust them when your process changes, and review the month with you. $1,500 to $3,500 a month.

Stop after any step. Most schools start with the Map.

We work on top of your provider, not in their chair.

Most schools we talk to already have a bookkeeper or a back-office provider. Keep them. They keep your books current, and that matters. We build the school-specific layer they are not staffed for: the automations, the board-ready reporting, the cost analysis. Most of the time we make your provider look better, not redundant.

Proof

Real work, from real schools

Client names withheld by agreement. Ask on a call and we will walk through the real numbers with you.

Card and AP coding, automated

The problem

A three-school New York network coded every card swipe by hand to the right program, function, and grant. Hundreds of transactions a month, handled by the most senior finance person, and month-end could not start until it was done.

What we built

A rules engine that codes what it knows and flags what it does not, producing a review-ready import file. Exceptions get a human decision instead of a guess.

The outcome

Month-end starts half done. Roughly 4 to 6 hours back every month, and an allocation trail that holds up when someone asks why.

The per-meal cost spread nobody could see

The problem

Same food vendor, same contract, multiple campuses, and no clean way to compare what a meal actually cost at each site.

What we built

A monthly analysis that normalizes cost per meal by campus and grade band, from invoice detail the school already had.

The outcome

A roughly 30 percent per-meal cost spread between campuses, traced to ordering patterns rather than pricing, and turned into a concrete savings plan the leadership team could act on.

FAQ

Questions schools actually ask

Is EduCents a fit for a school our size?

Yes. Small schools are who this is built for. If one person owns finance and operations at your school, you are exactly who we work with. You get senior finance help on the projects that do not justify a full-time hire.

We already have a bookkeeper or a back-office provider. Why you?

We are not a replacement. They keep your books current. We take on the school-specific projects they are not staffed to build: automation, board reporting, cost analysis. The two work better together.

How is our data kept secure?

We build to FERPA and New York Education Law 2-d from the start. We use the commercial tier of AI tools, which does not train on your data. Student-level records stay out of anything we build unless a signed data protection agreement covers them, and we will sign one. The full overview is in the download below.

What kinds of projects do you take on?

Credit card and procurement allocation, board reporting and variance, month-end close cleanup, grant and restricted-fund tracking, per-program and per-pupil cost analysis, audit readiness.

How do engagements work?

A short scoping call, then the fixed-price Messy Middle Map, then an optional build, then optional monthly support. You can stop after any step.

What does it cost?

The Map is $2,500, fixed. Builds are scoped from what the Map finds and start around $5,000 for a single process. At the top of the range, closer to $30,000, you are getting a much more customized build that covers several processes end to end: upload the raw reports, push a button, and review the finished output. The monthly run is $1,500 to $3,500. No hourly billing, no surprise invoices.

Why project-based instead of hiring?

At your size a specialist hire is hard to justify, and it concentrates risk in one person. Projects give you senior capability when you need it, and the process gets documented instead of living in someone's head.

Is this AI replacing our staff?

No. The automation does the robot work: the downloading, coding, reconciling, formatting. Your team reviews every number and owns every decision. People do more of the work that matters, not less of the work overall.

Do you only work with New York schools?

New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut first, and the work travels well. If you run finance for a charter school anywhere, the scoping call is still free.

For your board

Two documents finance committees ask for, ready to forward.

Data Security Overview (PDF)
FY27 Margin Brief (PDF)

Start with the scoping call.

Twenty minutes, free, no deck. Bring the one task that eats your week.

Book a free scoping call