Pricing

Every rung has a price. No surprise invoices.

You should not have to book a call to find out what something costs. Here is the whole model: map it, build it, run it. You can stop after any step, and the first step is the same price for everyone.

The Charter Finance Command Center

The automation layer for your month-end close

It starts from the raw files your team already begins each task with. The automations draft the reconciliations, code the card charges, prepare the recurring entries, and write first-draft variance explanations. Everything lands in one review queue, ready for your approval, with a sign-off log behind every number.

01

The Messy Middle Map

$2,500 fixed

We take your close apart end to end and hand you the Close Operating Manual: every task, owner, source file, and deadline. Valuable even if we stop here, because your close finally exists outside one person's head. One piece of it comes back automated before we finish.

02

The build

$7,500 to $12,000 2 to 3 weeks

We build the matching, the coding, and the report drafting on your real data, then run one full close in parallel with your current process to prove it ties. The range moves with how many workflows you want running.

03

Monthly automation maintenance

$1,500 to $4,500 a month

We keep the automations running. When a bank changes an export format, a platform changes how it generates a report, or anything in the code breaks, we fix it before it reaches your close. Changes on your side are covered the same way: a new grant, a new program, a new campus, or a restructured chart of accounts, and we update the automations to match. Your team works a short review queue and signs off on what goes to the board, with a log behind every number. Like the build, the number moves with workflow count, not school size: a school running two or three automations sits near the bottom of the range.

The Map fee credits toward any build you sign within 60 days. Stop after any rung. Most schools start with the Map and decide from there.

Run a sample closeHow the service works
The first rung, in detail

The Messy Middle Map

Every finance role has monthly outputs: the board report, 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 fixed-price diagnostic of yours. We take it apart end to end, and one piece of it comes back automated before we finish.

$2,500 fixed

One price for the whole diagnostic. No change orders, no hourly billing, no counting.

Your part is one walkthrough and the files you already have. We do the digging on our side.

The fee credits toward any build signed within 60 days.

What you get

The work, mapped end to end

Every step between the raw export and the finished output, with the hours and the error surface quantified.

One working automation

Built and running before the diagnostic ends. You keep it either way.

A prioritized plan

What to automate next, what to leave manual, and why.

One fixed price

$2,500, agreed before we start, whatever we find. The fee credits toward any build signed within 60 days.

Your raw exportsThe files your systems already produce.
The messy middleWe map it, then automate the step that eats the most time.
Your finished outputThe report, the close, the allocation.

The automation is code we build custom to the systems you already run. Nothing migrates, nobody relearns their tools. It is the least invasive change that still gives the hours back.

The engagement model

How engagements work

01

Discovery 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.

02Start here

The Messy Middle Map

$2,500 fixed. The diagnostic above, including one working automation you keep either way.

03

The build

Optional. $7,500 to $12,000 over two to three weeks, scoped from what the Map finds, ending in one close run in parallel with yours.

04

Monthly automation maintenance

Optional. We keep the automations running, fix them when your systems change, and update them when your school does. $1,500 to $4,500 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 charter 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. A job that ran 10 to 12 hours a month now takes about 30 minutes to review, and the allocation trail holds up when someone asks why.

See the demo

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, and not only schools. This is built for whoever is carrying the manual work: a single school where one person owns finance and operations, a small network, a charter management organization, or a back-office provider closing the books for several schools at once. The common thread is not headcount, it is a team with more repetitive work than hours in the month. Taking that work off the calendar is what frees them for the analysis and planning that never gets reached.

What exactly do you automate in the close?

Bank reconciliations, monthly financial reporting including the P&L, budget-to-actual, and balance sheet, credit card allocations, journal entries, month-end close, and year-end close. We build the automation for that work and keep it running. Your team still owns the close, and we do not run your AP, cut checks, or chase receivables.

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

We are not a replacement, and we are not trying to be your finance team. They keep your books current. We build the automation and the school-specific projects they are not staffed to build: card allocation, board reporting, cost analysis. Most of the time we make your provider look better, not redundant.

What does the monthly fee actually cover?

Keeping the automations working. Systems change constantly: a bank alters an export format, a platform changes how it generates a report, a vendor renames a column. Any of that can quietly break an automation. We monitor for it and fix it. It also covers the changes you make: a new grant, a new program, a new campus, or a restructured chart of accounts all get folded into the automations. You are paying for the thing to keep working, not for us to do your close.

My team already gets the close done. What actually changes?

The hours are the visible part. The rest of the value never shows on a timesheet: fewer coding errors reaching the ledger, a close that ends days earlier instead of dragging into the next month, and a month that no longer lives in one person's head. If your senior finance person resigned tomorrow, the close would still run, documented and on schedule.

How is our data kept secure?

We build to FERPA and New York Education Law 2-d from the start. The platforms we build with run on their commercial tiers, which do 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 systems do you work with?

We build on top of what you already run. QuickBooks Online or Sage Intacct on the ledger side, your card platform, your payroll provider, and the purchasing accounts your charges come from. Nothing gets replaced. The automations read what those systems produce and draft what your ledger needs.

What stays human?

Entries never post without a named approval. Grant drawdowns, anything sent to your board, your auditor, or your authorizer, and every accounting judgment call stay with your team, permanently. It goes in the agreement, in writing.

How do engagements work?

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

What does it cost?

Three numbers, and that is the whole list. The Map is $2,500, fixed. The build is $7,500 to $12,000 over two to three weeks, and the range moves with how many workflows you want running. Monthly automation maintenance is $1,500 to $4,500. No hourly billing, no surprise invoices. The Map fee credits toward any build you sign within 60 days. The monthly number moves with workflow count, not school size.

What if we need something that is not a close?

We build those too: allocation templates, forecasting models, board dashboards, per-program cost analysis. Those are scoped per engagement rather than priced on this page, because the honest range is too wide to be useful until we have seen the work.

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.

Will this replace anyone on our team?

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 discovery 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 a discovery call.

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

Book a discovery call