Most owners and head teachers do not choose Excel. It is what the school started with, and it still works, mostly. The cost does not show up as a bill. It shows up as hours, mistakes and money that arrives late.
This guide gives you a way to put numbers on it, using your own figures.
The four costs
1. Staff hours
Ask the bursar and the secretary how many hours a week they spend on records that software could do: matching M-Pesa payments to learners, typing the same marks twice, rebuilding balances, preparing statements by hand.
Hours per term = hours per week × 13 weeks. Multiply by what an hour of that person's time costs the school. Use their monthly pay divided by their working hours.
2. Errors and delays
Spreadsheets do not warn you when something is wrong. A payment entered against the wrong learner, a formula that was overwritten, or two copies of the same file all lead to the same result: a balance nobody trusts.
Count how many balance disputes you had last term, and how long each took to settle. A parent who says "we already paid" and a bursar who cannot prove otherwise is a cost, even if the school never writes it down.
3. Arrears that grow in the dark
When balances are slow to update, reminders go out late or not at all. Late reminders mean later payment. Look at what is still owed from earlier terms. Even a small share of that collected sooner is money the school already earned.
4. Trust
Parents notice when receipts are late and statements do not add up. Staff notice when the timetable, registers and marks live in different files. This one is hard to price, but it affects fee payment and enrolment.
A worked example (use your own numbers)
These figures are an illustration, not a benchmark.
- The bursar spends 6 hours a week matching payments: 6 × 13 = 78 hours a term.
- If an hour of that time costs the school KES 400, that is KES 31,200 a term in time alone.
- The school has 250 learners at KES 18,000 a term, so expected fees are KES 4,500,000. If better follow-up collected just 2 more percentage points sooner, that is KES 90,000 each term.
Add your own version of the four costs and compare the total with the price of software. The fee collection health check does the arithmetic on the collection side for you.
When Excel is still fine
Be fair to the spreadsheet. If you have one class, one person editing, and no mobile-money payments, Excel is cheap and flexible. The case for change gets strong when more than one person updates the same data, when payments arrive daily, or when parents expect to see their balance without calling the office.
Next steps
- Run the numbers for your school today.
- Fix the biggest leak first, usually payment matching.
- If you decide to switch, follow a 30-day plan for moving from paper and Excel and pilot with one class before you commit.
For the wider picture, read why Kenyan schools are leaving Excel and our guide to school management software pricing.
Frequently asked questions
Is Excel enough to run a small private school?
For a very small school with few learners, a well-kept spreadsheet can work. It gets hard to trust once several people edit it, once payments arrive by M-Pesa every day, or once you need balances, receipts and report cards to agree with each other.
How do I work out what Excel costs my school?
Add up four things: staff hours spent on records, fees lost or delayed by errors, arrears that grow because balances are unclear, and the cost of fixing mistakes. Use your own numbers for each, as the worked example below shows.
Do I need to stop using Excel completely when I switch?
No. Most schools keep their old spreadsheets as an archive and run the new system alongside for one term. Import the clean data, check it against the spreadsheet for a few weeks, then retire the sheets.
What should I do first if my fee spreadsheet is a mess?
Start with one clean list of learners and their current balances. Our fee collection health check shows where fees leak and what to fix first.