FMSWire Edition 8

Note from the editors

Happy New Year and thank you to all FMS providers who are supporting their academy trusts in using automation to complete the 2024/25 accounts return. The last day for trusts to submit their data to the DfE is 28th January 2026.
 

Please continue to encourage your trusts to use automation to complete this years accounts return, we sent you data on the 14th of November 2025 of your previous and interested 'automators', to help you target comm's and support. If you would like this information sent through again, please contact us by contacting our FMS provider helpdesk .
 

This edition of FMSWire focuses on the live AR form and future developments.

Automation stat's so far - AR 2024/25

Below are the latest automation statistics as at 31st December 2025. At this point the total number is slightly ahead of this time last year, but we really want to keep pushing automation to improve efficiencies and data quality for more trusts, your help in this would be greatly appreciated. In addition we have already had another 6 trusts submit data this year (as at end of 6th January).
 

Automation stat's 31/12/2025 by FMS provider:
 

FMS provider: No' trusts sending an FMS submission 24/25
 

Access 17
Hoge 11

Xero (provided by XfE/Thorne Widgery) 4

IRIS (formerly PSF) 1

Sage (from ION – Sage Intacct for Education) 1

Sage (from Solutions for Accounting) 1

New trust - Unknown FMS provider 1

Grand Total 36

COA mapping - mid collection update 

There are two changes to the mapping of the Academies CoA which we have had to make while the accounts return form is live. These will not affect the Academies CoA version that your software is pointing to in your software, it effects how the automated data is mapped in the AR form AFTER the trust has sent their data to the DfE and 'Applied' it into the form. However, you should be mindful of these changes if you have reports set up to produce AR figures.
 

These changes affect academies CoA versions for 2024/25 and 2025/26.
 

525600 - 'Teaching School hub other income':
 

• Amended mapping to AR SOFA field from INC060 'Teaching school other income' to INC030 'Non-government income'.
   
• Amended mapping to benchmarking field from BAI101-A/BTI101 'Other income from facilities and services' to BAI090-A/BRI090 'Non-Government'. Whilst this may seem a less obvious place to map this income, it was necessary to avoid a validation trigger.
   

510700 - '16 to 19 funding'
 

• Amended mapping to benchmarking field from BAI010-A 'DfE Revenue Grants' to BAI011-A '16 to 19 allocations'.
   

525600 was updated in production just before the Christmas break, 510700 changes are due to be live in the next couple of days.
 

The latest Academies CoA versions which are available on our webpage include the changes to 525600, but not for 510700. We are waiting for the final confirmation of updates for the mappings for BFR26 which will also affect versions 2024/25 and 2025/26, we will then release a further version, hopefully in the next couple of weeks.

Comm's - increasing automation take up

To try to improve the take up of automation this year, we have sent targeted comm's to trusts including:

• mail-merged email to all trusts with checklist and confirmation of specific references to use when automating their data
• e-mailing trusts who have automated last year with relevant help and support information
• e-mailing trusts who have automated before but not last year
• and e-mailing trusts who attended automation demo’s last year but did not automate

Overview of webinars and drop-in sessions:

No. of Webinars (attendees) No. of Dial-in sessions (attendees)

Trusts 7 (131) 4 (16)

Auditors 3 (54) 0 (0)

Total 10 (185) 4 (16)

We also attended joint automation workshops delivered by 2 suppliers and have held a handful of 1-2-1's with trusts and their auditors to discuss automation.

Support:

For any issues with automation, FMS providers should continue to contact us through our FMS provider helpdesk.

If your trust clients are looking for further help with using automation, please signpost them to the following options:

• for 30 minute 1-2-1 slots for trust and their auditors: https://forms.office.com/e/GVpKQkYxcB
• Drop-in sessions and automation focused webinars throughout the ‘live form’ period join via Eventbrite
• Specific AR drop-in sessions for technical information about completing the form join via Eventbrite
• Your own software guidance about preparing information for automation
• Quick guide and detailed guides to automation: Academies chart of accounts and automating the accounts return - GOV.UK
• The DfE's customer help portal - Home  - Customer Help Portal
• DfE AR automation mailbox - api.finance@education.gov.uk

Arranging retro's - AR 2024/25 

We’ll be in touch shortly to arrange retro's with each FMS provider towards the end of February. These sessions will allow us to review trusts’ experiences with their FMS software/provider and the DfE. We also welcome any feedback you’d like to share.
 

What’s covered:

• Client numbers & overall automation statistics
   
• Feedback from automation survey
   
• Automation errors encountered – AR 24/25
   
• Any feedback received from clients 
   
• FMS comparison matrix check point
   
• Joint webinars
   
• Future plans (Provider and DfE) 
   
• AOB 

Future development - new API platform

Our API functionality will be migrating to a new platform for the accounts return 2025/26. We have now configured and tested this in the DfE’s environments and it is now ready to roll out to our FMS providers.

One supplier will test the new end-to-end solution in February, ahead of a full rollout to all suppliers for the accounts return 2025/26. The changes involve updating a couple of links embedded in your API coding, we hope this is not onerous but will involve additional development and testing in readiness for the next accounts return.

We will update our development guide which is found on our dedicated FMS provider webpage by the end of March 2026.  

Future development - reference data field change

We have recently become aware that the DfE will be making UPIN references redundant for the whole department. This has already happened across the rest of the department and it is expected that they will be decommissioned from the Academies financial data collection forms over the next two years.
 

The accounts return API is set up to use both companies house number and UPIN as the trust identifier, but the majority of FMS software providers currently use the UPIN for the trusts identity reference. 
 

Therefore, we will start to discuss with you when it is most convenient to plan this update into your development cycle, being either this year or next year.
 

Whilst this will cause initial work to update your software and also for existing trusts to update their reference to their companies house number, it will be beneficial in the long run as there is no confusion around a trusts companies house number as there is with the UPIN, as trusts frequently muddle this up with the many other DfE references, and has caused errors/delays in using automation.

Reminder - check your FMS matrix details are correct

Please check your details on the FMS comparison matrix to make sure they are correct.

If you need to make any updates, contact us via our FMS provider helpdesk.

Comm's - DfE new year event dates

We have set a schedule of webinars for trusts up until Easter. Please find a list of the dates below if you wish to share with your clients in your newsletters..

Automating your accounts return 2024/25 webinar - Online event

Tuesday, January 13, 2026 at 1:00 PM GMT

Q&A drop-in session: Academies CoA and automation - Online event

Thursday, January 22, 2026 at 1:30 PM GMT

Introduction to the Academies chart of accounts and automation webinar - Online event

Thursday, February 12, 2026 at 11:00 AM GMT

Q & A drop in session: Academies chart of accounts and automation - Online event

Tuesday, February 24, 2026 at 10:30 AM GMT

FMS comparison matrix webinar - Online event

Thursday, February 26, 2026 at 11:00 AM GMT

Academies chart of accounts mapping review workshop - Online event

Thursday, March 12, 2026 at 11:00 AM GMT

FMS comparison matrix webinar - Online event

Wednesday, March 18, 2026 at 12:00 PM GMT

Q and A dial in session: Academies chart of accounts and automation - Online event

Wednesday, March 25, 2026 at 2:00 PM GMT

Introduction to the Academies chart of accounts and automation webinar - Online event

Wednesday, April 1, 2026 at 2:00 PM BST

Marketing - joint webinars

February and March are a great time of year to engage future clients about moving to software that supports the Academies Chart of Accounts (ACoA) and automation.

Contact us via our FMS provider helpdesk if you’d like to co-host a webinar where we can support you in demonstrating the automation functionality. Joint webinars are an effective way to showcase your software, answer questions and support trusts in making the transition, as well as helping trusts to understand the benefits of moving to software that supports the academies CoA and automation.

Contact us - further enquiries & feedback

Enquiries:

If you need to reach the team, please use our FMS provider helpdesk. This is the preferred route over email as we are able to track queries much more effectively this way.

Feedback:

'For action' - Please take a minute to leave some comments about this newsletter here

Last updated on 07 January 2026 12:36