LSE Student's Union
Watch the clip below to hear Alan Gould, Finance Officer at the London School of Economics Students’ Union, explain how the finance team uses Aqilla day-to-day.
The London School of Economics Students’ Union (LSESU) exists to support education and enhance the wider university experience. Behind the scenes, this involves managing financial activity across a large number of clubs and societies, while maintaining strong financial oversight and control.
To support this, LSESU uses Aqilla as its education finance and accounting software and core financial management software, helping the finance team manage income, expenditure, budgets, and multi-entity reporting across multiple groups within a single platform.
As a modern finance software and cloud-based accounting solution, Aqilla enables the team to move beyond traditional accounting processes and manage day-to-day financial activity with greater visibility and control.
How Aqilla supports decentralised clubs, departments, and cost centres across educational institutions
LSESU oversees the finances of numerous clubs and societies, each generating income and submitting invoices throughout the year. The finance team is responsible for processing payments, managing funds centrally, and communicating clear financial positions back to each group.
Aqilla provides a single system to manage this decentralised activity, supporting structured school accounting processes while enabling accurate multi-entity reporting across clubs, departments, and cost centres.
The platform allows the team to generate timely financial reports, maintain consistent oversight of income and expenditure, and manage day-to-day bookkeeping requirements within a controlled, centralised framework.
By bringing all activity into one cloud-based accounting solution, LSESU can maintain transparency and consistency across the organisation while still supporting individual groups effectively.
A scalable cloud accounting platform for complex organisations in the education sector
Before adopting Aqilla, LSESU needed a reliable finance software solution capable of supporting day-to-day operations within a growing and increasingly complex organisation. Since moving away from more traditional accounting approaches, the finance team has established a stable and dependable financial management software platform for managing core financial processes.
As a modern education finance and accounting software and cloud-based accounting solution, Aqilla provides the flexibility required to support evolving organisational needs without adding unnecessary complexity.
LSESU is currently in the early stages of implementation and uses Aqilla primarily for day-to-day finance activity. Over time, the team plans to take greater advantage of Aqilla’s broader functionality — extending beyond core processing into more advanced reporting, analysis, and automation as their requirements evolve.
Expert support for lean finance teams managing multiple entities
For a small finance team supporting a large and diverse organisation, responsive support is essential. Alan highlights the quality of Aqilla’s support as an important factor.
“The support is very good — the questions we've had and the help that we've needed, there's been no problem with that.”
This support gives the finance team confidence as they continue to develop and expand their use of the system.
Financial management and Clarity for organisations with multiple stakeholders and budgets
By using Aqilla as its cloud-based education finance and accounting software, LSESU can manage financial complexity across clubs and societies while maintaining strong oversight and accountability.
The platform supports consistent multi-entity reporting and clear, accurate financial reports, giving stakeholders better visibility into performance and budgets across the organisation.
With a reliable financial management software system in place, the finance team can move beyond reactive processing and focus on delivering structured, transparent financial control within an education-focused, not-for-profit environment.
Aqilla provides a scalable accounting solution that supports both day-to-day operations and longer-term financial development, ensuring the organisation can grow without compromising financial clarity.
Looking for accounting software for education and not-for-profit organisations?
If you manage finance within the education sector, including universities, students’ unions or academy trusts, and need reliable school accounting capabilities supported by modern education finance and accounting software, Aqilla provides a flexible, cloud-based solution.
As scalable financial management software and a complete accounting solution, Aqilla helps education-focused organisations streamline processes, strengthen multi-entity reporting, and manage their finances with confidence.
