The Handshake: Why Admissions and Finance Fail to Sync

In the traditional school structure, Admissions and Finance operate as two separate islands. Admissions is focused on "heads on beds" and relationship management, while Finance is focused on the precision of the ledger. The connective tissue between them is usually a frantic chain of CC'd emails and manual spreadsheet updates. This gap is where revenue leaks and reputational damage begins.

Consider the complexity of a single student enrollment. You aren't just signing a generic agreement. You are applying a specific fee structure that may involve a sibling discount, a pro-rated start date, a scholarship percentage, and a localized capital levy. When an admissions officer manually types these figures into a Word document template, they are creating a billing error that may not be discovered until three months later.

The Problem: The Manual Multiplier

Manual data entry is a multiplier of error. If you enroll 500 students a year, and each contract contains 10 variable fields, that is 5,000 opportunities for a typo. A misplaced decimal point in a tuition pro-ration doesn't just cost the school money; it triggers a difficult conversation between the Bursar and a frustrated parent. It erodes the trust that the admissions team worked so hard to build.

Zegal acts as the "Logic Engine" that bridges this gap. Instead of humans doing the math, Zegal pulls live data from your MIS (iSAMS or PowerSchool) and applies pre-approved logic to the contract. If the student has an older sibling, the contract automatically prints the 10% discount. If the start date is October 15th, the fees are auto-calculated to the day. The contract becomes a set of "billing instructions" that your finance system can actually read.

Closing the Loop with Automation

When the parent signs the contract on Zegal, the journey doesn't end. The signed PDF—along with the structured data within it—is pushed back to your finance system. In many cases, this can trigger the automatic creation of a draft invoice in Xero or NetSuite. Finance no longer has to "trust" the admissions email; they have an auditable, legally binding record that matches the ledger exactly.

This "Finance Handshake" reduces the billing cycle from weeks to hours. It allows your finance team to move from reactive data entry to proactive financial strategy. By automating the math and the movement of data, you protect the school's revenue and the parent's peace of mind.