Cabra Dominican College streamlined fee collection by piloting FACTS with 150 families—achieving 99% self-managed payment plan setup, saving over 120 admin hours, and enabling scalable, more efficient financial operations.
99% of families onboarded onto FACTS School Payment Plans and Billing set up their own payment plans. Cabra Dominican College is now planning to extend the platform to approximately 500 to 600 families by the end of the year.
The Administrative Cost of Manual Processes
With a finance team of four managing nearly 1,000 families, fee collection at Cabra Dominican College had become an increasingly demanding manual process.
- The team individually contacted every family from November to January each year to confirm payment cadence for the coming year
- Payment status was tracked via a manual spreadsheet requiring around 30 minutes of daily updates
- Manual data entry carried an ongoing risk of error, requiring time to reconcile and identify discrepancies before the team could trust their own numbers
It was a real bottleneck.
We’d be in contact with every single family and waiting for them to respond before we could get their payment plan sorted for the new year.
Ali Martin
Finance Director, Cabra Dominican College
One Cohort, A Chance to Prove the Model
Rather than transition the entire school at once, Finance Director Ali Martin chose to pilot FACTS with incoming Year 7 families only, 150 new families, one manageable cohort. This gave the team a low-risk way to validate the approach before committing to a full rollout.
New families were invited to log in, review their fee schedule and set up their own payment plan directly through the platform. For the first time, the responsibility for setting up a payment plan sat with the family, not the finance team.
Families requiring additional support, including those eligible for school fee concessions or navigating separated-parent arrangements, were still assisted personally. Everyone else was self-managed from the start.
A Dedicated FACTS Team Member from Day One
Throughout the setup process, Cabra Dominican College had the support of a dedicated FACTS integration lead, Jesse Colquhoun. Jesse guided Ali’s team every step of the way, making the process clear, simple and easy to follow.
In Ali’s own words:
It was pretty easy, actually.
Jesse provided us with three templates. I was able to extract the data we needed from our student information system, populate the templates and send them to Jesse to upload. We then went and did a bit of an audit to make sure we were comfortable with the data.
Ali Martin
Finance Director, Cabra Dominican College
Our Support Doesn't Stop at Implementation; It Goes Well Beyond It
Once implementation was complete, Ali’s team continued to feel supported through ongoing guidance, the FACTS Help Hub and access to the FACTS support team. This gave them the confidence to keep learning, ask questions and use FACTS in a way that worked for their school.
My team don’t hesitate to call.
That shows me they appreciate the support they get when they ask for it.
Ali Martin
Finance Director, Cabra Dominican College
Near-Total Engagement and Real-Time Visibility from Day One
The pilot gave Cabra Dominican College the confidence to take the next step with FACTS. With strong family engagement, meaningful time savings and real-time visibility across key data, the team could see how FACTS would support more efficient ways of working across the school.
99% of families engaged | More than three weeks of staff time saved each year | Daily spreadsheets replaced with real-time dashboards
We’re now able to focus
on the people who really need our support, whether that’s financial support or simply helping them understand their commitments. Our efforts are centred on the families who need us most, rather than the whole picture. That makes the job easier, more meaningful and more enjoyable for everyone.
Ali Martin
Finance Director, Cabra Dominican College
Scaling School Payment Plans: From 150 Families to Most of the School
With a proven model and clear results, Cabra Dominican College is now planning to expand FACTS School Payment Plans and Billing from 150 families to approximately 500 to 600 families by the end of the year. Families with more complex payment histories will continue to be managed on a case-by-case basis, allowing the finance team to balance efficiency with personalised care where it matters most.
For other Finance Directors considering the move, Ali’s advice is clear:
Absolutely do it.
You’ll get the best results if you invest time upfront in clean data and training. That preparation gives your team the confidence to make the most of FACTS from the start.
Ali Martin
Finance Director, Cabra Dominican College
If you want to reduce fee collection admin, improve family engagement and give your finance team more time to focus on the families who need them, speak with our team to find out how FACTS School Payment Plans and Billing can work for your school.
