Blackbaud Tuition Management vs. Senior Systems, from Community Brands

Smart Tuition is a good platform for schools that want to incorporate the financial aid application process and billing together. Parent use is easy to navigate, and it reduces the time spent by school staff to manage accounts. In a school where the financial aid application process is not done by a third party, Smart Tuition may not be the option they are looking to implement.

Senior Systems school software is great for small schools looking for a software package that can be implemented across many departments in the school at a reasonable price. Senior Systems does offer on boarding and training to help learn the system but continuing training is difficult though also necessary. Senior's admissions software modules leave much to be desired though they have purchased Ravenna which offers a top-of-the-line option that blends very well with Senior.

• Website is easy to navigate
• Customer service is very professional and helpful
• Multiple options for making payments and setting up accounts

• A broad-based, unified platform that can be used in many areas across campus.
• Robust database that is very customizable.
• A web-based platform that can be used on any device.

• I have been happy with Smart Tuition and have not had any issues.

• Outdated look and feel for internal and external customers.
• Somewhat complicated and tough to learn; it's not very intuitive.
• Customer service response times and support leave something to be desired.

I use FACTS in my role at work, and my children's school uses Smart Tuition. I am more familiar with Smart Tuition as a parent, but it seems to be a good solution for the high school. Since we do the financial aid in-house at my school of employment, FACTS works better for us.

On the admissions front, SchoolAdmin beats the Senior Admissions module hands down for ease of use, performance, customer service, and reliability. We have had no downtime issues with Senior but regularly experienced downtime issues with Senior. School Admin is also very intuitive and easy to learn and use. Senior has a much steeper learning curve.

• Excellent tracking of accounts for the school
• Customer service interacts with the parents' questions
• One system for the school staff to manage

• A fairly priced system.
• [The] convenience of having to manage only one system and database.
• Senior is long overdue for an update and refresh to make it look modern and to make it more easy and intuitive to use.