Edlio Accounting is a financial management system built for school activity funds — the money that flows in and out of a school for things like class accounts, athletic funds, clubs, donations, and student fees. If you have used a checkbook to track money coming in and going out, the model will feel familiar: Accounting works like checkbook-style accounting, organized around the funds your school manages.
Accounting is a separate product and dashboard from Online School Payments (OSP). The two share an audience but run independently.
The big picture
Almost everything in Accounting falls into a few simple ideas:
Money comes in through Receipts — a student pays a fee, a parent sends a check, someone makes a donation.
Money goes out through Disbursements — you write a check to a vendor, pay for buses for a field trip, or reimburse a parent or student.
Money moves between funds through Transfers — for example, shifting money from one class fund to another.
You confirm the numbers are right through Reconciliation — matching what your system says against your bank statement.
You see the results through Reports and the Dashboard.
How money is organized: funds
Every transaction is tied to a fund. Funds are the buckets your school money lives in — for example, "Class of 2026," "Class of 2015," or an "Athletic Fund." Funds can be grouped: under an Athletic Fund you might track basketball, football, and volleyball separately.
Each school sets up the fund accounts it actually uses, so the list of funds will differ from school to school. Some schools have a student council fund, for example, while others don't.
The navigation areas
Area | What it's for
Dashboard [Understanding the Accounting Dashboard] | A high-level view of your total cash, approvals waiting on you, undeposited receipts, outstanding checks, recent activity, and your overall fund balances.
Receipts [Receipts: Bringing Money In] | Bringing money in. Record any type of incoming money — student payments, checks, donations — and assign it to the right fund(s).
Disbursements [Disbursements: Sending Money Out] | Getting money out. Pay vendors, cover expenses, and reimburse people.
Transfers [Transfers: Moving Money Between Funds] | Move money from one fund to another.
Reconciliation [Reconciliation: Matching Your Records] | Match your system's records against your bank or other outside statements to confirm everything is accounted for.
Reports [Reports in Accounting] | Slice your data the way each stakeholder needs it — by fund, by cash in/out, or across an entire district.
Settings [Accounting Settings Overview] | Set up fiscal years, beginning balances, approval rules, bank accounts, fund accounts, users and permissions, and more.
What's in Settings
Settings is where an account is configured before day-to-day use. It includes your fiscal periods and beginning balances, your approvals (who must approve transactions, and at what dollar amounts), your bank accounts (account and routing numbers, running balances, and check numbers), and your list of fund accounts. Because each school uses different funds, this setup reflects how your individual school operates.
New to Accounting? Start with the Dashboard [Understanding the Accounting Dashboard] to get oriented, then explore Receipts and Settings. Each area has its own guide in this collection.