At Spire Academy, an international college preparatory school for elite athletes, operational systems must work as seamlessly as their Olympic-grade training. Serving students from 42 countries with flexible schedules designed for athletes who compete internationally, Spire needed enrollment systems that could handle global complexity at scale.

Replacing Complexity With Control

"Our previous software made everything feel much more complicated and burdensome than it needed to be," explained Travis Kiser, Staff Accountant and Academy Billing Specialist at Spire Academy. 

“We had to post receipts manually, and to change fees, it was a multiple step process—cancel the fees, manually enter cancel dates, then add them line item by line item.”

Perhaps most critical was the unreliable reporting.

"We would run three reports looking at the same thing and get three different numbers. There wasn't a lot of confidence in the reporting.”

“We also couldn't reliably divide up tuition and miscellaneous fees, which became a compliance issue as we worked with the state on voucher programs,” Kiser explained.

The time cost was equally problematic. "It wasn't easy to change invoice dates, which would block up my aging report and make it inaccurate," he shared. "I was basically setting aside an entire day to run reports that should have taken fifteen minutes.” 

"Our '26-'27 reporting with Clarity is the most confidence I've had in any report that I've run.”

Streamlining Operations From Contracts Through Collections

"We couldn't modify contracts in our old system, so we'd have to create separate agreements," Kiser explained. "That caused a lot of confusion for our families. Now we can tailor each contract to fit their situation, and the contracts are clear and legally binding." 

“With Clarity our deposits come in much faster too." 

The improvements carried through to ongoing billing operations as well.

“Our aging is significantly lower than what it used to be. We're getting the money closer to when we expect it.”

“The automation of communication through Clarity has helped a lot. Being able to bulk send messages means I’m no longer reaching out to over twenty families a month regarding their invoices.”

With routine tasks streamlined, Kiser was able to tackle work that had long been neglected.

“I now have the capacity to accomplish more of the accounting tasks that I do in addition to my role," he said. "We also have other systems that we were finally able to update. More than 50% of those updates would have made our lives easier had we been able to look into them earlier.”

When Listening Makes a Difference 

Beyond operational improvements, Clarity's approach to partnership has made an equally important difference for Spire.

"I would bring issues to our previous vendor and the feeling I got was that my concerns were not a priority,” Kiser shared.

"When I reach out to Clarity, whether or not it can get addressed today, next week, or next year, I feel like my feedback is listened to," he continued. "If it’s something that can’t be done, it’s explained to me in a way I understand, and I’m given an alternative solution. I feel like I am a priority.”

“Our previous software had me debating whether or not I wanted to continue in my role. With Clarity, that feeling has done a 180. It’s a night and day difference.”