Enabling smart payment solutions: How SumUp is empowering the education sector
As the education sector takes on increasing responsibility beyond the classroom, often with limited time and resources, the pressure to enhance operational efficiencies and grow revenue continues.
Automating point of sale operations and payment processes for core business unit functions, such as on campus cafés and canteens, retail outlets, excursions, camps, events and community fundraising initiatives, are proven to increase operating revenue with less operating costs driving profit growth.
SumUp is excited to announce a Platinum Partnership with Education Australia as it deepens its commitment to support the education sector.
A trusted global fintech supporting over four million businesses across 36 countries, SumUp Australia launched in late 2023. Buoyed by client results across the education sector since launch, SumUp is committed to supporting the Australian education sector to grow the returns from their core services offering practical, flexible solutions that simplify point of sale and payment processes reducing administrative burden.
While many education providers have adopted digital payment technologies in some form to improve operational efficiency, SumUp recognises the challenges that remain: fragmented tools, inconsistent reporting, and administrative overhead that pulls time and focus away from what matters most, education.
The reality is, even routine payments such as café orders, excursion fees, uniform shop sales, or event ticketing, can become unnecessarily time consuming when managed across disconnected systems. With different teams, tools, and contributors involved, inefficiencies can creep in, slowing things down and adding stress behind the scenes.
Instead of requiring providers to invest in complex platforms or costly subscriptions, SumUp delivers intuitive tools that fit effortlessly into day-to-day operations, helping manage payments with ease across multiple contexts.
Whether digitising a school canteen, enabling card payments at a stall, managing a campus café, or helping students launch a social enterprise, SumUp’s technology helps education providers simplify payments, support compliance, and reduce reliance on tedious manual admin.
Backed by global experience, built for Australian schools and higher education institutions
With its Australian headquarters now established on the Sunshine Coast and a team of customer support officers based across Australia, SumUp is delivering affordable, user-friendly, and flexible payment solutions backed by a free powerful point-of-sale software. Tailored for the education sector, SumUp is on a mission to empower staff and the broader community support network to provide its customers an enhanced purchase experience with more convenient ways to pay.
SumUp’s local operations are led by Malcolm Areington, a seasoned business leader who has lived and worked across seven countries. His decision to base operations regionally wasn’t just a lifestyle choice. It was a strategic move to build something rooted in community, responsive to local needs, and aligned with the realities of Australia’s diverse education providers.
“Schools are under pressure to do more with less,” Areington explains. “Our role at SumUp is to make payments simple, not add more layers of complexity.”
SumUp understands that education providers already rely on a variety of systems. The last thing staff need is another platform that adds to the workload.
Yet with growing administrative demands and limited resources, many decision-makers are understandably hesitant to adopt new systems, especially when it comes to payments, where cost, complexity, or disruption can feel risky.
This hesitation is valid. Often, administrators don’t know where to begin, or which solution will deliver the best results. As a result, innovation is delayed in favour of more immediate, day-to-day challenges.
That’s where SumUp makes a meaningful difference by offering simple, accessible solutions that remove barriers, not create them.
