What School Bytes does

School Bytes is a privately held Australian education technology company that operates a multi-tenant, web-based SaaS platform for school administration, sold to NSW public schools on a per-student, per-module, per-annum subscription basis. Founded in 2015 by Blake Garrett (then a Year 12 student at Chatswood High School) and now part of the Compass group following a 2025 combination, the company serves over 1,500 public schools across New South Wales, Australia.

The product is an 11-module suite covering Student Finance (integrated with SAP and the Service NSW Customer Payments Platform, replacing the legacy EBS Cash Desk), Parent Communication (bulk email/SMS), Event Management (excursions, incursions, permission notes), Sport Selection, Forms, Attendance (with nightly SCOUT sync), School Organisation (Calendars, Meetings, Resources, Task List), Medical, Wellbeing, Academic Reports (with NESA syllabus import), and Class Builder (primary schools). The platform is hosted on AWS (Sydney ap-southeast-2 region), supports Single Sign-On via NSW Department of Education credentials, and uses SIF, LISS, and REST APIs for data integration with NSW DoE systems. The company holds ISO 27001:2022, PCI DSS Level 1 Service Provider, and ST4S (Safer Technologies 4 Schools) certifications.

The business model is recurring SaaS revenue billed annually to schools, with pricing scaled by student count and module selection and inclusive of hosting, support, training, and updates. Distribution combines direct enterprise sales (request-a-demo) with self-serve parent and school portals, and leverages approved-vendor status on the NSW Department of Education Administration Marketplace Panel as an institutional channel. Pricing is quote-based and not publicly disclosed. The company is headquartered in North Sydney, NSW, and operates with 11-50 employees.

Name

School Bytes

Legal name

School Bytes Learning Pty. Ltd.

Website

https://schoolbytes.education

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

School Bytes is an Australian SaaS provider of school administration software, serving 1,500+ NSW public schools with a per-student, per-module annual subscription covering finance, attendance, communication, events, wellbeing, and academic reporting. It joined Compass group in 2025.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

School Administration Software

NAICS

Educational Support Services (611710), Educational Support Services (61171)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

K–12 SIS & District Administration Platforms (EDAFAEAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Student Information Systems (SIS) & School Administration Platforms (EDAJAMAB), Parent/Student Portals, Communications & Consent Management (EDAFAEAK), Attendance, Scheduling, Timetabling & Calendar Management (EDAFAEAF), Gradebook, Transcripts, Credits & Academic Records Management (EDAFAEAG)

Keywords

• School administration software
• Student information systems
• School finance management
• Parent communication platform
• Attendance management software

Headquarters

HQ city

Lane Cove

HQ country

Australia

HQ region

Oceania

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Operations

Revenue model

1. School Subscription (SaaS): Subscription-based SaaS model charged per-student, per-module, per-annum plus GST. Cost is inclusive of cloud hosting, ongoing support, training and updates for the 12-month period. Student counts are reviewed on a rolling 12-month basis from signing date for renewals.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

School Bytes is a comprehensive web-based SaaS school administration platform for NSW public schools, delivered as a suite of integrated modules covering student finance, parent communication, event management, sport selection, forms, attendance, school organisation, medical, wellbeing, academic reports, and class builder. Schools subscribe per-student, per-module, per-annum, with cloud hosting, support, training, and updates included.

Product overview

School Bytes is a comprehensive SaaS school administration platform offering a suite of integrated modules on a subscription basis, built for NSW public schools. The platform is web-based, hosted on AWS, and includes single sign-on via NSW DoE credentials. The core product portfolio comprises: Student Finance (fully integrated with SAP for fee management, replacing EBS Cash Desk), Parent Communication (bulk email/SMS), Event Management (excursions, incursions, approvals, permission notes), Sport Selection (high schools only, integrated with Sentral Activities and Edval), Forms (digital forms with configurable workflows), Attendance (roll marking, absence management, SCOUT integration), School Organisation (Calendars, Meetings, Resources, Task List), Medical (sick bay, medication, health plans), Wellbeing (behaviour administration, suspensions), Academic Reports (with NESA syllabus import), and Class Builder (primary schools only, auto-generating classes). All modules share a unified database and synchronise data automatically with NSW DoE systems.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Student Finance Comprehensive student finance module fully integrated with SAP, providing fee categories, billing runs, digital statements, cash desk processing, and parent portal access for managing student charges and payments. Designed for NSW public schools as a replacement for the legacy EBS Cash Desk system.
• Parent Communication Module enabling schools to send personalised bulk email and SMS correspondence to parents, carers, and students, including newsletters, notifications, and targeted group communications by year group, roll class, or timetable.
• Event Management Module providing end-to-end management of school events (excursions, incursions) and professional learning applications, including custom approval workflows, risk assessments, attendee management, and online parent permission notes.
• Sport Selection Sport selection system for high schools allowing students to make online sport and activity choices, with sport rolls automatically generated and integrated with Sentral Activities and Edval for roll marking.
• Forms Flexible digital forms module enabling schools to create, distribute, and manage digital forms with configurable multi-stage workflows (action, approval, or notification), supporting email distribution and public website embedding.
• Attendance Attendance module enabling roll marking, management of late arrivals and early leavers, absence communication to parents, and nightly data transfer to SCOUT.
• School Organisation Suite of school organisation modules comprising Calendars (with iCal synchronisation), Meetings, Resources (room and equipment booking), and Task List for managing day-to-day school operations.
• Medical Comprehensive medical module for managing sick bay records, medication requirements and administration, health care plans, health conditions, and auto-injector stock management.
• Wellbeing Behaviour administration system for recording positive, neutral, and negative behaviour, managing student suspensions, generating parent/carer correspondence, and producing behaviour reports.
• Academic Reports Module for creating, editing, and generating student academic reports, with configurable subjects, outcomes, roll classes, grading scales, and NESA syllabus import; supports bulk email and printing.
• Class Builder Primary-school-only module enabling automatic class generation based on student attributes (gender, academic ability, EAL/D, special needs), friendships/separations, and teacher pairings, with drag-and-drop editing and handover note storage.

Named customers2 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration9 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• CompasscoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025In 2025, School Bytes joined the Compass group (compass.education), bringing together two organisations that share a deep passion for education and technology. This represents a significant strategic acquisition/merger rather than a product partnership.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Compass Education: Compass is the parent company of School Bytes and a directly competing school administration SaaS platform serving Australian schools with student management, finance, communication and wellbeing modules. Most comparable peer — same product category, same geography, same customer base.
• SEQTA: SEQTA is an Australian school management suite covering learning management, wellbeing, attendance and reporting for K–12 schools. It serves many of the same NSW and interstate schools as School Bytes with overlapping module coverage.
• Sentral: Sentral is a long-established Australian K–12 administration and wellbeing platform with deep NSW penetration. It overlaps with School Bytes on attendance, wellbeing, sport and activity management (and is integrated with School Bytes' Sport Selection module), making it a direct competitor.

Broad incumbents

• PowerSchool: PowerSchool is the largest North American K–12 SIS and student information platform. While it operates in a different geography, it represents the broad-incumbent reference point for what scaled school administration software looks like and could expand into Australia via Compass's global footprint.
• Veracross: Veracross is an established international K–12 school information system covering admissions, academics, finance and communication. It is a broad incumbent in the same SIS category as School Bytes but serves primarily independent and international schools rather than NSW public schools.

Emerging players

• SchoolZine: SchoolZine is an Australian school-to-home communication platform (newsletters, SMS, app) used by many Australian schools. It directly competes with School Bytes' Parent Communication module and represents a single-module point-solution alternative.
• SkoolBag: SkoolBag is an Australian parent communication and school app platform focused on newsletters, alerts and parent engagement. It overlaps with School Bytes' Parent Communication module but lacks the broader admin suite, making it an emerging/niche competitor.
• Edval: Edval is an Australian timetable and sport-selection platform integrated with School Bytes. It overlaps in the sport scheduling niche but is narrower in scope; a partial-overlap emerging peer used inside School Bytes' ecosystem.
• School Bytes — EdTech SaaS (Tuition / Engage / Operoo): Operoo is an Australian parent-permission, excursion and compliance platform used widely in NSW schools, overlapping with School Bytes' Event Management and Forms modules. It is a single-workflow competitor rather than a full-suite rival.

Regional players

• TASS.web: TASS is an Australian school administration platform with strong penetration in Queensland and Western Australia schools. It is comparable to School Bytes in functionality (finance, communication, reports) but primarily competes in different states, making it a regional rather than direct peer in NSW.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/schoolbytesau
• Facebookfacebook.com/schoolbytesau
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/school-bytes

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about School Bytes