Guidance

How to access the view my financial insights tool

Updated 17 August 2023

Applies to England

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/view-my-financial-insights/how-to-access-the-view-my-financial-insights-tool

1. How to sign in

  1. Go to the view your education data service and select ‘start now’.

  2. Select your organisation type and sign in using your IDAMs or DSI account.

  3. You can register for an IDAMs account or DSI account if you don’t have one.

  4. If you are registered against more than one school or academy, at this point, you can pick which school you would like to see the data for.

  5. Select Academies and schools financial reporting and then View my financial insights tool (VMFI) to access the tool and guidance.

2. Access

Access to View my financial insights (VMFI) is via one of two secure information management services:

  • local authorities and academy trusts should use a service called Identity and Access Management System (IDAMS)

  • maintained school and academy users should use a service called DfE Sign In (DSI)

You can read the guidance on how to register for an IDAMS account or DSI account.

The first user registered in an organisation is assigned the role of super user (IDAMS) or approver (DSI). Most local authorities and trusts have at least one super user registered on IDAMS, and most schools have an approver registered on DSI.

When you request an IDAMS or DSI account, a super user or approver within your organisation will approve or reject your request and assign you a role. There are instructions for IDAMS for Super Users and DSI approvers on how to grant access to the organisation and assign services and roles. Super users and approvers may also assign additional super users and approvers.

Roles affect the permission levels you have within VMFI. If you don’t have a role, you will not be able to use VMFI.

All roles have a view which shows summary information for the whole local authority or academy trust.

System Role Access Description
IDAMS • View Your Education Data -
VMFI Summary of Finances		 Download only Access to a short, downloadable report called the summary of finances.

It extracts some key insights from VMFI.
IDAMS • View Your Education Data -
VMFI Read Only		 Read only Access to VMFI on a read only basis.
IDAMS • Accounts Return Internal Preparer

• Accounts Return Internal Approver

• View Your Education Data - VMFI Local Authority Full User

• View Your Education Data - VMFI Maintained School Full User

• View Your Education Data - VMFI Academy Trust Full User		 Full access Full access to VMFI with additional features:

• select your comparators
• data modelling
• the ICFP tool
• the ability to give access to an SRMA

Access to the summary of finances downloads (academies only).
DSI • View Your Education Data - VMFI Maintained School Read Only

• View Your Education Data - VMFI Academy Read Only		 Read only Access to VMFI on a read only basis.
DSI • View Your Education Data - VMFI Maintained School Full User

• View Your Education Data - VMFI Academy Full User		 Full Access Full access to VMFI with additional features:

• select your comparators
• data modelling
• the ICFP tool
• the ability to give access to an SRMA

Access to the summary of finances downloads (academies only).

3. Further help

The user guide provides detailed help on using the tool.

ESFA enquiries

For all enquiries for the Education and Skills Funding Agency

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