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Multi-location billing, automatic aircraft owner statements, real-time Sage Intacct sync with proper deferred-revenue accounting, contract management for block time and Part 141 programs, VA benefits tracking, FAA/TSA compliance, and Clover payments — all in one system.
American Flight Schools is one of the largest multi-location flight training organizations in the United States, operating six campuses across the country with a fleet of more than 100 aircraft. From private pilot certificates through commercial and instrument ratings, American Flight Schools trains hundreds of students each year under both FAA Part 61 and Part 141 programs.
Managing a flight school at this scale means coordinating instructors, aircraft, students, billing, compliance, and accounting across every location — simultaneously. When the team set out to find a platform that could unify all of that under one roof, they chose Aviatize.
Running six flight school locations creates operational complexity that most software platforms simply cannot handle. Each location has its own fleet, its own team of instructors, and its own revenue streams — yet the business needs a single, consolidated view of finances, compliance, and student progress across all of them.
“When you’re operating at this scale, you can’t afford to run separate systems for each location,” says Mike Nance, Director of Operations at American Flight Schools. “We needed one platform where every campus feeds into the same accounting, the same compliance tracking, and the same reporting structure.”
Before Aviatize, the team relied heavily on manual data entry and CSV imports to keep their accounting system in sync. Invoices, payments, customer records, and advance deposits all had to be exported, formatted, and imported into Sage Intacct by hand — a process that consumed hours every week and was prone to errors that could cascade across the books.
“When you’re operating at this scale, you can’t afford to run separate systems for each location.”
Mike Nance, Director of OperationsWith Aviatize, American Flight Schools now runs all six locations from a single account. Every campus operates independently in day-to-day scheduling and dispatch, but all data flows into one unified system. Management can see fleet utilization, student enrollment, instructor availability, and revenue across every location in real time.
Billing is handled automatically and separated by category for clean accounting: aircraft rental time, instructor time, and instructor payouts each flow into their own revenue and expense lines. This separation is critical for a multi-location operation where accounting precision directly impacts profitability analysis per campus.
“Working with Aviatize has been an outstanding experience from start to finish,” says Mike Nance. “What truly sets their team apart is not just their technical expertise, but their genuine commitment to building a strong, collaborative partnership. They actively seek feedback, embrace new ideas, and continuously look for ways to add value beyond the original scope of work.”
Like many large U.S. flight schools, American Flight Schools operates a fleet that mixes school-owned aircraft with privately owned aircraft on leaseback. With 100+ aircraft across six campuses, the back office used to spend serious time every month producing owner statements — reconciling Hobbs and Tach time, fuel, maintenance reserves, instructional vs. solo splits, and revenue share against the lease terms for each owner.
On Aviatize, aircraft owner statements are generated automatically from the same booking, dispatch, and invoicing data that drives the rest of the platform. Each owner sees a clean, period-end statement: total revenue earned by their tail number, missed revenue from cancellations or maintenance-down days, expenses charged against the aircraft (fuel, oil, maintenance, reserves), and a detailed breakdown of every flight by date, pilot, and rate.
Because the source data is the same data the school is using for its own books, owners and the school never argue about the numbers. The statement is the dispatch record — exactly correct, every month, across every aircraft.
The integration between Aviatize and Sage Intacct has been transformative for American Flight Schools. Invoices, payments, customer records, and advance deposits now synchronize automatically and in real time across all six locations — eliminating the manual CSV import process that previously dominated the accounting team’s workload.
The synchronization is bidirectional and continuous, ensuring that Aviatize and Sage Intacct always reflect the same financial reality. When a student makes a payment at any campus, it appears in the accounting system immediately. When an invoice is generated for aircraft time or an instructor payout is processed, the corresponding entries flow directly into the correct Sage Intacct accounts — separated by location, by revenue category, and by expense type.
Just as importantly, deferred revenue is handled correctly on day one. When a student prepays for a block of flight hours or a course package, Aviatize recognizes the revenue as the hours are flown — not at the moment the money lands. The deferred liability sits on the balance sheet in Sage Intacct, and it draws down with each completed flight automatically. There is no spreadsheet, no monthly journal entry shuffle, no “best guess” at quarter end.
This deep integration has reduced hours of manual labor every week and eliminated the reconciliation errors that inevitably crept in when data was moved between systems by hand. The accounting team can now focus on financial analysis rather than data entry.
Flight schools at American Flight Schools’ scale don’t sell flight time in a single shape. Students arrive on block-time agreements, full Part 141 program contracts, post-9/11 GI Bill® and Veteran Readiness & Employment (VR&E) benefits, university partnerships, and corporate sponsorships — each with its own pricing, billing rules, and entitlement structure.
Aviatize handles all of those as first-class contracts. Every contract defines what is included (hours, ground time, exams, fees), at what rate, with what payment terms, and how consumption is reported. When a student flies, the consumption is logged against the right contract automatically and the remaining balance is visible to the student, the instructor, and the front desk in real time.
For VA benefits — which Part 141 schools live and die by — Aviatize tracks each veteran student’s eligible hours, monthly housing allowance interactions, certification milestones, and the data needed for VA monthly certifications. There is no separate VA spreadsheet, no missed certification window, no surprise about how many hours a student has left under their benefit.
The result: the school can confidently take on more students under more program shapes, because the underlying contract engine keeps every dollar and every hour pointed at the right account.
Beyond billing and accounting, Aviatize powers the operational workflows that keep American Flight Schools running smoothly across all six locations. Built-in approval flows handle DNF (Did Not Fly) requests and fuel reimbursements, ensuring that every exception goes through the proper authorization chain before it hits the books.
Student subscriptions — monthly training plans, membership programs, and recurring fees — are managed centrally across all campuses. Aviatize tracks each subscription lifecycle, processes charges automatically, and keeps subscription revenue properly categorized in the accounting sync.
On the compliance side, Aviatize tracks FAA and TSA licenses across the entire student body and instructor roster, with full FTSP (Flight Training Security Program) flow management. Every TSA endorsement, every FAA certificate renewal, and every compliance deadline is visible in one place — across all six locations. For a flight school of this size, having a single compliance dashboard instead of six separate tracking spreadsheets is the difference between audit readiness and audit risk.
American Flight Schools integrated Clover as their credit card payment processor through Aviatize, giving students and front-desk staff a seamless payment experience at every campus. Whether a student is paying for a block of flight hours, settling an invoice, or covering a subscription charge, the Clover integration handles the transaction and the data flows straight into Aviatize and onward to Sage Intacct — no manual reconciliation required.
The dedicated Aviatize mobile app puts scheduling, flight records, and account information in the hands of students and instructors at all six locations. Students can check their training progress, view upcoming flights, and manage payments from their phone. Instructors can review their schedule, log flight time, and access student records on the go.
With six locations generating thousands of transactions every month, reporting is not a luxury — it’s a lifeline. Aviatize provides American Flight Schools with reconciliation reports, payment overviews, subscription tracking, and custom financial reports that confirm every dollar is accounted for across every campus and every system.
These reports serve as the bridge between daily operations and strategic decision-making. Management can compare revenue per location, track instructor utilization rates, monitor student retention across campuses, and verify that the Sage Intacct sync is running cleanly — all from a single reporting dashboard.
“Aviatize doesn’t just deliver software — they invest in relationships,” says Mike Nance. “They actively seek feedback, embrace new ideas, and continuously look for ways to add value beyond the original scope of work. That partnership mentality is what makes the difference when you’re running an operation this complex.”
All six campuses managed from a single Aviatize account with full visibility across fleet, students, instructors, and finances.
Deep Sage Intacct integration replaced hours of weekly manual data entry with automatic, real-time synchronization of invoices, payments, and customer records.
Owner statements for every leaseback tail number are generated from the same dispatch and invoicing data the school runs on — revenue, missed revenue, costs, and a full flight-by-flight breakdown every month.
Prepaid block-time and course packages stay on the balance sheet as a liability and recognize as revenue as students actually fly — no manual journal entries.
Block time, Part 141 programs, university partnerships, and corporate sponsorships each modeled as first-class contracts with their own rates and entitlements.
Post-9/11 GI Bill® and VR&E consumption, monthly VA certifications, and eligible-hour balances all tracked inside Aviatize — no separate spreadsheet.
Licenses, certifications, and FTSP flows tracked across all locations from one central compliance view.
“Aviatize doesn’t just deliver software — they invest in relationships.”
Mike Nance, Director of Operations — American Flight SchoolsReceive the full American Flight Schools story as a beautifully formatted PDF straight to your inbox. Share it with your team.
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