Study Links

Study Links is a UK-based international student care organization that supports students from over 100 nationalities studying in the UK. Founded before 1989, the family-run business places students with host families, arranges school exchanges, and provides personalized support throughout the academic year — acting as a trusted parent figure for students living and learning abroad.

Study Links
1

Sales and ops teams can create and amend invoices directly in Salesforce without finance involvement

2

Real-time account balance visibility in Salesforce — no more chasing finance for balance checks

3

Eliminated the constant back-and-forth between sales, operations, and finance teams

4

Faster sales decisions and improved customer satisfaction through reduced admin delays

"Breadwinner is the bridge between our CRM system and our finance system. It means those two are communicating with each other — and therefore my team have visibility of the finance things to make their job quicker and more accurate."

Ailie Fan, Managing Director at Study Links

Ailie Fan, Managing Director at Study Links

Industry

International Student Welfare & Education

Location

United Kingdom

Finance System

Xero

Channels

Salesforce & Agentforce

Challenge

Study Links' finance workflows were creating a constant bottleneck. A single part-time finance team member was responsible for all invoice creation and amendments in Xero, while the sales and operational teams had no visibility of client account balances. Any time a student needed an additional service — a taxi to the airport, extra tuition — the team had to stop and ask finance whether funds were available. If the finance person was off or part-time, everything stalled.

Solution

Breadwinner connected Salesforce directly to Xero, allowing Study Links' sales and operational teams to create and amend invoices from within Salesforce without accessing Xero. Real-time account balance visibility was surfaced inside Salesforce, so any team member could instantly check whether a family had funds available and act without delay — no finance intermediary required.

The Challenge: One Finance Person Holding Everything Up

Study Links manages international students from over 100 countries, each with unique needs throughout the academic year. As students request additional services — extra tuition, airport transfers, activity bookings — the operational team needs to act quickly. But before Breadwinner, every one of those requests required a detour through finance.

“There was a constant back and forth between the sales and operational team saying what’s going on, can you do this work — and what if that finance person is part-time or on leave? You’ve just hit a barrier all the time.” — Ailie Fan, Managing Director, Study Links

The problem had three distinct layers. First, only the finance team member could create invoices in Xero — a time-consuming job that caused significant delays, especially when that person was working part-time. Second, any amendment to an invoice went back to finance, since they were the only ones with access to the accounting software. Third, the sales and operational teams had no way of knowing a client’s account balance without asking finance first.

The result was a constant stream of interruptions flowing toward one person — fragile by design, and impossible to scale.

The Solution: Finance Visibility Without Finance Involvement

Breadwinner was introduced to Study Links through their Salesforce developers, who recommended it as a fit-for-purpose solution. The implementation connected Salesforce directly to Xero, and the change was immediate.

“Breadwinner is the bridge between our CRM system and our finance system. It means those two are communicating with each other — and therefore my team have visibility of the finance things to make their job quicker and more accurate.” — Ailie Fan, Managing Director, Study Links

Sales and operational staff could now create invoices in draft and send them, all from within Salesforce. They could amend invoices without routing through finance. Most importantly, they could see a live, real-time view of how much money any family had on account — without picking up the phone or sending an email.

The implementation itself was straightforward. Breadwinner’s support team guided Ailie through field mapping and testing with clear communication throughout.

“It was actually really straightforward to be honest. Breadwinner had an excellent support team, just guiding me on which fields match with which fields in our CRM system.” — Ailie Fan, Managing Director, Study Links

The Impact

The back-and-forth that had become part of daily life at Study Links simply stopped. Finance could focus on finance. Sales could focus on sales. And when a student needed something, the answer was a glance at Salesforce — not a call to a colleague.

“Breadwinner just completely removed that noise. Even me talking about it, I feel calmer. It meant that both teams could work on their work more quickly. Both teams are happier and just more efficient.” — Ailie Fan, Managing Director, Study Links

Study Links has been a Breadwinner customer for over 5 years. The fact that it rarely comes up in conversation is, as Ailie puts it, a very good sign.

“It doesn’t get talked about much, which I think is a very, very good sign. If something’s not being spoken about, it must be working well.” — Ailie Fan, Managing Director, Study Links

For a business built on caring for students across the world, having systems that simply work — quietly, reliably, without friction — is exactly what they needed.