Ymelda Y. Y'Herrera, President and CEO, and Amanda Habrun, COOYYY Advisors was built to address that disparity. The firm provides finance and operations support to charter schools as a virtual back office, while also offering something deeper than just outsourced administration. Ymelda Y. Y’Herrera, President and CEO, and Amanda Habrun, COO, believe effective support starts with understanding how each school actually operates. By getting to know the people, priorities, and challenges behind the numbers, the YYY team can make practical, informed decisions that address day-to-day needs while keeping the school’s mission at the center.
“We like to be a member of that charter team. We're not just a service provider contractor,” says Y'Herrera.
That distinction shapes the way YYY Advisors works. It stays involved through regular meetings, financial reviews, operational coaching, and conversations about what is happening inside each school.
Built From School-Side Experience
Y'Herrera’s experience helps explain why the model took shape. Her company began in 2009, working with small nonprofits and startup businesses. In 2016, she moved into a charter school CFO role and found that the work suited her. She later joined a back-office company serving multiple charter schools, where she saw the value of having a specialized team supporting several schools at once.
The experience also exposed a recurring gap. Many school teams did not have the financial expertise needed to manage cash, plan for growth, build useful projections, or prepare for larger decisions such as expansion and bond issuance. Y'Herrera eventually returned to a school but missed working across several charters. In 2020, she and Habrun began building YYY Advisors together, with Habrun joining full time that year. Y'Herrera left the school in 2023 to focus on the company.
The firm grew from a small portfolio of schools receiving broad back-office support into a larger practice. By 2025, YYY Advisors had added nine schools to its portfolio. Its work can cover finance, accounts payable, compliance, reporting, grants, payroll and human resources, along with projections, expansion planning, and other financial needs.
A Boutique Approach
Scale is not the only measure of growth at YYY Advisors. The leadership team remains selective about which schools it serves because the relationship requires cooperation. The firm wants clients who are willing to examine how they operate, understand financial realities, and make changes when needed.
Habrun describes that philosophy as a deliberate choice. “We wanted to build something that our clients know us. They know they can call us. We know their school. We know their challenges. We know their goals that they have,” she says.
That familiarity matters because no two schools face exactly the same combination of pressures. Some are growing and need stronger systems. Others are dealing with enrollment declines, cash shortages, debt obligations, or inefficient spending. YYY Advisors begins with the school's existing practices, then applies its own procedures and controls while adapting them to the circumstances.
The firm’s hands-on model means Y'Herrera and Habrun remain directly involved. Clients meet with one or both leaders, even when other members handle work in the background. “We’re very hands-on,” Y'Herrera says, describing the communication that keeps financial decisions connected to each school.
Making the Budget Useful
One of the firm’s strongest areas of attention is budgeting. Rather than treating a budget as a simple adjustment to the previous year's numbers, YYY Advisors looks closely at expenses, vendors, cash needs, and the assumptions behind the plan. The objective is to make the budget a working management tool.
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We like to be a member of that charter team. We're not just a service provider contractor.
Enrollment has become especially important. Charter funding is tied to enrollment, so a school that misses its projections can quickly face difficult choices. YYY Advisors helps leaders model different outcomes and act early when spending no longer matches revenue. The firm encourages schools to address problems in the first few months instead of waiting until a cash shortage becomes unavoidable.
Its approach also considers vendor costs and payment timing. A school may have enough money on paper but still experience pressure because large bills are paid too quickly. YYY Advisors can introduce purchase orders, payment schedules, vendor negotiations, and other structures that help preserve cash.
Building Compliance into Daily Work
For YYY Advisors, compliance is not a once-a-year exercise. It is built into routine financial activity. Purchase orders, vendor vetting, coding, purchasing requirements, grant rules, and budget controls are considered as transactions move through the system.
The firm also prepares schools for audits continuously. Its team works with superintendents, payroll staff, accounts payable personnel, and others through regular meetings. Staff are coached on how their decisions affect the budget and the school's obligations.
That emphasis reflects a broader purpose. YYY Advisors wants financial systems to do more than produce accurate numbers. “We want to create a financial system that doesn’t just produce numbers; it protects the school,” Habrun says. The system should help leaders demonstrate stewardship of public funds and make informed decisions before problems become emergencies.
Turning Financial Trouble Around
The value of this approach becomes clearest when a school is under pressure. In one case, YYY Advisors entered a school at the end of a fiscal year with roughly $40,000 in cash, about two days of operating funds, and an upcoming payroll of approximately $200,000. Unpaid bills added another major burden.
The response required difficult decisions, including reductions in force, payroll changes, tighter accounts payable practices, and discussions with debt holders. The school worked with the firm through the process. Over the following year, cash on hand increased to about 53 days.
Staying Ahead of Change
Charter schools operate in an environment where requirements and financial pressures continue to change. YYY Advisors keeps track of updates from the Texas Education Agency, superintendent networks, training programs, conferences, and other professional sources. The team also researches new requirements and considers what they mean for each individual school.
YYY Advisors occupies a particular place in the charter school ecosystem. It handles the business responsibilities that can distract leaders from education while remaining close enough to understand why those responsibilities matter. Its work is rooted in finance and operations, but the intended outcome is a school with enough stability to serve its students.
The philosophy is reflected in the firm’s selectivity, its direct involvement, and its emphasis on education. Instead, it builds systems, coaches people, and helps leaders understand the financial consequences of their choices.
In 2026, YYY Advisors was named Finance and Operations Services for Charter Schools Company of the Year 2026, recognition that aligns with the firm’s focused role in supporting the organizations it serves.
For Y'Herrera and Habrun, the work remains grounded in a straightforward idea: when the financial and operational foundation is sound, school leaders have more room to concentrate on education. YYY Advisors has built its practice around making that foundation stronger, one charter school at a time.
