School Funds - Surplus

missieamy

Hi all
I check the school funds for our local primary school this is the second year I have done this, I don't charge them.
I check all the transactions and produce an income and expenditure account and then a summary to say I have checked and everything apears to be in order etc.
I am a bit concerned however that they have a bank balance in excess of £10k and had a surplus last year of around £500 and this year around £2k.
I really don't think they should be making a 'profit' of £2k form it's parents. Is this something that I should comment on or are they within their right to make a profit?

Ellabobbin

Hi,

I work in school finance, so may be able to help...

What do they use their school fund for - it does vary from school to school. Do they use it for sales of uniform, income from school trips etc?

It may just be a timing difference where they have collected money for residential trips in installments to help parents but have yet to settle the final bill.

Schools do typically make commission on photograph sales etc (one school I work at sells flowers for a local nursery at a reduced price to parents and makes 30% from the sales) this usually will be paid into the school fund.

School fund accounts are usually just holding accounts ie money for trips is paid in, money for trips is paid out. However commission earned can sit in them until the school identifies something that will benefit the school population as a whole before it is spent.

I don't deal with the school fund myself as I handle the delegated budgets from the Government but can have a look at the accounts for the schools and see if any surplus has ever been mentioned in the notes?

Not sure if this is of any help?!

missieamy

Hi thank you for your qucik response. The fund runs academic year so it is a close off and there are no o?s amounts everything is pretty much settled at year end so they have made a surplus for the the year of £2k.
If you could find out if there has been a note in the school fund of the school you deal with that would be a great help.
The fund is used like you say for unirform sales, charity collections which go in and out, school trips etc.

Ellabobbin

Ok, I'm next in a school which operates a school fund on Thursday - I'll have a look at the accounts and come back to you.

Just a thought - I know that one school keeps a spreadsheet which shows the income and expenditure for each source ie each trip, uniform sales, collections etc... If they have similar records this would at least let you know how the surplus has arisen.

missieamy

Hi - they do list it I think it is mainly profit from Uniform! But I will analyse it a bit more to put my own mind at rest. Thanks for your help. I'll check back after Thurs for your reply.
Thanks

PGM

They should have some sort of policy, to say what balance they want to keep in there, and its general use.

To dictate whether the balance will just keep growing or if they'll decide to start spending some for the benefit of the kids.

Ellabobbin

I asked the school secretary who runs the school fund account, who said a surplus has never been mentioned by way of a note - for our school in any case.

That's probably not much help!! That is a lot of profit from school uniform - a school fund shouldn't typically make 'profits', is it definitely the school fund and not a pta (usually know as friends of....... school) they are usually run by parents and would aim to make money to be spent on the children attending the school.

BensteadBookkeeping

missieamy wrote: »

Hi all
I check the school funds for our local primary school this is the second year I have done this, I don't charge them.
I check all the transactions and produce an income and expenditure account and then a summary to say I have checked and everything apears to be in order etc.
I am a bit concerned however that they have a bank balance in excess of £10k and had a surplus last year of around £500 and this year around £2k.
I really don't think they should be making a 'profit' of £2k form it's parents. Is this something that I should comment on or are they within their right to make a profit?

I've been Treasurer of a school fund, although ours ran Apr-Mar. Was there a summer fayre/raffle at the end of the year that took takings but have not yet had any expenditure placed against them? Sometimes a fayre would be held at the end of year for a specific project that would used after the 6 week break. This had the added bonus of leaving funds in the account over the summer break instead of it going overdrawn for a long period.

Sometimes a residential trip is charged from the Local Authority instead of the supplier/provider directly. We sometimes had trips that occurred in May but where not invoiced by the council until September onwards. Are there any refunds due to be made to pupils whose trips are subsidised by a Freetime or Extended Services grant?

I keep an Income and Expenditure account summary for each account heading and I would find that trips would break even or come in at a slight loss as they were subsidised by photograph commissions. How many children are in the school as commissions from photography can be quite a high percentage as can commissions from Book Fayre's, although these should be used elsewhere as like you say the School Fund should not be making a profit.