For subject and middle leaders

Department budget

Plan your department’s budget, log every purchase, and always know what’s committed, spent and left, without waiting for the finance office.

What you get

A budget plan for your school’s standard lines, plus up to ten lines of your own for your subject
A spend log where every purchase is tagged to a budget line and a strategic priority
Warnings before a line runs out, not after
Spending by quarter and your biggest purchases at a glance
A one-row quarterly return for your head of school

How it works

Paste the pack from your head of school into the Cover tab, or type your allocation in yourself.
Plan your allocation across the budget lines, and add your subject’s own lines.
Log each purchase when you order it, then mark it Invoiced or Paid.
Watch the Cover tab: it tells you what’s committed, spent and left, and warns you early.
Each quarter, copy one row from the Return tab and send it to your head of school.

Works with School finance

Your head of school uses School finance to send you a pack with your allocation, the school’s budget lines and the strategic plan. You send back a quarterly return. No shared drives or linked files needed.

School finance

Tips from experience

Log it when you order it, not when the invoice arrives. Most overspends happen because orders are forgotten until the bill lands.
Keep a little back. Plan to hold 5–10% in reserve until the final term. Something always breaks.
Check it monthly. Ten minutes a month beats a panic in the summer term.
Tag purchases honestly. If it’s day-to-day running, say so. It helps your head make the case for strategic spending.

Finance words, in plain English

Allocation: The total amount a department has been given to spend this year.
Budget line: A category of spending, such as stationery or trips. Budgets are planned and tracked line by line.
Committed: Money promised but not yet paid: an order has been placed, but the invoice hasn’t been paid. It isn’t spent yet, but it’s no longer available.
Spent: Money that has actually gone: the invoice has arrived or been paid.
Remaining: Allocation minus committed minus spent. What you can still use.
Accrual: Recording a cost in the year it belongs to, even if it’s paid later. An order placed in June but paid in September usually belongs to June’s year.
Outturn: What was actually spent by the end of the year, compared with the budget.
Forecast: Your best estimate of the year-end position, based on spending so far and what’s still to come.
Variance: The difference between budget and actual. Positive means underspent; negative means overspent.
Virement: Moving money from one budget line to another. Most schools need approval for this above a set amount.
Capitation: Funding shared out per student. Some schools set department allocations this way.
Cost center: A department or area whose spending is tracked separately, with its own code.