Schools Financial Services Newsletter - May 2021
Summer Finance Information Group
The Summer FIG will be held virtually on
the morning of 9 June 2021.
If you have not booked your place and
wish to do so, please ensure you book a
place via CPD Online. If you are unable to
book a place, please contact Schools
Financial Services as soon as possible.
Coronavirus Mass Testing Funding
The Government have announced the
launch of a claim form for any exceptional
costs associated with the coronavirus
mass testing in schools and colleges. The
deadline for claims is 23:59 on 12 May 2021.
Schools would have already be allocated
funding for carrying out the mass testing
but now have an opportunity to claim for
any additional exceptional costs they have
incurred.
The claim form with guidance on how to
complete the claim as well as the
Spring 2021 funding allocations
to schools.
Schools can click here for contact details if
they have any queries regarding any
aspect of the claim.
In This Issue
- Summer Finance Information Group
- Coronavirus Mass Testing Funding
- Training Webinars
- Budget Setting
- Schools Financial Value Standard
- Digital Education Platform
- VAT Tips
Training Webinars
The Summer Term training programme
is available on CPD Online and is
available for course bookings.
- Budget Monitoring
- Payroll Reconciliation for BPS Users
- Introduction to Finance for Headteachers
- Various FMS6 Courses
- Senior Leaders
- Financial Controls
- Improving the Quality of School
- Monitoring
These courses are free to all Kent
Maintained Schools and Medway
Schools and Academies who purchase
the Core Financial Support Package.
If you're interested in attending, ensure
you have booked your place via CPD
Online.
Helpdesk Closure
Please note that the Helpdesk will be closed on 8 June between 9am and 1:30pm.
Tips for VAT Submittal and VAT Control Codes
It is strongly recommended that the VAT procedure listed within Procedure Note 42 should be followed on the first working day of each month. To ensure best accounting practices please aim to ensure that no invoices are processed until both the Period is closed, and the VAT Submittal Report has been printed. Problems will arise if the Full Report is uploaded to the KCC VAT for Schools portal before the Submittal Report is printed and you continue to process invoices on FMS6, additional VAT will be coded to the open month, which will result in a ‘Submittal Error’ - creating a discrepancy between the VAT reimbursement total on your Statement of Account and the total on the original full VAT report.
It is also advisable that you check the totals in your VAT control codes each month. The totals should represent any outstanding reimbursement for the prior month in addition to any VAT invoices the school have processed in the current month. In the event of a submittal error, your reimbursement figure, plus your current month transactions, will not match the totals on your VAT control codes. If you identify a submittal error, then please contact SFS for further guidance. It is also recommended a FMS6 Healthcheck is carried out at least twice a year so that any errors can be identified and resolved quickly.
Schools Financial Value Standard (SFVS)
The SFVS self-evaluation spreadsheet
and associated guidance is available on
Kelsi.
The deadline for the submission of the Schools Financial Value Standard (SFVS) is Friday 28 May 2021, with the completed spreadsheet to be emailed to [email protected] and a signed copy should be retained in school.
Budget Setting
The Kent Range and Teacher Pay Scales
for the Kent Maintained School site have
now been updated within the Budget
Planning Software under the Next Year
Menu as per our previous email on 26
March.
Please ensure you have replied to the
email from Schools Financial Services in
March requesting information on how the
school will be proceeding with pay updates
for the 2021/22 financial year. Please reply
even if there are no changes to last year's
response.
The deadline for the submission of the 3
Year budget Forecast is Monday 31 May.
