Budgeting for Schools

 

Give Your Team the Confidence to Build a Better School Budget!

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Budget season doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Yet for many schools, it often means long hours, complicated spreadsheets, and the challenge of bringing finance staff, department leads and SLT together to create one coherent plan.

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What if your team could approach budgeting with clarity, confidence, and the right tools—saving precious time and improving financial control across your school?  This is a practical, school-focused budgeting course your staff will actually use. 

 

Our Budgeting for Schools training is designed specifically for school finance teams, business managers, budget holders and SLT. It gives staff the practical skills and confidence they need to create, manage, and review budgets effectively—without confusing jargon or unnecessary theory.

Your team will learn:

• How to set realistic budgets and understand key budgeting techniques

• The difference between budgeting and forecasting

• How to phase budgets and handle cash, revenue & capital planning

• Delegated, devolved and capital funding streams

• How to create a budget calendar that really works

• Managing staffing costs, pay scales and payroll reporting

• Linking budgeting to your School Improvement Plan

• How to review actuals vs budget, identify variances & stay on track

• Understanding month-end processes and governor/LA/EFA reporting

• Excel skills essential for budgeting

 

Session 1

Budget setting and budgeting techniques: 

• Basics of budgeting, budgeting v forecasting

• 4 main types of budgets / budgeting methods

• Levels of involvement with budgets

• Budget phasing.     

• Cash, revenue & capital budgets

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Income:

• Delegated Funding, Devolved Funding & Capital Funding

• Other income streams

• Creating a budget calendar

 

Expenditure items outside staffing structures: 

• Supplies & services    

• Value for Money strategies     

• Inflationary factors

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Staffing & payroll: 

• Pay scales & contracts    

• Running staffing reports

• Making the budget work for your School Improvement Plan

 

Session 2

How to prepare your budget:

• Structure & starting point    

• Considering Risk    

 

How to review your budget:

• Comparing actuals to budget     

• How to tell if you are on track   

• Explaining variances. 

• When to panic. 

 

Other school staff & their budgets

 

Presenting the information - Reporting:

• Month-end issues, accounting adjustments to be aware of.

• Governors reports, month, year to date and full year       

• LA and EFA reporting   

• Previous year and current year comparison

 

Using Spreadsheets for budgeting:

• Linking sheets

• Scenarios

• Pivot tables

• Goal Seek, Solver

• Conditional formatting and more

 

Outcomes - By the end of this course, participants will be able to sSet and manage realistic school budgets; review actuals vs budgets and identify variances; link budgets to School Improvement Plans; prepare clear reports for governors and leadership; use Excel confidently for budgeting tasks.