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Primary School Budget Template

FSSU Primary School – Budget Template

A school budget assists the Principal in effective decision making to manage the school finances on a day-to-day basis. It creates awareness, encourages boards of management to plan ahead, control spending and ensure efficient running of the school. It is a requirement of the schools’ governance manual / articles of management as a school is not permitted to budget for a deficit without the patron / trustee approval.

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Getting Started

To begin you will need the following:

  • Final accounts for previous years
  • Year to date accounts
  • Expected pupil enrolment numbers
  • Plans /goals for coming year

Income
Begin with revenue – determine total resources available and identify all revenue sources.

  • Department of Education Grants
  • Other State Income
  • School Generated income
  • Other income to fund day to day spending such as Parents’ contributions, voluntary subscriptions and fundraising (Revenue for Capital Spending is considered separately).

Expenditure
Gather all information regarding all possible expenditures – distinguish between essential or unavoidable spending and discretionary spending. Do not consider any items of capital spending (e.g. new computers or furniture) at this stage.

  • Salaries
  • Education Other
  • Repairs, Maintenance and Establishment
  • Administration
  • Finance

Capital expenditure
Capital expenditure is expenditure of a once off nature rather than recurring. The purpose is to acquire an asset or advantage of a lasting nature for the enduring benefit of the school. Identify capital receipts which may be available to finance capital expenditure.

  • State grants
  • Fundraising
  • Parents’ contributions
  • Donations

Next steps

Approval of the budget

  • Once the budget has been finalised it need to be approved by the board of management and noted in the minutes.
  • It should then be forwarded to the patron / trustee for approval if requested.

Monitoring

  • The budget should be imported on to the schools’ accounts system to monitor the income and expenditure on an ongoing basis
  • The variances i.e. I&E v’s Budget analysis will help to identify any overspends and enable the board to take action to prevent any further losses.

NOTE: The FSSU have developed these templates for internal use for monitoring monthly income, expenditure, budget management, cash flow etc. The use of the FSSU internal templates is optional for schools who may wish to continue to use the IPPN Airgead Bunscoile/Financial Template, CPSMA Accounts templates etc. for their internal use.

If you need any further information please email primary@fssu.ie or phone (01) 9104020.

Boards of Management