How does your school pay suppliers?

[pete]

Choose the most common option if the answer is "it depends". With regard to paying suppliers, I suspect we're in the dark ages and I wondered whether this was a schools-specific things or just us being archaic.

 

"Online" counts as credit/debit card. "Invoice" isn't on there as presumably the money is eventually transferred somehow after the 10-30 days.

[laserblazer]

Slooooowly since we became a Chequebook School. We never used to get suppliers chasing for money now it happens all the time.

[elsiegee40]

Majority of payments done by Bank Transfer following an invoice and this is the school's preference, but Credit Card is available (through the Bursar) for online purchases. Basically, I set up the order and she pays for it (having got SMT permission to order in the first place)! Edited June 1, 2009 by elsiegee40

[K.C.Leblanc]

Mostly cheques, my boss is a staff governor so often ends up with a large pile of them to sign.

 

We used to let staff buy stuff and claim the money back, but fortunatly that's been stomped on.

 

There used to be a local barter currency a few years back, but I don't think the school ever used it (I think it was only used to buy organic veg and birkenstocks).

[featured_spectre]

depends on the supplier. Sometimes debit/credit card, sometimes via invoice, sometimes via cheque, sometimes via a part exchange (IE new for old equipment)

[dhicks]

Other: barter, cash, ducks, post details below

 

Invoice / cheque, cash, or I pay via PayPal and the school gives me a cheque.

 

--

David Hicks

[john]

Cheque as we cannot do BACS payments, some are on company purchase card but not much really.

[Sylv3r]

We place the orders receive the invoice then pass them onto our LA finance department for payment. I think they pay via cheque or BACS.

[muppet]

Just moved over to SAP here so most things are paid for via Bacs payments. We also have school credit cards that can be used for online purchases.

[bgarston]

Slooooowly since we became a Chequebook School. We never used to get suppliers chasing for money now it happens all the time.

 

I work in a "Cheque Book School" too and yes it's slow..... ......AND then they send it off in 2nd class post - give me strength! :-|

 

Time to drag this part of the school somewhere near the end of the 20th century me thinks!?

 

Ben

[grumpy_git]

The whole process is pretty slow, we fill in a requisition form which goes off to finance, assuming they don't lose it it gets typed in and sent off, when the goods come in we have to give them the invoice and they give us a piece of paper to sign to say it's received, then they write the cheque and post it!

 

We can buy small things on petty cash in certain circumstances - have to be below £35 and has to be a reason why it can't go through the normal system (eg - need batteries today not next week, or finance staff on holiday for 6 weeks).

[localzuk]

We're a chequebook school, but our finance officer is on the ball, so the majority of payments get sent within a few days of the items having been received (usually a batch of cheques is done each weeks).

 

We also sometimes use a debit card for those online purchases that don't accept cheque, and we use direct debits for recurring payments.

 

We would like to use BACS I believe but have been told we can't, as we don't get a paper trail for auditors at the LEA. (This is my recollection of it anyway, but I may be wrong).

[Jamman960]

We generally pay by any means availible but prefer bank transfers once an invoice has been recieved. I can borrow a credit card from the bursar for small/one off orders but I generally refuse to deal with suppliers unless they're willing to give us a credit account - the credit card rarely has enough left on it for anything bigger than a few hundred.

 

I sometimes buy things on my card and get a cheque from the bursar on the same day.