FMS for New Users
Dates, times and venues...
No dates currently set: Ask us about delivering this course in school as a Consultancy Session, or as a remote session by emailing courses@theictservice.org.uk
Audience/Keystage...
New finance administration staff in maintained schools
Cost
- £575 per delegate
Overview...
This course is designed as a series of four half days designed to take the new user through monthly processes required to be carried out by the school and the county finance team, adhering to the financial regulations for schools.
- Each half day is a practical hands on sessions.
- Manuals and training materials will be provided in each session for delegates to take away and use as reference guides.
- We will also introduce the recommended monthly calendar/checklist.
Objectives...
Session one
Every school has the basic county ledger code set and we will look at how FMS is constructed and who has ownership of different areas. Each school financial system will be unique in look and setup depending on the individual operator. Therefore understanding how the system is constructed will give operators greater confidence in using the system. This session will take the new users through these basic operations:
- Order requests
- Adding and editing supplier details, creating, editing and processing purchase orders
- Constructing purchase orders and understanding the effect the raising of orders has on the financial system – financial commitment
- Delivery notes and importance of manually recording these
- Processing invoices both order invoices and non-order invoices whilst adhering to the county financial regulations
- Cheque processing and recording of cheque runs
- Understanding the different types of invoices and how to process them
- Having a clear understanding of the county guidance
- Understanding the importance of routines within the school financial office.
All delegates will be asked to keep a brief journal/log of processes they have been able to achieve.
Session two
This session will begin with a recap of the first session and delegates will be encouraged to discuss any concerns or queries they might have. The session will then continue to:
- Look at the Payroll and how it is should be dealt with within the office
- Discuss EPM or other payroll providers’ requirements and time scales
- Introduce the General Ledger
- Introduce journals, when to use them and the effect different journals have on the bank balance within FMS
- Discuss and input payroll journals
- Look at cloning and contra journals – where it is appropriate
- Discuss, interpret and input the school funding and how it ‘paid’ to schools and how it must be input into FMS
- Introduce recording of income and the three different acceptable methods schools can/may operate
All delegates will be asked to keep a brief journal/log of processes they have been able to achieve.
Session three
This session will begin with a recap of session two and delegates will be encouraged to discuss any concerns or queries they might have. The session will then continue to cover:
- Working towards Month End and adhering to timescales
- Working with a practical month end calendar
- Bank Reconciliation
- VAT submittals
- Payroll Control (part two)
- Creating the reports ready for the county BCR Toolkit.
- Uploading documents into the BCR Toolkit.
*A member of Education Finance will normally join the course on either session three or four to take you through understanding the BCR
Session four
Session four will normally take place six weeks after session three. This is to give delegates time to get to grips with the process and the system. It should have also taken them through at least one period end. The first period end is normally carried out as a process with little understanding of what they have actually done and what the BCR is actually telling both the school and the county finance team.
This session will begin with a brief recap of all previous sessions and delegates will be encouraged to discuss any concerns or queries about the processes they have now carried out.
This session will work across both the General Ledger and Budget Management and will cover:
- Feedback from the county finance team and how to interpret their instructions
- Dealing with new funding – anticipated and non-anticipated funding, and the steps that must be taken in both the general ledger and within budget management
- Budget adjustments, when and how they should be completed
- Profiles (anticipated expenditure pattern) and the effect on the budget and the financial reports
- CFR (Consistent Financial Reports) a full explanation. Looking at the report within FMS6 and the CRF report within the BCR and practical mapping of codes to the CFR report within FMS
- A discussion covering the facility to look at schools of similar size and structure on the financial benchmarking site.