Australia's Science Forum

Hi all,

Happy New Year! I hope 2021 starts off smoothly for everyone

Petty cash has been discussed a few times here over the years, & I'd like to get some feedback about it please, especially if you're in a non gov school.

We've gone cashless this year, & our business manager isn't offering any electronic replacement for cash, eg. debit/Coles/Woolies cards. The instructions are that we try to only shop at places the school has an account with, & anywhere else we'll have to pay for it ourselves & get reimbursed.

One problem is, as an IB school, our IAs & EEs get huge, with 30-40 kids each often needing weird & hard to find stuff, from places & online stores that don't offer an invoice on account option, including eBay & Amazon sometimes. Myself & the other lab techs here have been paying on our own credit cards & getting reimbursed for years, using the petty cash to get mostly smaller/urgent/everyday grocery type stuff. Without that petty cash buffer we'll be spending even more of our own money, & we're trying to get some info (dare I say ammunition) together to take back to the business manager.

If you don't mind sharing, & if you've gone cashless, can you please let me know what, if any, alternatives have been set up for you at your school to buy resources for pracs etc?

If we can take a list of things other schools have done we might stand a better chance of changing managements minds

Thanks!

In the DoE school's the teachers can get a refund, but never the labbies. This all happened about 5 years ago, sounds like it has now got to all schools. A Royal pain in the A-----------. but only teachers could claim not us. Happy new year!

Labbie wrote: ↑21 Jan 2021, 18:57 In the DoE school's the teachers can get a refund, but never the labbies. This all happened about 5 years ago, sounds like it has now got to all schools. A Royal pain in the A-----------. but only teachers could claim not us. Happy new year!

iv always been refunded for any money spent for science, all i have had to do is produce docket.

Same here Kimmy .
Our principal is hot and cold with petty cash .It was stopped for a while due to an accounting error and finger pointing , but it was realised that it was actually needed so it started again .
It's thoroughly discouraged though and if you ask if there is Petty cash you get told no , but I just buy stuff and give them the receipt and get cash .
still have to apply for preapproval on anything more than about $20 .

Must go on the SAM or Principal, it was a real pain in the A-----------------. Then the woolies card was stopped.

I have never been in a school where petty cash was available (this is my fourth school over ten years). Always had to pay with my cash, bring in a receipt and get reimbursed. For expensive items, I have been to the Business Manager and had them pay with their credit card.
I have also PM'd you.

I have recently been given a credit card to use for my purchases. I buy for Science and for the library, as I divide my time between the two.
Makes life so much simpler. We have not had petty cash for years and will not be refunded if we spend our own money.

I previously used my own money and was always reimbursed as long as I produced a valid receipt as proof of purchase and had my claim signed off by my HOD.
These days however, I have a PCard (DoE credit card) and it makes life soooooo much easier. Surely if the government schools have them, the private schools should be able to?

Thanks for all your replies

J & Melsid......can you please PM with details about the cards you got issued?
It would be great to know if they're Visa debit or something else, & if they were issued in your name/the school's name/other?

I'm trying to get some info about how other school's have implemented cards to prove to our CFO that it can be done, so why can't we do it here?

Thanks!

Late last year our school made decision to stop the use of petty cash. I have to use the Credit card now dedicated to teachers/classes. But as I only work 3 hours a day and often get requested to buy items for the next day after my hours I now have a small float of $100 at my disposal. But I now try to buy everything we need during my hours at work.

Mostly we have accounts- with woolies, bunnings etc and all our local businesses (IGA, Hardware, Chemist,) we need permission to buy elsewhere, fill out an order form and then the business manager will pay. We will get reimbursed but we keep receipts until the amount is enough to warrant a payment to us.