Planning for the New Financial Year

As the financial year ends in April for most schools, it’s time to start planning the budget for your next financial period. Naturally, March is the month where most of the planning is done in terms of budgets and what these budgets will be spent on.

Used as a time to review the previous financial year and take stock of what is to come, now is a good time to reflect on how your budget was spent. Close attention to how it enabled you to achieve your goals and catered to the needs of pupils and teachers is encouraged. Here are our steps to help you to plan effectively for the new financial year.

Strategic planning

The school must consider its strategy for the year when deciding on budgets. How these budgets are invested should aim to achieve the set objectives for the year. There should be clear performance indicators and success factors too when reporting on this.

Examples of goals could be to improve the average math level of students in KS2 or to aid teachers in providing a more consistent level of support when teaching.

Budgets will prove vital in investing in supplies, furniture, and equipment for schools to help achieve these objectives. By tying this to your goals you know your budget will be going to your chosen cause.

Knowledge of teaching

Allocating budgets and spending them well comes with the knowledge of being in a school and knowing how it operates on a day-to-day basis.

Once you have been teaching for a few years, you can pretty accurately anticipate what supplies will be needed. Plus throughout the years, a body of supplies will be built up, meaning that each year it should in fact be a little easier with supplies that have crossed over to the next year.

Order in bulk

Ordering your supplies, stationery, equipment and even furniture in one go means you’re going to save on delivery, and you’re more likely to get supplies at a discount price when you order in bulk.

However, buying in bulk doesn’t mean buying cheap. Buying cheap means you buy more often, and in turn, spend more. But buying for value, and buying quality means you spend less in the long run. This is only achieved by consolidating your orders into one for the best rate.

Consider extra costs

It’s important to consider extra costs that are involved in buying large amounts of furniture, stationery, and supplies for schools.

This can include:

Delivery (this can be considerably more for larger items of furniture)
Aftercare, which can include support, and maintenance
Returns can be difficult as they may be subject to a restocking charge or in some cases, non-returnable
Samples can help you make the best decision, and sometimes cost extra but this can save on many other costs in the future
Installation of larger furniture items can not only cost extra, but if installation is not paid for, it can take a considerable amount of time to set up
Removal of old furniture will normally incur extra costs

BUT With Paper Plus, all of these extras…are not extras!

We include consultation, delivery, installation, removal, samples, catalogues, and aftercare in one clear price. Meaning you know what you’re getting, you know how much money you will be spending (and saving) and this will help to make better-informed decisions earlier on.

Order in advance

Avoid busy times for ordering. These are usually the summer months and prices may fluctuate at this time in the industry to reflect increased demand as well as navigating the increased pressure on logistical resources.

Ordering earlier in the year (March to June) means you can avoid the ‘out of stock’ delays and get the best possible price for products (ordering in bulk when the stock levels allow).