School Owner/Admin Foundations · Module 5
FEES, MONEY, RECORDS & INTERNAL CONTROLS
Schools handle money every day.
Examples may include:
- tuition or school fees
- transport fees
- uniforms
- books
- examination fees
- extracurricular activities
- school trips
- event payments
- vendor payments
- salaries and allowances
- petty cash
- refunds
- discounts
- deposits
Money creates trust.
It also creates risk.
A school can have honest employees and still have weak financial systems.
Examples include:
- parents paying into staff personal accounts
- cash being collected without timely records
- one person collecting, recording and reconciling the same money
- undocumented discounts
- duplicate receipts
- informal owner withdrawals
- supplier kickbacks
- shared passwords
- missing reconciliation
Strong financial control does not begin with:
“We trust our staff.”
or:
“We do not trust our staff.”
It begins with:
“How should this transaction work so that it is clear, authorized and traceable?”
BY THE END OF THIS MODULE, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO:
- define approved school payment channels
- strengthen receipt and payment recording
- clarify approval levels for fees, refunds and discounts
- improve cash and petty-cash controls
- use reconciliation effectively
- reduce excessive control by one person
- manage supplier and procurement risks
- protect digital financial access
- understand how owner overrides weaken systems
- create appropriate routes for reporting financial concerns
Core Behavior
Build financial systems where school money is authorized, recorded, traceable and reviewable.
TrueConduct Principle
Trust people.
Verify systems.
Remember
A good control does not accuse honest staff.
It helps protect them.
- Estimated learning time
- Approximately 70–85 minutes
- Format
- 10 micro-lessons + scenarios + knowledge checks + workplace challenge + module assessment