Dept. of Education > Administrative Services > Finance, Facilities and Business Strategy Branch > Revenue Policy

This policy outlines the management practices and processes required to properly certify, control, administer, receipt, bank, monitor, and account for a variety of sources of revenue payable to or collectable by the Department.

• Coverage
• Policy
  • Introduction
  • Goods and Services Tax (GST)
  • Authorisation of Officers to Receive Money
  • Receipting and Banking of Revenue
  • Mail Remittance Procedures
  • Private/Personal Funds
  • Cash Registers
  • Dishonoured Cheques & Returned Debit/Credit Card Transactions
  • Unallocated Receipts
  • Refunds of Revenue
  • Shortages of Money
  • Journals
• References
• Internal Controls / Responsibilities
• Monitoring of Compliance
• Related Topics

This policy applies to all staff involved in the receipting and banking of revenue.

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Revenues include items such as: fees charged for goods and services, interest earned, Commonwealth and State grants, donations and levies.

The Department receives certain revenues which is ‘controlled’, that is, revenues which are used for achieving its goals and objectives. Controlled revenue includes items such as: Library and Archives fees, donations, Student Resource Package (SRP) grants and student levies. All school revenue is controlled revenue, and is paid directly into school bank accounts.

The Department also receives certain revenue which is ‘administered’, which it has no control over but manages for a third party. Administered revenue includes items such as: Commonwealth Non Government School grants.

Revenue controlled by the Department is recognised as Operating Revenue in the Department’s Financial Statements while administered revenue is reported in the notes to the Financial Statements.

Revenue is to be recognised and bought to account in the Financial Management Information System (FMIS) at the time goods are provided or when services are rendered, e.g. at the time an invoice is raised, not when monies are received.

Revenue is to be recognised in the Statement of Financial Performance (Operating Statement), or in a business unit/school’s general ledger in their finance system (Finance One/SACS) when, and only when, the following criteria are satisfied:

• it is clear or probable that revenue will be received; and
• that the revenue can be measured reliably.

Revenue transactions should be classified and coded in accordance with the established Chart of Accounts structure applicable to Finance One or SACS finance system. The chart of accounts is the means to ensure the proper classification of revenue transactions for both business unit/school and central office reporting and management purposes.

Chart of Accounts - Finance One (Corporate)

Information regard the SACS chart of accounts can be found under the FFBS Systems and Reporting web page.

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The Department and individual schools are each registered separately with an Australian Business Number (ABN) and also registered for GST purposes.  This means that each will be required to collect GST on all taxable supplies of goods and services and remit the amount to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) via a monthly business activity statement.

When receipting revenue, the GST component of the supply must be determined, calculated and costed correctly before recording against an appropriate revenue chart of account code.

Full details on the impact of GST are available at the following site:

 http://www.education.tas.gov.au/admin/ff/taxgst/default.htm

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Principals and Business Unit Managers should nominate and register authorised officers to collect money at their facility.  This may include school executive officers, administrative officers and assistants, teachers and librarians etc. Nominated officers should be trained in their responsibilities and in the procedures to collect and receipt monies payable to their respective site.

Where possible, the person authorised to receipt revenue should be separate from the person involved in:

• banking the funds;
• posting of entires to debtors accounts or associated control accounts; and
• assessing the fees and charges due and payable to the Department.

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• Official receipts should be issued immediately for all cash, cheques, money orders, direct deposits and credit card or debit card acceptances received. Once an official receipt has been issued the revenue is to be recorded appropriately in Finance One (Corporate Office) or SACS (Schools).
• Receipts should be checked to ensure they have not been altered.
• When receipting revenue into Finance One (Corporate Office) or SACS (Schools) it should always be receipted against the appropriate revenue code and not against an expenditure item. Payment refunds or credit notes should only be applied against an expenditure item if it is for a duplicate payment or a refund.
• System generated receipts are to be sequential.
• Where possible, cancelled/voided receipts are to be attached to audit role copies/print outs.
• All cash received is to be counted daily and agreed with total of receipts.
• Where possible, two staff members are to be involved in the collection and counting of cash.
• Coin operated vending machines are to be emptied and the cash counted by two people.
• All cheques received should be crossed ‘Not Negotiable’.
• Where possible, all cash, cheques and money orders should be banked on the day they are received.
• Where available, bank deposit slips should be prepared in duplicate and signed by the depositor.
• The deposit slip and amount banked are to reconcile exactly with the amount receipted. 
• Receipt books are to be stored securely and recorded in a register of financial items (or register of accountable books).
• All cash and cheques not banked on day of receipt are to be kept in a safe which has controlled access.
• All cash receipts are to be reconciled against financial records by the tenth working day of each month, as part of the bank reconciliation.

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Remittances received through the mail, especially those containing cheques and money orders, should where possible, be opened by a person not responsible for the receipting or banking.

A cheque remittance book is to be used to record the details of all cheques received. The cheque remittance book is to be signed by the person opening the mail, and countersigned by the person receipting the cheques.

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Departmental staff are not to:

• deposit public funds to the credit of a private/personal bank account;
• hold private/personal funds with public funds under their control;
• deposit private/personal funds into a bank account of the Department; or
• keep or permit any private/personal funds to be kept in a safe or strongroom of the Department.
• cash personal cheques.

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Where a cash register is used by a school/business unit, the cash register should:

• issue a receipt for each transaction;
• be GST compliant;
• bear the imprint of the name of the school/business unit, the date, the amount paid, the GST amount paid, and the receipt number; and
• print the details of each transactions on a continuous audit tape, with consecutively printed numbers on each transaction.

A cash float should be established for each cash register. A float is initially set-up by drawing a cheque from the appropriate advance account (for Corporate Office – T81A25, for Schools – APCH), made out to the school/business unit. The size of the float should be small but sufficient enough to allow initial business transactions/change giving to take place.

For schools, the size of the float decided upon should be approved by the school Principal and recorded in the school records.

For corporate office, requests are to be made in writing to the Manager, Finance and Procurement Services (FPS) from the appropriate Business Unit Manager for the authorisation of a float, or for an increase/decrease in an existing float. The float size and accompanying authorisation are to be kept for reference in FPS records.

The following processes are to be followed daily:

• At the start of the day the cash float is to be counted to ensure it is correct, and then place the float in the cash register.
• At the end of the day count the money in the register, and reconcile it against the daily audit tape (remembering to exclude the original float). The person reconciling the register should where possible, be different to the person(s) operating the register.
• A master receipt is to be prepared for the total amount collected and attached to the daily audit tape. The revenue is then to be recorded in the financial system (Finance One or SACS).
• The receipt and audit tape are to be retained for audit purposes.

Where a cash register has the ability to void/erase a transaction by way of a security key, the use of the security keys is to be by a person in a position with appropriate delegated authority. The person authorised to use security keys is not to be the person(s) who regularly operate the register. The receipt for any transaction which is voided is to be kept and attached to the daily audit tape.

The SACS system used by schools has a cash register function known as the Cash Register Emulation (CRE). In this function receipts are posted directly to a revenue account. The system also produces the bank deposit.

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When a bank has advised that a cheque has been dishonoured, a responsible officer is to contact the drawer of the cheque as soon as practicable to correct any irregularity in drawing the cheque or to recover the dishonoured amount. Where possible, the dishonoured amount is to be recovered in cash.

When funds are banked to clear dishonoured cheques they are to be re-banked as a separate deposit.  The deposit slip should indicate: the deposit is a recovery of a dishonoured cheque, the name of the drawer and the date the cheque was dishonoured.

When a debit/credit card transaction has been rejected due to card details being incorrect or insufficient funds available, a responsible officer should contact the card owner as soon as possible to correct any errors, and attempt to recover funds.

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Funds received by the Department which cannot be allocated immediately to a debt or cost code is to be recorded in a ledger account as an unallocated credit until the relevant costing information is received.  A journal is to be prepared monthly to clear those amounts where a debt has subsequently been raised in the financial system. The unallocated receipts account is to be reconciled monthly.

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Schools and Budget Centres are to ensure that every cheque/EFT receipt submitted, with respect to an overpayment to be refunded, is honoured by the bank prior to the relevant refund being processed.

Where practical, refunds of revenue are to be made on an expenditure invoice and should be debited in the finance system (Finance One/SACS) to the item to which the revenue was credited. The invoice is to show with respect to the amount to be refunded:

• particulars of the overpayment;
• a reference to the official receipt issued for the collection of the funds; and
• the reasons for the refund.

All refunds of revenue have to be approved by the relevant Business Unit Manager/Principal.

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The following reporting procedures for money shortages, other than theft, (i.e. unexplained shortages) should be followed to ensure monitoring and follow up on regular occurrences of shortages at particular cash handling sites.

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Generally, revenue journals are used for the purposes of correcting mis-postings to the general ledger or as a method for internal charging between business units.

Corporate Office:

Where a Business Unit requires a journal to be prepared, a request is to be sent to the Senior Finance Officer, Finance and Procurement Services (FPS). To ensure efficiency in processing, the request should where possible be sent via email.

Where it is not practical to attach supporting documentation to journal requests (i.e. requests sent electronically via email), the initiating Business Unit is to securely store and file the supporting documentation. Journal requests that have been generated within FPS are to have supporting documentation attached.

Journal requests are to:

• clearly state the reason that the journal is required,
• state that they have stored and filed original supporting documentation;
• should contain accurate narrations and cost codes required for the journal; and
• state the name of the person authorising the journal.

Journal requests are to be authorised by a person in a position with appropriate delegated authority, in accordance with the Department’s Delegations and Administrative Authorities Framework. Where a journal request is from a person in a position without the appropriate delegated authority, FPS should seek verification from a person with the appropriate delegated authority.

When processing journal requests, FPS is to attach all requests to payment vouchers for supporting documentation.

Officers involved in the preparation of journals are not to be involved in the posting of journals function in Finance One.

Journal Transfer Request Guidelines

Journal Transfer Request Form

Schools:

Journals processed should be fully supported by appropriate documentation and be authorised by an appropriate officer. 

Preparation and processing of school related journals in SACS guidelines.

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• Financial Management and Audit Act 1990
• Treasurer’s Instructions 208, 604, 613, 615 & 616
• Australian Accounting Standards

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These procedures will be subject to internal audit, external audit and performance audits.

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• Accounts Receivable Policy
• Bank Accounts Policy
• EFTPoS Policy
• Expenditure Policy

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