To think a school should be cashing cheques..

[whiteblossom]

when they receive them not waiting six months until they are out of date to cash, then return said cheque to ask for another.

July last year a cheque for £60 should have been cashed. Im shocked and appalled at how badly run the school's finances must be or that they are so cash rich it just doesn't matter to them.

Nearly everyone in my ds class got a cheque returned today. Nothing has been banked for six months.

That's bad but it sounds like maybe one lot of cheques got mislaid, maybe under a pile of papers on teachers desk. But did none of you realise this sooner?

Is this a repeated occurrence? And have you already had the goods or services you were paying for? If so I would be SO tempted to tell them to whistle for it!
Yes it really does make you wonder who is running the office. Not good.

Yanbu!

I stopped doing cheques for ds's weekly dinner money because they would store them all till the last week of the month (when I was skint and had forgotten about them) then pay them in when I had no money and I would go overdrawn. Now they have to chase me for cash because they haven't sorted a convenient direct payment and I don't tend to carry large wads of cash with me.

I'd tell them to go and jump if they asked me for another, what a cheek.

no cheques at all have been cashed across the school. I have received uniform 6 months ago. The letter says the business manager has been ill long term, which begs the question who has enough common sense to nip to the bank and pay in? Get a replacement business manager.

The most basic thought would be to ensure the monies get paid in not sat on a desk...

Looks like no one did notice, I didn't, I write cheques and dh pays 'em In fact the school is the only place I write cheques so nothing unusual on our statements.

Yanbu this annoys me too. Guides do it and save them all up over a long time and cash at once, it defeats the object of paying termly or in instalments! Noone has time to check every single cheque has been cashed and even if they haven't you can't do much or chase everyone to cash it.

Oh well it looks like they have an excuse of sorts Blossom though it's a goddam feeble one iyam.

For the sake of not embarrassing your DC, I guess I might feel inclined to send a replacement with a patronising little note asking them to try not to lose this one, and that you are happy to help on this occasion (gosh I love that passive aggressive little yoke!) but will be unable to do so in the future.

here's an idea, why don't they set up a way to pay on the school website that goes straight into their account- add our reference next to payment and no messing about job done.

Cheques and cash faff is so old school (no pun intended).

I am now rather glad my children go to a school which uses Parentpay. You do all the payments online, with time and date usually able to suit you.

I gave up on cheques ages ago when mine were still at primary school. They were just soooo chaotic about paying them in. I would write them when the money was in my account, and they often wouldn't present it until 4, 5 or 6 weeks later when I was often skint and awaiting another payday.

I began taking in cash when I had it and had no further problems, except when the snooty secretary asked me why I had not sent one particular payment in with my then 7 year old child. I told her that I simply wouldn't be letting my child run around with £90 cash forgotten in a schoolbag.

YANBU. It's a pain and they really should have got it sorted out months ago. If they don't have anyone who can do the business manager's job when they aren't around I would have thought they're really susceptible to fraud. I thought it was good practice to make sure financial people have a two week holiday every year so someone else has to do their job and they can't cover things up? Hopefully the fact they are asking you now for another cheque means they are trying to sort it out but perhaps mention to one of the Parent Governor that they may want to check the school's financial controls.

Not sure about them going online though. Online systems need reconciling too, and there would probably be confusion over accounts etc. given how poor their controls appear.

Are you going to write out a new cheque? You could offer to return the worn out/grown out of uniform instead?

Speaking as a school business manager, whoever was filling in for your school's SBM - and someone will have been, otherwise the staff won't have been paid! - should have been paying these in. If cheques are not paid in on a weekly basis, your school needs to make this clear to parents (although I think this is good practice as opposed to actual law). School uniform/trips etc usually go through a separate account to the usual budget items (staff wages, electricity etc) and this account should be reconciled monthly.

Your school office will be in for a world of pain when their auditors find out.

I don't think they need to be returning them, I'm pretty sure that although it's generally accepted that cheques only last for 6 months they actually can be presented at any time.

I'd suggest they check with their bank and let people know they'll be paying them in. I know you've explained why you didn't realise but surely at least one parent must have queried it since July.

You can definitely pay in cheques after 6 months - I have occasionally done this (from businesses who should be keeping a reconciliation and shouldn't have a problem with being skint at the end of the month). However leaving that aside YANBU - they really need to get with the times and use another payment method. It also gives the impression that the school is rolling in money and that might well discourage any fundraising for the school.