Bursar asking for advice about academy status

[amigababy]

The tiny primary that i work at (pt, 12 hours a week) has opted to become an academy. I just windered if anyone has any experience of the conversion process from a school office point of view? I'm not too daunted by it,just curious as to what to expect

(sorry, was looking for the In The Staffroom section too but couldn't find it)

TUPE staff to new entity, open new bank account, obtain bacs number so that salaries can be paid from the academy account, pay local authority to run your payroll for you and tell you how much to pay hmrc and tps and lgps every month, update policies to refer to governing body instead of local authority, buy insurance (contents, buildings, employers liability, public liability) in the name of the new entity and display certificates in reception, renegotiate all existing service level agreements and contracts ( or just buy back from LEA and ask companies to change the name on the invoices to your academy), change billing info for all utilities, pay full whack for SIMS/CMIS and FMS6, close accounts for Local authority and start new statutory accounts for academy, appoint auditors......

It's not too bad actually. there should be a standard checklist available from the ypla or dfe and you should defo ask for a payrise coz your workload will at least double. feel free to PM me for more info.

Yes definitely ask for a payrise for the extra workload; (not that you're likely to get one), but its worth asking. I know that a school was billed £38k extra for the sims licence when it became an academy, (economies of scale I suppose). I'm sure the governors will manage all the paperwork as staff TUPE across.
Schools need to produce accounts that comply with the Companies Act. The accounts are completely different from CFR returns and need to follow charities and company law requirements. The accounts are normally for an accounting period ending at 31 August. They can be completed by the school bursar but the school may need to buy in expertise if there is insufficient experience of doing such accounts. The software requirements really depend on the volume of transactions, and professional advice should be sought. Academies? accounts have to be audited by an external auditor appointed and paid for by the academy; this takes place in autumn each year.