The same jobs, the same order, every month. That's the whole secret to a clean month end. When the steps are fixed and repeatable, nothing gets forgotten because it's busy, and nothing depends on whoever happens to be in the office that Friday.
This checklist works for the bursar's office at an independent school. Adapt the order to your own systems, but don't skip the steps; every one of them exists because skipping it comes back as a problem in a later month.
None of this is unusual. ISASA's Financial Management resource exists specifically to guide independent schools through the development and maintenance of sound financial control systems and procedures, and its Bursars' Toolkit, compiled with SABISA (the Southern African Bursars of Independent Schools Association), gives bursars the practical guidelines and pro forma documents to run exactly this kind of monthly routine.
Before the month closes
- Confirm the due date has passed. Fees that were due this month should not still be open on the first of next month.
- Check payments in flight. EFTs made on the last working day may land the next morning. Decide where the month boundary sits, and be consistent; otherwise a payment can be counted twice or missed.
- Send the final reminder round. The last week of the month is the last chance for parents who intend to pay. A reminder to everyone still outstanding, with the exact amount, clears a meaningful share before you even start reconciling.
Reconcile every payment
- Match the bank statement to your fee records. Every deposit should tie to a family and a fee item. The statement is the source of truth; if you can't match it, you don't know the month's true collection.
- Investigate the orphans. Deposits with no reference, wrong references, or amounts that match nothing. A small pile of unmatched money left unresolved at month end becomes a mystery at audit time.
- Confirm the totals agree. Collections per your records should equal the bank statement total (minus any non-fee deposits). If they don't, find the gap now; it only gets harder to find next month.
Verify the outstanding list
- Run the list of who still owes. If you can't produce this in minutes, that's the first thing to fix; it's the report your school council and head will ask for.
- Add a note to every account. A payment plan? A promised date? A family in a genuine difficulty? A one-line note on each account makes the follow-up in the new month fast and human instead of a guessing game.
- Spot-check the list. Pick a few families and confirm their balances are actually right. One wrong balance, caught late, damages trust across the whole parent body.
Issue and file receipts
- Every payment has a receipt. Parents need proof for their own records and for claiming school fees back where applicable. Receipts that depend on "getting around to it" quietly stop happening. Issue them at payment time, not at month end.
- Keep one copy in the file. Your audit trail lives or dies on this. Receipts in a single, consistent place beat receipts in five email threads every time.
Close out the overdue list
- Send the official overdue notice. After month end, the tone shifts from "remember" to "this is now overdue". State the amount, the balance, and what your fee policy says happens next.
- Escalate the genuinely overdue accounts. The families who moved from "late" to "overdue" need a different conversation: a call or a meeting, not just another message.
- Log everything. Every reminder sent, every call, every arrangement. A written trail is your protection and your proof of consistency.
Check the numbers before you share them
- Month collection total. What came in this month, compared to what was due.
- Outstanding balance. What's still owed, and who the biggest open accounts are.
- Cash position. Your bank balance after the month's inflows and outflows.
- Sanity-check them. A report with a number that doesn't match your gut feeling is a report to check twice before it goes to the head or the finance committee.
Archive for the audit trail
- File the month's documents. Statements, reconciliations, receipt registers, correspondence about overdue accounts.
- Keep personal data handled carefully. Parent financial records are personal information. Store them where only authorised staff can reach them, and don't leave overdue lists lying around in shared spaces.
A simple template to copy
Week before month end: confirm due date passed · check payments in flight · send final reminder round.
Month end: reconcile bank statement to fee records · resolve unmatched deposits · confirm totals agree · verify outstanding list · note every open account.
Start of new month: issue any missing receipts · send overdue notices · escalate overdue accounts · log all follow-up · check the month's reports · archive everything.
Copy it into your own format, add your school's dates and amounts, and run it the same way every month. Month end stops being something you survive and becomes something you simply complete.
Sources & further reading
These resources from ISASA (Independent Schools Association of Southern Africa) go deeper into the points above:
- Financial Management - developing and maintaining sound financial control systems and procedures.
- Overview of the Bursars' Toolkit - guidelines and pro forma documents for bursars, compiled with SABISA.
- The Role of the Bursar - how the bursar supports the head of school and leads the school's finances.
This checklist is general information, not financial or accounting advice. Month-end procedures vary with your school's systems and legal structure. Confirm the approach that applies to your school with your accountants or auditors.
