Tip of the Month #12 - All About Funding
For this months Tip of the Month, we're going to be taking a look at Funding! Now that the new school year is upon us, why not brush up on how funding works on Abacus and what things you might be missing! We will cover reports, funding terms and applying funding to your sessions!
Funding Eligibility Report
The Funding Eligibility Report will show you a list of children in your setting that are eligible for funding. These are children that are 3 and 4 years old. You can run this report for a date in the future to see the names of children that will be the right age at that time. Head to Reports > Finance to find this report.
This report will also show which children have been set up with a funding group and which ones have yet to be. This report is really helpful to show you how many eligible children you will have in your setting at any given time!
Funding Summary Report
The Funding Summary Report will show you how many funded hours a child has booked within a specified period, how many funded hours have been booked and how many they have left over that the could potentially claim.
This report will also show you the LEA Reclaim Value, this is the amount that you should except to receive from the local authority for this child. In addition, you will also have a column for Setting Equivalent Value which shows you the amount that the child's sessions would cost if the child wasn't funded. The final column is the Revenue Difference, this tell you the difference between the these values. Essentially, it shows the amount of money you are losing by having funding. Such fun!
For a helpfile on the Funding Summary Report, click here.
Moving Funding Groups
If you need to move a child from Funding group to funding group, just head to Children > Accounts > Discounts. In the "Funding" Section, select the new funding group from the drop-down menu and click "Save" when you're happy.
Please note: Funded sessions will change from funding group to funding group on the day that you make the change, meaning that funded sessions from today will be taken from the new group. This means that credit notes will be raised if the invoice for this period has been processed.
If the child is Term Time Only, you can change their funding group after they have completed the last session for this term. For example, if the child's last session in Summer is 22nd July, you can go ahead and change the funding group from 23rd July with no issues.
We would advise changing the child's funding group on the first day of the month to avoid raising credit notes.
Adding Funding Terms
You want to make sure that you have added your funding dates in for the new term before you have run the final invoice for this term. We would suggest adding in your term dates as far in advance as you know them but avoid making them up as incorrect dates can cause you problems later.
To add a funding term, head to Settings > Funding. Click on the "A" symbol next to the funding group that you are looking to add the term to and click "Add Term" at the bottom of the screen.
This will populate the right-hand side of the screen. Fill in the details for the term/s that you are adding and when you're happy, click "Save".
For a guide on adding your funding terms, click here.
Mail Merge
You may want to reach out to the carers of the children that are about to reach an age where they will be eligible for funding. You can do this using our Mail Merge Feature!
To send a Mail Merge, head to Reports > Mail Merge. At the top of the screen, click "Recipients" to filter to only the carers of the children who are about to reach the eligible age.
Using the "Will be turning" filter, you can select only children who will be turning three (36 months) in coming year and send an email to only those parents reminding them that they will need to take whatever steps required to claim funding for their child.
For a help file on Mail Merge, click here.
Milk Report
The Milk Report will show you how much you are able to claim back for the milk that you have provided for the children in your care! Firstly, you will need to make sure that you have entered the value of a 1/3 pint of milk on your Settings section.
Head to Settings > Configuration and look at the "Invoice details" section, enter the amount per 1/3 pint of milk in the field.
Once this information has been entered, you can see the reclaim value in the Milk Report. You will find this report in Reports > Finance.
The "Quantity" column will show you the number of children who are scheduled to attend the setting on each day. At the bottom of the report, the quantity is added up for the month and will give you a value of the milk that you are entitled to claim.
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