School finance officer: what the job involves

A school finance officer keeps the money side of a school running day to day: raising orders, paying invoices, banking income, reconciling accounts and producing the monthly reports the business manager and head rely on. In a small primary it may be part of a wider office job. In a secondary school or academy trust it is usually a dedicated post. Most school-employed finance officers are paid on the NJC pay spine at a grade set by the council or trust, and many posts are term-time only.

A normal week in the finance office

Much of the work is routine processing that has to be accurate and on time. Staff ask for something to be bought, you raise a purchase order against the right budget line, check the goods or service arrived, and pay the invoice once it matches. You record income from school trips, lettings, uniform sales and before and after-school clubs, chase parents and hirers who have not paid, and bank cash and cheques where the school still takes them.

At month end you reconcile the bank account and any school fund, post corrections, and run budget monitoring reports showing spending against plan. The business manager or head uses those reports to brief governors or trustees, so a mistake in them goes well beyond the finance office. You also answer a steady flow of questions from teachers about how much is left in their department budget.

Other regular jobs include keeping supplier details up to date, checking for duplicate or suspicious invoices, sending information to payroll (overtime claims, new starters, changes in hours), and filing everything so it can be audited later.

Maintained schools and academies work differently

The basic tasks are the same, but the rules around them depend on who runs the school. The guide to working in an academy vs a maintained school covers the wider differences.

In a maintained school the local authority is the employer and holds the bank account or sets the banking rules. The school works within the council’s scheme for financing schools and its financial regulations, uses the council’s finance system or an approved one, and reports through the consistent financial reporting framework. The financial year runs from April to March. Each year the governing body completes the Schools Financial Value Standard, a self-assessment of financial management, and the finance officer usually gathers the evidence for it.

In an academy the trust is a charitable company with its own accounts, audited externally. The academic and financial year runs from September to August, and the trust must follow the Academy Trust Handbook, which sets rules on internal controls, related party transactions and reporting to the Department for Education. In a multi-academy trust, finance is often centralised: you might sit in a central team covering several schools, use one finance system for the whole trust, and have tighter deadlines for month-end returns. Year-end audit fieldwork in the autumn is a busy period.

What employers look for

There is no required qualification. Adverts usually ask for:

• experience of purchase and sales ledgers, ideally in a school, council or charity
• confidence with spreadsheets and a finance system (schools use several different packages, and training is normally given)
• accuracy and the ability to work to deadlines
• discretion, since you see salaries and families’ payment records

AAT qualifications are common and are sometimes listed as desirable, especially for academy trust roles. Some employers support finance staff through an apprenticeship or AAT study. Many finance officers start as a school administrator who picked up the finance side. Like other school staff you will have safer recruitment checks, normally including an enhanced DBS check, which costs £41.00 in England and Wales from 5 October 2026.

Pay on the NJC spine

In maintained schools in England and Wales, and in many academies that follow council terms, finance officers are paid on the NJC pay spine. The 2026/27 award added 3.3% to spine points 3 to 43 from 1 April 2026. Grades are set locally through job evaluation, so the same title can sit on different points in different councils and trusts. Finance officer posts are often graded above general admin, and senior finance officer or finance manager posts higher still. The table shows a selection of spine points, calculated from the 2025 values plus 3.3%:

Spine point	Full-time salary 2026/27
SCP 8	£27,709
SCP 12	£29,542
SCP 16	£31,525
SCP 20	£33,673
SCP 24	£36,581

Academies can set their own pay, so check the actual grade on the advert. The full spine is in our NJC pay spine guide.

Term-time only or all year

Many school finance officers work term time plus a few extra days or weeks, because year-end, budget setting and audit do not fit neatly into term dates. Others are all-year, particularly in trust central teams. Term-time posts are paid a percentage of the full-time salary, spread over 12 months.

Say a post is on SCP 12 (£29,542 full-time) and works 39 weeks a year. Under the NJC advisory model, 39 weeks with a 36-day leave comparator gives 86.778% of full-time pay, so the actual salary is about £25,636 before any further reduction for working fewer than 37 hours. Employers apply their own calculation, explained in how term-time-only pay is calculated.

Pension and deductions

School finance officers join the Local Government Pension Scheme. For 2026/27 the main section contribution is 5.8% on pay from £18,401 to £29,000 and 6.5% from £29,001 to £47,300, based on actual pay. More on the scheme is in our Local Government Pension Scheme guide, and the take-home pay calculator shows what lands in your account after tax, National Insurance and pension.

Where the job leads

The usual next step is school business manager, which adds HR, premises and strategy to the finance work. In a multi-academy trust there are usually layers between the two, such as senior finance officer, finance business partner and head of finance. Finance officers with AAT or a chartered qualification can also move into council finance teams.

Vacancies are on council job sites, trust websites and the DfE Teaching Vacancies service, and are collected in school support jobs. Interviews for finance posts often include a practical test, such as reconciling a short bank statement or working through a spreadsheet task.