As featured on The Educator Australia
For teachers, there’s nothing worse than having to spend your own money on school excursions and wait days for reimbursement. Fortunately, there’s now a better way to manage school finances.
FOR SCHOOLS, managing finances and expenditure is a vital but under-resourced task. Most teachers know the pain of spending their own money on excursions and resources, only to be faced with a long, paperwork-heavy reimbursement process.
This pain also extends to finance departments, which are often dealing with outdated systems relying on paper forms and receipts. Work credit cards are generally reserved for principals, and even when teachers are granted access, there’s a lack of visibility or limits set on spending.
According to Matthew Clements, head of growth at Budgetly, almost every business has faced the pain of managing expenses and reimbursement. In fact, Budgetly itself was established as a result of founder and CEO Simon Lenoir’s experience when travelling overseas.
“This happened back in 2014, and our company only had one work credit card at the time,” Clements recalls.
“We needed to pay a Google Ads bill, and so our founder [Simon Lenoir] wrote his card details down on a sticky note for me. I paid the bill, but what I didn’t know was that he was getting into a taxi in San Francisco at the same time, so when he went to use his card, it didn’t work. The bank had cancelled it because it had just been used in Sydney. So he was stuck in a taxi, and he had no way to pay!”
Sitting in a taxi that refused to let him leave without payment, Lenoir realised that there had to be an easier way to manage work expenses. And so, in 2019, Budgetly was born.
By 2020, the company was up and running with one of its first customers on board – the Public Trustee of Queensland. This led Budgetly to more businesses that work with the Department of Social Services, and it began working with a number of not-for-profits and schools. Today, the company has a strong presence in Australia’s education sector and has helped over 100 schools and 1,100 customers with their budgeting and expenditure.
Ditching petty cash and card sharing
Clements notes that gathering receipts, filling out forms and waiting days to be reimbursed is not a fun experience for anyone – and sometimes, it can even cause significant losses.
“I personally know a teacher who ended up around $8k out of pocket, because her expenses ended up not being tax deductible,” Clements tells The Educator.
“We solve a very black and white problem, because teachers shouldn’t need to spend their own money. The finance team shouldn’t need to spend time doing all of that paperwork either, but a lot of schools just aren’t aware that there are other options.”
Designed as an easy-to-use finance platform, Budgetly allows principals or heads of finance to enable a corporate card for any member of staff at the click of a button. They can also set spending rules and limits for these cards, and if those rules aren’t met, the card simply won’t work.
The platform also provides greater visibility of expenditure and the ability to allocate tailored budgets, all without the need for any paperwork.
“If you’re taking the principal’s credit card, receipts tend to get lost, and there’s no tracking of expenses,” Clements says.
“Budgetly allows you to enable corporate cards – virtual and physical – for staff members, set rules and spending limits, and that can be weekly, monthly or whatever you prefer. If a teacher runs out of money on an excursion for example, they can make a request, and once the principal approves it they instantly have that money on their card ready to use.
“You get rid of all the paper and the annoyance, so it really solves every pain point!”
Budgetly hosted a webinar on 4 April 2024 when Clements discussed how to ease your school’s financial strains and improve its financial autonomy; and how to empower employees by simplifying your school’s expense management process. The webinar also featured Kirk Peirce, Accounts Manager at Taree Christian Community School, who was on hand to answer questions around the school’s Budgetly experience.
To find out more about Budgetly and how it can help your school streamline its budgeting and expenses, 
To watch the on demand webinar, 
About The Educator
The Educator Magazine is Australia’s only magazine and news website for the most senior educational professionals & decision makers.
The Educator Magazine works with some of the world’s most high profile business schools and leverages off Key Media’s global footprint to talk to the leading education executives from around the globe.
Every issue of The Educator will contain aspirational cover stories and high-level case studies providing a global and national perspective on education leadership and management best practice, as well as interviews with the finest minds in education.
Want the same for your school? Get your hands on our complimentary Expense Pack for Schools or learn more about how Budgetly helps education providers here.