Schools and academy trusts rarely pay late on purpose. Their money moves through purchase orders, approval limits and set payment runs, often with two people signing off, so an invoice without a purchase order number, or sent to the wrong person, can sit for weeks. Get the PO before you start, invoice the finance contact it names, give each school its own bank details to pay into, and time your reminders around their approval cycle.
In this article
The short version
- Schools and academy trusts pay through purchase orders, approvals and payment runs.
- Get the PO number and the finance contact before you start work.
- Put the PO on every invoice and keep it in line with the order.
- Give each school its own bank details so transfers match themselves.
- Time reminders around the school's approval cycle and pause them while a PO is amended.
Why school invoices take longer
The head or IT lead who asked you to replace the Wi-Fi usually can't pay you. In an academy trust, spending runs under a written scheme of delegation, and the Academy Trust Handbook expects duties to be split so that the person who orders isn't the person who pays. Bank payments typically need more than one person. In a multi-academy trust your invoice may be paid by a central finance team you've never spoken to.
Maintained schools follow their local authority's scheme for financing schools. Some pay suppliers from their own bank account with two signatories, others through the council's finance system, depending on the local authority.
Whichever it is, an invoice has to match an approved order, reach the right person and wait for the next payment run. Schools tend to pay suppliers by bank transfer against an approved invoice, and many won't sign a direct debit mandate, so it makes sense to build your process around transfers.
What to sort out before you start the work
A simple rule for school work is no purchase order, no start, and it can save a lot of chasing later. When a school asks for a quote, or before an engineer goes on site, get these in writing:
- the purchase order number and the exact amount it covers
- who pays invoices: the school business manager, the trust's finance team or the local authority
- the email address invoices should go to
- the legal name to invoice, which for an academy is the trust and not the school
- the payment terms you've agreed
If the job grows, ask for the PO to be amended before you invoice the extra. An invoice that's higher than its purchase order tends to be held until someone approves the difference, and that can take longer than the work did.
How to invoice a school so it gets paid
Put the PO number on the invoice, and keep the description and amount in line with the order so the finance team can match them without asking you. One invoice per purchase order is easiest for them to approve. Send it to the finance contact, and copy the person who asked for the work so they can confirm it's done.
Ask early when the payment runs happen and who approves invoices. If the trust pays fortnightly and your invoice arrives the day after a run, it's unlikely to move for two weeks however polite your reminders are. Invoices sent in the last days of term may also wait until the right people are back, so get them out earlier where you can.
Then make the payment easy to match on your side, because a transfer with a mistyped reference can sit unidentified in your bank feed while the school believes it's paid. Adfin gives each client unique bank details, with the account appearing in your business's name, so a school's transfer matches itself to its invoices even when the reference is missing. Set the details up once at the start and they won't need to change.
How to chase a school without souring the relationship
Schools are often long-term clients, so the tone of your reminders matters as much as the timing. Fit the schedule to how they work. A note a few days before the due date asking whether the invoice has been approved catches a missing PO while there's still time to fix it. After the due date, ask where the invoice is in their process, and offer to resend it with the PO.
If you'd rather not run that by hand, Adfin can send reminders on the schedule you set, by email, SMS or WhatsApp, and from your own email address once you connect Gmail or Microsoft 365. You decide the rules Adfin's collection agents follow, and you can pause reminders for one school while a PO is amended and switch them back on afterwards.
Common questions
Do schools have to pay suppliers within 30 days? Not by statute. The 30-day payment term the Procurement Act 2023 implies into public contracts doesn't apply to contracts awarded by schools, including academy trusts, so the terms in your contract set when you're owed.
Will a school pay by direct debit? Many schools and trusts prefer not to, often because they want each payment to go through their own approval. Bank transfer against an approved invoice is usually what their process expects.
Who pays IT invoices in an academy trust? It depends on the trust's scheme of delegation. Often the school business manager approves and the trust's finance team pays, so ask at the start who handles supplier invoices.
What if the work costs more than the purchase order? Ask for an amended or new PO before you invoice the difference. An invoice above its PO is likely to be held until someone signs off the extra.
Should I invoice a school monthly or annually for IT support? Ask what suits them. One annual invoice means one approval, while monthly invoices each go through a payment run, so make sure the PO covers the whole year either way.
Do maintained schools pay differently from academies? Maintained schools follow their local authority's financing scheme, and some pay through the council's systems. Academies pay from their trust's own accounts under the trust's controls.
Sources
- legislation.gov.uk - Procurement Act 2023, section 68 (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/54/section/68
- GOV.UK - Academy trust handbook 2026 (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/academy-trust-handbook/academy-trust-handbook-2026-effective-from-1-october-2026
- GOV.UK - Schemes for financing schools (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/schemes-for-financing-schools
- Adfin - An introduction to Adfin bank transfers (accurate as of October 2026) https://support.adfin.com/en/articles/12600901-an-introduction-to-adfin-bank-transfers
