Banking cash at Lloyds
If you do not have a local Lloyds branch, you can bank income into a Santander account in a Post Office. See below.
If you are banking cash, you should complete the paying-in slip and any records in the presence of another employee if possible.
If you are banking a large volume of cheques or cash, you may wish to use a deposit bag. These can be obtained from a cashier at Lloyds Bank.
You should print the income log showing all your banking entries and hand it over with the paying-in slip and income.
The Lloyds cashier will stamp the paying-in slip/deposit bag. It is important you retain this for the council’s records.
See guidance on personal safety and security.
Lloyds Bank operates a deferred checking process, so staff are not required to wait while the Lloyds cashier processes the banking. If any errors are picked up at the end of the day, Lloyds will notify IBC, which manages the process.
Cash receipting income (non-debtor income)
If your service records income through a line of business system and this is uploaded to IBC, you should not cash receipt through IBC.
- Immediately before banking, the income should be cash receipted using the 'Record Local Banking' tile on IBC. It is extremely important the income is cash receipted. If this is not done, the income will not be credited to the relevant cost centres. It is also an important step in highlighting errors or potential fraud.
- Guidance on cash receipting can be found on the help page.
- Cash should be entered in one line unless it needs to be posted to different cost centres or has multiple rates of VAT associated with it. Cash posted to different cost centre codes should be entered with a separate line for each cost centre.
- Cheques should be entered on separate lines with the payer's name and the cheque number in the description field.
- you should select the correct VAT code for each line.
- If you notice an error once you have cash receipted your income, you should contact the Finance helpdesk quoting the document number and a description of the error. The corporate banking team will liaise with the IBC to correct the entry.
Receiving income relating to a customer invoice (debtor income)
Ways in which we can receive income.
Bounced cheques and credit adjustments
The IBC will carry out a reconciliation of banked income and investigate any differences.
If a cheque bounces, the IBC will debit the cost centre and GL code to which income was posted via the cash receipt. If it’s unclear which cost centre the income was originally credited to, the IBC will debit the code with the largest credit from that batch of income. If this is not the relevant code, the service is responsible for journaling it to the correct cost centre. The IBC will return the cheque with a cover letter.
If there is a difference between the actual income banked and the figures on the paying-in slip, Lloyds will notify the IBC, who will adjust the cost centre and GL code. For adjustments over £10, the IBC will inform the cost centre manager. If the adjustment is less than £10, the IBC does not notify.
Cost centre managers monitor their income and investigate frequent adjustments.
Banking at the Post Office (Santander)
If you do not have a local Lloyds branch in which to bank cash and cheques, the council has an arrangement with Santander to allow services to bank income at a local Post Office.
How to request banking at a Post Office
Any new services wishing to bank at the Post Office should first email the Finance helpdesk.
How to carry out banking at a Post Office
If you are banking cash, you should complete the paying-in slip and any records in the presence of another employee if possible. Guidance on personal safety and security.
What you will need
To pay in cash, you will need a Santander cash card. To pay in cheques, you will need a Santander paying-in book.
See the form at the bottom of the page.
The Post Office accounts used to be managed by Alliance and Leicester. Some schools may still have old stationery. The Post Office and the current Santander stationery should still accept this.
After you bank at the Post Office
- Immediately after banking at the Post Office, the income should be cash receipted using the ‘Record Local Banking’ tile on IBC. It is extremely important the income is cash receipted. The income will not be credited to your cost centre and budget if this is not done. Guidance on cash receipting can be found on the help pages.
- You should quote your establishment reference and the date in the paying-in slip number field, e.g. OCCSCH123 08/12 (where the date is 8 December).
- Cash should be entered in one line unless it needs to be posted to different cost centre codes. Cash being posted to different cost centre codes should be entered with a separate line for each cost centre.
- Cheques should be entered on separate lines with the payer's name and the cheque number in the description field.
- For each line, you should select the correct VAT code. Further guidance on VAT codes.
It is possible to pay suppliers by Direct Debit (DD), although this is not encouraged as the school has no control over the amount taken from its bank account.
DD payments to suppliers should only be considered when ongoing payments are due, and the supplier will not accept any other method. Wherever possible, the supplier should be paid via IBC or procurement card.
Any DD payments should be made from the school’s local expenditure bank account (LEBA). An authorised signatory on the LEBA banking mandate must sign DD mandates.
If you do pay a supplier via DD, you must monitor the payments and cancel the DD with the supplier once all contractual payments have been made. For added security, you must also inform Corporate Banking, who will cancel the DD via Lloyds Bank, via this form.