Education Purchasing allows you to create and approve purchase orders within the platform. Previously, Education Finance only received information when an invoice was fully signed off, meaning you couldn't track outstanding commitments or transactions still in progress. With this integration, commitment and pending amounts from Education Purchasing feed directly into Education Finance, providing a more accurate, up-to-date picture of your school’s finances.
Understanding commitments, pending, and actuals
Education Finance tracks each budget code using three categories, alongside your current budget:
Actuals: Amounts that have been approved and posted — this is money already spent.
Commitments: Approved purchase order values not yet fully invoiced — money that’s been allocated but not yet spent.
Pending: Transactions created but not yet approved, such as drafts, items awaiting approval, unposted, or rejected transactions.
These figures, together with your current budget, let you monitor spending and support reliable reporting and budget checks.
Category | What it shows |
Pending | Transactions created but not approved (Draft, Awaiting Approval, Unposted, or Rejected). |
Commitments | Value of approved purchase orders not yet fully invoiced. |
Actuals | Transactions that have been approved and posted (already spent). |
How commitments and pending amounts behave
The commitment value reflects the original purchase order until invoices are posted against it, regardless of price variances.
Non-order invoices do not add to commitment; instead, their full value appears in pending until approved, after which they move directly to actuals.
Worked examples
These scenarios show how Education Purchasing activity feeds commitment, pending, and actuals in Education Finance:
Scenario | PO | Invoice | Pending | Commitment | Actuals |
Full amount, price matches PO | 10 × £3 = £30 | 10 × £3 = £30 | £0 | £30 | — |
After posting to Finance |
|
| £0 | £0 | £30 |
Full amount, price is higher than PO | 10 × £3 = £30 | 10 × £3.50 = £35 | £5 | £30 | — |
After posting to Finance |
|
| £0 | £0 | £35 |
Full amount, price is lower than PO | 10 × £3 = £30 | 10 × £2.50 = £25 | −£5 | £30 | — |
After posting to Finance |
|
| £0 | £0 | £25 |
Partial amount, price matches PO | 10 × £3 = £30 | 5 × £3 = £15 | £0 | £30 | — |
After posting to Finance |
|
| £0 | £15 | £15 |
Partial amount, price is higher than PO | 10 × £3 = £30 | 5 × £4 = £20 | £5 | £30 | — |
After posting to Finance |
|
| £0 | £15 | £20 |
Partial amount, price is lower than PO | 10 × £3 = £30 | 5 × £2.50 = £12.50 | −£2.50 | £30 | — |
After posting to Finance |
|
| £0 | £15 | £12.50 |
Non-order invoice | None | 10 × £3 = £30 | £30 | £0 | — |
After posting to Finance |
|
| £0 | £0 | £30 |
Credit note | None | −10 × £3 = −£30 | −£30 | £0 | — |
After posting to Finance |
|
| £0 | £0 | −£30 |
Reports that now include Education Purchasing totals
Reports in Education Finance combine commitment and pending totals from both Education Finance and Education Purchasing. Where Education Purchasing is the source, you’ll see rows labelled Via Education Purchasing.
Reports updated to include these figures:
Budget v Actual v Commitment: Commitment values appear in the Committed and Expected Outturn columns.
Budget Holders Report: Commitment totals now include Education Purchasing; Outstanding Orders Details is hidden.
Management Report: Period and Year-To-Date Commitment values now include commitments from Education Purchasing.
Consolidated Management Report: Same as above, for consolidated data.
Project Report: Project totals now include these commitments.
Consolidated Project Report: As above, for consolidated data.
Supplier Turnover and Transactions: Supplier totals include commitment figures.
Consolidated Supplier Turnover and Transactions: As above.
Report Builder – Chart of Accounts: Commitment and pending figures are included when those options are selected.
Synced data and reporting banners
Whenever you open these reports, a banner shows the last sync time of Education Purchasing data, for example:
“This report includes data from Education Purchasing. Data last synced [date/time].”
“This report includes data from Education Purchasing for 1 or more schools and refreshes about every hour.”
“Commitment data was last synced with Education Purchasing on [date/time].”
📌Note: Education Purchasing syncs data with Education Finance every hour, Monday to Friday, from 06:00 to 20:00.
Budget checks now include all commitments and pending values
When running a budget check in Education Finance, your available budget is calculated including commitments and pending totals from both platforms:
Available Budget = Current Budget − (Commitment YTD + Actual YTD + Pending YTD)
This ensures that your reporting and budget monitoring always account for all in-progress and committed spend.