Using SchoolsHUB Finance

Payment documents record transactions relating to recurrent and other funding for non-government schools made by the Department of Education. 

Approved Authorities receive funding from the Commonwealth under the Australian Education Act 2013. Payments for non-government schools are typically made in January, July, and October (unless otherwise arranged).

Payment documents recording these transactions are accessible to Finance Officers in SchoolsHUB once processed. The payment documents include a:

• Recipient Created Tax Invoice (RCTI)
• Payment Advice document
• Funding under the Australian Education Act (FUAEA) Entitlement Details.

To access an organisation's payment documents, you must have Finance Officer access to an Approved Authority in SchoolsHUB. You can check your current level of access and apply for additional access (if needed) in My profile.

For information about applying for additional access, visit the User Management page or download the Linking SchoolsHUB Access guide on SchoolsHUB. 

After each payment run (usually in January, July and October), Approved Authorities are able to access payment advice documents for these payments in SchoolsHUB. The payment advice documents include a summary word document, a Recipient Created Tax Invoice (RCTI) and a spreadsheet with school-by-school details.

In SchoolsHUB, Finance Officers can access payment documents dating back to 2014. To access payment documents:

Step 1: Sign into SchoolsHUB using your email or username and password.

Step 2: On your SchoolsHUB user dashboard's left navigation menu, click Finance.

Step 3: The Finance section will open to a list of your linked organisations. Select from the list which organisation's payment document you require, click View.
(Please note: this section of SchoolsHUB is hosted through School Entry Point).

Step 4: A list of the 10 most recent financial statements for the chosen organisation will be available. Click on any document title to view.
(Please note: If you require an older payment document or one not listed, they can be found in the Agreements section. Click on the Agreements title to view additional documents.)

Accessing pre-2014 payment documents
SchoolsHUB does not provide access to view documents prior to 2014. If you require payment documents prior to 2014, contact the SchoolsHUB helpdesk on 1800 677 027 (option 3).

If you have specific questions about your entitlement, contact the SchoolsHUB helpdesk on 1800 677 027 (option 3) or email schools@education.gov.au.

The 3 payment documents accessible to Finance Officers in SchoolsHUB include the:

• Recipient Created Tax Invoice 
• Payment Advice Document
• Funding under the Australian Education Act (FUAEA) Entitlement Details.

Recipient Created Tax Invoice
A Recipient Created Tax Invoice (RCTI) is a summary of the total payment made by the Department of Education (the department) to the Approved Authority (AA). The department (the ‘Recipient’ of the goods and/or services) issues the RCTI to the Approved Authority (the ‘Supplier’).

An RCTI is issued as a requirement of the A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999 for the Australian Taxation Office. An RCTI shows the:

• Description of Supply: The name of the program through which the department supplies funding. Any documents relating to post-2014 recurrent funding will be listed as ‘AEA Recurrent Funding’
• Entitlement Amount: Actual amount of funding the AA is entitled to receive in this payment excluding any negative or positive adjustments that may be applied
• Negative Adjustment: If the department is recovering any outstanding amounts of recurrent funding for the current or previous program years, these are known as ‘offsets’. An amount for any offsets will be shown in the Negative Adjustment column
• Positive Adjustment: If the department owes the AA any outstanding entitlements that are included in the current payment, but are also not part of the entitlement amount, then these will be shown in the Positive Adjustment column
• This Payment Total: Total amount of payment, which includes any negative or positive payments being applied (excluding GST). Therefore, the payment is calculated as: Entitlement Amount – Negative Adjustment + Positive Adjustment
• GST: Amount of GST applied to payment
• Total Payment: Total amount of payment inclusive of any negative or positive adjustments and GST.

Payment Advice
The Payment Advice provides an AA with a summary of the total amount being paid in a specific payment run. The Payment Advice shows the:

• Funding Period: The calendar year in which the payment is being made for
• Entitlement Type: The type of funding received. For recurrent funding this will be Australian Education Act Recurrent Funding (AEARF)
• Annual Entitlement: The amount the school is entitled to for that calendar year. For any payments prior to October in a given year, this amount is an estimate based upon the previous year’s Census return, or based on a preliminary statement of enrolments provided by the school. For the October payment (and any subsequent payments), this amount will be considered the school’s total entitlement for that year
• Amount Paid to date: The amount already paid to a school for the relevant program year
• Amount Due this payment: The amount the school was estimated to receive in this payment
• Adjustments: A positive adjustment to an entitlement that reduces an outstanding overpayment, but is not sufficient to result in an additional payment for the school
• Recoveries: Any outstanding amounts the Commonwealth is recovering from the AA due to an overpayment in another entitlement (usually from a previous year)
• Net Payment: The total payment the AA will receive for this school, accounting for any adjustments and recoveries.

Entitlement Details
The Entitlement Details spreadsheet provides a comprehensive breakdown of the payment details for any schools under the AA. It shows the payment amounts for each school, and includes the different components of the entitlement (the base amount with the addition of up to 6 loadings), along with key funding inputs.

The spreadsheet has 3 sections: Payment Information, Annual Entitlement Information and Funding Inputs.

Section 1: Payment Information

• Amount paid to date: The amount paid for each school so far, not including the amounts in this current payment advice. Where this payment includes adjustments from previous program years, this column may include payment amounts for those previous years.
• Amount due this payment: The amount included in this current payment. Any adjustments or recoveries that might apply due to underpayments or overpayments from a previous program year will be reflected in a separate line item for the relevant school. Negative amounts correspond to overpayments that are being recovered through an offset against the positive payment amounts that are due in this payment.
• Percentage of entitlement: The proportion of the school’s total entitlement that has been paid up to and including this payment.

Section 2: Annual Entitlement Information

• Total Entitlement: The calculated annual entitlement for each school. The total is the sum of the ‘base amount’ and up to 6 loadings. Note that this figure is subject to change when new input data is received. It should be seen as an 'estimated' entitlement until the annual census is completed and a final entitlement is determined.
• Base amount: This is the base funding as applied to all schools under the Australian Education Act 2013. It is based on the number of students at the school, the level of those students (primary or secondary) and, where applicable, is discounted by the 'capacity to contribute' of the school community.
• SWD Loading: This loading is based on the number of students receiving an adjustment due to disability and the level of adjustment they are receiving, as measured under the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on Students with Disability (NCCD).
• ATSI Loading: This loading is based on the number and proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students at the school.
• SED Loading: This loading is based on the proportion of students in the lower 2 quartiles of socio-educational advantage, as measured by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA).
• LEP Loading: This loading is based on the proportion of students at the school who are disadvantaged due to having a language background other than English, as measured by ACARA.
• Location Loading: This loading is based on the remoteness of the school’s physical location, as measured by the 2011 Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA+). This loading also takes into account the size of the school.
• Size Loading: This loading is based on the number of students at the school, the education level (primary or secondary) and the remoteness of the school.

Section 3: Funding Inputs

• Primary/secondary/Indigenous/SWD/distance education students (FTE): The number of students used in the calculation of annual entitlement. It should generally accord with the number of students reported in the most recent census, or in a separate statement of enrolments provided by the school. FTE refers to the concept of a ‘full time equivalent’ enrolment – meaning that part-time students may be counted as a fraction of one student.
• ELP Proportion: The proportion of students at the school who are identified by ACARA as disadvantaged language background other than English (DLBOTE). ACARA identifies students in this group if they have a language background other than English and at least one of the student's parents has not completed education beyond year 9 or equivalent.
• Low SES Q1/Q2 Proportion: The proportion of students at the school who are identified by ACARA as being in the lowest 2 quartiles of the general population with respect to Socio-Educational Advantage (SEA).
• SES Score: The Capacity to Contribute (CTC) score for the school. CTC is a measure of a non-government school community's capacity to contribute to the ongoing costs of running their school, relative to the capacity at other non-government schools. 
• Commonwealth Share: This shows the percentage of the school's fully calculated Student Resource Standard (SRS) amount that the Commonwealth is currently contributing to the school. Some non-government schools are currently in a ‘transition’ period where this share gradually moves towards 80% over a number of years.

The Online Estimator provides an organisation’s Finance Officer with a tool for estimating Commonwealth recurrent funding for schools under the Australian Education Act 2013.

These estimates are provided for registered schools over 4 years, based on the information held by the Department of Education or as entered by Finance Officers.

To access the Online Estimator tool:

1. Sign into SchoolsHUB.
2. On your SchoolsHUB user dashboard left hand navigation menu, click Finance.
3. The Finance section will open to a list of your linked organisations and a button to access the Online Estimator, click Online Estimator.

You will be presented with the Online Estimator input screen.

To begin using this tool:

1. Select the relevant Approved Authority’s name.
2. Select the relevant School’s name. You can also select School not in the list to start with a blank template.
3. Confirm the pre-filled Sector is correct.
4. Confirm or edit the pre-filled data in the following sections:
   1. School Characteristics
      1. School Type
      2. 2011 ARIA+ Score
   2. School Enrolments
   3. Enrolments for Students with Disability
   4. Additional calculation data for:
      1. SEA proportion
      2. Low English Proficiency proportion
      3. CTC score
      4. CTC exemption.
5. Click Calculate.

You will be presented with the Online Estimator result screen with the estimated entitlement calculated based on the information entered in the input screen. Note, the result screen will also factor in Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) indexation and the Commonwealth share of the SRS (which may be transitioning to a target of 80% by 2029). 

6. Select Print to create a copy for your records or Recalculate to return to the input screen for further input data adjustments.

Note: The Online Estimator tool is for general estimation purposes only.

The Online Estimator pre-populates school information according to the latest data available to the Department of Education. You can then change the information to examine how this affects the school's funding.

To calculate estimated funding for a new school, select the 'School not in the list' option and then fill in all the input data manually. You will need to fill in the following information to calculate estimated funding for the new school:

• school characteristics and yearly data (i.e. School Type, Sector, 2011 ARIA+ score)
• school enrolments (including Students with Disability)
• additional calculation data (i.e. SEA proportion, Low English Proficiency Proportion, CTC Score).

The Student with Disability Loading is calculated based on the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data (NCCD) on school students with disability. This is an annual collection that counts the number of school students receiving an adjustment due to disability and the level of reasonable adjustment they are receiving.

The Student with Disability Loading is provided for students that require the following level of adjustment:

• Supplementary
• Substantial
• Extensive.

The NCCD counts students who have been identified by a school as receiving an adjustment to address a disability as defined under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992.

For more information about the NCCD data, visit the NCCD website.

For more information on the Student with Disability Loading, visit the Department of Education's website.

The Low English Proficiency Loading calculation is based on the proportion of students at the school that have both:

• a language other than English background, and
• parents who have attained school education equal to Year 9 or below.

The figure is provided by the Australian Curriculum and Reporting Authority (ACARA).

For more information about the data on the Low English Proficiency proportion, visit ACARA’s website.

For more information on the Low English Proficiency Loading, visit the Department of Education's website.

The Socio-Educational Disadvantage Loading is calculated based on a measure of educational advantage developed by the Australian Curriculum and Reporting Authority (ACARA). The measure uses the occupational and educational status of parents and guardians to divide students into 4 quartiles of relative advantage. Quartile 1 represents the most disadvantaged while quartile 4 represents the least disadvantaged.

Only Quartiles 1 and 2 data are used for the Socio-Educational Disadvantage Loading.

The quartile figure is provided by ACARA.

For more information about the data on the quartiles, visit ACARA’s website.

For more information on the Socio-Educational Disadvantage Loading, visit the Department of Education’s website.

For assistance about how to enter distance education students, please contact the Schoos IT Support team: SchoolsHUB@education.gov.au.

For more information about distance education students and how they affect Commonwealth recurrent funding, please contact the School Funding Calculations team: RecurrentFundingEstimates@education.gov.au.

The ARIA+ score is a measure of remoteness of the school set out by the Australian Centre for Housing Research – University of Adelaide. The 2011 ARIA+ score is used in the calculation of the Size and Location Loading.

In accordance with section 13 of the Australian Education Act 2013, a 2011 ARIA+ score of:

• 1, or less than 1 = Major City School
• more than 1, and less than 2.4 = Inner Regional School
• at least 2.4, and less than 6 = Outer Regional School
• at least 6, and less than 10 = Remote School
• at least 10, and less than or equal to 15 = Very Remote School.

The 2011 ARIA+ score is used in the calculation of the Size and Location Loading.

For a new school, the Department of Education (the department) cannot provide the precise 2011 ARIA+ score, therefore an indicative remoteness category must be used for the purpose of estimations.

For more information about your school’s remoteness, contact the School Funding Calculations team: RecurrentFundingEstimates@education.gov.au.

For more information about the Size Loading or Location Loading, visit the department's website.

Each school receives a base amount of recurrent funding under the Australian Education Act 2013.

The base amount is calculated using the total number of students at the school, the level of those students (primary or secondary) and the capacity to contribute percentage.

Schools with a capacity to contribute of zero attract the full base amount for all their students. Other schools receive a discounted base amount for all their students based on the school’s capacity to contribute score.

The capacity to contribute percentage is zero for the following schools:

• a government school
• a special school
• a special assistance school
• a school that is a Major Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander school for the year
• a sole provider school.

Schools may also receive loading amounts based on their student characteristics in addition to the base amount for:

• students with disability
• Indigenous students
• students with a disadvantage due to language or socio-education background.

Schools may also receive loading amounts based on their school characteristics, such as their size and geographic location.

For more information on the base amount, visit the Department of Education’s website.

The Online Estimator only provides an estimation of a school’s Commonwealth recurrent funding entitlement. It does not contain all the relevant factors that may impact on funding and, therefore, may not match actual payments in all cases.

Indexation rates used in the Online Estimator are updated with the latest actual and estimated rates. Due to the timings of updates, the estimated rates may differ to the rates used in actual payments. For more information on indexation, including the latest rates available, visit the Department of Education's website. 

The estimate calculated by the Online Estimator only relates to the recurrent funding paid to a school by the Commonwealth. It does not include funding amounts paid by the state and territory government, any offsets/recoveries due to funding adjustments, or other types of Commonwealth funding, such as capital funding.

You should not rely solely on the estimation calculated by the Online Estimator and should always seek professional financial advice before making financial decisions.

The Online Estimator calculates a school’s Commonwealth recurrent funding entitlement estimate as GST exclusive.

Please note, actual payments made for a school’s Commonwealth recurrent funding entitlement are calculated and paid as GST inclusive.

Every school record is refreshed overnight to display the latest information held by the Department of Education. 

If you need assistance accessing or using the Online Estimator, please contact the SchoolsHUB helpdesk on 1800 677 027 (select option 1) or email SchoolsHUB@education.gov.au. 

If you have any questions about the data or calculated estimations in the Online Estimator, contact the School Funding Calculations team: RecurrentFundingEstimates@education.gov.au.