Programme overview
Introduction:
Finance for office administrators and secretaries is rarely taught, yet administrative staff raise purchase requests, collect supplier invoices, hold petty cash floats and prepare expense claims every week. When this paperwork arrives incomplete, invoices are paid without a matching order, receipts go missing and a department discovers an overspend only when it is too late to act. This Core Concept course gives administrative staff the finance vocabulary and routines to process spending documents correctly and follow a departmental budget. Participants leave with a Departmental Budget Tracker and Expense Processing Checklist built for a case office.
Course Objectives:
- Explain the finance terms, expense codes and cost centres that appear on office spending documents and reports
- Prepare purchase requisitions and purchase orders that pass approval limits and segregation of duties checks the first time
- Check supplier invoices against the purchase order and delivery note and resolve three-way match exceptions with the supplier and finance
- Operate an imprest petty cash float and process employee expense and travel claims in line with policy
- Maintain a spreadsheet budget tracker showing budget, actual spend, reserved amounts and remaining balance for a department
- File spending records so that any transaction can be traced and evidenced for internal or external audit
Target Audience:
- Administrative staff who raise purchase requests and chase approvals for their department
- Secretaries and personal assistants who book travel, collect receipts and submit expense claims for managers
- Office coordinators who hold petty cash floats and company card spending for a site or team
- Departmental support staff who receive supplier invoices and pass them to accounts for payment
- Team administrators who keep spending logs and prepare monthly budget updates for their manager
Course Outline:
Day 1: Finance Basics and the Administrator's Place in Office Spending
- Spend Touchpoint Map: Where Administrative Staff Handle Money and Paperwork
- Finance Vocabulary Glossary: Cost Centre, Accrual, Credit Note, Sales Tax and Cash Flow
- Operating Versus Capital Expenditure Classification of Office Purchases
- Chart of Accounts Expense Code Lookup for Common Office Purchases
- Current-State Review of a Department's Spending Paperwork Using a Document Audit Checklist
Day 2: Purchasing Documents, Approval Rules and Internal Controls
- Purchase-to-Pay Process Map: Requisition, Purchase Order, Goods Receipt, Invoice and Payment
- Purchase Requisition Form Completion: Specification, Quotations and Budget Line
- Purchase Order Content and the No PO, No Pay Rule
- Delegation of Authority Matrix and Approval Limits for Office Spend
- Segregation of Duties Between Requester, Approver, Receiver and Payer
Day 3: Processing Supplier Invoices, Petty Cash and Expense Claims
- Supplier Invoice Checks and the Three-Way Match Against Order and Delivery Note
- Imprest Petty Cash Float: Vouchers, Receipts, Cash Counts and Replenishment
- Employee Expense Claim Form Preparation with Receipts and Cost Coding
- Travel and Hospitality Expense Policy: Per Diems, Allowable Items and Non-Claimable Costs
- Company Card Statement Reconciliation and Missing Receipt Declarations
Day 4: Budget Tracking, Audit Records and Spending Red Flags
- Departmental Budget Tracker in Excel: Budget, Actual, Reserved Amount and Remaining Balance
- Monthly Cost Centre Report Reading: Variance Columns and Year-to-Date Totals
- Audit-Ready Filing: Retention Periods, Naming Conventions and Digital Archive Folders
- Red Flags in Office Spend: Split Purchases, Duplicate Invoices and Altered Receipts
- Finance Team Service Requests: Month-End Cut-Off, Query Logs and Escalation Routes
Day 5: Case Office: Budget Tracker and Expense Processing Checklist
- Case Office Data Pack: Annual Budget, Orders, Supplier Bills and Petty Cash Vouchers
- Case Invoice Batch: Matching Exceptions and Supplier Queries
- Case Expense Claims and Petty Cash Replenishment Review
- Departmental Budget Tracker Build with Reserved Amounts and Remaining Spend Forecast
- Expense Processing Checklist Drafting and Peer Review Presentation
Skills You Will Gain:
- Finance Terminology
- Purchase Requisition Preparation
- Invoice Verification
- Petty Cash Custody
- Expense Claim Processing
- Budget Tracking
- Spend Control Awareness
- Audit Record Keeping
Why Attend This Course:
- Leave with a Departmental Budget Tracker and Expense Processing Checklist ready to adapt to your own office
- Stop invoices and claims bouncing back from finance because of missing orders, approvals or receipts
- Tell your manager at any point how much of the budget is spent, reserved and still available
- Compare spending routines with administrators from corporate, government, healthcare and education offices
Conclusion:
Administrative staff sit at the point where most office spending begins, so accurate paperwork at their desk saves time and money across the organisation. The course moves from finance vocabulary and expense codes, through purchase requisitions, orders, approval limits and segregation of duties, to invoice matching, petty cash and expense claims, then budget tracking, audit filing and spending red flags. The final day applies every routine to a case office and produces a Departmental Budget Tracker and Expense Processing Checklist.