Digital wallet services are changing the way individuals transfer funds. Personal spending is becoming increasingly digital. Companies have been pioneering digital wallet technology for personal payments since 2011, with Google being the first major corporation to offer mobile wallet technology. Now, these highly secure online payment tools are making their way from our personal lives into the business world.
Many industries are adopting digital wallet technology due to its highly secure transactions, reporting capabilities, and ease of use. Organizations also need to keep up with their employees’ expectations. Many people have used some version of a digital wallet for more than a decade, so it makes sense that businesses and non-profit organizations are eager to adapt the technology for their own purposes.
Many school finance leaders are also moving toward digital wallet use. Adopting a digital wallet for your school district can bring tedious and laborious processes into the future—saving your district time and money along the way.
The same digital financial tools individuals and corporations use to purchase goods and services can be leveraged by school districts to make funding classrooms easier while also demonstrating to communities that your school values progressive, future-forward practices. The following article outlines what exactly a digital wallet is and three benefits it can bring to your school system.
For entities like school districts, a digital wallet is a way to allow personnel to make flexible—but controlled—purchases without the added burden of documenting and approving physical paperwork each time a staff member needs to buy office supplies or renew a subscription service.
School administrators appropriate funding to multiple users and establish spending rules and restrictions on how those funds can be spent. Staff is then able to purchase goods and services with pre-approved vendors and service providers, without needing to wait on a purchase requisition form to be reviewed by the district’s financial team.
Digital wallets save time for everyone from the front office to the central office.
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Everyone has a lot on their plates—especially at the start of a new school year. The last thing anyone needs to be dealing with is chasing purchase order documents and saving physical receipts to secure the supplies they need to do their jobs. For educators and staff, there are few things more frustrating than waiting on funds to be reimbursed or not being able to buy supplies because of a paperwork holdup. Digital wallets solve this problem.
Access to a digital wallet makes purchasing essentials quick and painless. The school administrators pre-determine a spending budget and an approved vendor list. Purchase requests are approved digitally, so approved personnel are able to buy what they need without waiting on paperwork that is carried from building to building across the district.
Finance teams know that every penny spent or received must be documented. Before digital wallets, that meant someone had to spend time meticulously reviewing and storing receipts and creating financial reports. This could potentially take someone hours to complete, with no additional staffing resources to handle the mountains of paperwork, some duties might not get the same level of attention or your team may suffer extreme burnout and turnover.
A digital wallet solves this problem. It stores every transaction receipt online and lets your district automate reports that have traditionally been handled manually. With so much that needs to be done in a school setting, saving time on paperwork lets your district teams focus on other important tasks.
Automated reporting and documentation mean that districts using a digital wallet can also save on labor costs. It’s estimated that manually processing a single transaction can be up to $150. This labor cost is the same whether the purchase order is for 500 new desks or five more classroom notebooks. Teachers and other staff don’t typically make large-scale purchases on their own, so it’s likely that the majority of purchase requests are for smaller amounts. Spending up to $150 each time someone needs to make a small purchase can easily cost a school thousands of dollars each year in labor.
Of course, the purchasing needs of each district will be different. Regardless of how schools choose to manage their finance teams and distribute labor, moving to an automated process is likely to save your office staff time and your district money.
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When it comes time for an audit, your purchase history is quickly and easily accessible, so you don’t have to stress about proving where the money is going. Each transaction history is securely stored, so lost receipts and missing documents are a thing of the past.
The reports are also generated in real-time, so even last-minute or unanticipated purchases will be available in the online reports generated by the digital wallet. This means your school can confidently provide its financial data to auditors and other stakeholders at any time without being delayed by chasing paper trails.
Having a digital wallet for your school does more than just move purchase requests along faster and free up everyone’s time. It also demonstrates to your school community that you’re committed to innovation and progress.
With their increased security measures and added conveniences, digital wallets are rising in popularity for individual consumers—and this trend is likely here to stay. Rather than cling to antiquated purchasing processes, it’s vital that districts embrace digital innovations as much as possible. They increase efficiency, have the potential to boost morale, and they strengthen a school’s position as a place that champions technological advances and encourages continual growth.
For schools to adequately prepare students for an increasingly technological world, district leaders first must be willing to set the example and engage with new digital resources themselves. Adopting a digital wallet can help you lead by example and show your community that your district is the right place to ready students for continual change.
At ClassWallet, our mission is to eliminate the burden of the purchasing and reimbursement process so you can stay focused on your mission of making a difference—for your school, your students, your teachers, and your community. Contact us today to see how we can help your school.