Centre Purchases

Each centre will be provided with a budget for expenditure such as curriculum resources, consumables, equipment, events, gifts. 

Centres will be able to develop their own centre practice for spending their budget as a whānau.  To make the best use of their time centres may need to agree on a list of standing orders for regular expenditure. They can decide on limits for these items, so that invoices can be paid promptly without the need for approval each month. 

It will be a good idea for centre whānau to,

1. check the budget variances prior to entering into discussions,
2. provide the Kaimahi with evidence of approval and where the funds will be spent from (Centres may choose to use money in one line for a different purpose or use their fundraised funds).

From there the Kaimahi  will check this falls within budget and if so will order the items online. If there are any issues they will come back to centre whānau.

The speed at which you purchase resources shouldn’t change significantly, although many of our accounts are now online, so delivery times should be factored in. Your Kaimahi will be at the Centre regularly to make purchases in line with the Centre’s needs.

Ideally all purchases will be made through suppliers we have contracts with and will require online ordering in most cases. We know this may not be practical to begin with, so immediate purchases can be done via expense claims submitted to the accounts payable team by set deadlines. Expense Claims are prioritized with the aim of a 7-day turnaround time and then verified by the approver.

Playcentre Aotearoa now has a national Office Max account, all kitchen supplies, baby products (nappies etc.), cleaning supplies, stationery and first aid supplies can now be bought on account via online ordering and delivery.  Orders can be placed via your Kaimahi or contact [email protected] to be set up.

Centres will have the ability to make choices within their allocated budget. Cleaning would be a cost that centres can choose to incur within their allocated funds, or maybe something they choose to fundraise for. 

Playcentre Aotearoa have national purchasing accounts with OfficeMax and Mitre10 and your Kaimahi will be able to order most of the supplies you need (e.g. kitchen, cleaning, art, play consumables) through an on-line account. Please contact AskProcurement for further information regarding your centre purchases & services, how to access them, and the various preferred suppliers available. The invoice will be paid by Playcentre Aotearoa and charged to your centre’s cost centre in Business Central.

National purchasing accounts have also been set up for other common suppliers, such as Meridian for power, with work continuing to expand the list of national suppliers. This puts the organisation on track to be able to move towards negotiating bulk buying discounts. An example of regular purchases and national suppliers follows.

All invoices will be entered into Business Central by the Finance team.  Your Kaimahi will verify the invoice in Business Central before it is charged to your centre. The invoice is then approved by a Kaimahi Support Lead and paid by the Finance team (usually on the 20th of the month).