Presented by:
Josh Eng
Regional School Business Director
San Diego
Email: Jeng@CSMCI.com
Kristen Nowak
Director of Client Engagement and Experience
Email: Knowak@CSMCI.com
- Backwards plan from authorizer due dates
- Ensure Board meetings are scheduled at an advantageous time
- Board approval before submission is a best practice
- Don’t just look at the date but also verify the time of the board meeting
- Plan to get submission documents to all parties one week before Board date
- Schedule budget revision meetings early, and true up for 1.31 actuals once you have the books closed for the month.
- Periodically check the FCMAT website for the latest LCFF calculator:
- Review your P1 and reassess your budgeted attendance projections.
- Familiarize yourself with where you can find apportionment schedules, as these amounts can change throughout the year (SPED, Title funding, ELOP, ESSERs, etc.).
- Consider services such as School Services of California – they often provide the latest financial projections in a simplified form (SSC Dartboard).
- Discuss and brainstorm with others – whether its your: auditor, back-office service provider, other charter leaders, your authorizer, etc.
- Present your 2nd interim budget(s) at your board meeting.
- Don’t just place on consent agenda or forego the opportunity to educate your audience
- Ensure all interested parties are aware of FY23’s LCFF COLA increases and what that means.
- Discuss impact (potentially) of declining enrollment and/or ADA %s on what additional funds the school may actually be receiving.
- Help staff understand how LCFF COLA % may not translate directly into staff raises.
- Address the impact of one-time funds and the risks of using for ongoing costs in the face of sunsetting revenue streams
- Reconcile payroll periodically(maybe at each interim if not more often) to ensure all actuals reflect the budgeted plan and employees are being charged to the correct funding source.
- Reconcile individual benefits and verify that they are being charged to the respective funding source that the employee is being charged to.
- Ensure you are maintaining adequate time and effort documentation for employees who are charged to the respective restricted funds.
- Be aware of the frequent minimum wage increases as of January 1st to ensure all staff meet/exceed the newly revised amounts. For exempt employees, this is based off monthly amounts rather than annual.
- YTD actuals through 1.31
- Remember to double check actuals YTD against annual budgets to ensure annual budgets meet and/or exceed annual amounts
- Refer to previous submissions and authorizer communications
- Ensure accurate and complete information on the certification page
- Include all required supplement submission documents
- Reference Unaudited Actuals and Audit Reports
- One of the biggest warnings/errors on any interims is not matching the Beginning Net Assets to last year’s UA as a starting point. This is one of the least understood areas of preparing reports.
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