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Monitoring Budget Balances
The TEA Financial Accountability System Resource Guide (FASRG) stipulates that the Principal or Director has the responsibility: 1) to prepare the budget for their jurisdiction, 2) to review and revise the unit budget as necessary, 3) to control expenditures within authorized limits, 4) to review and analyze budget status reports and related comments in order to ascertain the progress toward meeting planned objectives, and 5) to submit a report for variances when requested by proper authority.
An important tool that may be utilized for monitoring the current status of your budget is the Finance Functions Section of the Office Management System. Various reports are available and can be printed directly from the General Ledger. In Frontline, you can go to the “My Accounts” screen and view your expenses.
It is the responsibility of the principal/director to ensure that postings are correct. The campus should work with the business office in reconciling Budget Balances. If there is an error on the reports, contact the appropriate business office to determine the steps needed to correct the error. If you have entered a Budget Change Request (BCR), check to ensure that BOTH SIDES of the BCR were posted correctly. If there is anything on Frontline that you don’t understand, please call to get an explanation.
Budget Change Requests are required before encumbrances or expenditures are made that will exceed the available balance of the budget code. Budget transfers between functional categories are reviewed by the Board of Trustees at their regularly scheduled monthly meetings. Funds may be transferred from ‘regular’ program (PRM code 011) to a ‘special’ program (Bilingual 025, Comp. Ed. 030, etc.) as necessary. However, special attention will be made to decreases to ‘special’ program budgets to ensure that adequate spending of State categorical funds is maintained. Managing the budget is a continuing process. Therefore, when amending your budget try to anticipate future needs in order to minimize budget transfers during the year. All Budget Change Requests must be submitted by the first Friday in August.
Link to Budget Change Instructions below:
Request Budget Change Instructions
Coordination of Funds
The principal should coordinate all funds at his/her disposal to accomplish the mission of the campus. This includes activity/Fiduciary (865) funds. These funds include two types of resources - the principal’s ACTIVITY accounts and the Fiduciary (865) funds held in trust for the benefit of particular student groups, over which the students retain control under the guidance of the campus administration. The activity funds are in fact an extension of the general funds under the control of the principal, and are subject to the same rules as the general fund. There are restrictions on the use of these activity funds for certain items. Refer to the Purchasing guidelines section of the Business Office Procedures Manual for guidance on those restricted items.
Other funds available to the principal are the various categorical funds that come from state, federal, and private sources. By all means, if you have a need for funds in order to serve a special population, contact the coordinator of that group’s program or your Associate Superintendent for Campus Development and see if there are funds available for that need. The coordinators will have limited coordination authority over these funds, and are primarily charged to assist the campus as a technical advisor in the administration of the special program.
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