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.  For example, ZG298 and ZG299 are reports that can effectively be used for daily monitoring of funds.

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 requested a budget amendment, check to ensure that BOTH SIDES of the amendment were posted correctly. If there is anything on the reports that you don’t understand, please call to get an explanation.

Budget Amendments or transfers are required before encumbrances or expenditures are made that will exceed the available appropriation balance of a functional spending category, i.e. Instruction (11), Administration (23), etc.  Budget transfers between functional categories require Associate Superintendent and Board approval.  These budget amendments 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. 024, 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.

After completing the following information on the budget amendment form, forward the signed document to the Budget Office for approval.

Budget Amendment Request Form

1. Issuing School/Dept – Name of school or department initiating budget amendment request.

2. Date – Current date (month, day, year)

3. Fund Amended – Name of Fund (#199 = Local Maintenance, etc.)

4. Fund Code – Detail three digit code for applicable fund.  List only one fund per form. (Ex. #199, 2XX, 411, 461, etc.)

5. Account Code – Detail codes for each applicable budget code.

6. Amounts – Decrease and Increase budget appropriations.  Round to whole dollars only.

7. Description of Reason – Provide sufficient explanations for budget amendments.  Avoid using general statements such as: ‘to cover budget deficits’ or ‘As needed’. 

8. Signatures – Obtain signatures of the Principal/Director and Associate Superintendent, if required before forwarding budget amendment to the Budget Director. 

The Budget Amendment form can be found on the Download Forms page.

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Last modified: 07/12/07