Tricks, Tips & Trade Secrets (!) to Successfully Navigating the DPI SAFR PI-1505 Annual Report Tuesday, April 28, 2015 Session #9 9: :00 AM Carey Bradley Karen Kucharz Robbe School Financial Services, DPI

#1 Recommendation Start preparing for the DPI Annual Report at least 2-3 weeks BEFORE the due date! Don’t procrastinate! Don’t procrastinate! Start early…….allot PLENTY of uninterrupted time especially if you are new to the process.

Presentation Assumptions* Cash has been reconciled to the bank statements. Cash has been reconciled to the bank statements. (Do MONTHLY. You’ll run into trouble, if not.) All transactions have been posted to the ledger. All transactions have been posted to the ledger. Final Check Run & Payables, etc. Final Check Run & Payables, etc. Receivables & EOY Adjusting Entries (Name the batches so you can re-find them easily.) Receivables & EOY Adjusting Entries (Name the batches so you can re-find them easily.) Debits equal Credits. Debits equal Credits. Your audit has been completed. (Schedule early enough.) Your audit has been completed. (Schedule early enough.) District Ledger Reflects All the Financial Activity for the Fiscal Year * Assumes you have done all the year-end activities to ensure all the financial activity is accurately on the ledger: gathered all outstanding invoices/expenses from staff, liquidated purchase orders, completed final grant claims, etc. Not focus of this presentation.

Before You Start the Extraction Process from Skyward SAFR…… KNOW YOUR DATA! Run Skyward Reports to get grand total amounts to be used in comparing SAFR vs. Skyward AFTER you upload: 1.) Total Revenues and Expenditures for All Funds 2.) All Balance Sheet Beginning and Ending Balances (Have a copy of the district’s prior year SAFR Annual Report for reference.)

Annual Report Process Overview 1. Finalize Ledger in Skyward From Accounting Perspective Reconcile Cash Post All Transactions to Ledger Debits Equal Credits 3. Get Rejected Account Listing 4. Correct Rejected Accounts on Skyward Ledger 2. Load Skyward Software Updates to Your Financial Server 5. Get FINAL Extract File from Skyward 6. Upload File to SAFR 7. Make Sure SAFR Totals Match your Skyward Totals BEFORE you Start Working in SAFR 8. Start to Address the “Errors” in the SAFR Portal

Could take you some time to just track down this software update and get it installed on the Skyward server.

X X Should be !

Account Exceptions/Rejected Accounts If the account in this list has an amount, it will NOT make it to SAFR. You need to address/correct these.

Resource: Use online WUFAR matrices to find “allowable” accounts.

Let’s look at a few:

If you need to, go back to Skyward ledger and journal entry everything to the correct account. Start extraction process again from beginning. XX Should be !

Yes! Reminder: Do not make the changes here in the upload file. Your ledger will still be wrong. Go back into the ledger, journal entry to correct account, and re- extract.

XX Should be !

XX XX

Be sure to note where this download file is stored on your local drive. You’ll need to locate this file for the SAFR upload. XX Should be !

XX

SAFR (School Finance Reporting Portal) PI-1500 controls who has access to what reports - managed by 2 individuals in district. Call DPI if issues cannot be resolved locally.

The 4 Most Problematic SAFR Edits Rejected Accounts DPI Certified Amounts “On Record” Receivables, Grants, Aids Register, and Related Revenues 08B Long-Term Obligations (Debt Payments & Debt Tables)

Work on errors from top/down, left/right. Correct Beginning Balances before DPI Amount Errors

Annual Report Annual Report It makes sense that the ending balances from one year become the beginning balances for the next year, so………you’ll need to ensure ALL beginning balances in SAFR for ALL Balance tables match the ending balances from the previous Annual Report. (including the 08 balances) Balance Sheet Checking

DPI Amount Errors Certified Amount Errors, Tax Levy Errors, and Amounts “On Record” are all taken from either: 1.) information you have already reported to us via another report 2.) information we have provided via Aids Register, June and Delayed July Aid Payment Journal Entries, etc.

Expected levy amounts are taken from the district-submitted Tax Levy Report PI-401. cents vs no cents!!! Tax Levies

DPI June AND Delayed July Payment Adjusting Entries So, if you have a bookkeeper that, as a part of their job, automatically puts cash receipts on the ledger when they find a transmitted payment from DPI on the bank account, you might need to reverse what they did before you put these entries on.

DPI Amount Errors and the Aids Register

Grant reimbursement is received in , but the expenses are from (PY).

Grant Aid Amounts & Receivables If the cash from a grant reimbursement claim won’t be received by the district until AFTER the start of the new fiscal year, a grant receivable for the just-completed fiscal year needs to be booked in the ledger. In accrual accounting, revenue is booked in the fiscal year in which it is earned. The grant expenditure occurred in the just- ended fiscal year, so the district “earned” the revenue in the just-ended fiscal year; however, since the actual cash will not come until the “new” fiscal year, a receivable is used to account for the expected cash.

Grant Receivables Title I-A Basic and Title I-A State Program Improvement reimbursement claims are completed and sent to DPI in a timeframe whereby the cash reimbursement will not be received by the district until after June 30. $86, $11, TOTAL for Source 751 = $98,388.82

Grant Receivables Entry When the Cash Comes: Debit 10B Cash$98, (increase) Credit 10B Due from Oth Gov’nts $98, (decrease) Receivable Entry: Debit 10B Due from Oth Gov’nts$98, (increase) Credit 10R ESEA Title 1$86, (increase) Credit 10R ESEA Title 1$11, (increase) So, the entry for the cash when it comes in does not affect revenues because you already accounted for the revenue in the ledger, the same year as the corresponding expenditures!

Expected Value for Source 751 $272, – 98, , = $272, (expected Source 751) All 751s Aids Register

Compare what is in your debt schedules with what you have booked in your Annual. Might need to update the debt schedule. 08 Long Term Obligations

Phone: 608/ Website: Robert Soldner, Director ………………… Debra Towns, Asst. Director …………… Bruce Anderson, Consultant …………… Carey Bradley, Consultant ……………… Dan Bush, Consultant ……………………… Karen Kucharz, Consultant ……………… Victoria Chung, Accountant …………… Gene Fornecker, Auditor ………………… Brian Kahl, Auditor ………………………… Derek Sliter, Auditor ……….……………… (all Area Code 608) Call With Questions