2007-08 Adopted Plan - Wake County Public School System

Budget Administration and Management ProcessTransfersThe budget is a spending plan based upon a series of assumptions.Rarely will all of the actual expenditures equal the detailed budget estimatesas adopted. Adjustments to individual items may become necessary.Funds can be transferred from one account to another within theguidelines of the particular funding source. If circumstances or variableschange from those defi ned in the Plan for Student Success, budget transfersare submitted to realign fi nancial resources, including documentationto explain why the realignment is necessary.Budget transfers can be submitted by fax or e-mail by the primary budgetmanager to the budget department. A copy of the budget transfer formis available to download on our internal website (http://www2.wcpss.net/forms/).AmendmentsPrimary budget managers submit budget amendments when new fundsneed to be added to the budget or if funds need to be removed from thebudget. Revenues not included in the adopted budget must be approvedfor acceptance by the board of education.Funds CheckingThe Oracle fi nancial system is currently confi gured to monitor availablefunds at the program level, with separate subtotals monitored for salary/benefi t accounts and purchased services/supply/equipment accounts.Budget managers are notifi ed if spending patterns exceed 10 percentof a roll-up balance. At that trigger, transactions must be analyzed andaction taken by the budget manager. If there has been an error, it mustbe corrected through the appropriate department (payroll, purchasing,accounting). If data is correct, then a budget transfer should be submittedwith supporting documentation to realign dollars or transactions mustbe recoded to another funding source.Management Information and ReportingThe school system maintains an interactive, on-line budgetary controlsystem that provides real-time data on individual accounts. The systemalso maintains a general ledger, payroll, and voucher system thatprovides detailed historical transactions. Monthly summary and detailreports can be submitted by budget manager for their area of responsibility.Monthly reports are also provided to Wake County.The information is important and relevant in evaluating the fi nancial conditionof the district. The reports produced from the computer system aredesigned to meet internal and external needs of the district. Reports aregenerated for revenue as well as expenditure accounts.The district also prepares a Comprehensive Annual Financial Report(CAFR) to report the results of operations. The CAFR includes suchreports as a combined balance sheet for all fund types and a combinedstatement of revenue, expenditures, and changes in fund balances for allgovernmental funds.According to G.S. 115C-288: The principal shall maintain a copy ofthe school’s current budget and school improvement plan, includingany amendments to the plan, and shall allow parents of childrenin the school and other interested persons to review and obtainsuch documents.Quarterly Financial ReviewsThe chief business offi cer, finance offi cer, and senior director of budgetmeet with each chief and with the area assistant superintendentsand their principals on a quarterly basis to review human and fi nancialdata such as vacancy rates, lapsed salaries, revenue collections, andexpenditure patterns. Internal controls and risks are also discussed eachquarter.Fraud HotlineThe Internal Audit Department provides a fraud hotline for anonymouscomplaints. That number is 1-866-674-4872.82