Budget Format Survey
Jim Ambrose
12 May 1999
________________________________________________________________
May
12, 1999
Dear
Colleagues,
As of today, twenty schools
reported on their budget format; thanks are due to all who responded. It is a
small sample, but not much appears to have changed from when Dan did a more
extensive survey 15 years ago. Only one school uses a program format, two use
some sort of combination line-item/program format and the remaining 85% all use
line item budgets.
Some
comments:
Custom software permits
compilation by program, to a degree.
Given administrative
turnover, developing a program budget takes time and is difficult to maintain
effectively.
The program component of
our budget provides enough information for our board and the line item
component helps the administration track everything.
We use the old federal
accounting handbook categories for schools, breaking it down by
program/expense.
We try to give autonomy
to principals: large categories of the budget are based on program need and
allow for shifting annually as needed.
We are moving to
analysis of the budget by program, grade level, etc.
The program budget we are
working with is too complex: too many accounts, is unwieldy, entry takes a long
time, users tend to invent codes, it is not compatible
with the software to allow data to be easily extracted.
We
have divided our line item budget into cost centers.
Sincerely,
Jim
Ambrose