2003-2004 PI 1504 SAFR and PI 1505 SE Budget Report Instructions

Date: October 17, 2003

To: School District Administrators

From: David Carlson, Director
School Financial Services Team

Re: 2003-2004 PI 1504 SAFR and PI 1505 SE Budget Report Instructions

Please route this mailing to district staff that complete the PI 1504 Budget Report and the PI 1505 SE (Special Education) Budget Report for your district.

The submission process for the 2003-2004 PI 1504 Budget Report data is significantly different from prior year reporting. A new Internet based reporting program entitled PI 1504 SAFR (School Aids Financial Reporting) will be used by districts to submit data electronically to the department.

PI 1504 SAFR Budget Report Program

The timeline for reporting budget report data is as follows:

November 10 - The program opens for district data entry. Districts can begin to enter data either manually or through the use of a vendor supplied "strip" data file. School Financial Services Team staff met with software vendors in the spring of 2003 to discuss the new report program requirements as they relate to data files.

November 29 - Those districts that have not successfully completed the submission process will be required to sign up for a date in December to complete and submit the report. By identifying a submission date district staff can be assured that designated school financial services team staff will be on call to provide technical assistance. The location of the December sign up process is on each district's home page within the School Finance Reporting Portal. Once a district clicks on the portal link and inputs the district ID and password, they will be at the district's reporting home page.

December 19 - Last day to submit budget report data.

The new budget report program includes a number of edits that had been previously a part of the desk audit process at the department. Districts cannot complete the budget report process until all checks and edits have been passed. One key edit, tax levies, is dependent upon data submitted by the district to the Department of Revenue (DOR) on form SD 401. DOR forwards that information to DPI which is then entered into the database that interacts with the budget report program. Districts cannot pass the tax levies edit until levy information has been received and entered into the department's database. Therefore, it is important that the district complete the PC 401 and SD 401 forms and send them to DOR as early as possible. The team will keep a log of district levies received from DOR under "Late Breaking Information." Once this data is on file, districts can complete the submission process. It should be noted that the district will print, complete and maintain the signature page on file at the district. There is no paper mailing to the department associated with this report.

On the team's home webpage under "General Information" are instructions for accessing the PI 1504 SAFR Budget Report through the Reporting Portal link.

For those district staff that did not attend the summer SAFR budget report workshops, it is recommended that they view the teaching tutorials that are based upon those presentations. The tutorials can be found by first clicking on the link, "School Aids Financial Reporting - SAFR," under the "General Information" heading on the team's home webpage. The tutorials are entitled, "Part 1 - Becoming Familiar with SAFR," and "Part 2 - Creating the Perfect File." Additionally, a series of Excel spreadsheet exercises designed to help districts pass the edits of the budget report program have been created. They are called the "Workbooks" and are also found under the "School Aids Financial Reporting - SAFR" link.

PI 1505 SE Special Education Budget Report - Due November 19

The reporting requirements for this report are the same as in prior years except that districts are to send the data file as an e-mail attachment to the following department e-mail address: *DPIsfsreports@dpi.wi.gov. Note that in the e-mail address the "*" is required and that "DPI" is case sensitive. Districts are to use the PI 1505 SE program that was previously installed on a district computer. There should be two versions of the PI 1505 SE installed on the computer. Ensure that district data is keyed into the newest version, "Special Ed Fiscal Reporting Program, Version 4.0," of the program. Instructions needed to complete the report are available for download from the Internet on the SFS team website. Click on the "Special Education Aid" link on the left-hand scan bar or go to dpi.wi.us/sfs/speced.html.

For any additional questions, contact one of the following School Financial Services Team consultants.

Brad Adams	(608) 267-3752	bradley.adams@dpi.wi.gov
Karen Kucharz	(608) 267-9707	karen.kucharz@dpi.wi.gov
Jerry Landmark	(608) 266-3464	jerome.landmark@dpi.wi.gov

The team's website is located at dpi.wi.us/sfs/index.html.

For questions about this information, contact dpifin@dpi.wi.gov (608) 267-9114

Last updated on 2/25/2008 12:04:09 PM