Letter - 2004-2005 PI 1504 SAFR and PI 1505 SE Budget Report Instructions

Date: October 21, 2004

To: School District Administrators

From: David Carlson, Director
School Financial Services Team

Re: 2004-2005 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.

PI 1504 SAFR Budget Report Program - Due Friday, December 10

The Budget Report program will open on Monday, November 15 and will be due on Friday, December 10. To locate the program on the Internet go to the School Financial Services Team home page and select the "Reporting Instructions - All Reports" link under the "General Information" heading and then select the "PI 1504 Financial Budget Report Data" link. These instructions will direct the district to the location of the report.

A listing of the account changes new to the 2004-2005 Budget Report are located under the "WUFAR" link on the left hand scan bar of the team's home page. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and select the "Appendix B - Revision #4" link. These changes have also been added to the "Allowable Account Classification by Fund" links located on the same page as Appendix B.

Districts will also notice as new to the 2004-2005 Budget Report a shared cost comparison report. This report compares the shared cost generated in the Budget Report with the shared cost data of the 2003-2004 PI 1506 AC report. The team strongly recommends that district staff review this report for shared cost reasonability between fiscal years. It is designed as another check for accuracy of the district's data.

The team reviewed the results of the submission process of the 2003-2004 Budget Report which was due last December. The area of the budget report that district staff had most difficulty with was the reporting of debt. Most of the technical assistance provided by team staff was in the area of reporting debt principal and interest payments in addition to beginning and ending debt service fund balances. As a result the team has developed a debt amortization table report that districts will be required to complete by the end of this fiscal year. District staff may find it useful to complete the Debt Report in anticipation of completing the Budget Report. This report is called "Debt Home" and is located on the district's "Financial Data Home" page within the reporting portal. Proper input of district amortization schedules will assist districts in the identification of the dollar amounts that district staff will need to enter into the Budget Report.

As a reminder, districts cannot submit the budget report 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 department's database that interacts with the budget report program. Districts cannot pass the tax levy edits 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 accurately and submit 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.

For those district staff that has never completed a PI 1504 Budget Report or a PI 1505 Annual Report, it is recommended that they view the SAFR teaching tutorials. The tutorials can be found by selecting the "Training" link on the left hand scan bar of the team's home webpage or directly at dpi.wi.us/sfs/training.html. 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 located under the "Training" link.

PI 1505 SE Special Education Budget Report - Due Friday, November 19

The reporting requirements for this report are the same as in prior years. 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/speced.html.

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

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