Accounting and Auditing

Spreadsheet Issues, 2008-2009 End of Year Financial Report

October 14 2009

School officials completing the FY09 End of Year Financial Report (EOYFR) are encouraged to contact ESE about any technical difficulties they encounter (downloading and uploading, macros, printing, cell references, etc). If such problems are confirmed, this document will identify them and explain how to correct them if necessary.

1. Amendment smart form

   Amendments can be made using the automated amendment smart form on the secure portal. The application is now available.

   Do not use Firefox as a browser for this application.

   Amendments from the previous week will be processed by the end of the day each Monday.

2. School committee expenditures total, undistributed, line 1850, column 5

   Cell I466 on the eoy09 spreadsheet does not include civic activities and community services. That cell reference will be inserted by ESE after a district's file is submitted this fall.

3. Edit 2 tuitioned out vocational pupils as reported in October 2008 SIMS.

   In certain districts, particularly vocational regionals, the number of tuitioned out vocational pupils is incorrect. The correct numbers will be inserted and the edit will be re-run by ESE after a district's file is submitted this fall.

4. Edit 6 labels are off by one column.

   The column labels in column c, rows 127, 210, 293, 376, 459, 542, 625 and 713 refer to last year's columns in schedule 1 C2 (expenditures from grants and special funds). The edit formulas are correct. The labels will be fixed by ESE.

5. Line 3930, Schedule 4 is intended to capture any special education expenditures from grants or revolving funds (not including circuitbreaker, which should be included in the lines above. Even though it is directly below the "total tuition" line, line 3930 is not limited to tuition expenditures.

6. Obtaining amended ESE copies of FY08 end of year financial reports.

   The final ESE copy of any district's EOYFR from last year can be emailed or posted in the security portal upon request.

7. Obtaining amended ESE copies of FY09 end of year financial reports.

   We will post the final version of every district's FY09 report to the dropbox in July, 2010. In the meantime if you need a copy reflecting all amendments to date, contact Lynn McKnight at 781-338-6511 lmcknight@ESE.mass.edu and she will post the current file. Remember that amendments are processed every Monday, so wait until after that to make the request.

   Helpful Hints

   • If you get a macro error on schedule 3, it may be that you are using a version of the file that has been saved with a name other than the standard "08eoy***.xls" (where the *** represents your three-digit lea code). Save the file under the original name and the problem usually disappears.

   • Enabling macros: macros must be enabled for the schedule 3 update or print macros to work. Some spreadsheets have security set at the highest level in the "tools\macros\security" menu. A lower level usually works, although in some cases it is a local network problem.

   • Remember that there is a print menu: hit "control p".

   • If numbers appear on the screen as asterisks, use a higher zoom level (View\Zoom).