As schools are in the business of educating students, academic performance should be the primary outcome by which a charter school is evaluated. But a charter school cannot provide students with a good education if it cannot meet payroll, afford to keep the lights on in the building, or worse yet, improperly uses public funds that should be spent…

Accounting controls are primarily concerned with methods and procedures that safeguard an entity's assets and ensure the reliability of its financial records. This article discusses internal control objectives as applied to educational institutions, outlines specific steps necessary to develop an effective internal control system, and mentions…

This school's accounting staff got a handle on their workload through computerization, choosing the software and computer system and learning to use it with a minimum of help. (DCS)

In 1984 the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, created to solidify accounting principles for government entities, enumerated Generally Accepted Accounting Principles endorsed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the National Council on Governmental Accounting. These principles have recently been approved for school…

Just as ice cream comes in many flavors for different tastes, fund balances need to be reserved and designated to meet school district plans and commitments. This article examines accounting principles and other issues determining the segregation and size of a school district's fund balance, a legally restricted reserve that can affect the…

Alerts public school business officials to a financial reporting concepts statement to be issued by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board in late 1986. The new directive will outline four objectives concerned with accountability procedures, resource management and compliance information, operating results, and future financial capabilities.…

Increasingly sophisticated analyses of costs and revenues have contributed to more effective financial management in higher education, with attention focused on ways in which fixed and variable factors contribute to direct or unit costs; analyses of cost-revenue relationships; differential effects of one-time and recurring costs; variety of…

Examines traditional costing models utilized in higher education and pinpoints shortcomings related to proper identification of costs. Describes activity-based costing systems as a superior alternative for cost identification, measurement, and allocation. (MLF)

This article describes the benefits one gets when big schools roll out highly effective eProcurement systems--strategic improvements and savings. eProcurement systems are hot again in higher education, driven by unrelenting cost containment demands, along with industry shifts that have consolidated choices and brought top products to the…

Discusses an April 1986 Governmental Accounting Standards Board statement concerning disclosures of repurchase and reverse repurchase agreements. The statement tries to help financial statement users assess the risks a goverment entity takes when investing public funds. It is effective for financial statement periods ending after December 15,…

Explains the importance of comprehensive annual financial reports, including introductory, financial, and statistical sections. Advises school districts to pay special attention to the letter of transmittal, which should provide information on services, financial highlights, economic forecasting, accounting principles used, and other pertinent…

Highlights projects and statistics of the Association of School Business Officials' Certificate of Excellence in Financial Reporting by Schools Program. (MLF)

This paper presents a standard costing model appropriate for determining real costs of programs which are not entirely self-contained. Central to the model is the concept of allocation pools involving resources which are not attributable to a single program or program component, but whose costs must be shared by any given program which is part of…

California's official school accounting procedures, amended in 1984 to clarify definitions and improve program cost accounting, are presented. Following an introduction that discusses general characteristics of school accounting, the manual explains the following areas of accounting practice: (1) financial reporting; (2) income; (3) expenditures;…

This book is a tool for Illinois school business officials, superintendents, and other administrators with budgeting responsibilities. It is also a resource for school board members. The foreword describes the financial responsibilities of the school board along with the caveat that financial management is staff work, not board work. Detailed…