Internal accounts offer schools a faster, more convenient way to handle the income and expenses that result from student fees, school clubs and organizations, field trips, fund-raising, and similar activities. But this convenience also incurs the added risk of fraud. Fortunately, there are proven ways to strengthen internal controls and reduce…

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…

This report describes statistical indicators developed by the Council of the Great City Schools and its member districts to measure big-city school performance on a range of operational functions in business, finance, human resources and technology. The report also presents data city-by-city on those indicators. This is the second time that…

The listed guidelines for keeping track of petty cash in the schools are organized into three areas--making sure each school has an adequate method of collecting and banking money, adopting a simple and uniform bookkeeping system, and promoting fiscal responsibility. (IRT)

Describes several options for school districts to comply with Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) Statements 34 and 35 that require school districts to inventory their fixed assets and measure the value of these assets over their estimated life for inclusion in their financial statements. Information about GASB Statements 34 and 35 is…

The purposes of this handbook are to help improve internal systems for auditing funds received from student activities and to help ensure that school board policies and good business practices are being followed. After brief introductory sections, the document discusses internal auditing functions and standards and notes the internal auditing…

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…

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…

Two accounting strategies for classifying college or university endowment losses are compared: reduction of permanently restricted net assets and reduction of unrestricted net assets. The approaches differ in their effects on classification of net assets only when capital losses on endowment investments bring the fund below the level required in…

This handy desk reference will help readers and their institutions develop and maintain a professional environment that will maximize efficiencies and provide the necessary skills to properly manage operations and portfolios while ensuring that students receive fair and equitable service and opportunities. Written for business officers, financial…

This booklet on the finance of education is designed for nonfinancial administrators and trustees of institutions of higher education. It is meant to familiarize such educational officers with basic concepts, ideas, terminology, and practices in the financial realm. No attempt is made to present analytical details, economic elaborations, or…

This guide to zero base budgeting (ZBB) offers information intended to be useful to those implementing this system in schools. Beginning with an explanation of zero base budgeting, the paper then enumerates the advantages of such a system. Zero base budgeting design is then explained as well as the assumptions that underlie the system. Suggested…

This report is the result of an audit of selected financial management practices of the State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany for the period April 1, 1992 through July 31, 1994. The audit addressed the following practices: cash, payroll, purchasing, revenue accounting, accounts receivable, and computer contingency plans. The report…

Discusses the importance of good management in controlling accounts receivable if the school newspaper is to see greater profits. (HOD)

A discussion of the Financial Accounting Standards Board's new accounting standard No. 117, which concerns colleges and universities as nonprofit organizations, looks at new provisions and reporting requirements. Methods for producing the required cash flow statement are outlined, and the use of cash flow ratios is examined. (MSE)