A.C.A. §6-17-914 requires that the Annual Financial Report and Budget (AFRB) shall be filed with the Department no later than September 15. Please note that September 15, 2001 falls on a Saturday. Although districts will be able to submit on Saturday, support personnel will not be available to assist districts on that day. The Department will check for compliance with this legally required submission deadline at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, September 17. The following penalties are required by A.C.A. §6-17-914:
1. Warrants or checks issued after September 15 shall be invalid unless the AFRB has been submitted.
2. The ex officio financial secretary and his surety shall be liable for any warrants or checks countersigned after September 15 if the AFRB has not been submitted.
3. All grants and aids from the State shall be suspended until the AFRB is submitted.
The Department has conducted Cycle 1 training workshops to help districts prepare for this submission deadline. Cycle 1 has been distributed and is available for districts to submit. In order to ensure compliance with the September 15 deadline, the Department strongly recommends each district establish a timetable of internal deadlines. This timetable should include the following deadlines:
1. Correct AFR coding exceptions for actual revenue/expenditures in FMS.
2. Complete reconciliation of page 3637 (maintenance salaries and FTEs in APSCN Applications or SIS Cycle 1).
3. Update FMS Software assignment codes for administrative changes.
4. Journal entry July 2000 beginning activity fund balances, year to date revenues and year to date expenditures if not processing activity funds on the system.
5. Close Period 13 (interim or final close).
6. Complete the budget in FMS Budget Preparation and post to Financial Accounting.
7. Check for and correct any AFR coding exceptions for budget revenue and expenditure coding errors in FMS.
8. Pull Cycle 1, print, analyze, and correct paper reports to be submitted with the AFRB (superintendent?s signature page, Level II financial report, FTE report, legal balance report).
9. Request onsite assistance, if needed, from APSCN field support personnel.
10. Review and approval by school board.
11. Submit Cycle 1, with time allotted for corrections.
The Department recommends Items 1-7 be completed by August 20, 2001. Districts are encouraged to request assistance from APSCN support now, instead of closer to the deadline. In order to assist districts with budget development, the Department will publish the amount of Isolated Funding and Revenue Loss Funding to be distributed via Director?s Memos FIN-02-007 and FIN-02-008, respectively, by August 17, 2001.
The APSCN and Public School Finance Sections are available to assist in whatever way they can.