Account List

Budget Preparation's Account List table contains records for the accounts (objects) used in your Expenditure, Revenue, and Project ledgers. Besides storing account titles and subtotal structures, these records allow you to associate percentages with accounts for budget increases and decreases. In addition to entering increases and decreases for individual accounts, you can also perform a mass update, as described later in this section.

You can also create accounts for salaries and benefits following the procedures in the next topic, Account Fringe Benefits.

Most of the account records you need for your budget are loaded into the table by the Extract Information option. The system selects accounts based on ranges in the Budget Preparation Profile. After an extraction, you can add and delete account records and change existing ones.

If you are beginning to plan for a new budget year and your account structure will be changing, you can use the ESSA - Budget Preparation option on the e-Forms & Tools menu to import your new structure. For details, refer to ESSA Account Structure Update.

For information on adding, updating, deleting, and printing Account List records, refer to the standard procedures in the opening section, Overview of Reference Tables. The default file name of the Account List report is account.rpt.

Menu Path:  Budget Preparation > Reference Tables > Reference Tables > Account List

Action Bar Item

The Action Bar on the Account Listing page displays the following item after you run a search for records:

Mass Update Enables you to apply budget increase/decrease percentages to multiple accounts. For information on using this option, refer below to the section Performing a Mass Update.

Setting Up the Account List

Because Budget Preparation's Extract Information option copies Account List records from Fund Accounting, you most likely will not need to use the Account List option to enter your entire account structure. However, if the Account List is not established in Fund Accounting, you must set up the table in Budget Preparation.

For information on planning and setting up your account structure,. refer to the Fund Accounting Account List Reference Table.

Note

If your account structure needs to be changed in accordance with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), refer to the PowerSchool ERP Budget Preparation Account Structure Update User Guide for details on converting account structures.

Using Account List Budget Projections

For the most part, you will use the Account List to enter budget projection percentages. Your budget administrators can then use the Budget Administrator center's Apply/Move Budget option to apply these percentages against your ledger accounts at the Requested, Recommended, and Future Year approval levels to project their budgets for the upcoming year.

Following are some Important points to keep in mind regarding how Account List budget projections are applied.

Percent of Current Year Completed

This setting determines the Current Year Estimate (or Projected) value for ledger accounts at the Requested level. The formula for calculating the current year's estimated expenditures or revenues is:

Current Year YTD ÷ Percent of Current Year Completed

For example, if the Current Year YTD is 75,000 and the Percent of Current Year Completed is 50%, the projected value is 150,000 (75,000 ÷.50).

The Percent of Current Year Completed field also appears in Organization Chart records. If percentages are stored in both the Organization Chart and Account List, the system adds the two. Generally, we recommend that you enter the percentages in one of the tables and leave the other set to its zero defaults.

Requested Percent Increase Or Decrease

Recommended Percent Increase Or Decrease

These fields determine increases and decreases at the Requested and Recommended levels. The system uses the following formula in its calculations:

Current Year Budget x (1.00 + Percent Increase/Decrease)

For example, if the Current Year Budget is 10,000, and you project a 5% increase, the budget calculation is 10,000 x (1.00 +.05) = 10,500.

The Percent Increase/Decrease settings also appear in Organization Chart records. If percentages are stored in both the Organization Chart and Account List, the system adds the two. Generally, we recommend that you enter the percentages in one of the tables and leave the other at its zero default.

Future Year Percentage Estimates (2nd Year - 5th Year)

These settings enable you to project budgets for the four years following the immediate budget year. In calculating future projections, the system updates the Future Year fields in ledger accounts using the following formula:

Highest Level Budget Available x (1.00 + Future Year Percentage)

The highest level budget can be one of the following:

• Current Year Budget (lowest level)
• Requested Budget
• Recommended Budget
• Approved Budget
• Future Year Estimate (highest level)

For example, if the Current Year, Requested and Recommended budgets are the only budgets set up so far, the system will use the Recommended budget to calculate the 2nd year estimate. It will then use the 2nd year estimate to determine the 3rd year estimate, and so forth. At each step, the system applies the Future Year Percentage for the corresponding year and the highest level budget stored for the current budget year. However, previous future year estimates will not be used to determine new estimates.

The percentages used in these calculations can be entered in both the Account List and Organization Chart. If percentages are stored in both tables for a particular future year, the system adds the two when it performs the calculation. Generally, we recommend that you enter the percentages in one table and leave the other set at its zero defaults.

Performing a Mass Update

Use the Account Listing page's Mass Update action item to make or change budget projection and allocation information for a group of account records all at once.

If you are making the same projections for most of your accounts, we recommend that you first perform a mass update, then access and change any individual accounts that need to be adjusted.

For descriptions of the fields in the Mass Change to Account List Projections page, refer below to the Budget Projection Information Tab, Future Year Estimates Tab, and Period Allocation Tab sections under Fields.

Updating projections for a group of Account records

1. Select Budget Preparation > Reference Tables > Reference Tables > Account List to display the Account Listing page.
2. In the Search Criteria section, enter criteria identifying the records to list, and then click Find. To run an advanced search, use the Advanced button.
3. On the Action Bar, click Mass Update to display the Mass Change to Account List Projections page.
4. In the Budget Projection Information and Future Year Estimates sections, enter the budget projection percentages you want to apply to the selected project records.
   • Enter percentages in decimal format. For example, enter 5% as.05.
   • Use the minus sign in front of the percentage to indicate a decrease. For example, enter a 5% decrease as -.05.
   • You only need to complete the fields you want to update.
   • The system changes the values in the corresponding fields in the selected account records when you run the mass update. For example, if the Account List records selected contain a 5% increase in their 2nd year fields and you enter 6% in the 2nd year field, the mass update will change the 2nd year fields in the records selected to 6%.
5. In the Period Allocations fields, enter the percentage of the budget the system should allocate to each fiscal year period. These fields do not apply to Revenue Ledger and Project Ledger accounts.
6. Click OK.
7. In the Confirmation dialog, click Yes to update the selected records.

The Account Listing page's detail section has four tabs, one of which stores data identifying the account record and its subtotal structure, and the other three which store budget projection and allocation percentages. All of the fields in a record are optional, except Account Code.

Account Information Tab

Fields

Percentage Information Tab

Use this tab to set up the percentages the system will use when your budget administrators apply projections at the Requested and Recommended levels.

The following fields all accept eight digits, six of which follow the decimal point. Enter percentages as decimals. For example, enter 5% as 0.05. Use the minus sign in front of the percentage to indicate a decrease. For example, enter a 5% decrease as -.05.

Future Year Percentage Estimates Tab

Use this tab to determine percentages the system will use when your budget administrators apply budget projections at the Future Year level.

Period Allocations Tab

Use this tab to determine the percentage of an Expenditure Ledger account's budget the system should allocate to each fiscal year period. The allocations are calculated when you post the final budget to Fund Accounting. These fields do not apply to Revenue Ledger and Project Ledger accounts.