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October 2020

07 October 2020

It's Time to Review UFARS Reporting Errors!

After Region 1 submits your UFARS data to the State, it’s time to review and correct UFARS reporting errors. To see if you have UFARS compliance errors, go to the MDE MFR web sitehttps://public.education.mn.gov/MDEAnalytics/DataTopic.jsp?TOPICID=9If you see ‘No Edit Errors Were Found. Congratulations!’ you have completed UFARS compliance. Otherwise, review the listed errors and post necessary JEs for corrections. Contact Stacy, Kameron, or Wayne if you need ass...

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07 October 2020

Budget Publication

According to MDE, the deadline to publish your Budget Publication report is November 30th, or within one week of the acceptance of the final audit report by the board, whichever is earlier. There are four reports in Smart Finance to help districts complete this Budget Publication. These reports automatically separate restricted from unrestricted fund balances, revenues, and expenditures. They are located under Custom Reports > Custom Ledger Reports > Budget Publication&helli...

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September 2020

01 September 2020

Finding Negative Expenditures

To find negative expenditures (which MDE doesn’t like when we send UFARS data), here is a short cut:Go to Account Analysis and enter Periods 202001 to 202013, enter an E in the L column and click Find. Once the screen is populated, click on the End Balance heading. All negative expenses will appear at the top of your screen. Negatives in chargeback objects 195,295,365,398,and 895 are ok and a negative in object 589 is ok. Click Reset to switch back to Account Code order...

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01 September 2020

UFARS Additions for Covid

For FY 21, related to the CARES Act, finance Code 154 will be added for the Coronavirus Relief Funds (CRF) that the state of MN recently requested. Finance Code 174 will be added for the County provided Coronavirus Relief Funds (some counties have passed along their funds to districts). Region 1 is waiting for MDE to officially release these accounts and update the Chapter X UFARS grid. We will let you know when these new dimensions are added to SMART Finance. For FY20, balan...

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July 2020

06 July 2020

New UFARS Codes

Region I has updated the UFARS dimensions and Chapter X grids to the new requirements for COVID-19. Here’s a link to the PowerPoint slides on MASBO’s website that discuss the new finance and source dimensions. https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.mnasbo.org/resource/resmgr/handouts/cares-funding-slides.pdf) Each district will need to build the finance dimensions in Account Segment Setup before building the new accounts. For revenue accounts, use source 400 with new finance dimensions ...

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May 2020

04 May 2020

Bank Reconciliation Tip

To be more efficient, you can attach a copy of your bank statement(s) directly to the Bank Reconciliation. Scan your bank statement(s) and save to a PDF file. In your Reconciliation Worksheet create a note and add the attached bank statement PDF file. The bank statement will now be available for you and your auditors at any time.

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04 May 2020

New FY20 Fund Balance Transfer Rules

Because of the expenses incurred with COVID-19, transfers between certain fund balances are being allowed for FY20 only. Now would be a good time to review all fund balances and determine if there is an excess in restricted areas where transfers are now being allowed. It would be to your benefit to transfer funds that will improve the unrestricted fund balance in 01-422-000. Improving the unrestricted fund balance will give districts more flexibility for future spending. ...

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August 2019

02 August 2019

Finding Negative Expenditures

To find negative expenditures (which MDE doesn’t like when we send UFARS data), here is a short cut:Go to Account Analysis and enter Periods 201901 to 201913, enter an E in the L column and click Find. Once the screen is populated, click on the End Balance heading. All negative expenses will appear at the top of your screen. Click Reset to switch back to Account Code order.

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September 2018

07 September 2018

Using Summary Screens and Account Analysis

Functionality has been added to summary screens and Account Analysis. You can click on any column heading item and change the sort order of the screen. For example, if you are using the Voucher Summary screen below, clicking on the Vendor Name column heading will sort the vendors in alphabetic order. If you want to go back to the original voucher number order, click the Reset button. You can also click and drag any column heading to different locations on the screen. ...

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August 2018

03 August 2018

Finding Negative Expenditures

To find negative expenditures (which MDE doesn’t like when we send UFARS data), here is a short cut. Go to Account Analysis and enter Periods 201801 to 201813, enter an E in the L column and click Find. Once the screen is populated, click on the End Balance column. All negative expenses will appear at the top of your screen. Click Reset to switch back to Account Code order.

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SMART Finance News You Can Use