SMART Finance News You Can Use

A Pleasant Surprise! MDE added a new economic indicator for Medicaid eligible families.  This means all Medicaid eligible families will automatically be eligible for Free/Reduced Meals which also means they will automatically generate Compensatory Revenue.  We are seeing substantial increases in FY24 Compensatory Revenue for all districts.

MDE has updated the COVID Funding summary document that includes the latest finance dimensions. This document is very helpful sorting out the UFARS requirements for COVID financial reporting.  Pay particular attention to the required course numbers for grants that cross fiscal years. Covid Grant accounts are good for only 1 year. New accounts need to be built with new course numbers each year.Here is the link for the MDE page that has the document: Federal Relief Funds (...

Now is a good time to review your FY23 Revenue Budget.  It starts by comparing current enrollment with the enrollment used for the original FY23 Revenue Budget. If you would like Region 1's assistance, please send us your latest FY23 enrollment and we will use the Budget Workpapers in SMART Finance to prepare a revised budget for your review. For a copy of the FY23 Revenue Projection Model on MDE’s website, visit this link:  Data Reports and Analytics (mn....

Just a reminder that it is important to code all eligible expenses for Career Tech correctly in UFARS. Finance code 830, Program Codes 301,311,321,331,341,361,365,371,385,399,and 610, and Object codes 140,143,185,305,365,366,394,396,406,433,490."Career Tech revenue is based on eligible expenditures. If your UFARS expenses are lower or higher compared to the estimate when you certified your levy, you will have adjustments on future revenue.To review your Career Tech expenditures in SMAR...

For Covid grants accounted for through SERVS, districts must match each SERVS grant application with UFARS by object and course. Please go to MDE/Data Center/Data Reports and Analytics/SERVS Financial Public Reports/UFARS/SERVS Comparison/ UFARS/SERVS Budget Comparison to see the details. You can also use this link Data Reports and Analytics (mn.gov)If you would like our help reconciling, send us the Approved Budget from SERVS. 

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 site https://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, Melissa or Wayne if you need ass...