District Budgetary Overview Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

District Budgetary Overview - Essay Example The schools in the district would require prepare a budget for the period of July, 1 to June, 30 and submit the same for sanction of the governing body by July, 15. The three generally accepted accounting practices include the incremental budgeting, the zero based budgeting and the planning, programming, budgeting system. The incremental budgeting is done the district school where they adjust the budget of the previous year to that of the next year (Hosted, 2012). The zero based budgeting includes starting he budgeting at the beginning of the year. The planning, programming and the budgeting system includes the cost on a per pupil basis. Due to this accounting practice, the fluctuation of the budget is eliminated due to change of demographics. The superintendent and school board responsibilities for building a budget The responsibility of the superintendent and the school board is crucial for building the budget. The responsibilities range from forecasting the enrolment for the next year as compared to the current years, take feedbacks from the supporting staffs and confirm the final budget. The actual enrolment figures are tallied against the projected figures to produce an error free budget. The feedback from the operational staffs is taken to make necessary adjustment for meet the unplanned expenses. The final budget is prepared and presented to the school board for approval. The school board cross checks the evaluations and finally approves the budget for implementation. Key budget terminology The budget is a plan for the financial year in order to meet the expected expenses from the anticipated revenues. The key budget terminologies range from the accounting terminologies to financial terms and accountability of the governing body. Specific terminologies like revenues, expenses, accountability, cash flow, control, fiscal, forecast, supporting schedule are important. The budgetary revenues are the anticipated sources of income for the school and the budgeta ry expenses are the anticipated usage of funds of the school. The cash flow is budgeted and is based on the difference between the budgetary revenues and the budgetary expenses. The budgetary expenses are prepared for a fiscal of one year based on the forecast of the events anticipated in future. A supporting schedule of revenues and expenses are attached in the budget in order to indicate the time line of the cash flows. How the funds in the budget are balanced and coordinated The funds in the budget mainly comprise of government funds and fiduciary funds used for the development of the district schools and its operations. The government funds are allocated as per the specification of the government. The fiduciary funds are the funds available from sources other than the government. The funds are balanced and co-ordinate through budgetary control. The budgetary control is implemented with the help of periodic reports. The reports help to understand the gap between the actual expens es and the budgeted expenses. Thus monitoring and control of budgetary expenses help to balance and co-ordinate the funds (Warren,  Reeve and  Duchac, 2008). The budget monitoring and control is a significant aspect for controlling the expenses against the budgeted figures and provide the direction to achieve the target budgeted plan. The district's budget timeline The timeline for the budget the district is for a period of one fiscal year.