SMART Finance News You Can Use

Read the April 27 memorandum regarding Career and Technical Education (CTE) Levy Reporting from Assistant Commissioner Angela Mansfield, Office of Educational Opportunity, and Sally Reynolds, Director of the Career and College Success Division. The CTE Levy reporting system will open May 2 for entering the anticipated FY25 (2024-2025 school year) budgets. Budgets must be entered for approved CTE programs by June 6.Minnesota Statutes, section 124D.4531, directs the Minnesota Department of Ed...

Below is a chart showing the related Course codes by fiscal year to be used for various Covid Federal grants. This chart is revised from MDE’s website with the Finance and Course numbers in each column. Covid Grants administered though SERVS must have the correct Course number. Before yearend, you can work on making sure your accounts are using the correct Course numbers. This will be discussed at our yearend meetings.  

Did you know that you can search for data using multiple fields on more than one line? This functionality works in all search windows (Account Analysis, Voucher Detail Summary, Payment Detail Summary, Invoice Detail Summary, Receipt Detail Summary, etc…). Enter a portion of the data you wish to pull and then click the “Find/Retrieve” icon. Need to start over? Just click the “Query” icon and update as needed 

As districts receive COVID funds, make sure the correct course number identifying fiscal year is used. Go to MDE’s web site and to see the latest flow chart for COVID accounts. Federal Relief Funds (mn.gov) 

If your district wants to create requisitions for FY24-25 in SMARTeR, the Accounting Calendar in SMART Finance needs to be opened through July (open the GL in both 202413 & 202414).To create a requisition for FY24-25, enter 07/01/2024 in the Date required field of the requisition entry screen.  This will change the GL period to 202401 on the detail lines of the requisition (Note:  Depending on the security level, the person entering the requisition may not see the GL Peri...

Need to change expense or revenue accounts because of UFARS requirements?  We have an Account Code Conversion program. If you have accounts that need to be changed (especially pandemic grant accounts), the account conversion program will allow mass changes with a single parameter line. The new accounts are built, the budget/actual is moved from the old accounts to the new accounts and the old accounts are shutoff. Region 1 runs this program for you. If you have a need for this, contact...

The SMART Finance Budget Workpapers can be a very useful tool for completing the FY24 budget. Here are some of the features that can be used: For both revenue and expense, as a starting point, copy the FY24 budget to FY25. For revenues, highlight the rows that have been addressed/changed by clicking the box in front of the account.  This will cause the line to highlight in yellow. For expenses, increase all accounts or ranges of account by a specified percent. For example, increase all...