SACS2009ALL Software: Known Problems/Fixes

Problem: Form 01I - General Fund Statement of Revenues, Expenditures, and Changes in Fund Balance (Posted 16-Nov-2009)

Amounts reported in Object 8590 for Resource 7391, School Community Violence Prevention Grant, extract into both the Resource 7391 line and the All Other State Revenue line, resulting in an overstatement of revenue on the interim periods Form 01I.

Fix: Save (do not open) this revised fundi-a template file – (VTS; 4MB; Revised 16-Nov-2009) to a temporary folder such as C:\SACS2009ALL\Temporary. To save, right click on the file name, click on Save Link As (or Save Target As), select (or create) the desired folder in which to save the file, then click Save. Once saved, copy the file from the Temporary folder into your C:\SACS2009ALL\Templates folder. Upon copying the file to the Templates folder, a message will display that the file already exists; select Yes to overwrite the existing template file with the revised file. To verify that you have replaced the old file, the date on the new template file in your C:\SACS2009ALL\Templates folder should be the same as or later than the revised date above (the file may have the date it was downloaded). Changing this file will not affect your data, other than to fix the double extraction.

Problems: Technical Review Check CHK-FUNDxOBJECT and Interim Period Fund Forms (Updated 27-Oct-2009)

2009–10 data, containing account code combinations that expired effective 2009–10 due to the categorical flexibility provisions of SBX3 4 (Charter 12, Statutes of 2009), passed in the SACS2009 Budget software but create a fatal technical review check (TRC) exception in the SACS2009ALL software, preventing official export of Interim period data. In addition, the object codes for the expired combinations were removed from the applicable Interim fund forms which create unbalanced data in the fund forms for funds where the expired combinations were used. The applicable combinations are:

Object 8435, Class Size Reduction - Grade Nine, with funds 01, 09, and 62
Object 8480, Charter Schools Categorical Block Grant, with funds 01, 09, and 62
Object 8540, Deferred Maintenance Allowance, with Fund 14
Object 8998, Categorical Flexibility Transfers, with funds 01, 09, 11, 12, 13, 14, 61, and 62

In order to do an official export, fatal invalid combinations must be corrected. Since adopted budget data is typically not changed once the budget is adopted, the fatal TRC exception generated for the 2009–10 Interim period Original Budget data invalid combinations cannot be corrected and cleared. In addition, the data that generates the fatal TRC exception will not extract into the applicable Interim fund forms, causing the forms to be out of balance.

Note that, during the Unaudited Actuals period it is not necessary to clear all Budget data TRCs to complete an official export, so this problem will not affect the official export for Unaudited Actual data. However, for those local educational agencies that adopt dual budgets, the September 8 Budget data invalid combinations must be corrected in order to complete an official export.

Fixes: CHK-FUNDxOBJECT TRC - Save (do not open) this chkfundxobjecttrc.txt file (TXT; Revised 21-Oct-2009) to your C:\SACS2009ALL\ subdirectory. To save, right click on the file name, click on Save Link As (or Save Target As), select the desired directory in which to save the file, then click Save. After saving the file, open the SACS2009ALL software and run the Update Tables process. From the Main Menu click File, then Update Tables. Click on Browse for Input File, select the updatechkfundxobjecttrc.txt file in the C:\SACS2009ALL\ subdirectory, and then click on the Update Tables button. A "processing completed" message will display upon completion. 

Interim Fund Forms - Save (do not open) these files: revised fundi-a template file - (VTS; 4MB; Revised 21-Oct-2009), revised fundi-b template file - (VTS; 2MB; Revised 21-Oct-2009), and revised fundi-e template file - (VTS; 2MB; Revised 21-Oct-2009) to a temporary folder such as C:\SACS2009ALL\Temporary. To save, right click on the file names, click on Save Link As (or Save Target As), select (or create) the desired folder in which to save the files, then click Save. Once saved, then copy the files from the Temporary folder into your C:\SACS2009ALL\Templates folder. Upon copying the files to the Templates folder, a message will display that the files already exists; select Yes to overwrite the existing template files with the revised files. To verify that you have replaced the old files, the date on the new template files in your C:\SACS2009ALL\Templates folder should be the same as or later than the revised date above (the files may have the date they were downloaded). Changing these files will not affect your data, other than to display the lines for the invalid combinations.

Note: These fixes will only be applicable for the 2009–10 Interim period Original Budget and Board Approved Operating Budget data. 2009–10 Interim period Actuals to Date and Projected Totals data and September 8 dual adoption Budget data must not include the invalid code combinations.

Problem: Form TRAN – Annual Report of Pupil Transportation, Schedule II, Line K (Posted 20-Aug-2009)

Indirect costs on Line K of SCHEDULE II include indirect costs on the Object 5100 expenditures reported on Line C5 and included in Line J. Since the California School Accounting Manual (CSAM) provides that Object 5100 costs are not eligible costs on which the indirect cost rate is applied (CSAM, pages 330-21, 915-7, and 915-9), net pupil transportation expense might be overstated.

Workaround: Form TRAN will not be revised for 2008–09. We realize this might overstate the Approved Transportation Expense reported on Schedule III, Line K for a few local educational agencies (LEAs) by the amount of indirect costs calculated on Object 5100 expenditures. Once the California Department of Education (CDE) has received all 2008–09 unaudited actual data, LEAs’ 2008–09 Approved Transportation Expense will be recalculated by reducing the expenditures on which indirect costs are calculated by the amount reported in Object 5100. The recalculated Approved Transportation Expense will be used to determine LEAs’ Pupil Transportation funding for 2009–10. LEAs whose transportation expenditures are very close to the amount of their transportation entitlements and include amounts for Object 5100 should review all transportation data for  accuracy so that the CDE’s recalculation will not result in an erroneous reduction to entitlements pursuant to Education Code Sections 41851 (c) and 41851.5(c).

Problem: Formatting problems with printed forms (Posted 08-Jul-2009)

Borders or lines are missing or are not properly aligned when forms are printed.

Workaround #1: With the form open, click the Print button to open the print window, then click the Properties button (or the Preferences button if printing from the Table of Contents). Click the Effects tab and set the resizing option to Print document on: (Letter), then select (check) the Scale to fit box.

Workaround #2: Try using a different printer driver. The Standardized Account Code Structure (SACS) software uses Microsoft Windows printer drivers. Check to make sure you have the latest printer drivers by contacting the printer manufacturer. If you are experiencing printing problems on a local area network, contact your network administrator. Be aware that you may experience different problems after changing the printer driver so be sure to check all print jobs carefully, even those printed from other applications such as Word or Excel.

Problem: Funds 03 and 06 Budget Beginning Fund Balances
(Posted 08-Jul-2009)

In the Budget and Unaudited Actuals periods, during import and upon entering data in the User Data Input/Review and Components of Ending Fund Balance screens, the software automatically calculates 2009–10 beginning fund balances (Object 9791) in funds 03 and 06 based on the 2008–09 ending fund balances in funds 03 and 06. In addition, based on these calculated 2009–10 beginning fund balances, the software creates 2009–10 undesignated/unappropriated amounts (Object 9790) and ending fund balances (Object 979Z) in funds 03 and 06. Because funds 03 and 06 are invalid effective 2009–10, the calculated amounts created in 2009–10 for funds 03 and 06 generate exceptions for the following import technical review checks (TRCs):

CHK-FUNDxOBJECT (Fatal)
CHK-FUNDxRESOURCE (Warning)
CHK-FUNDxGOAL (Warning)
CHK-FUNDxFUNCTION-A (Warning)           

Also, as a result of the automated fund balance calculations, the 2009–10 components of ending fund balance (CEFB) reside in two separate places. The local educational agency (LEA) imported CEFB transactions reside in Fund 01, while the automated calculations reside in funds 03 and 06. This is an issue only when viewing or entering designations via the Components of Ending Fund Balance screen.

LEAs experiencing this problem will not be able to complete an Official export for the Budget period due to the fatal CHK-FUNDxOBJECT TRC.

Note: During the Unaudited Actuals period, it is not necessary to clear all budget data TRCs, so this problem will not affect the official export process for unaudited actual data. During the Interim periods, beginning fund balances are imported rather than calculated, so this problem does not affect the data or official export process for the Interim periods.

Workaround: The software will not be modified to correct this problem, for several reasons: 1) the automated calculations in the software are very complicated, creating opportunity for adversely impacting other software functionality, 2) although funds 03 and 06 are invalid effective 2009–10, the data will still extract correctly into the applicable forms and processes because the software treats funds 03 and 06 like Fund 01, and 3) only a small percentage of LEAs use funds 03 and 06.

Affected LEAs have several options available to address this problem:

1. Convert the 2008–09 estimated actual data from funds 03 and 06 to Fund 01 before importing the data into the software. Although 2007–08 ending fund balances for funds 03 and 06 are preloaded into the software to compare to 2008–09 beginning fund balances, funds 01, 03, and 06 are combined in the TRCs (PY-EFB=CY-BFB, PY-EFB=CY-BFB-RES, and PY-EFB=CY-BFB-RES-CH) for the comparison. Therefore, converting to Fund 01 will not cause TRC exceptions.
2. For each of the applicable resources with 2008–09 estimated actual ending balances in funds 03 or 06, record a contribution (objects 8980 or 8990) from funds 03 or 06 to Fund 01. Since the entries will net to zero by resource and object, TRC exceptions will not be generated except in the Lottery resources. Contributions to Lottery resources 1100 and 6300, or from Resource 6300, will generate a TRC exception, so interfund transfers (Object 7619) rather than contributions should be used for Lottery resources 1100 and 6300. To force the interfund transfer entry to net to zero by resource and object, in this case Object 7619 should be used for both the debit and the credit, rather than using Object 8919 for the credit.
3. Leave the data as they were calculated but carefully review all TRC exceptions to identify those that are a result of the invalid funds 03 and 06, and then provide explanations for the warning and informational checks. It is not possible to provide an explanation for the fatal check, which will prevent the LEA from completing an official export of the budget period data. The LEA should provide a cover letter explaining the fatal TRC exception to their reviewing agency, such as "The invalid fund by object combinations for funds 03 and 06 are the result of automatic system generated calculations. Per the CDE, we are forwarding an unofficial submission due to this fatal exception. All other TRC exceptions have either been corrected or explained."

Problem: Run-time Error 429

Periodically, the required Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) file is not properly installed on Windows 98 machines, causing a run-time error 429 upon opening the SACS software.

Fix: Be sure all other applications are closed, then download this MDAC file: mdactyp (EXE; 7MB). Once downloaded, double-click on the file to begin installation (be sure to read the prompts thoroughly). When the installation is completed, the SACS software should open properly.