SACS2009ALL Software Readme

What's New

Listed below is a summary of changes made to the 2009-10 budget and interim, and the 2008-09 unaudited actual, components of the Standardized Account Code Structure (SACS) software. We incorporate changes requested by users wherever possible; you may recognize one of your suggestions being implemented here.

This year our efforts were primarily focused on required changes, with minimal enhancements, as summarized below. For additional information on each of the changes, refer to the relevant sections of the user guide.

General Software Changes

Effective fiscal year 2009-10, optional funds 03 and 06 (General Fund[County School Service Fund] Unrestricted and Restricted, respectively) are no longer valid. The validation tables have been updated to prevent funds 03 and 06 from being used in the software for fiscal year 2009-10; they can still be used for fiscal year 2008-09. Note: LEAs may still use funds 03 and 06 as locally defined codes, but they must be rolled to Fund 01 before submission to the California Department of Education (CDE). For further information, please see the SACS2009ALL Software: Known Problems/Fixes web page.

Revised Fund Forms

• Expenditures by Object worksheet
  • All applicable fund forms—Modified due to flexibility provisions included in the 2008 Budget Act revisions and the enacted 2009 Budget Act (SBX3 4):
    • Changed the title of Object 8998 from "Categorical Flexibility Transfers per Budget Act Section 12.40" to "Categorical Flexibility Transfers."
    • Removed the cell shading from Object 8997, Transfers of Restricted Balances; Object 8998, Categorical Flexibility Transfers (for 2008-09 only); and Line (e) TOTAL CONTRIBUTIONS, in the Contributions section; these objects are no longer required to balance at the fund level.
    • Interims only—Deleted individual resources/lines for programs now included in the flexibility provisions of SBX3 4, and included them in the All Other State Revenue (Object 8590) line.
    • All applicable fund forms—Deleted Object 7370, Transfers of Direct Support Costs, and Object 7380, Transfers of Direct Support Costs–Interfund (expired 2007-08) and relabeled related section and line
      titles.
    • Forms 01/01I—Added line for Object 8671, Adult Education Fees, in the Other Local Revenue section. LEAs may account for their Adult Education programs in the general fund as a result of SBX3 4 categorical
      flexibility.
    • Forms 01/01I, 09/09I, and 62/62I—Added new Resource 6690, Tobacco-Use Prevention Education: Grades Six Through Twelve, to the Drug/Alcohol/Tobacco Funds, Object 8590, revenue line, in the Other
      State Revenue section.
    • Forms 01/01I, 09/09I, and 62/62I—Deleted Resource 6243, Healthy Start: Business Partnerships, Regional Demo Projects, and Resource 6245, Healthy Start–Pregnant & Parenting from the Healthy Start, Object 8590, revenue line, in the Other State Revenue section (expired 2004-05).
    • Forms 01/01I, 09/09I, and 62/62I—Deleted Resource 7292, Staff Development: Standards Based Math, Grade 4-12 from Staff Development, Object 8590, revenue line, in the Other State Revenue section (expired 2004-05).
    • Forms 09 and 62—Added new Resource 7296, Staff Development: English Learner Professional Development, to Staff Development, Object 8590, revenue line, in the Other State Revenue section, applicable for
      2008-09 only.
    • Forms 11 (COE/District only) and 14 (COE/District/JPA)—Added line for Object 8998, Categorical Flexibility Transfers, in the Contributions section, per flexibility provisions in SBX3 4, applicable for 2008-09
      only.
    • Forms 13/13I and 61/61I—Added line for Object 8997, Transfers of Restricted Balances, in the Contributions section, per flexibility provisions in SBX3 4.
    • Form 15/15I—Deleted line for Object 8998, Categorical Flexibility Transfers, from the Contributions section. Transportation is not a program subject to the flexibility enacted by SBX3 4.

Revised Supplemental Forms

• Form CAT—Categoricals – Federal/State/Local Grant Awards, Revenues and Expenditures
  • State and Local worksheets—Added line(s) to accommodate the addition of Object 8997, Transfers of Restricted Balances.
  • State worksheets—Changed text for Object 8998 from "Sec 12.40 Transfers" references to "Cat Flex Transfers."
  • All worksheets—Added line to enter "Other Adjustments."
• Form CB—Budget Certification
  • Revised the Criteria and Standards Summary section, Criterion 7A (5A for county), to reflect changes to the Criteria and Standards Review form waiving the deferred maintenance matching requirement per SBX3 4.
• Form CI—Interim Certification
  • Revised the Criteria and Standards Summary section, Criterion 7A (5A for county), to reflect changes to the Criteria and Standards Review form waiving the deferred maintenance matching requirement per
    SBX3 4.
  • Added a second bullet to the Criteria and Standards Summary section, Supplemental Information item S6, Long-term Commitments, "Will funding sources used to pay long-term commitments decrease or expire prior to
    the end of the commitment period, or are they one-time sources?" which was erroneously left off when the criteria and standards and certification forms were revised last year.
• Forms CEA/CEB—Current Expense Formula/Minimum Classroom Compensation
  • Added Resource 3185, NCLB: Title I, Part A, Program Improvement LEA Corrective Action Resources; Resource 5315, Child Nutrition: ARRA Equipment Assistance Grants; Resource 6385, Governor's CTE Initiative: California Partnership Academies; Resource 6386, California Partnership Academies: Green and Clean Academies; and Resource 7296, Staff Development: English Learner Professional Development, to the reductions in Column 4a and Line 13a.
• Form CORR—Education of Adults in County Correctional Facilities
  • District only—Revised form to also extract Fund 01, Goal 4620, Adult Correctional Education, to allow districts to account for adult education activities funded with the unrestricted SBX3 4 categorical
    flexibility revenues in the general fund.
  • Section II, Line E3—Replaced Transfers of Direct Support Costs (objects 7370 and 7380, expired 2007-08) with Transfers of Direct Costs (objects 5710 and 5750).
  • Section III, Indirect Costs—Updated the 2nd prior year statewide average rate from 4.53% to 4.90%.
  • Section IV, Alternative Charge Cost—Replaced Object 8590, All Other State Revenue, with Object 8311, Other State Apportionments – Current Year, since Adults in Correctional Facilities funding is now distributed
    through the Principal Apportionment process.
• Form DAY—Community Day Schools
  • Removed Object 7370, Transfers of Direct Support Costs (expired 2007-08) and Object 7380, Transfers of Direct Support Costs – Interfund (expired 2007-08).
• Form GANN—Appropriations Limit Calculations
  • Section B, Current Year Gann ADA; State Aid Received in Section C; and Explanation Section—Incorporated changes necessary due to flexibility provisions of SBX3 4.
  • Updated inflation adjustments on Line D2.
• Form ICR—Indirect Cost Rate Worksheet
  • Deleted Object 7380, Transfers of Direct Support Costs – Interfund (expired 2007-08) from Part III, lines A1, A2, and B9.
  • Modified the text in Part III, Line D to emphasize that the calculated rate is preliminary, pending CDE review and approval.
• Form JUV—Juvenile Court and County Community Schools Account
  • Deleted Object 7370, Transfers of Direct Support Costs (expired 2007-08) from Section B2.
• Form L—Lottery
  • Added Object 5100, Subagreements for Services, to the extraction of Duplicating Costs for Instructional Materials (Resource 6300), for those LEAs that subcontract for development or duplication of instructional
    materials.
• Forms MYP/MYPI—Multiyear Projections
  • Adjusted the dollar amounts used in the Unrestricted/Restricted worksheet, Reserve Standard Percentage Level (Line F3d for county only) and Reserve Standard – By Amount (Line F3f for county and district, and
    Line F7 for JPA), based on the COLA adjustment changes made to the Criteria and Standards Review form.
  • Added internal form checks to the Unrestricted and Restricted worksheets requiring explanations in the form when Other Adjustments have been projected for certificated salaries, classified salaries, and
    other expenditures (lines B1d, B2d, and B10). As with all other internal form checks, the user can still close the form without fixing the error, but the error must be fixed to complete an official export.
• Form MYPIO—Multiyear Projections—Other Funds
  • Added a display to the top of the screen to identify what fund has been
    opened.
• Form PCR—Program Cost Report
  • Program Cost Report worksheet—Removed Object 7380, Transfers of Direct Support Costs – Interfund (expired 2007-08) from extraction in Indirects/Admin Charged to Other Funds line. Renamed the line to
    Indirect Costs Charged to Other Funds.
  • Program Cost Report worksheet—Unshaded all columns, except Other Costs column, for Adult Education goals 4110, 4610, 4620, and 4630; since adult education activities funded with the unrestricted SBX3 4
    categorical flexibility revenues in the general fund should be reported in Form PCR.
  • Direct Charged Costs worksheet—Unshaded all columns, except Community Services column and General Administration column, for Adult Education goals 4110, 4610, 4620, and 4630; since adult education activities
    funded with the unrestricted SBX3 4 categorical flexibility revenues in the general fund should be reported in Form PCR.
  • Allocated Support Costs worksheet—Added rows for Adult Education goals 4110, 4610, 4620, and 4630; since adult education activities funded with the unrestricted SBX3 4 categorical flexibility revenues in the
    general fund should be reported in Form PCR.
  • Other Costs worksheet—Removed Object 7380, Transfers of Direct Support Costs – Interfund (expired 2007-08) from extraction in Food Services line.
• Form PCRAF—Program Cost Report Schedule of Allocation Factors
  • Added rows for Adult Education goals 4110, 4610, 4620, and 4630; since adult education activities funded with the unrestricted SBX3 4 categorical flexibility revenues in the general fund should be reported
    in Form PCR.
• Forms RL/RLI—Revenue Limit Summary
  • Updated revenue limit deficit factors based on the Governor's May Revision and modified related TRCs accordingly.
  • Updated program names and data ID numbers to match the Principal Apportionment forms, and modified related TRCs accordingly.
  • Added data ID 0659 to the district form Line 11, Miscellaneous Revenue Limit Adjustments, to account for Center for Advance Research and Technology (CART) adjustments.
• Form SIAA—Summary of Interfund Activities—Actuals
  • Renamed the Indirect/Direct Support Costs–Interfund column to Indirect Costs–Interfund and removed Object 7380 (expired 2007-08).
• Form TRAN—Annual Report of Pupil Transportation
  • Removed Object 7370, Transfers of Direct Support Costs (expired 2007-08) from Schedule II, Line E1, Plant Maintenance & Operations and Facilities.

Revised Criteria and Standards

• Forms 01CS/01CSI—Criteria and Standards Review—Budget and Interim
  • Adjusted deficit spending and fund balance levels for counties and reserve levels for all LEAs based on prior year's revenue limit COLA.
  • Deficit Spending Criterion—Budget (8A for district and JPA, 6A for county) Unshaded and added extraction to the First Prior Year (2008-09) column, Line 1c, for negative restricted ending fund balance
    by resource used in the available reserves calculation effective 2008-09. Next year the 2009-10 column will be modified and the following year the 2010-11 column will be modified.
  • Facilities Maintenance Criterion (7 for district and JPA, 5 for county):
    • Deferred Maintenance, Section 7A[5A] was inactivated since the matching requirement has been waived for a five-year period from 2008-09 through 2012-13 per SBX3 4.
    • Ongoing and Major Maintenance/Restricted Maintenance Account, Section 7B[5B] was modified to reflect the reduction in required contribution from 3% to 1% for a five-year period from 2008-09
      through 2012-13 per new Education Code Section 17070.766.

Revised Reports

• Government-wide Report CNVRT—Government-wide Conversion Fund Consolidation Worksheet and Conversion Worksheet, General Revenues Section—Added new (last year) Object 8096, Transfers to Charter Schools in Lieu of Property Taxes, to General Revenues, Federal and State Aid Not Restricted to Specific Purposes line.
• Government-wide Report GSNA—Government-wide Statement of Net Assets and Reconciliation of Fund Statements GSNA Reconciliation Worksheet, Long-term Liabilities Section—Revised Net OPEB Obligation line to include amounts reported in CE014, similar to the extraction of other long-term liabilities components.
• Report PGM—Program by Resource
  • Added a Save button to Report PGM to save the date entered in the "Expenditures by Object – Summary" worksheet, "Expenditures through:" line at the top of the form.
  • Changed the "Expenditures through:" key-entry field on the remaining three worksheets to automatically pull the date from the "Expenditures by Object – Summary" worksheet with no overwrite capability since the data on all worksheets are extracted from the same database.
• Reports SEMA/SEMB/SEMAI—Special Education Maintenance of Effort (MOE)
  • Added adjustment column to track American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds and subsequently adjust the MOE calculation per Federal guidelines.
  • Removed Object 7370, Transfers of Direct Support Costs (expired 2007-08) and Object 7380, Transfers of Direct Support Costs – Interfund (expired 2007-08).

Technical Review Checks—Deleted

• Deleted the following general ledger TRCs because Object 7370, Transfers of Direct Support Costs, and Object 7380, Transfers of Direct Support Costs – Interfund, are obsolete effective 2008-09.
  • INTERFD-DIR-SUPP
  • INTERFD-DIR-SUPP-FN
  • INTRAFD-DIR-SUPP
  • INTRAFD-DIR-SUPP-FN
• DUE-FROM=DUE-TO—Deleted the warning TRC for all interim periods and all interim data types; balance sheet accounts are not applicable for interims. Fatal TRC remains applicable for budget and UA periods, actuals data types.
• GEN-ADMIN-RESOURCE—Deleted since general administration costs charged to restricted resources are no longer included in the indirect cost pool in the indirect cost rate calculation and are, thereby, not causing the problems they did in the past.

Technical Review Checks—Inactivated

• Inactivated the following general ledger and import TRCs for budget data types within the budget and unaudited actual periods, and for all interim data within the interim periods; effective 2009-10 the programs subject to
  SBX3 4, Section 15 categorical flexibility will be recorded to Resource 0000, thus transfers using Object 8998 will no longer apply. Next year these TRCs will be deleted for actual data types within the budget and unaudited actuals periods.
  • CAT-TRANSFER
  • CHK-RESOURCExOB-8998
• CS-EXPLANATIONS—Budget and interim periods, district and county: Inactivated for Criterion 7[5], Section 7A[5A], Deferred Maintenance, to reflect the inactivation of this item in Forms 01CS/01CSI. The deferred
  maintenance contribution requirement has been waived for five years.

Technical Review Checks—Reactivated

• RESTR-BAL-TRANSFER—Reactivated for unaudited and estimated actual data types per flexibility provisions in SBX3 4; reactivated for budget and interim data types last year based on proposed flexibility provisions
  in the Governor's May budget revision for 2008 09.

Technical Review Checks—Revised

• CAT-TRANSFER—Modified to verify that Object 8998 sums to zero for all funds, rather than for each individual fund, per flexibility provisions in SBX3 4.
• RESTR-BAL-TRANSFER—Modified to verify that Object 8997 sums to zero for all funds, rather than for each individual fund, per flexibility provisions in SBX3 4.
• TRAN-COST-PER-MILE—Modified the cost per mile limit from $10 to $12 for both Home-to-School and Severely Disabled/Orthopedically Impaired.
• TRAN-COST-PER-PUPIL—Modified the cost per pupil limit for Home-to-School from $6,000 to $6,500 and for Severely Disabled/Orthopedically Impaired from $12,000 to $12,500.

KNOWN ISSUES:

Problem

Formatting problems with printed forms. Borders or lines are missing or are not properly aligned when forms are printed, or all of the grid lines will print in the upper left hand corner.

Probable Cause

Printer settings or Printer drivers. Unfortunately we have not found one specific printer driver that works for all components of the SACS software.

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 or print from the open form rather than from the table of contents. The Standardized Account Code Structure (SACS) software uses Microsoft Windows printer drivers. Various printer drivers work differently with the SACS software. 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.

Symptom

GPF error or system runs very slowly.

Probable Cause

The computer runs out of physical/virtual memory.

Workaround

Avoid opening too many windows concurrently. If the error is received, shut down the application and reboot the machine.

Symptom

Funds 03 and 06 2009-10 Budget Beginning Fund Balances

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.
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."