Eight New Mexico Citizen Advisory Councils identified competencies within essential task areas for councils in community school settings. Task areas cited include fiscal management, programing, facilities use, identifying community resources, publicity, and organization and administration of the program. Productivity can be enhanced by identifying…

This paper provides an update of the financial reforms that took effect in the province of Ontario for the 1998-99 year. During the 1998-99 school year, a student-focused funding model for the distribution of money to elementary and secondary education was introduced. The model was based on students' needs rather than the local community's wealth…

Advises careful analysis and improvement of existing school district accounting systems prior to investment in new ones. Emphasizes the importance of attracting and maintaining quality financial staffs, developing an accounting policies and procedures manual, and designing a good core accounting system before purchasing computer hardware and…

Recognizing and calculating the financial impact of unemployment insurance costs is the first stage in gaining control of these expenses. (Author)

The author outlines a simple calendarized budget and cash flow system, including monthly self-audits, designed for small Catholic elementary schools. Sample forms and records are included. (SJL)

The issue of whether institutions of higher education should cost account space and physical plant operating and maintenance expenses to their academic programs is examined. Space costing is cited as a philosophical base for cost accounting space, operating, and maintenance expenses to the individual academic unit of an institution. (Author/MLW)

Discusses changes in the accounting requirements for nonprofit organizations resulting from the implementation of two Statements of Financial Accounting Standards issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board. Examines changes in recording transactions, ascertaining the correct way to record donations or unconditional promises for donations,…

Provides guidelines for overseeing a school district's cash-flow management program: (1) receipts into cash; (2) types of float; (3) concentration account or controlled-disbursement account; (4) bank-account analysis; and (5) safety. One figure is included. (LMI)

New Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) standards for college and university fund raising establish three key rules for campaign reporting: (1) separation of gifts for featured and unspecified objectives; (2) separation of current from deferred gifts; and (3) disclosure of both face value and discounted present value of…

New federal regulations concerning direct cost accounting for college and university research projects are explained. It is concluded that the new standard allows institutions to reduce the signatures required on cost transfers and use reasonable cost allocation methods to simplify distribution of direct costs when research is supported by…

Questions and answers by the Association of American Universities address some issues in the complex matter of indirect costs for research projects, including the different kinds of costs, federal treatment of them, the federal indirect cost system, cost allocation, the memorandum of understanding, variation among institutions' costs, and cost…

Offers advice to schools and colleges attempting to bring their existing accounting procedures into conformity with "generally accepted accounting principles." Provides data categories for school asset lists and definitions of "cost" most frequently used in fixed asset management. (MLF)

After Proposition 13 passed in California, a series of 19 major bills imposed fiscal limits on the K-12 school system. One action is assigning a fiscal advisor to assume control in a district in financial distress. Lists the symptoms of a financially ill school district and highlights 24 items of a recovery plan. (MLF)

An evaluation was done of the use of funds generated by clinical practices at the Clinical Practice Management Plan of the State University of New York (SUNY) Health Science Center (HSC) at Stony Brook. The audit looked at compliance with Board of Trustee policies regarding: (1) whether 5 percent of the gross receipts from clinical practices were…

Stanford University's use of a risk assessment methodology to improve the management of systems development projects is discussed. After examining the concepts of hazard, peril, and risk as they relate to the system development process, three ways to assess risk are covered: size, structure, and technology. The overall objective for Stanford…