budget planner 2015-16...budget planner user guide 2015-16 section 1 – getting started page 5 of...

SCHOOLS FINANCE

BUDGET PLANNER

2015-16

USER GUIDE

Version 1.30

Schools Finance

Budget Planner User Guide

Contents Page

Page 1 of 2

Section 1 Getting Started

• User Log-In

• User Access Rights - Creating Additional Users - Changing your Password - Resetting Passwords

• Budget Planner Toolbar / Help Menu

• School Details - Location Code / School Name - Star Accounts Path (NON-SQL) / Server Selection (SQL) - Inputs / Outputs Path - Balance Brought Forward - Default Department Code

• Import Staff Details

• Manual Budget Share / Subjective Code Update

Section 2 Building the Budget • Summary Budget

• Detailed Budget

• Import Budget Share

• Enter Budget / Enter Additional Budget Lines

• Reset Budgets to 0

• Sorting / Filters

• Deleting Budget Lines

• Future Year Forecasts

• Budget Revisions

• YearEnd Position

• Trial Budget

Section 3 Manage Staff Details • Import Staff from Star / Excel

• Manually Creating Staff Members

• Deleting Staff Members

Section 4 Teaching Staff Forecasts • Import Prior Year Details

• Data Required for Teaching Staff Costs

• Detailed Teaching Staff Data Entry

• Starters and Leavers Dates

• Creating New Staff Members

• Delete a Line from the Forecast

• Sorting / Filtering Forecasts

• Monthly Profiles - Monthly Profile By Type - Detailed / Summary Profile by Staff Member

• Create / Delete New Forecasts

• Change Detailed Background Colour

• Updating the Budget Plan

• Export to Excel

Schools Finance

Budget Planner User Guide

Contents Page

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Section 5 Support Staff Forecasts • Import Prior Year Details

• Data Required for Support Staff Costs

• Detailed Support Staff Data Entry

• Starters and Leavers Dates

• Creating New Staff Members

• Delete a Line from the Forecast

• Sorting / Filtering Forecasts

• Monthly Profiles - Monthly Profile By Type - Detailed / Summary Profile by Staff Member

• Create / Delete New Forecasts

• Change Detailed Background Colour


• Export to Excel

Section 6 Pupil Forecasts • Pupil Funding Adjustment

• Nursery Funding (Yr0)

• De-Delegation Adjustment

• Other Adjustments


Section 7 School Improvement and Development Plan

Section 8 Year-End Balances

Section 9 Finalising the Budget • Emailing the Budget Plan

• Export Budget to Star Accounts

• Export Staffing Forecast to Star Accounts

• Finalising the Budget

Section 10 Reporting • View / Print Budget Plans

• Export to Excel

• Budget Commentary

• School Visit Notes

• Benchmarking Comparison

Section 11 Backup Routine

Section 12 Updates and Upgrades • Subjective Code Update

• Budget Share Update

• Benchmarking Base Data Update

• Upgrade Budget Planner - Via AnyComms Plus / Internet

Schools Finance

Budget Planner User Guide 2015-16

Section 1 – Getting Started

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User Log-In Select the required user name from the “Select User Name” drop down list, and then enter your password and click the “Log In” button twice. When the Budget Planner is installed the User ‘School’ (with the password school) will be pre-installed. The first user to log-in using these details will be prompted to create a new Primary User (see below). This user will be the only person that is able to assign access rights to other users. User Access Rights The current list of users with access to the Budget Planner can be found by clicking the ‘System Users’ button within the ‘School Details’ / ‘Cluster Details’ screen. Only the ‘Primary User’ can access this screen. Primary User – The Primary User has full access to all screens within the Budget Panner. Only one primary user can be set within the software.

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Creating Additional Users To create additional users click ‘Add User ID’ within the ‘User Access Rights’ screen.

Enter the required User ID for the new user, and then click ‘OK’. User IDs must be no longer than 10 characters in length and must not contain spaces.

When creating new users their password will be set as their User ID. The first time the new user logs into the Budget Planner, they will be prompted to change their password. Once the new users name has been entered, enter their email address: The ‘Email Address’ entered must be a unique email address to that user, as it will be used if the user forgets their password and requests it be reset (see below). Changing your Password Passwords must be changed in the Budget Planner every 90 days. Once this deadline has been reached the system will prompt the user to change their password.

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Enter a new password, and confirm the password, and then click ‘Set New Password’. Once ‘Set New Password’ has been clicked the system will verify the new password. If there are issues with any of the following an error message will appear:

� Length – the password must be between 8 and 10 characters in length � Alpha-Numeric – the password must contain letters and numbers and

must not contain spaces � New – the password must not be one that has been used previously � Identical – the new password is entered twice when created and these

must be identical If an error message appears click ‘OK’, then correct the error and click ‘Set New Password’ again. This process may need to be repeated until the new password is accepted by the system. Once the new password is accepted the ‘Main Menu’ will open. Passwords can also be manually changed at any time at anytime from the User Log in screen by selecting your User ID, entering your current password, and then clicking ‘Change Password’. The password can then be reset as described above. Resetting a Password Primary User: If a user forgets their password the Primary User can reset the password from the ‘User Access Screen’. Click ‘Reset Password’ against the User Name required.

Click ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ as required.

The password for the selected user will be set to match their User Name. The user will then be promoted to enter a new password when they log-in to Budget Planner again.

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All Users: If the Primary User is not available to reset your password it can be reset from the User Log-In screen by selecting your ‘User Name’ and clicking ‘Reset My Password’.

Click ‘Yes’ to continue or ‘No’ to cancel.

If ‘Yes’ is clicked the currently selected users password will be reset to a randomly generated series of numbers and letters (both upper and lower case). This password will be sent to the email address assigned to the selected user within the ‘User Access Rights’ screen (see above). Please Note: This function is designed to work with Microsoft Outlook, as this is Norfolk County Council’s email provider. If your school does not use Outlook this process may not work correctly, in which case you should call the Finance Support Helpline. The Budget Planner will attempt to automatically send the email containing the temporary password, therefore, during this process you may be required to click ‘Allow’ or ‘Yes’ to an Microsoft Outlook prompt similar to below: When logging in using the temporary password assigned by this process you will be prompted to create a new password (as per the instructions above).

Click ‘OK’.

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Budget Planner Toolbar These options are accessed via the “Budget Planner” toolbar.

Help Menu Remote Support – This allows County Hall to remotely access the budget planner to resolve any issues. Please do not select this option unless asked to do so by County Hall. Upgrade Budget Plan – The Budget Planner will automatically upgrade to the latest version via the AVCO AnyComms system if an upgrade is available. Select this option to manually upgrade your accounts between the automatic updates. Subjective Code Update - This option should only be selected if you are notified of changes to subjective codes or at the beginning of the new financial year.

Access 2007 and above

Closes the currently viewed form / report

Prints the currently viewed report

Exports the currently viewed form / report to Excel

Re-opens the Login Form (see above)

Closes the Budget Planner completely


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Budget Share Update - This option should only be selected if you are notified of changes to your schools budget share figures or at the beginning of the new financial year. Benchmarking Update - This option should only be selected if you are notified of changes to the base data for your schools benchmarking figures. Please Note: For schools using Access 2007 and above the Upgrade Budget Plan, Subjective Codes, Budget Share and Benchmarking options are found within the “Upgrades” drop down list: Email Budget Plan - Use this option to send County Hall a copy of your budget plan. The email created will default to the address [email protected] - you can overtype this address with any required email address. AVCO Budget Plan – Use this option to send County Hall a copy of your budget data if you are unable to send emails from your computer. This process will place a copy of the budget planner into the ‘Department’ folder of your AVCO Outbox. About Budget Plan – This will open a screen giving details regarding the version of the Budget Planner and its location on your computer. Web Links Menu Various links to useful sections of the Schools Finance website have been included within the “Web Links” menu, or “Web Sites” drop down for users of Access 2007 and above.


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School Details / Cluster Details Please Note: When using the budget planner software for the first time this screen will automatically open. The screen can also be accessed at any time via the ‘School Details’ / ’Cluster Details’ button on the Main Menu. Location Code: Select your schools location code from the drop down list. Please Note: When a location code is chosen the system will automatically update the budget share within the detailed budget with the chosen schools budget share, therefore, care must be taken when choosing the location code. School Name: The school name will automatically be entered once a location code has been selected. This name will appear on all printed reports from the budget planner. If you wish to amend the name shown overtype the default name with the name required. Star Accounts Path (NON-SQL): The Star Accounts path is used when budgets are exported into Star Accounts or staffing details are imported into the Budget Planner. Double click the field to amend the path:

If you are using the Budget Planner on a computer that does not have access to Star Accounts this field will default to “C:\Star\Main.mdb” when the screen is closed, or the Staff Import function is used.

Click ‘Yes’ to continue, or ‘No’ to cancel.

Browse in the location of your Star Accounts datafile. Double click the datafile to be updated (or single click it and click ‘Open’). The datafile to be browsed will usually be Main.mdb. Please Note: You cannot browse in the Star Accounts or SchoolFund datafiles.

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Star Accounts Server (SQL): Select your schools’ server name from the drop down list that Star Accounts is installed on.

If the server name required is not shown it can be manually typed into this box.

Once the server has been selected the list of datafiles will show all active datafiles. Select the datafile the budget plan relates in the drop down list. Inputs Path: The Inputs Path will be used for collecting automatic upgrades via the AnyComms Plus secure file transfer system. To amend the inputs path double click the field.

Browse in the location of the AVCO Inbox.

The Inputs path will then be updated on screen with the browsed in location.

Please refer to the Star Accounts Frequently Asked Questions “How do I use AnyComms Plus for Finance Files?” for further guidance regarding the Inbox, and Outbox, required.


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Outputs Path: The Outputs Path will be used for sending finalised budget information and any backups to County Hall via the AnyComms Plus secure file transfer system. To amend the outputs path double click the field.

Browse in the location of the AVCO Outbox. The Outputs path will then be updated on screen with the browsed in location.

Balance Brought Forward (Bfwd): The balance brought forward from the previous year should be entered into the relevant field within this screen.

Estimated: The figure entered here should be the forecasted year end position from the last budget revision of the previous financial year. The estimated figure will be used within the Original Budget revision. Confirmed: The figure entered here should be the balance brought forward that has been confirmed by the Schools Finance Team. The confirmed figure will be used from Revision 1 onwards.


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Import Details from Star Accounts: When exporting budgets into Star Accounts a budget for staff costs will also be exported. This means that each line within the teaching/support staff forecasts must be linked to a Staff Code (see Sections 3 and 4 for details). Departmental Budgets will also be set within the Budget Planner, which means that the current list of Department Codes held within Star Accounts must be imported into the Budget Planner. To update the details held within the Budget Planner to those held within Star Accounts please click the “Import Details from Star” button. Import with Access to Star Accounts Datafile: If the computer being used to import the staff details has access to the Star Accounts datafile shown in the ‘Star Accounts Path’ this procedure will automatically import the Staff List and Department Code list from the datafile specified.

Click ‘Yes’ to continue, or ‘No’ to cancel. Click ‘OK’ to any confirmation messages that appear if ‘Yes’ has been clicked. Import without Access to Star Accounts Datafile: If the computer being used to import the staff details does not have access to the Star Accounts datafile/server shown an option to import the Staff List from an Excel spreadsheet will be given.

Select the required option as stated.

The Excel spreadsheet must be the Staff list exported from Star Accounts – please see Section 5, Page 5 of the Star Accounts User Guide for details.

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Please Note: This process can also be completed via the ‘Manage Staff Details’ screen (see Section3). Manual Department Code Import: The above manual process will only update the staffing details held within the Budget Planner. If the computer being used to import the Department Code List does not have access to the Star Accounts datafile shown in the ‘Star Accounts Path’ click the ‘Manual Department Import’ button. The Excel spreadsheet must be the Department List exported from Star Accounts – please see Section 3, Page 7 of the Star Accounts User Guide for details.

Browse in the location of the “Staff.xls” file. Double click the file (or single click it and click ‘Open’) to begin the import process.

Browse in the location of the “XXXX Department List.xls” file (XXXX = your schools Location Code). Double click the file (or single click it and click ‘Open’) to begin the import process.

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Please be aware that:

• Inactive department codes are imported into the budget planner, and will be flagged as inactive when viewing the budget, to allow short term budgets to remain on the correct department code

• Any department code marked as an ‘Activity’ within Star Accounts will not be available for selection in the Budget Planner. This is because the overall balance of an activity will be its profit or loss which has to be refunded / funded. Entering budgets against “activities” will distort the end balance.

Default Department Code (Cluster Only): All budgets within the Cluster Budget Planner must be assigned to Department Code. To negate the need to manually input this against every record a default department code must be selected here once the ‘Department Code’ list has been updated (as above). Once a department code exists within the Budget Planner the ‘Default Department’ drop down list will be shown. Select the required department from the drop down list. Manual Budget Share Update: This process should only be used if the automatic update accessed via the Budget Plan Help Menu does not work. If the automatic update has not worked please contact Accounting Software Support to request the file to be imported. This file must be saved within the Budget Planner folder before clicking ‘Manual Budget Share Update’. Manual Subjective Update: This process should only be used if the automatic update accessed via the Budget Plan Help Menu does not work. If the automatic update has not worked please contact Accounting Software Support to request the subjective code list to be imported. This file must be saved within the Budget Planner folder before clicking ‘Manual Subjective Update’.

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Section 2 – Building the Budget Page 1 of 12

Summary Budget To view a summary budget, click the ‘Summary Budget’ button from the Main Menu.

This screen provides a summary of the budget at CFR level. The figures shown within this screen cannot be amended – any budget amendments must be completed within the detailed budget screen at subjective code level (see below). If you wish to see the figures which contribute to the totals shown on this screen double click the amount within the current budget column for the required CFR category.

The summary shown above is for information purposes only. The figures shown within the summary screen cannot be amended – any budget amendments must be completed within the detailed budget screen at subjective code level (see below).

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Detailed Budget To view a detailed budget, click the ‘Detailed Budget’ button from the Main Menu. This screen can also be accessed via the ‘Summary Budget’ screen by clicking the ‘Detailed Budget’ button. When entering your budget information the following rules apply:

• Only the current live budget (as shown at the top of the screen) and future year forecasts can be amended.

• Budgets should be entered to the nearest pound.

• Income must be entered as a negative figure.

• Commas and Pound signs (£) do not need to be typed in.

• Staffing budgets can be updated automatically via the Teaching and Support Staff Forecasts. These can be overtyped if required.

Import Budget Share To import the latest budget share information provided by Schools Finance click the ‘Re-Import Budget Share’ button. The Live Budget, Forecast Year 1 and Forecast Year 2 are updated by this process. Budget Share Subjective Codes:

I01 98940 Budget Share I02 98950 Sixth Form Funding I03 98980 SEN Funding I04 98960 Ethnic Minority Funding I05 99010 Pupil Premium Grant E10 74200 DeDelegated Staff Costs E19 74210 DeDelegated Contingencies E23 74220 DeDelegated Licences E28 74230 DeDelegated Free meals

Click ‘Yes’ to continue or ‘No’ to cancel.

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Enter Budget To enter / amend a budget overtype the existing figure shown for the required subjective code with the budget required. A figure can only be overtyped in the live budget revision column and the two forecast years. Adding Additional Budget Lines Each subjective code within the current subjective code list must appear at least once within the detailed budget plan however, each subjective code can be entered more than once within the detailed budget.

Enter the required budget and any notes required. For example:

Department Codes From the 2015-16 Budget Planner onwards to enable greater monitoring of departmental budgets, for example, Pupil Premium spending, departmental budgets will be assigned at Subjective and Department levels within the Budget Planner (rather than at Department Level within Star Accounts). Within the Detailed Budget screen select the required Department Code from the drop down list.

The live budget column is highlighted in bold.

In the blank line at the bottom of the detailed budget select the subjective code required. The Subjective Description and CFR group will automatically be updated based on the code chosen.

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Please Note: Within the Cluster Budget Planner a department is mandatory for all lines (this will automatically be updated to the Default Department Code selected within the School Details screen as per Section 1). Within the Schools Budget Planner a department is optional, however, the ability to add manual budgets to departments within Star Accounts will not be available from 2015-16 onwards.

Any budget assigned to a department will also be included within the total subjective budget exported to Star Accounts. Therefore, any budget assigned to a department must also be adjusted from the line without a department. For example, if an £8,000 budget has been assigned to 40850, of which £1,000 is to be assigned to a ‘Library’ department a new line should be added for £1,000 with the required department selected, and the original line (without a department code) reduced to £7,000:

If the original line is not reduced the total budget assigned to subjective 40850 within Star Accounts will be £9,000. When the Department List is imported from Star Accounts (see Section 1), any department that has been deleted within Star Accounts will be removed from any budget lines to which it has been assigned in the Budget Planner. Department Codes that have been made ‘Inactive’ within Star Accounts will remain within the Budget Planner, however, these codes will be highlighted in red. If the department code has been inactivated because it is no longer required but could not be deleted in Star Accounts, the department code should be removed (by manually deleting it) from any budgets assigned to it. If the department code has been inactivated as it related to a short term project that has finished the budget will need to remain assigned to the inactive code as removing it will change the “Balance” figures in the Department BCR (as no budget will be assigned to it).

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Reset Budgets to 0 If you would like to clear the budgets entered to start the process again click ‘Reset’ at the bottom of the column to be reset. If the live budget is being reset you will also be given the option to clear any notes that have been entered: Filtering the Detailed Budget A number of filters can be applied to the detailed budget screen to aid with the budget building process. CFR Group: When building the budget it may be easier to view each CFR category individually. To do this select the required CFR category from the ‘CFR Group’ filter (bottom right hand corner of the screen). The screen will then filter to show only those subjective codes that relate to the chosen CFR Group. Please Note: If a specific CFR Group is chosen the subjective codes that can be chosen when adding additional lines will only relate to the CFR Group chosen.


Click ‘Yes’ to remove the notes, or ‘No’ to keep them.

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Type: When building the budget it may be easier to work on Income or Expenditure subjective codes only. To do this select the required type from the ‘Type’ filter (bottom right hand corner of the screen).

Please Note: The ‘Budgeted’ type will filter the screen to show only those subjective codes where a budget exists in the live budget or either of the two forecast years.

Click ‘Remove Filter’ to show all budget lines. Department: To view budgets assigned to a specific department code select the required Department Code from the ‘Department’ filter (bottom right hand corner of the screen). The screen will then filter to show only those budget lines that relate to the chosen department.

To view the budget lines assigned to any department double click the ‘Department’ label at the top of the screen.

Sorting When the detailed budget screen is opened the default sorting option is by CFR Group, Subjective Code and Department Code. When adding additional lines the new lines will appear at the bottom of the screen. Click ‘Sort’ when viewing the screen to change the sort order to the default order. The screen will also sort by the default order when ‘Remove Filter’ is clicked.

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Deleting Budget Lines To delete a line from the detailed budget simply click the delete button next to the required line. Budget lines cannot be deleted if the subjective code only appears once in the budget plan.

Budget lines also cannot be deleted if a budget exists in any previous budget or future year forecast. Note: If this message appears when the live budget is Revision 2 or above, and the live budget and future year forecasts show as 0, this means that a budget exists in one of the previous revisions which is not shown on screen.

Click ‘Yes’ to delete the budget, or ‘No’ to cancel.

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Future Year Forecasts Budgets can be manually entered into the 2 future year forecasts by typing in the estimated budgets (as per the live budget). The entire live budget can also be copied into the future year forecasts, excluding the budget share and staffing costs, by clicking “Copy Budget to Future Years”. Click ‘Yes’ to continue, or ‘No’ to cancel. When the live budget is copied to the forecast years the budgets will be adjusted by any the rates of inflation installed within the budget planner. Future Year Staffing figures should then be updated from the relevant teaching/support staff forecasts and the Budget Share update via the Pupil Forecaster screen. Any other amendments required to the forecast years should made at this point for example, removing a budget from a project that relates to the current year only. Budget Revisions Once a budget has been finalised an additional column will be shown within the detailed budget screen. This column will show the previous budget revision. The prior revision budget figures are shown on screen for information purposes only – these cannot be amended and additional lines cannot be added to the prior budget.

Prior Budget Live Budget

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Budgets can be manually entered into the live budget revision as required, or the entire previous budget can be copied into the live revision column by clicking the ‘Copy Budget to Revision’ button. This button will only appear if the live budget is not the Original budget.

Once the budget has been copied to the live revisions any amendments required can be made. Please Note: Unlike the Future Year Forecast this process will copy the Budget Share and Staffing costs from the previous budget. Any update from another screen within the budget planner (Staff Forecasts, Pupil Forecaster etc) will update the live budget only. YearEnd Position The position of the year end surplus/deficit can be found at the bottom of the Summary Budget and any printed budgets. To view the current position on screen when entering the detailed budget click ‘View YearEnd Position’. The Year End Surplus/Deficit position can be viewed from any screen by pressing ‘Ctrl & E’ on the keyboard.


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Staffing Forecasts For information purposes the last staffing forecast used to update the detailed budget is shown at the bottom of the screen along with the date and time that the update was performed.

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Trial Budget Within the 2015-16 version of the Budget Planner the facility to create a trial budget has been introduced. From the Main Menu click the ‘Trial Budget’ button. The “trial” budget provides an area where different scenarios can be input that do not affect the current “live” budget. The trial budget screen is green, to differentiate between it and the live budget. Any printed version of a trial budget will also clearly be highlighted.

The trial budget works in exactly the same way as the detailed budget (as described above), with the following additional features: Import Latest Budget: Click the ‘Import Latest Budget’ button to update the figures held within the trial to those in the current live budget.


Copy to Live Budget: If it is decided that the trial budget is required as the live budget click the ‘Copy to Live Budget’ button to automatically update the live budget to the figures shown on screen.


Printing Trial Budgets: Trial budgets can only be printed from within this screen by clicking the relevant Budget at the top of the screen: If a Department code has been applied as a filter the report printed when clicking these buttons will relate to the filtered Department Code only.

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Please Note:

• When a budget is finalised any trial budget held within the Budget Planner will be deleted.

• Staffing forecasts can be updated to either the “Live” or “Trial” budget within the relevant forecast screen (see Sections 4 and 5). If a staffing forecast is accessed from within this screen, via the ‘Master Support Staff’ or ‘Master Teaching Forecast’ buttons, this will automatically default to update the trial budget.

• The year end position of the trial budget can only be viewed by clicking the ‘View YearEnd Position’ button at the bottom of the screen. Pressing Ctrl & E on the keyboard will show the year end position of the LIVE budget. The Trial Budget year end surpluses should have the green background.

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Section 3 – Manage Staff Details

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To enable detailed monitoring to take place within Star Accounts each forecast line entered into a Staffing Forecasts should be linked to a staff code of a staff member at the school. The staffing details held within the budget planner should be kept up-to-date to ensure that this monitoring is as accurate as possible. From the Main Menu, click the ‘Manage Staff Details’ button.

When opened this screen contains a list of all staff members currently held within the Budget Planner. Import Staff from Star To update the staff list with the details held within Star Accounts click the ‘Import Staff from Star’ button. This process uses the Star Accounts Datafile details entered into the school details screen (see Section 2). Any issues identified connecting to the files specified in the School Details screen will be reported and must be corrected before the import can take place. If no issues are found the following message will appear:

Click ‘Yes’ to continue or ‘No’ to cancel. If ‘Yes’ is selected the staffing list within the budget planner will be updated – new members of staff within Star Accounts will be added and the name / position of matched staff details will be updated to match those in Star Accounts. Click ‘OK’.

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Import Staff from Excel If any issues connecting directly to the Star Accounts datafile specified in the school details screen cannot be resolved an Excel export of the staffing details held within Star Accounts can be produced (see Section 5 of the Star Accounts User Guide). This file can be imported into the Budget Planner by clicking the ‘Import Staff from Excel’ button. Manually Add a New Staff Member Staff members can be added directly from within a staffing forecast by double clicking the ‘Staff Code’ (see Sections 4 and 5). They can also be added within this screen by entering the details required on the blank line at the bottom of the screen. Either scroll to the blank line, or click the ‘New Record’ button at the top of the screen to go straight to it, and then enter the details required as below.

Browse in the location of the “Staff.xls” file. Double click the file (or single click it and click ‘Open’) to begin the import process.

Click ‘OK’.

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Staff Code: If known enter the staff code of the new staff member, or enter a fictitious code to use within the forecasts to be assigned to unfilled vacancies or posts that do not yet exist. Staff Codes must be entered in the format “000000-0” (six digits followed by a hyphen and one further digit). The hyphen will be automatically entered by the Budget Planner. Staff members with more than one contract should have an entry for each contract entered, with the last digit being different to distinguish the contracts. Staff Name: Enter the name of the new staff member, or enter a meaningful description of the post if the vacancy it relates to is unfilled. Position: Enter the position of the staff member / vacancy. Type: Select the type of staff member / vacancy that the new record belongs to; Teaching or Support staff. The ‘Type’ selected/shown here determines which staffing forecast the staff member will appear within. The ‘Type’ cannot be changed if the staff record that it relates to has been used within a staffing forecast:

Deleting a Staff Member The list of staff members held within the Budget Planner should be kept up-to-date on a regular basis with those codes that are no longer required being deleted, to ensure they are not mistakenly added to a staffing forecast. Within the ‘Manage Staff Details’ screen click the ‘Delete’ button next to the record to be deleted. Staff Records cannot be deleted if they have been used within any forecast in the current Budget Planner:

Click ‘OK’.

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Click ‘Yes’ to delete the record, or ‘No’ to cancel.

The ‘Manage Staff Details’ screen can be filtered to show all staff codes that have not been assigned to a forecast within the Budget Planner, by clicking the ‘View Unused’ button.

Click ‘View All’ to remove the filter.

Click to go directly to the Teaching Staff Forecast screen.

Click to go directly to the Support Staff Forecast screen.

Click to ‘Exit’.

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Section 4 - Teaching Staff Forecasts

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To access the teaching staff forecasting tool click ‘Teaching Staff Forecasts’ from the main menu. Import Prior Year Details If you wish to use a teaching staff forecast created in the prior years budget planner as a starting point for the current years forecasting click the ‘Import Prior Year’ button at the top of the screen. Users should ensure that staff details have been imported from Star Accounts prior to performing this process as staff codes imported from a prior forecast will be removed if a corresponding staff code cannot be found in the current budget planner staff list. If no staff details exist within the current budget planner the following message will appear: Click ‘No’ to cancel the import process to allow staff details to be imported, or ‘Yes’ to continue the import and remove all staff codes when the import is complete. Note: Any dummy / anonymous staff members that exist within the prior year forecast will be removed as part of this process.

Browse in the location of your 2015 Budget Planner datafile, and then either double click the file, or highlight it and click ‘Open’.

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The following screen will show all teaching staff forecasts that exist within the prior years’ budget planner. Please Note: The forecast chosen should relate to a second year forecast from the previous budget planner.

Click ‘Yes’ to import the stated forecast, or ‘No’ to cancel the process.

If the name entered above matches an existing forecast within the current budget planner the following message will appear: Click ‘Yes’ to replace the existing forecast with the forecast selected for importing, or ‘No’ to enter a new name.

Once the import is complete any staff codes found that do not have a matching entry within the current budget planners staff list will be removed.

Please select a valid staff code for any staff members shown with a blank staff code.

Select the required forecast from the drop down list.

Enter the name you wish to use for the imported forecast.

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Federations Only: To enable federations to import multiple forecasts into one forecast (i.e. prior forecasts from all member schools) the following message will appear if a duplicate forecast name is entered: Click ‘Yes’ to add the selected forecast to the forecast shown, or ‘No’ to enter a new name. Please Note: Care must be taken to ensure that each forecast from the member schools is imported only once. If a forecast is imported more than once the duplicated lines will need to be deleted manually, or the entire forecast deleted and started again.



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Data Required for Teaching Staff Costs When manually inputting a new teaching staff forecast the data required is:

A Staff Code – Select the required Staff Member from the drop down list. If the required staff code cannot be found in the drop down list, or you wish to enter an anonymous staff member to the list, a new staff member can be created by double clicking the staff code field (see below for details). B Staff Name – This field will automatically be updated with the staff members name when a staff code is selected. This name can be overtyped if required. C Type April – Select the required type of staff member from the drop down list. This will default to “MPR” (Main Pay Range) when a staff code is chosen.

The Main Pay Range (“MPR”) is the equivalent of the Norfolk Advisory Payscales (“NAPS”).

D Spinal Point April – Enter the spinal point of the staff member as at April. You must ensure that a ‘Type’ is selected in April for the staff member before entering the spinal point. The Budget Planner will ensure that the spinal point entered does not exceed the maximum allowable for the staff member. Click ‘Pay Scales’ to review all spinal points available.

A B C D E F G

H I J K L M

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E Type September – Select the required type of staff member from the drop down list. This will default to “MPR” (Main Pay Range) when a staff code is chosen.

The Main Pay Range (“MPR”) is the equivalent of the Norfolk Advisory Payscales (“NAPS”).

F Spinal Point September – Enter the spinal point of the staff member as at September. You must ensure that a ‘Type’ is selected in September for the staff member before entering the spinal point. The Budget Planner will ensure that the spinal point entered does not exceed the maximum allowable for the staff member. Click ‘Pay Scales’ to review all spinal points available.

G Contracted FTE – Enter the FTE (Full Time Equivalent) rate of the staff member. A full time member of staff who will be employed for the full year will require an FTE of 1.00 in all three terms. The contracted FTE must be entered into each term tat the employee present during, regardless of whether they will be employed for the full term (see Starters / Leavers below). H Teaching and Learning – Type in the cash value of any TLR payments made to the staff member (as per the TLR column of the pay scales list). The cash value must be entered into each of the three terms for the full amount to be added to the total salary.

As per the STPCD the amounts entered must fall between three ranges to be accepted by the Budget Planner. The amount entered will be validated when it is entered.

Please Note: In forecasts for the current year the amounts that can be entered in the Autumn (Aut) and Spring (Spr) terms may be different to the values allowable in the Summer (Sum) term due to pay rises being applied from September.

If your school has not adopted the Norfolk Advisory Payscales (NAPS/MPR) please enter the closest spinal point to the salary being paid and enter a cash adjustment in the ‘Other Payments’ field for the difference.

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I SEN – Enter the cash value of any SEN payments made for the staff member (as per the SEN column within the PayScales list). The value entered must be between the two amounts shown in the PayScales list, which will be validated when an amount is entered. Please Note: In forecasts for the current year the amounts that can be entered in the Autumn (Aut) and Spring (Spr) terms may be different to the values allowable in the Summer (Sum) term due to pay rises being applied from September. J Other Payments – Enter the net full year costs (i.e. without on-costs included) of any additional payments that the staff member receives, for example, Recruitment and Retention payments or a cash value of the difference between the salary calculated and the actual salary if your school has not adopted the Norfolk Advisory Payscales (NAPS). K OnCost Rate Apr - Aug – Select the required OnCost rate from the drop down list, or manually type in the OnCost rate required. OnCost Checker: A table of oncosts rates based on the Net Salary (i.e. before OnCost values have been added) can be viewed by clicking the ‘On Costs’ button or via the PayScales screen by clicking the ‘On-Cost Rates’ button. Double clicking the OnCost Rate drop down within the Staffing Forecast will show the rates that should applied based on the details entered: L OnCost Rate Sep - Mar – Select the required OnCost rate from the drop down list, or manually type in the OnCost rate required. Double clicking the OnCost Rate drop down within the Staffing Forecast will show the rates that should applied based on the details entered. Please Note: For OnCost purposes salary subtotals are rounded up to the nearest £500.

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A report showing possible issues with the on-cost rates selected can be viewed at any time by clicking the ‘On Cost Checker’ button.

M Salary – The total annual salary cost for the staff member is calculated based on the information entered (as above). This figure cannot be manually overwritten. Notes Notes can be entered for any staff member by clicking the ‘Notes’ button. The details will shown above will be replaced with a notes field. Enter the required note and then click ‘Notes’ again to return to the calculation view. Detailed Teaching Staff Data Entry A detailed view of a teaching staff forecast can be viewed by double clicking the ‘Name’ field. This screen can only be accessed if a staff code has been entered for the staff member selected.

Within this screen the same details as entered above will be required. However, each forecast that the selected staff member appears in can be selected from the profile drop down list at the top of the screen.

If a note exists for a staff member an asterisk will be shown at the end of the line.

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Please Note: The profile drop down list will only show forecasts for the current year and future years based on the year being viewed when the staff name was double clicked i.e. if a staff name is double clicked within a 2015-16 forecast only 2015-16 and 2016-17 forecasts will be shown. Within the detailed view the Spinal Points will be a dropdown list based on the “Type” selected for April or September. These dropdown lists specify the salary assigned to the relevant Spinal Points. The detailed view also provides the values of the Net Salary (Salary Subtotal) and the value of the OnCost payments. Click the ‘?’ button to check the OnCost rates that should apply based on the calculated Salary Subtotal. Department Code: If you wish to assign a staff members salary costs to a Department Code this can only be assigned via the Detailed Department Screen by selecting the required department from the drop down list. Within the Cluster Budget Planner this will automatically be updated with the Default Department Code selected on the School Details Screen (see Section 1), but can be changed if required. If a department code has been assigned to a staff member their name will be highlighted in bold within the Staffing Forecast screen: This does not apply to the Cluster Budget Planner as all forecasts will be assigned to a department.

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Starters and Leavers Dates From the Budget Planner 2015-16 onwards the Starters and Leavers function has been amended when calculating profiled salary costs for staff members. Each staff forecast will be required to have their actual working dates entered against their forecast line. When records are added to a forecast the system will default the Starters and Leavers to those required for the full year of the forecast in question: Summer Term 01/04/20XX to 31/08/20XX Autumn Term 01/09/20XX to 31/12/20XX Spring Term 01/01/20XX to 31/03/20XX Starters and Leavers dates can only be amended via the Detailed Staff View (as above). Amend any dates as required for new employees that begin mid year, or existing employees that leave during the year. Dates should be left blank for each term that the staff member will not be employed (i.e. after they have left or before they have started). The End Date must be greater than the Start Date and the dates entered cannot be less than or greater than ranges stated above for each term (warning messages will appear if there is an issue with the dates entered). If a record is not listed with term dates equivalent to a full year (as per the dates above) a red o will be shown to the right of the record within the full forecast summary:

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Salary Calculation – Additional Guidance The total salary calculated for each staff record is based on both the Contracted FTE and Starters / Leavers dates entered. Each salary is profiled on a monthly basis – taking the full year salary of a 1.00 FTE working for a full year and multiplying it by the FTE and months employed. For example, a teacher starts employment on 17th May with a 0.5 FTE contract, at spinal point 3 (£25,674) with no additional payments or oncosts. A full time (1.00 FTE) member of staff with this salary would expect a monthly salary of £2,139.50 (£25,674/12). This is multiplied by the 0.5 FTE to give a monthly profiled salary of £1,069.75 per month.

In this example the employee would not be paid during April and would only be entitled to 15 days pay in May (17th to 31st May: £1,069.75 * (15/31) = £517.62). The above principles will also be applied TLR, SEN or Other Payments entered. Duplicate Records Unlike previous versions of the Budget Planner multiple staffing records can be assigned to the same ‘Staff Code’ within a forecast. Care must be taken when entering duplicate records as when the budget is exported to Star Accounts the cumulative total of all salaries within the current year forecast will be applied to the staff member. Duplicate records can be entered where mid-year changes to the employees’ contract warrant a new record. For example, if a staff member moves from 0.50 FTE to 1.00 on 17th November two records can be entered: one with 0.5 FTE and Starters /Leavers dates ending on 16th November and one with 1.00 FTE starting from 17th November. Duplicate records can also be entered if you wish to assign part of an employees salary cost to a department code. For example, if a staff member is employed for Pupil Premium purposes for 40% of their contract two lines can be entered – one for 0.6 FTE without a department code and one for 0.4 FTE with a department code selected.

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Creating New Staff Members Staff Details can be imported from Star Accounts during the initial set up of the Budget Planner (see Section 1) or entered via the ‘Manage Staff Details’ screen (see Section 3). Staff records can also be created directly from within the Teaching Staff forecast screen by double clicking the ‘Staff Code’ field. If the record to be created is for a completely new member of staff please ensure the ‘Staff Code’ double clicked is within the blank line at the bottom of the Staffing Forecast. If a staff code already exists within the field selected the following message will appear: Click ‘Yes’ to continue, or ‘No’ to cancel. Please Note: When clicking ‘Update’ (see below) the details of the current line will be replaced with the new record created.

Enter the new staff members’ details as required. Staff Codes MUST be entered in the format “000000-0” (six digits followed by a hyphen then one further digit).

Staff members with more than one contract should have an entry for each contract they have. Anonymous Staff Members If you wish to enter a line for a post that does not exist, or a post which has yet to be filled, a staff record should be created with a fictitious staff code. For example:

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Delete a Line from the Forecast

To delete a line from a teaching staff forecast, click the delete button next to the staff code of the line to be deleted.

Sorting / Filtering The default sort for Teaching Staff Forecasts is by ‘Staff Name’. If you wish to view the forecasts sorted alphabetically by type double click the “Type” label at the top of the screen: Double click the “Name” label to restore the default sorting. To filter the staff forecast to view a particular ‘Type’, in either April or September, double click the type to be filtered. Double click the type again to return to the full forecast.

Click ‘Yes’ to delete the line, or ‘No’ to cancel.

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Monthly Profile For information purposes only, a monthly profile of teaching staff costs relating to the current forecast can be shown at the bottom of the screen by clicking ‘Show Summary’.

This shows the estimated monthly teaching salary costs, cumulative teaching salary costs and a summary by type. Click ‘Hide Summary’ to remove the summary. Please Note: Viewing the summary section the totals will not update automatically when data is entered. To update these figures please click the ‘Recalculate’ button. Monthly Profile by Type: To view a report showing the monthly profile of salaries according to each ‘Type’ of teaching staff, click the ‘Profile by Type’ button. Detailed Profile by Staff Member: A report showing the detailed monthly profile of all lines within the currently viewed forecast can be viewed by clicking the ‘Detailed Profile’ button.

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Summary Profile by Staff Member: The detailed report (above) provides a full breakdown per line held within the currently viewed forecast. A summary per Staff Member can be viewed by clicking the ‘Summary Profile’ button.

This report provides a monthly breakdown grouped by the first 6 digits of a staff code. Therefore, if a staff member has multiple contracts these will be summarised in the same section, and the cumulative total will relate to all payments made to that staff member (assuming the first 6 digits of the staff code is that same for all contracts held by that staff member).

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Create a New Forecast To create a new forecast open the forecast that is to be used as the basis for the new forecast and click ‘Copy to New Forecast’. If the new forecast is created successfully the screen will refresh to show the new forecast. If the forecast cannot be created for any reason the following message will appear.

Click ‘OK’ and try again.

Please Note: If the newly created forecast relates to a future financial year care must be taken to ensure that the details shown are as accurate as possible, for example:

• If an increase in salary costs has been implemented from September the on-cost rate chosen may need to be amended to reflect a higher salary;

• If the September spinal point from the copied forecast is higher than the April spinal point it will be moved to the April spinal point in the new forecast, i.e. spinal points 3 4 becomes spinal points 4 4 in the new forecast.

• If the “Type” of a staff member has changed from April to September of the forecast being copied, the “Type” in April” of the new financial year will be amended to match the one entered in September.

• Any members of staff that were not budgeted for in either the Summer or Autumn terms need to be amended in the new forecast to ensure their full year costs are calculated.

Enter the name of the new forecast. This must be no longer than 25 characters in length. Click ‘OK’.

Enter the number of the year that the new forecast relates to. Click ‘OK’.

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Delete a Forecast To delete a forecast view the required forecast on screen and click ‘Delete this Forecast’.

Detailed Background Colour The default colour for the background of the Teaching Staff Forecast is white, to change this to green press “Ctrl and Y” on the keyboard. Press “Ctrl and Y” again to revert back to white. Please Note: If the background colour is changed to green the forecast will default to this colour in the future. However, any forecasts printed from the Budget Planner will be printed with a white background.

Click ‘Yes’ to delete, or ‘No’ to cancel.

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Updating the Budget Plan Any forecast that is created within the Budget Planner can be used to update the Live or Trial Budget Plan. Place a marker in the field of the budget you wish to update. If this screen has been accessed from the trial budget the ‘Trial’ field will be automatically selected, if the forecast has been accessed from any other screen the ‘Live’ field will be selected. This process will overwrite any existing budgets shown against subjective code 04800 (Teachers) with the total calculated on screen. This total will include any staffing lines created that have not been assigned a staff code. If any staffing forecasts have been assigned to a department code an additional line, including the department code, will also added to the detailed budget against subjective 04800.

Click ‘Update Budget Plan’.

Ensure that the budget stated is the budget you wish to update. Click ‘Yes’ to continue, or ‘No’ to cancel. For information purposes only the following message will appear if you are updating the budget with a forecast where there are records with staff codes missing:

Click ‘OK’.

Click ‘OK’.

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Please Note: If the staffing forecast being viewed relates to a future year forecast the budget updated will be the year that it relates to, not the live budget. For reference, the year that the current forecast relates to is shown at the end of the forecast name: Export to Excel To export the currently viewed staffing forecast into Microsoft Excel click the excel button.

Browse a location to save the Microsoft Excel file into and then click ‘OK’.

Once outputted the file will open on screen:

Please Note: Unlike the main screen within the Budget Planner, the amounts shown within the Teaching and Learning Payments and SEN terms for each of the three terms are the actual amounts relative to that term. For example, if £505 is added to each of the three terms within the Budget Planner for Teaching and Learning the amounts shown in the Excel file will be the £505 split pro-rata between each of the three terms.

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Section 5 - Support Staff Forecasts

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To access the support staff forecasting tool click ‘Support Staff Forecasts’ from the main menu. Import Prior Year Details If you wish to use a support staff forecast created in the prior years budget planner as a starting point for the current years forecasting click the ‘Import Prior Year’ button at the top of the screen. Users should ensure that staff details have been imported from Star Accounts prior to performing this process as staff codes imported from a prior forecast will be removed if a corresponding staff code cannot be found in the current budget planner staff list. If no staff details exist within the current budget planner the following message will appear: Click ‘No’ to cancel the import process to allow staff details to be imported, or ‘Yes’ to continue the import and remove all staff codes when the import is complete. Note: Any dummy / anonymous staff members that exist within the prior year forecast will be removed as part of this process.

Browse in the location of your 2015 Budget Planner datafile, and then either double click the file, or highlight it and click ‘Open’.

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The following screen will show all support staff forecasts that exist within the prior years’ budget planner. Please Note: The forecast chosen should relate to a second year forecast from the previous budget planner.

Click ‘Yes’ to import the stated forecast, or ‘No’ to cancel the process.

If the name entered above matches an existing forecast within the current budget planner the following message will appear: Click ‘Yes’ to replace the existing forecast with the forecast selected for importing, or ‘No’ to enter a new name.



Select the required forecast from the drop down list.

Enter the name you wish to use for the imported forecast.

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Federations Only: To enable federations to import multiple forecasts into one forecast (i.e. prior forecasts from all member schools) the following message will appear if a duplicate forecast name is entered: Click ‘Yes’ to add the selected forecast to the forecast shown, or ‘No’ to enter a new name. Please Note: Care must be taken to ensure that each forecast from the member schools is imported only once. If a forecast is imported more than once the duplicated lines will need to be deleted manually, or the entire forecast deleted and started again.



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Data Required for Support Staff Costs When manually inputting a new support staff forecast the data required is: A Staff Code – Select the required Staff Member from the drop down list. If the required staff code cannot be found in the drop down list, or you wish to enter an anonymous staff member to the list, a new staff member can be created by double clicking the staff code field (see below for details). B Staff Name – This field will be automatically updated with the staff members name when a staff code is selected. This name can be overtyped if required. C Position – If a position has been entered against the staff members record this field will automatically be updated when a staff code is selected. This can be overtyped if required. D Type – Select the required type of staff member from the drop down list. Please Note: The Type chosen here is used to determine where the staff members’ salary costs are shown within the budget plan (see ‘Updating the Budget Plan’ for details). For information purposes the CFR group that each type relates to is shown within the drop down list.

A C B D E

F G H I J

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E Paid Weeks per Year – Select the staff members paid weeks per year from the drop down list. You must ensure that the weeks selected are correct for both the staff members’ scale and length of service. Click ‘View PayScales’ then ‘Paid Weeks per Year’ to view a printable list of all paid weeks per year. F Spinal Point – Enter the spinal point of the staff member as at April and July. You must ensure that a ‘Type’ is selected for the staff member before entering the spinal point, as the database will ensure that the spinal point entered does not exceed the maximum allowable for the staff member. Click ‘Pay Scales’ to review all spinal points available. G Hours – Enter the number of hours that the staff member is contracted to work each week for each of the three terms shown. For Senior MSA Staff one day equals one session. Therefore, if a Senior MSA works for 5 days per week enter 5. MSA’s are paid hourly. Please Note: The figure entered here should be entered as a decimal, therefore, if somebody is contracted to work 12hrs 30 minutes per week the value entered would be 12.50.

Minutes to Decimal: 15 Minutes = 0.25, 30 Minutes = 0.50, 45 Minutes = 0.75

H Allowances – Enter the net full year costs (i.e. without on-costs included) of any additional payments that the staff member receives (for example, sleeping in allowances at Special Schools). The cash value must be entered into each of the three terms for the full amount to be added to the total salary. I OnCost Rate – Select the required OnCost rate from the drop down list. If the required OnCost rate does not appear in the drop down list simply type in the required rate. OnCost Checker: A table of oncosts rates based on the Net Salary (i.e. before OnCost values have been added) can be viewed by clicking the ‘On Costs’ button or via the PayScales screen by clicking the ‘On-Cost Rates’ button.

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Double clicking the OnCost Rate drop down within the Staffing Forecast will show the rates that should applied based on the details entered: Please Note: For OnCost purposes salary subtotals are rounded up to the nearest £500.

A report showing possible issues with the on-cost rates selected can be viewed at any time by clicking the ‘On Cost Checker’ button.

J Salary – The total annual salary cost for the staff member is calculated based on the information entered (as above). This figure cannot be manually overwritten. Notes Notes can be entered for any staff member by clicking the ‘Notes’ button. The details will shown above will be replaced with a notes field. Enter the required note and then click ‘Notes’ again to return to the calculation view.

If a note exists for a staff member an asterisk will be shown next to the Salary.

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Detailed Support Staff Data Entry A detailed view of the support staff forecast can be viewed by double clicking the ‘Name’ field. This screen can only be accessed if a staff code has been entered for the staff member selected.

Within this screen the same details as entered above will be required. However, each forecast that the selected staff member appears in can be selected from the profile drop down list at the top of the screen.

Please Note: The profile drop down list will only show forecasts for the current year and future years based on the year being viewed when the staff name was double clicked i.e. if a staff name is double clicked within a 2015-16 forecast only 2015-16 and 2016-17 forecasts will be shown. Within the detailed view the Spinal Points will be a dropdown list based on the “Type” selected. These dropdown lists specify the salary assigned to the relevant Spinal Points. The detailed view also provides the values of the Net Salary (Salary Subtotal) and the value of the OnCost payments. Click the ‘?’ button to check the OnCost rates that should apply based on the calculated Salary Subtotal.

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Department Code: If you wish to assign a staff members salary costs to a Department Code this can only be assigned via the Detailed Department Screen by selecting the required department from the drop down list. Within the Cluster Budget Planner this will automatically be updated with the Default Department Code selected on the School Details Screen (see Section 1), but can be changed if required. If a department code has been assigned to a staff member their name will be highlighted in bold within the Staffing Forecast screen: This does not apply to the Cluster Budget Planner as all forecasts will be assigned to a department. Starters and Leavers Dates From the Budget Planner 2015-16 onwards the Starters and Leavers function has been amended when calculating profiled salary costs for staff members. Each staff forecast will be required to have their actual working dates entered against their forecast line. When records are added to a forecast the system will default the Starters and Leavers to those required for the full year of the forecast in question: Summer Term 01/04/20XX to 31/08/20XX Autumn Term 01/09/20XX to 31/12/20XX Spring Term 01/01/20XX to 31/03/20XX Starters and Leavers dates can only be amended via the Detailed Staff View (as above). Amend any dates as required for new employees that begin mid year, or existing employees that leave during the year. Dates should be left blank for each term that the staff member will not be employed (i.e. after they have left or before they have started).

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The End Date must be greater than the Start Date and the dates entered cannot be less than or greater than ranges stated above for each term (warning messages will appear if there is an issue with the dates entered). If a record is not listed with term dates equivalent to a full year (as per the dates above) a red o will be shown to the right of the record within the full forecast summary: Salary Calculation – Additional Guidance The total salary calculated for each staff record is based on the Contracted Hours, Paid Weeks per Year and Starters / Leavers dates entered. Each salary is profiled on a monthly basis – taking the full year salary of a 1.00 FTE working for a full year and multiplying it by the FTE, Paid Weeks per Year and months employed. For example, a finance assistant starts employment on 17th May for 20 hours per week, at spinal point 6 (£13,614 pa) for 43.32 weeks per year with no additional payments or oncosts. A full time member of staff, working 37 hours per week for 52.1429 weeks per year, would expect a monthly salary of £1,134.50 (£13,614/12). To calculate the monthly profile for the details stated above the Budget Planner will multiply the £1,134.50 by the percentage of the year the employee works (Paid Weeks per Year / 52.1429) and the percentage of the working week the employee works (Hours Per Week / 37). In the above example this would give: = £1,134.50 * (43.32/52.1429) * (20/37) = £1,134.50 & 0.83079 * 0.54054 = £509.48 In this example the employee would not be paid during April and would only be entitled to 15 days pay in May (20th to 31st May: £509.48 * (12/31) = £197.22).

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Creating New Staff Members Staff Details can be imported from Star Accounts during the initial set up of the Budget Planner (see Section 1) or entered via the ‘Manage Staff Details’ screen (see Section 3). Staff records can also be created directly from within the Support Staff forecast screen by double clicking the ‘Staff Code’ field. If the record to be created is for a completely new member of staff please ensure the ‘Staff Code’ double clicked is within the blank line at the bottom of the Staffing Forecast. If a staff code already exists within the field selected the following message will appear: Click ‘Yes’ to continue, or ‘No’ to cancel. Please Note: When clicking ‘Update’ (see below) the details of the current line will be replaced with the new record created.

Enter the new staff members’ details as required. Staff Codes MUST be entered in the format “000000-0” (six digits followed by a hyphen then one further digit).

Staff members with more than one contract should have an entry for each contract they have. Anonymous Staff Members If you wish to enter a line for a post that does not exist, or a post which has yet to be filled, a staff record should be created with a fictitious staff code. For example:

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Delete a Line from the Forecast To delete a line from a support staff forecast click the delete button next to the staff once of the line to be deleted. Duplicate Staff Codes Unlike previous versions of the Budget Planner multiple staffing records can be assigned to the same ‘Staff Code’ within a forecast. Care must be taken when entering duplicate records as when the budget is exported to Star Accounts the cumulative total of all salaries within the current year forecast will be applied to the staff member. Duplicate records can be entered where mid-year changes to the employees’ contract warrant a new record. For example, if a staff member moves from 20 hours per week to 25 hours per week on 17th November two records can be entered: one with 20 hours per week and Starters /Leavers dates ending on 16th November and one with 25 hours per week starting from 17th November. Duplicate records can also be entered if you wish to assign part of an employees salary cost to a department code. For example, if a staff member is employed for Pupil Premium purposes for 40% of their contract two lines can be entered – one for 0.6 FTE without a department code and one for 0.4 FTE with a department code selected.

Click ‘Yes’ to delete the line, or ‘No’ to cancel.

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Sorting / Filtering The default sort for Support Staff Forecasts is ‘Type’ then ‘Staff Name’. If you wish to view the forecasts sorted alphabetically by staff name regardless of type double click the “Name” label at the top of the screen: Double click the “Type” label to restore the default sorting. To filter the forecast to view a particular ‘Type’ of support staff double click the type required. The screen will then refresh to show only those staff members with that type. Double click the ’Type’ list again to return to the full forecast. Monthly Profile For information purposes only, a monthly profile of support staff costs relating to the current forecast can be shown at the bottom of the screen by clicking the ‘Show Summary’ button.

This shows the termly hours and annual salary costs for each ‘Type’ of staff member. Please Note: When viewing the summary section the totals will not update automatically when data is entered. To update these figures please click the ‘Recalculate’ button. Monthly Profile by Type: To view a report showing the monthly profile of salaries according to each ‘Type’ of support staff, click the ‘Profile by Type’ button.

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This report provides monthly profiled and cumulative support staff costs by type, as well as a summary of types EDSS and EXT (which are updated to the same subjective code within the budget plan – 09650). Detailed Profile by Staff Member: A report showing the detailed monthly profile of all lines within the currently viewed forecast can be viewed by clicking the ‘Detailed Profile’ button. Summary Profile by Staff Member: The detailed report (above) provides a full breakdown per line held within the currently viewed forecast. A summary per Staff Member can be viewed by clicking the ‘Summary Profile’ button.

This report provides a monthly breakdown grouped by the first 6 digits of a staff code. Therefore, if a staff member has multiple contracts these will be summarised in the same section, and the cumulative total will relate to all payments made to that staff member (assuming the first 6 digits of the staff code is that same for all contracts held by that staff member).

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Create a New Forecast To create a new forecast open the forecast that is to be used as the basis for the new forecast and click ‘Copy to New Forecast’. If the new forecast is created successfully the screen will refresh to show the new forecast. If the forecast cannot be created for any reason the following message will appear. Please Note: If the newly created forecast relates to a future financial year care must be taken to ensure that the details shown are as accurate as possible, for example:

• If an increase in salary costs has been implemented from September the on-cost rate chosen may need to be amended to reflect a higher salary;

• If the September spinal point from the copied forecast is higher than the April spinal point it will be moved to the April spinal point in the new forecast, i.e. spinal points 3 4 becomes spinal points 4 4 in the new forecast.

• Any members of staff that were not budgeted for in either the Summer or Autumn terms need to be amended in the new forecast to ensure their full year costs are calculated.

Enter the name of the new forecast. His must be no longer than 25 characters in length. Click ‘OK’.

Enter the number of the year that the new forecast relates to. Click ‘OK’.

Click ‘OK’ and try again.

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Delete a Forecast To delete a forecast open the forecast to be deleted and click ‘Delete this Forecast’.

Detailed Background Colour The default colour for the background of the Support Staff Forecast is white, to change this to green press “Ctrl and Y” on the keyboard. Press “Ctrl and Y” again to revert back to white. Please Note: If the background colour is changed to green the forecast will default to this colour in the future. However, any forecasts printed from the Budget Planner will not be printed with a green background.

Click ‘Yes’ to delete, or ‘No’ to cancel.

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Updating the Budget Plan Any forecast that is created within the Budget Planner can be used to update the Live or Trial Budget Plan. Place a marker in the field of the budget you wish to update. If this screen has been accessed from the trial budget the ‘Trial’ field will be automatically selected, if the forecast has been accessed from any other screen the ‘Live’ field will be selected. This process will overwrite the budgets shown against the following subjective codes with the total salary costs for the ‘Type’ of staff members:

13600 E05 ADCL Administrative & Clerical Staff 11950 E04 CARE Caretakers 12000 E04 CLEAN Cleaners 09670 E03 CLUST Cluster Support Staff 10150 E07 COOS Midday Supervisor Assistants 09650 E03 EDSS Education Support Staff 09700 E31 EXST Community Staff Costs 09650 E03 EXT Extended Schools Staff 15450 E06 KCHN Cooks / Kitchen Staff 10100 E07 SMSA Senior Midday Supervisors

If any staffing forecasts have been assigned to a department code an additional line, including the department code, will also added to the detailed budget against the relevant subjective code.

Click ‘Update Budget Plan’.

For information purposes only the following message will appear if you are updating the budget with a forecast where there are records with staff codes missing:

Click ‘OK’.

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Please Note: If the staffing forecast being viewed relates to a future year forecast the budget updated will be the year that it relates to, not the current budget. For reference, the year that the current forecast relates to is shown at the end of the forecast name: Export to Excel To export the currently viewed staffing forecast into Microsoft Excel click the excel button.

Browse a location to save the Microsoft Excel file into and then click ‘OK’.

Once outputted the file will open on screen:

Click ‘OK’.

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Section 6 – Pupil Forecasts

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Click ‘Pupil Forecasts’ from the Main Menu.

This sheet should be used to calculate a cash adjustment to line I01 (Funds Delegated by the LA) for the two future financial years shown, based on pupil numbers. Other elements of the funding formula are not taken into account e.g. standards fund grant, social deprivation, protected pupil numbers etc. Sixth form funding is also not included. The current year (first column) is included for reference only as this year will be based on known pupil numbers as at the October census of the previous financial year. These figures will be pre-populated in the “NOR LA” column (which cannot be amended). Please Note: The Year 12 and 13 fields will not calculate any funding. They are purely for information purposes to feed through to the ‘Funded Pupil Numbers’ shown at the top of the Summary Budget.

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Pupil Funding Adjustment: To calculate any adjustments required to pupil funding enter the expected pupil numbers for each year group at the school into the ‘NOR School’ column (grey boxes). The numbers entered should reflect any expected increases or decreases for each year group. Please Note: When entering the pupil numbers each year group should move up a year within the forecast years, i.e. Year 1 becomes Year 2 in the first forecast year and Year 3 in the second forecast year. When amending the ‘NOR School’ figures no changes will be reflected in the “Adjusted I01” figure until either the ‘Re-Calculate’ button is clicked, or “Ctrl & Q” are clicked on the keyboard. The recalculation procedure will automatically be carried when any of the buttons on screen are clicked. Pupil Funding (I01) Adjustment: The total adjustment shown for I01 takes the difference between the current years ‘Total’ school funding and the previous years ‘Total’. This figure will include any adjustment required for Nursery Funding (Yr0) – see below.

Please Note: Any differences calculated for Forecast Year 1 (2015-16) will be compared with the figures downloaded within the budget share. The differences for Forecast Year 2 (2016-17) will be compared with the figures entered for Forecast Year 1 (2015-16).

Per-Pupil Entitlement = Formerly called Age Weighted Pupil Allowance for the year group shown. NOR School = Expected pupil numbers Funding School = Per-Pupil Entitlement x NOR School.

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Nursery Funding (Yr0):

The total hours shown within the Yr0 ‘NOR School’ field is calculated as the sum of:

Summer Hrs per Week x 13.2 weeks Autumn Hrs per Week x 14.0 weeks Spring Hrs per Week x 10.6 weeks

The ‘Nursery Funding Adj’ figure is calculated as the difference between the ‘Funding School’ figures for the current year compared with the previous years. The ‘Additional IMD Adj’ is for reference only and cannot be amended. Within the current financial year this amount added to the Yr0 Funding LA figure should equal the Nursery Class Funding shown within Line 1.1 of the budget share.

Enter any increases or decreases in the total number of hours provided per week in the ‘NOR School’ column (grey boxes).

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DeDelegation Adjustment: As per the “Budget Share for Financial Year 2015/2016” there are amounts that are included within the budget share that have been de-delegated back to the Local Authority. For further details on these de-delegated categories please refer to the Budget Share Guidance. DeDelegated costs are calculated on a per pupil basis; therefore, any adjustments made to pupil numbers will affect the total amount de-delegated. Within the main pupil forecaster screen the total adjusted amount will be shown for information purposes only. To view a full breakdown of the de-delegation adjustments required click the ‘De-Delegation Memo’ button.

When the budget plan is updated these amounts will also be transposed to the detailed budget plan on the subjective codes shown (74200, 74210, 74220 and 74230), however, the amounts will be reversed, i.e. if they are shown as negative (bracketed in red) the amount will be entered on the budget plan as a positive and vice versa. Please Note: The Free School Meal Eligibility rate is the figure contained within the downloaded budget share, and is not updated by changes in pupil numbers.

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Other Adjustments: If any adjustments are required to ensure the I01 Budget Share figure is as accurate as possible due to increases or reductions in the budget share (for example, additional NQT funding) the adjustments fields provided at the bottom of each year should be used.

Please Note: Reductions to the budget share must be entered as a negative amount. Additional funding should be entered as a positive amount.

If more than three adjustments are required the cumulative total of the adjustments required should be entered. Please Note: Any adjustments entered within this section will be deducted from the starting point of the next financial years’ ‘Adjusted I01’ figure. Adjusted I01: The ‘Adjusted I01’ figure is calculated as follows:

Budget Share + Pupil Funding Adjustment + Minimum Funding Adjustment + Other Adjustments

The Pupil Funding Adjustment shown will include any nursery funding adjustments required. The De-Delegation adjustment shown is for information purposes only as the de-delegated rates are included within the Per-Pupil Entitlements shown, and these are offset against the income within the expenditure codes shown on the De-Delegation Memo.

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Federations Only If the Budget Planner relates to a federation of schools a pupil forecast must be completed for each of the schools within the federation. Federation Budget Planners will see a drop down list of the Location Codes of the federated schools: Select each Location Code in turn and complete the pupil forecaster as per the above instructions.

Once the pupil numbers have been updated, place a tick in ‘Confirm Changes’ field by clicking it. For information purpose the date and time that this was last

clicked for each forecast will be shown in the bottom right hand corner of the printed pupil forecaster:

Click to print the forecaster (this will also print the De-Delegation Memo).

Click to exit.

Click to recalculate.

Click to view the De-Delegation Memo.

Click to view the Detailed Budget.

Click to update the Budget Plan. (See below).

Click to view the Detailed Budget.

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Updating the Budget Plan Once you are satisfied that the pupil forecaster has been completed as accurately as possible for the two forecast years, and any adjustments required for the current year have been entered, the figures calculated should be uploaded to the detailed budget plan. To do this, click ‘Update Budget Plan’. This process will overwrite the existing budget figures shown against subjective code 98940 with the figures calculated via this forecast, and subjective codes 74200, 74210, 74220 and 74230 with the figures calculated in the ‘De-Delegation Memo’. I01: The two figures shown within the detailed budget will be the starting budget share for the required year and the sum of the adjustments required. In the above example the starting budget share for the second forecast year is £432,832 and the adjusted budget share is £430,948, which represents a difference of -£1,925 (shown as a positive here because the subjective code is an income subjective). The ‘Notes’ field will automatically be updated with the date and time that the detailed budget was updated. De-Delegation:

The amounts updated within the detailed budget plan for de-delegated amounts will be the new totals only (so only 1 line will appear for each subjective code).

Click ‘OK’.

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Please Note: If the Budget Planner relates to a federation an additional line will be added to the detailed relating to each Location Code within the federation. The Notes field will state the Location Code that the adjustment relates to, for example:

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Section 7 – School Improvement and Development Plan

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All budget plans should be produced in accordance with the priorities stated within the School Improvement and Development Plan (SIDP) as the driving force behind capital expenditure. Within the Budget Planner a summary of those priorities can be stated for reference purposes. To access this summary, from the Main Menu, click ‘School Development Plan’.

Year: Select the financial year the development issue relates to from the drop down list. Priority: Enter the priority given to the issue. Issue: Enter a brief description of the issue to be addressed. Solution: Enter a brief description of the solution to the issue (if known). Costs: Enter the estimated costs relating to the issue. Timescale: Enter an estimate of the timescales involved.

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Section 7 – School Improvement and Development Plan

Page 2 of 2

Delete an Issue: To delete an issue from the SIDP click the delete button next to the issue to be removed.

Click ‘Yes’ to delete the record, or ‘No’ to cancel.

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Section 8 – Year End Balances

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The Analysis of Balances form within the Budget Planner must be used to detail how any planned year-end surplus’ are to be used. From the Main Menu, click ‘Year End Balances’. Cfwd Balance from Budget Plan These details will be pulled through from the details entered within the detailed budget plan.

For reference this screen will state whether the balance is a surplus or deficit. 8% of Budget Share (excl I05) The figure shown here is the maximum amount that can be entered within the general contingency category – either 8% of the budget share excluding Pupil Premium (I05), or £20,000. Allocation of Balances Enter the amount you wish to allocate to each category shown within each of the years shown. The amount should be entered as a positive figure.

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Section 8 – Year End Balances

Page 2 of 2

General Contingency The amount that can be held for general contingency is specified as 8% of budget share (excl I05) or £20,000 (whichever is greater). The budget planner will ensure that the value entered does not exceed the maximum allowable. If you attempt to enter a value that is above the maximum allowable an error message will appear: The amount entered will then be changed to the maximum allowable.

Click ‘OK’.

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Section 9 - Finalising the Budget Page 1 of 7

Emailing the Budget Plan If you wish to email the full budget plan to Finance Support, from the Budget Planner toolbar, click ‘Help’ and then ‘Email Budget Plan’.

The email function within the Budget Planner has been created to work with Microsoft Outlook. If this is your default email provider click ‘Yes’ if you do not use Microsoft Outlook click ‘No’.

If you click ‘No’ the following message will appear.

Click ‘OK’ to this message. The location of the backup file to be sent will then open. The file stated in the message should then be manually attached to an email and sent to [email protected] (or any other email address required). If you clicked ‘Yes’ to the Send Email massage above the system will attach the backup file to an email, which will be shown on screen.

Enter any details and make any amendments required to the email address, then click ‘Send’.

Schools Finance



Export Budget to Star Accounts The live budget revision should be transferred to Star Accounts prior to finalising the budget. This process will export two sets of budget figures into Star Accounts – the Subjective Budget for the Budget Control Report (BCR) and Individual Staff budgets for the ‘Staff Monitoring Report’. To do this, from the Main Menu, click ‘Export to Star Accounts’.

If the live budget revision does not contain any budget figures the process will cancelled. Click ‘OK’.

The financial year in the datafile specified in the ‘Star Accounts Path’ must match the financial year that the Budget Plan relates to. When exporting budgets the system will ensure that this is the case – if it is not the following message will appear: Click ‘OK’. The ‘Star Accounts Path’ should then be re-browsed (as per Section 1) and the export attempted again.

Click ‘Yes’ to continue, or ‘No’ to cancel the export. The export process will update the datafile selected in the “Star Accounts Path” within the initial set-up screen. Please refer to Section 1 for instructions to change the datafile.

Click ‘OK’.

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During the export process the budget planner will ensure that the datafile specified in the Star Accounts path is valid. If the path is not valid (for example, if the current user does not have access to Star Accounts from their computer) this process will create a file that can be manually imported into Star Accounts.

Click ‘Yes’ to create the file, or ‘No’ to cancel the process to re-browse the Star Accounts path and try again. Click ‘OK’. The file listed on this massage should then be forwarded to a Star Accounts user to be manually imported into Star Accounts. After clicking ‘OK’ the folder containing this file will open. Please refer to the Star Accounts User Guide for instructions regarding the manual import process.

Schools Finance



Export Staffing Forecasts to Star Accounts The above process will export both the budget and staffing forecasts into Star Accounts. If adjustments have been made to the staffing forecasts that you wish to update to Star Accounts without amending the overall budget click the arrow button on the main menu. Click ‘No’ or ‘Cancel’ to stop the process. Please Note: This process can only be completed where Star Accounts and the Budget Planner can be used in conjunction with each other. If you do not have access to the Star Accounts datafile from the current computer the following error message will appear, and the process will be cancelled. If the Star Accounts datafile can be accessed from the current computer the staffing budgets will be exported.

Click ‘OK’.

Click ‘OK’.

Schools Finance



Finalising the Budget There are several steps that should be undertaken before a budget is finalised:

• Teaching Staff forecasts for each year should be completed

• Support Staff forecasts for each year should be completed

• The Pupil Forecaster should be completed and future year funding updated (if applicable)

• A budget should be entered for all required subjective codes

• The budget should be exported to Star Accounts (see above)

• The “School Improvement and Development Plan” summary should be completed

• The “Year End Balances” form should be completed

• The live budget should be copied to the forecast years (if it has not been manually entered into those years)

Once the budget has been exported to Star Accounts, and the other steps listed above have been completed click ‘Finalise Current Budget’ on the Main Menu. Please Note: You should only finalise a budget once it has been agreed by both Governors and Schools Finance. Once a budget has been finalised it cannot be amended.

The reports that print are:

1. Summary Budget 2. Detailed Budget with Notes 3. Year End Balances Form 4. School Improvement and Development Plan 5. Pupil Forecaster and De-Delegation Memo 6. Teaching and Support Staff Forecasts used to update the budget plan


Click ‘Yes’ if you have already printed all documentation, or ‘No’ to print it at this point.

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Please Note: This set of reports can be printed at any point by clicking ‘Print all Documentation’ on the Main Menu. At this point the budget planner will create an electronic file to be sent to Schools Finance for monitoring purposes. This file will be called your Location Code – Current Budget Revision “-Final-“ – Financial Year – “.txt”, for example: 9999-Original-Final-20XX-XX.txt Once this file has been created the following message will appear. Once ‘OK’ has been clicked the system will attempt to send this file attached to an email, and place a copy into the ‘Outputs Path’ stated within the School Details screen to be sent via AVCO AnyComms. Via Email If the system appears to freeze it may be that an email prompt is hidden behind the Budget Planner Main Menu. If you do not see the prompt (as below) on screen please click on the Microsoft Outlook tab within the start bar to view it:

If you click ‘No’ or ‘Deny’ to either of these messages the process will continue unaffected.

Click ‘Yes’. Office 2003

Office 2007 and above

Click ‘Allow’.

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Via AnyComms Plus As part of the Budget Finalising process the electronic file created as above will also be copied to the location stated within the ‘Outputs Path’ of the ‘School Details’ screen (see Section1). This file should be uploaded to County Hall as soon as possible after the budget has been successfully finalised.

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Section 10 - Reporting

Page 1 of 6

Budget Plans Detailed and Summary Budget Plans can be printed from within their respective screens when navigating through the Budget Planner. They can also be printed / viewed at any time by clicking ‘View / Print Budget’ from the Main Menu. The default report to open will be the Summary Budget Plan. Select the required Budget Plan you wish to view from the options shown. To view the selected budget plan for a specific department code select the required code from the ‘Dept’ drop down list. Please Note: The department codes shown in this list are only those have had a budget assigned to them. Export to Excel After clicking the export to Excel button (as above) users will be required to select the location to save the output to:

Click to ‘Exit’

Click to ‘Print’

Click to Export to Excel.

Highlight the folder required, and then click ‘OK’.

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Page 2 of 6

The Excel output will open once the export is completed. Budget Commentary The budget commentary is a useful report for noting specific requirements / notes for each CFR Category. From the Main Menu click ‘Budget Commentary’. The screen will default to open showing the budget commentary for the current live revision. If you wish to view previously entered budget commentary select the required budget revision from the drop down list. The budget commentary is split into two halves – the right hand side shows any notes that have been entered in the detailed budget plan (along with the subjective code to which they relate), and the left hand side has been provided for users to type notes into that are not covered by those details from the budget plan. The ‘Notes from Budget Plan’ section can be updated to reflect the current notes contained within the detailed budget plan by clicking ‘Update Notes from Budget Plan’.

Click ‘Yes’ to update the notes, or ‘No’ to cancel. Please Note: You can only update the notes within the current live budget revision.

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Any additional notes required can be entered into the ‘Budget Commentary’ fields (left hand side of the screen.)

The ‘Budget Commentary’ section can be updated to reflect the notes entered within the previous budget commentary by clicking ‘Copy Prior Manual Notes’.

Click ‘Yes’ to replace the notes, or ‘No’ to cancel. Please Note: This option will only be available from Revision 1.

Click to print the budget commentary. Click to export the budget commentary to Microsoft Excel.

The Excel output will open once the export is completed.

Highlight the folder required, and then click ‘OK’.

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School Visit Notes The school visit notes report summarises staffing levels (FTE and hours), along with pupil numbers and balances to be carried forward. This report is primarily for use by Finance Support Officers to make notes regarding discussions held at budgeting visits. To view the report click ‘School Visit Notes’ from the Ma-in Menu.

Please Note: If the detailed budget plan has been updated from the staffing forecast these will be automatically selected. Click ‘View Report’ once a forecast has been chosen for each of the years and staff type shown.

Select the required Staffing Forecasts to be included on the report.

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Benchmarking Comparison A comparison of the staffing costs held within the Budget Planner against your schools “family” and previous years staffing costs can be viewed by clicking the ‘Benchmarking Comparison’ button on the Main Menu. Select the staffing forecasts that you wish to compare within the report. A forecast must be selected within each of the drop down lists shown. These will default to any relevant staffing forecast that was used to update the detailed budget, but can be re-selected if required. Click ‘View Report’. Click ‘Yes’ to open the report, or ‘No’ to cancel. As the data required within the benchmarking is complex it may take several minutes for this report to open. If ‘Yes’ is clicked you must wait for the report to open on screen before proceeding. The first two pages of this report provide a comparison of the benchmarking base data against the current budget and two forecast years (plus the prior budget revision if Original is not the current live budget).

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The third page of this report provides graphical representations of the variations between each of the budget revisions and the base data. If you require clarification of the purpose of this report please speak to you Finance Support Officer in the first instance.

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Section 11 – Backup Routine

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Backup Datafile From the Main Menu, click ‘Backup to Device’. Click ‘Yes’ to backup the budget plan datafile only. This option should be used if users wish to create several scenarios within the budget plan before deciding which budget to use – each scenario should be created as a separate folder/backup.

The folder name specified above will be created in the budget plan folder with a copy of the budget plan at the point the backup was made.

Enter a name for the folder, then click ‘OK’.

Click ‘OK’.

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Section 11 – Backup Routine

Page 2 of 2

Full Backup From the Main Menu, click ‘Backup to Device’. Click ‘No’ to backup the entire budget plan folder to a storage device (i.e. Memory Stick). Click ‘Yes’ to continue, or ‘No’ to cancel the process. This process will create a full copy of the Budget Plan folder to the specified location called “Budget Plan Backup” and the date the backup was made:

Select the location/storage device you wish to save the backup to, and then click ‘OK’.

You must wait for this message before continuing. Click ‘OK’.

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Section 12 – Updates and Upgrades

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Subjective Code Update The Subjective Codes held within the Budget Planner must be kept up to date to ensure that the schools records match those held at County Hall. Automatic Update From the ‘Budget Planner’ toolbar, click ‘Help’, then ‘Subjective Code Update’ (or Select ‘Subjective Codes’ from the ‘Upgrades’ dropdown in Access 2007 and above). The system will then attempt to download the relevant financial years’ subjective code list from the Schools Finance Website into the Budget Planner. If the subjective code list cannot be downloaded the following error message will appear. Click ‘OK’ to this message, and then follow the instructions for a manual update below. If the update is successful the following message will appear: If the subjective code update is unsuccessful, for any reason, the following error message will appear. Click ‘OK’ to this message and contact Accounting Software Support for assistance.

Click ‘OK’.

2007 and above 2003

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Manual Update If the automatic subjective code update cannot be completed please contact Accounting Software Support (01603 222550 / / 222492 / 223834) to request a copy of the subjective code list to be manually imported. Once this file has been received it must be saved into the Budget Planner folder (i.e. the location created during installation). The location of the budget planner can be seen at the bottom of the Main Menu, and within the ‘About Budget Plan’ screen. Double click the location stated in either of these screens to open the budget planner folder. When the file has been saved to the correct location, click ‘Manual Subjective Update’ within the ‘School Details’ screen. If the update is successful the following message will appear: If the subjective code update is unsuccessful, for any reason, the following error message will appear. Click ‘OK’ to this message and contact Accounting Software Support for assistance.

Click ‘OK’.

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Budget Share Update The budget share information held within the budget planner on release will be the latest figures available; however, these details are subject to change throughout the financial year. If the school is notified of changes to the budget share please take the following steps to update the budget share. Please Note: It has been agreed that any adjustments to budget shares after the 1st May (of the financial year) will not be added to the budget share details that are downloadable. Any adjustments made after this date will need to be manually entered into the budget plan. Automatic Update From the ‘Budget Planner’ toolbar, click ‘Help’, then ‘Budget Share Update’, or select ‘Budget Share’ within the Upgrades dropdown in Access 2007 and above. The system will then attempt to download the relevant financial years’ budget share details from the Schools Finance Website into the Budget Planner. If the budget share cannot be downloaded the following error message will appear. Click ‘OK’ to this message, and then follow the instructions for a manual update below. If the update is successful the following message will appear:

Click ‘OK’.

2007 and above 2003

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If the budget share update is unsuccessful, for any reason, the following error message will appear. Click ‘OK’ to this message and contact Accounting Software Support for assistance. Manual Update If the automatic budget share update cannot be completed please contact Accounting Software Support (01603 222550 / 222492 / 223834) to request a copy of the latest budget share to be manually imported. Once this file has been received it must be saved into the Budget Planner folder (i.e. the location created during installation). The location of the budget planner can be seen at the bottom of the Main Menu, and within the ‘About Budget Plan’ screen. Double click the location stated in either of these screens to open the budget planner folder. When the file has been saved to the correct location, click ‘Manual Budget Share Update’ within the ‘School Details’ screen. If the update is successful the following message will appear: If the budget share update is unsuccessful, for any reason, the following error message will appear. Click ‘OK’ to this message and contact Accounting Software Support for assistance.

Click ‘OK’.

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Benchmarking Base Data Update The base data held for the Benchmarking Comparison report (see Section10) held within the Budget Planner on release will be the latest figures available; however, these details are subject to change throughout the financial year. If the school is notified of changes to this information please take the following steps to update the benchmarking data. From the ‘Budget Planner’ toolbar, click ‘Help’, then ‘Benchmarking Update’, or select ‘Benchmarking’ within the Upgrades dropdown in Access 2007 and above. The system will then attempt to download the relevant data from the Schools Finance Website into the Budget Planner. If the benchmarking data cannot be downloaded the following error message will appear:

2007 and above 2003

Click ‘OK’.

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Upgrade Budget Planner Via AnyComms Plus Upgrades for the Budget Planner will be released via AnyComms Plus for schools to download. This process will take place automatically if the Budget Planner finds an upgrade within the location specified in the ‘Inputs Path’ within the ‘School Details’ screen. When you are notified that an upgrade file has been released via AnyComms Plus, download the upgrade file into the ‘Inputs Path’ location. Once this file has been saved to this location the Budget Planner will perform the upgrade the next time it is opened. Please Note: The Budget Planner cannot be upgraded if it has been renamed after it has been installed. The file name will be “Budget Planner 20XX.mdb” on installation (where 20XX is the financial year). If an upgrade is found and the Budget Planner has been renamed the following message will appear: The file must then be renamed and the upgrade attempted again. If an upgrade is found and the Budget Planner has the correct file name the following message will appear when logging in. Ensure that all users have logged out of the Budget Planner before clicking ‘OK’. The upgrade may take several minutes to complete. You MUST wait for the “Upgrade Complete” message before continuing. The upgraded Budget Planner will open automatically once the process is complete.

Click ‘OK’.

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Access 2007 and above Users Schools using Access Version 2007 and above may see the following additional prompt when logging in: Once the Budget Planner has closed please wait for 30 seconds, then double click your shortcut to open the budget planner again. Via Internet Upgrades can be run manually via the Budget Planner toolbar if the current computer does not have access to the AVCO AnyComms system. You must ensure that all other users are logged out of the budget planner before attempting to perform the upgrade. From the ‘Budget Planner’ toolbar select ‘Help’, and then click ’Upgrade Budget Plan’, or select ‘Budget Plan’ from the ‘Upgrades’ dropdown in Access 2007 and above. Please Note: The Budget Planner cannot be upgraded if it has been renamed after it has been installed. The file name will be “Budget Planner 20XX.mdb” on installation (where 20XX is the financial year). If an upgrade is found and the Budget Planner has been renamed the following message will appear: The file must then be renamed and the upgrade attempted again.

Click ‘OK’.

2007 and above 2003

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The system will then attempt to download the latest upgrade for the Budget Planner from the Schools Finance Website. If the file cannot be downloaded the following message will appear. Click ‘OK’ to this message and then call Accounting Software Support for additional guidance. You MUST wait for the “Upgrade Complete” message before continuing. The upgraded Budget Planner will open automatically once the process is complete. Access 2007 and above Users Schools using Access Version 2007 and above may see the following additional prompt when logging in: Once the Budget Planner has closed please wait for 30 seconds, then double click your shortcut to open the budget planner again.

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