For the Attention of the SIMS FMS6 Operator SIMS FMS6 Academies USER BULLETIN No.A33 Budget Forecast Return: Outturn 2016 to 2017 Financial Services for Schools Helpline Tel: 01992 555753 Fax: 01992 555727 Email: fss.helpdesk@hertsforlearning.co.uk Budget Forecast Return: Outturn 2016 to 2017 (to be completed by all academies) This bulletin provides guidance on completing the Budget Forecast Return: Outturn 2016 to 2017 Financial Systems Helpline Tel. No.: 01992 555753 Email: fss.helpdesk@hertsforlearning.co.uk Herts for Learning 01438 845111 www.hertsforlearning.co.uk Herts for Learning 2014
The Academy Budget Forecast Return: Outturn 2016 to 2017 This report provides information to the ESFA to inform the DfE s supplementary estimates that are submitted to HM Treasury. The ESFA will review academy trusts budget projections along with actual results to assess financial health. The budget forecast return comprises three segments: Revenue Income and Expenditure Capital Income and Expenditure Other Items Cash, Depreciation, Investments, Provisions, Loans, Creditors and Debtors There is an additional section for MATs only: Reserves per Academy This year, the level of detail required has reduced with a number of expenditure rows being condensed into one line. The online return requires financial information split across three columns: Actuals April 2016 August 2016 Actuals September 2016 March 2017 Forecast April 2017 August 2017 The ESFA requires academy trusts to submit their Budget Forecast Return: Outturn (BRFO) on a new online form by 19th May 2017. The ESFA have published an Excel workbook and guidance to help you prepare for the new online form. The workbook allows you to see what information is required so you can prepare your forecast before you complete the form. Working through this document will provide you with a step by step guide on how to obtain the figures required for the return. Note that throughout the return all balances should be completed in round thousands ( 000 s) and not pounds and pence. 2
Guide to completing the Budget Forecast Return: Outturn (BRFO) The BRFO workbook is available from the ESFA website along with the guide to using the workbook at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/academies-budget-forecast-outturn-2016-to- 2017 The completion of the return will require reference to the appropriate Chart of Accounts, depending on when you converted. These are available on the Hertfordshire Grid for Learning. These will provide you with the relevant Budget Forecast Return line numbers for the ledger codes on your original academy database. Any additional ledger codes will need to be manually added to the list with reference to the ESFA guidance as per the link above. Completion of the BRFO workbook will also require a working knowledge of Excel. The workbook includes a column for actuals from September 15 to March 16, however the online return only requires the actuals from April 16 to August 16. Data Required Actuals April 2016 August 2016 Actuals September 2016 March 2017 Forecast April 2017 August 2017 Data Source Follow guidance below Follow guidance below Follow guidance below or Financial planning software Actuals September 15 to August 16 Whilst the online return only requires actuals from April 16 to August 16, the workbook does not allow data to be entered in the grey cells in the Actuals April 16 to August 16 column. You will therefore need to enter data in the September 15 to March 16 column, and then enter the total in the Total 2015/2016 column. The worksheet will then calculate the April 16 to August 16 figures. Actuals September 2016 to March 2017 This section of the return requires actual figures up to 31 st March 2017 to reflect the trust s financial position at that date. This will need to include all significant accruals including any sundry debtors, sundry creditors, prepayments and receipts in advance. These should be posted to FMS in P7 as reversing journals. If the trust has rolled into P8 without posting significant accruals, these can be added in manually on the working paper below. Please note that for any manual accruals, a corresponding double entry will need to be included against the appropriate balance sheet ledger code. Forecast April 17 to August 2017 This section of the return requires the forecast outturn figures for the financial year 2016/2017. There are several ways that these figures can be achieved: 3
1) We would suggest that the most accurate method to calculate your projected outturn figures for 2016/2017 would be to take your actual figures to date for each individual ledger code and to add the additional amounts you anticipate spending or receiving during this period. Academy Trusts should take as their actuals to date, the figures from the latest closed period. We would expect this to be P8 or P9. These figures can be obtained by running a Summary Trial Balance by Ledger Code for the latest complete period, or by adding an additional column to the UDR, covered below. 2) If the Trust is happy that the profiled budget figures for periods 8 to 12 in FMS reflect the forecast income and expenditure for this period, and take into account any revisions or virements to the budget, then the FMS User Defined Report (UDR) described further in this document could be set up to show the actuals to period 7 plus the cumulative total of the profiled budget in periods 8 to 12, April to August. 3) Alternatively, academy trusts can create a revised forecast in their budget planning software and use the figures generated in this software to complete the outturn section of the report. Creating a User Defined Report Reports General Ledger User Defined Reports Click on the to create a report Give the Report a name, e.g. BFRO 2016/2017 4
Note: All Report names must be unique Create a Row Set: Click on the Browse next to Row set The Row Set Browse Screen will appear Click on the Green Add Icon Put the radio button in the pre-set Row Set All Ledger Codes as individual rows, with Grand Total Click OK Give the Row Set a Name. Note: All Row Set names must be unique Each row within the row set is defined specifically. 5
Each Ledger Code will be shown against the DATA category. The TOTAL row will show as SUM in the CALCULATION category. The signing will default to Treat Income as a negative (Normal N). The Budget Forecast Return requires all numbers to be positive. To change the report format to show all income items as positive balances, this can be changed by placing the radio button in the treat income as a positive/expenditure as positive (Reversed R). Please ensure that the (Reversed R) option is selected on each line. This only needs to be done to income Ledger Codes. Saving your Row Set Once you are happy with the rows Click on Save from the Row Set Details window. You are then returned to the Row Set Browse window and your recently created Row Set appears alongside the others. Make sure the new row set is highlighted YOU MUST CHOOSE 'SELECT' NOTE: If you do not choose Select the rows recently created will all be cancelled Save before leaving the User Defined Report area. NOTE: To save a new report both the Row Set and Column Set need to have been created. 6
Column Set details When looking at the columns you will be identifying data attached to that information, e.g. actuals, budget allocated etc. A Column Set is the collective name for the individual columns in the report. The available functionality falls into two categories: DATA Actual Current Budget Original Budget (Fixed) Committed Enables actuals to be selected Enables the current budget to be selected Enables the original budget to be selected if the budget has been fixed Enables commitments to be selected. This will be both outstanding orders and salary commitments, if salary commitments have been generated. CALCULATION Add Sum Difference Percentage Difference Enables individual columns to be added together Enables a range of columns to be summed Enables a difference between two columns to be calculated Enables a percentage difference between two columns to be calculated To create the Column Set for the BRFO Click on the Column Set browser This will open the Column Set Browse 7
Click on add Choose the type of information required from the Data Field Click on Actual in the DATA field Give the column a name that relates to the information; e.g. Actuals Sept 15-Mar 16. The name of the column is what will appear on your report Click on the Year browser and select 2015 In the From Period field click on the browser and select Period 1 In the To Period field click on the browser and select Period 7. Click on Save 8
Repeat to add another column and name it Actuals Sept 15 Aug 16 Select Actual in the DATA area Click on the Year browser and select 2015 In the From Period field click on the browser and select Period 1. In the To Period field click on the browser and select Period 13. Click on Save Repeat to add another column and name it Actuals Sept 16-Mar 17 Select Actual in the DATA area Click on the Year browser and select 2016 In the From Period field click on the browser and select Period 1. In the To Period field click on the browser and select Period 7. 9
Click on Save Adding Forecast Columns April 17 to August 17 If transactions have been posted beyond Period 7 of 2016/2017, a column can be added to capture these transactions Repeat the above to the add another column and re-name it Actuals from P8 Select Actual in the DATA area In the Year field click on the browser and select 2016 In the From Period field click on the browser and select Period 8 In the From Period field click on the browser is likely to be Period 8 or 9) and select the latest period (this Click on Save Once you have added all the required columns click on Save again You are then returned to the Column Set Browse window and your recently created Column Set appears alongside the others. Highlight the Column Set Click select 10
NOTE: If you do not choose Select the columns recently created will all be cancelled From the Column Set Browse screen YOU MUST CHOOSE 'SELECT' Click on before leaving the User Defined Report area Changing the Orientation of the Report The orientation of the report can be either Portrait or Landscape. The default orientation is Portrait. To change the orientation report: Click onto the appropriate orientation radio button NOTE: If a report has more than 4 columns it must be set to landscape in order to display all columns. Large reports may need to be formatted with a small font size to enable all data to be displayed. To Change the Report Rounding Reports are automatically set up to round to the nearest 1. The BFRO requires that the figures entered in round 000 s To change this: Click on Round to blue handled browser Highlight the 1000 option Click on Select 11
Printing the Report Once the report has been formatted, click on the print icon The report will come to the screen The report will now need to be exported to Excel Click on the export to disc icon in the top left corner of the screen 12
In the Export Options screen click on the browser Three output formats will be available: Comma Separated Values Format (CSV) Rich Text Format (RTF) Tab Separated Values Format (TSV) Select the appropriate format (CSV) Click the select button Select where you would like to save the file Click Save Open the spreadsheet 13
Where any manual accruals need to be added to the P7 year to date actuals, insert 2 columns and call the first one Accruals. Manually type in the accruals and total these in the second column to get your Total to 31 st March figures. Insert new columns here Use Autosum or a formula to add these in column F Create another column and name it Forecast April 17-Aug 17 14
The projected income and expenditure for period April 17 to August 17 can be entered against each Ledger Code, taking into account any figures in the Actual from P8 column. Create another column to add together the Actual from P8 column and the Forecast April 17-Aug 17 to get the total forecast for April August 17. Use Autosum for a formula to add these in column I Create another column called Line Number. Enter the appropriate line number from the BFRO Worksheet against each Ledger Code (or from the Chart of Accounts appropriate for your academy) Insert Line Number here Now sort the spreadsheet by the BFRO line numbers. Then sub-total each change in BFRO line number. This will provide the figures required and can be used to enter into the BFRO Worksheet The prepared calculated figures from the spreadsheet can now be used to populate the Budget Forecast Return Workbook. 15