For the Attention of the SIMS FMS6 Operator SIMS FMS6 Academies USER BULLETIN No.A34 Budget Forecast Return 2017 to 2018 Financial Services for Schools Helpline Tel: 01992 555753 Fax: 01992 555727 Email: fss.helpdesk@hertsforlearning.co.uk Budget Forecast Return 2017 to 2018 (To be completed by all academies) This bulletin provides guidance on completing the Budget Forecast Return 2017 to 2018 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 2017
The Academy Budget Forecast Return 2017 to 2018 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 and Loans There is an additional section for MATs only: Reserves per Academy The online return requires financial information split across four columns: Actuals September 2016 March 2017 Forecast April 2017 August 2017 Forecast September 2017 March 2018 Forecast April 2018 August 2018 The ESFA requires academy trusts to submit their Budget Forecast Return via an online form by 28 th July 2017. The ESFA has 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 that you can prepare your forecast before you complete the form. Working through this bulletin 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 2017/18 The Budget Forecast Return 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-return-2017-to- 2018?utm_source=EFA%20e-bulletin&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ebulletin&mxmroi=2305-26566-89976-0 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. Please note that this is a guide only and any additional ledger codes will need to be manually added to the list with reference to the ESFA guidance as per the link above. Additionally, there may be some ledger codes which contain information that needs to be split out across two BFR lines e.g. other government grants may include UIFSM income which has its own line number on the return as well as other government grant income e.g. sports premium which would sit on a separate line. Completion of the Budget Forecast Return workbook will also require a working knowledge of Excel. Note: Academies that completed the Budget Forecast Return Outturn 16/17 in May 2017 and have not made any changes to September 16 to March 17 actuals and the April 17 to August 17 forecast can choose to use a version of the Budget Forecast Return 17/18 that will have the figures already populated. You will need to add the forecast figures for Sept 2017 to Aug 2018 There is a separate link to access this within the ESFA s Bulletin. If there have been changes to your actuals or forecast figures for September 16- August 17, we advise that you update the figures using the UDR below and complete the whole form. Data Required Actuals September 2016 March 2017 Forecast April 2017 August 2017 Forecast September 2017 March 2018 Forecast April 2018 August 2018 Data Source Follow guidance below unless using data from the previous return Follow guidance below unless using data from the previous return Follow guidance below or Financial planning software Follow guidance below or Financial planning software 3
Actuals September 16 to March 17 and Forecast April 17 to August 17 (Only for academy trusts completing this section of the return) 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.. Forecast April 17 to August 2017 The workbook does not allow data to be entered into the grey cells in the forecast April 17 to August 17 column. You will therefore need to enter the forecast outturn figures for the financial year 2016/2017 and the workbook will then calculate the April 17 to August 17 figures. There are several ways that these figures can be achieved: 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 less any prepayments to date. Academy Trusts should take as their actuals to date, the figures from the latest closed period. We would expect this to be P9 (May 17) or P10 (June 17). In this bulletin, we assume that the latest closed period is June P10, the User defined report instructions are based on P10. If your last closed period is different, please adjust the UDR accordingly. These figures can be obtained by creating the UDR below. Where Trusts are going to forecast spend for the remaining periods, please note that the final column in the UDR is not required. 2) If the Trust is happy that the profiled budget figures for periods 10 to 12 in FMS reflect the forecast income and expenditure for this period, and can take into account any revisions or virements to the budget as well as any accruals, prepayments or receipts in advance incurred to date, then the FMS User Defined Report (UDR) described further in this document could be set up to show the actuals to period 9 plus the cumulative total of the profiled budget in periods 10 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. 4
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. Budget forecast return 17/18 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 5
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. Each Ledger Code will be shown against the DATA category. The TOTAL row will show as SUM in the CALCULATION category. 6
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. 7
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 8
To create the Column set for the BFR 2017/18 Click on the Column Set browser This will open the Column Set Browse Click on add Give the Column Set Details a unique name Budget forecast return 17/18 Click on the green plus Choose the type of information required from the Data Field Click on Actual in the DATA field 9
Give the column a name that relates to the information; e.g. Actuals Sept 16 Mar 17. The name of the column is what will appear on your report Click on the Year browser and select 2017 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 Repeat to add another column and name it Actuals April 17 June 17 Select Actual in the DATA area Click on the Year browser and select 2017 In the From Period field click on the browser and select Period 8 In the To Period field click on the browser and select Period 10 Click on Save 10
Repeat to add another column and name it Forecast July 17 Aug 17. Please note that this column is not required for Academy Trusts choosing to calculate the outturn figures using option 1. Select Current Budget in the DATA area Click on the Year browser and select 2017 In the From Period field click on the browser and select Period 11 In the To Period field click on the browser and select Period 12 Click on Save Adding a Forecast total for April 17 to August 17 Click on Add to add another column Enter a column name of Forecast April 17 to August 17 Click on Add Click on the browser 11
In the left hand box double click on column number 2 and column number 3. This will move them into the right hand box of Chosen items Or use the arrows to move number 2 and 3 over to the right hand box named Chosen items Click on Update This will take you back to the column details screen You will see that the two columns, Actuals Apr 17 Jun 17 and Budget Jul 17 Aug 17 will be totalled together to give you the Forecast for April 17 to August 17 Click on save Adding a column for the Total Forecast for September 16 to August 17 Click on Add to add a new column Enter a column name Total Sept 16 to Aug 17 Click on Add 12
Click on the browser In the left hand box double click on column number 1 and column number 4. This will move them into the right hand box of Chosen items Or use the arrows to move number 1 and 4 over to the right hand box named Chosen items Click on Update This will take you back to the column details screen Click on Save 13
Click on Save Return to the Column Set Browse window and your recently created Column Set appears alongside the others. Highlight the Column Set Click select NOTE: If you do not choose select all the columns recently created will be cancelled Click on before leaving the User Defined Report area 14
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 four 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 Budget Forecast Return 2017/18 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 15
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 exporting to Excel Click on the export to disc icon in the top left corner of the screen 16
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 Please be aware of any accruals you may have at year end if you have not adjusted the profiling in FMS. 17
Create another column called Line Number. Enter the appropriate line number from the Budget Forecast Return 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 Budget Forecast line numbers. Then sub-total each change in Budget Forecast Return line number. This will provide the figures required and can be used to enter into the Budget Forecast Worksheet. Where ledger codes require balances that sit across two different budget forecast lines, further analysis will be required to ensure a correct split. The prepared calculated figures from the spreadsheet can now be used to populate the Budget Forecast Return Workbook for September 16 to March 17 and April 17 to August 17. 18
September 17 to August 18 Forecast information To produce the figures of the forecast for September 17 to March 18 and April 18 to August 18 please log into your budgeting software. If you are using HCSS Budgeting for Academies you can print the budget forecast report direct from your scenario. Open the reporting module within HCSS Budgeting for Academies Click on the Academies Budget Forecast Detailed Report Click on Export The report will export as a excel document. The figures have been pulled through from the budget, line number details and profiles that have been set while creating the 2017/18 budget. Please check that these figures are correct before using this document to input the information onto the ESFA website. You do have the option to enter the FMS figures that you created (as per pervious FMS instructions) into this report so that all your figures are saved in one place. Keep a copy for your records. 19