School Budget Plan

School Budget Plan

Introduction

The purpose of this study is to expand the boundaries of our knowledge by exploring some relevant information relating to the analysis and development of school budget. The budget is a tool by which the organization can act in a targeted, cost-effective and orderly manner. Income and expenditures are should be taken in account while developing school budget. When planning the budget, we must remember that it is to be the realization of the vision of long term development, and not only serve the one-year plan. Although the budget is always authorized for one year, deciding to allocate investments should be set for the coming years.

As a school board member, it is our responsibility to know how our school budget is designed. In the next section, we will examine several aspects of developing a school budget plan.

Discussion

Accounting practices for building a budget

The purpose of district's generally accepted accounting practices of building a budget is (Waggoner, 2005):

to provide an estimate of revenues and expenses, and

to measure the actual financial operation of the company in relation to the forecasted operations

As per the requirement of GAAP, the information provided in the school budget should be accurate and relevant i.e. all the transactions as well as their amounts should be considered in actual terms. Accounting budget should be based on the determination of the specific composition and classification of fixed assets, inventories, liabilities, and other classes of accounts. With regard to the preparation and submission of reports to the higher authorities, school should have specific list and schedule of delivery of reports. Due to the fact that government organizations commit fewer transactions, which should be reflected in the accounting, record-keeping itself is easier. Government constantly changes the rules of budget accounting, filing and the reporting. On the one hand, this makes it difficult to work as a bookkeeper, and on the other hand, all these changes are aimed at the unification and improvement of the accounting department. The purpose of implementing GAAP in developing school budget this will avoid the shortcomings and problems at work. Moreover, every person must expand their range of knowledge, to share their experiences with other accountants (Stein, 1994).

Zero budgeting method can be used to develop the school budget. This method does not take into account the historical data and the budget is created from scratch by adding more tasks or items of expenditure and the simultaneous determination of the source of funding. In some companies double budget is built, consisting of a capital budget for fixed assets and operating budget current assets. Operating budget usually includes information about the tasks that are to be financed and the coordination and timing of revenue and expenditure. One of the tasks of internal financial control in the company is to study deviations from budget and analyzing the causes of deviations (John, 1989).

The superintendent's and school board's responsibilities for building a budget

The budget may be made by the principal or by the ...