The Michigan Public School Accounting Manual’s Section IV, entitled “Budget Preparation and Management,” contains basic instructions on how to construct a budget (the manual can be downloaded from a Michigan Department of Education Web site).[ccxiv] These guidelines include a basic description of accounting mandates imposed by the state’s Uniform Budgeting and Accounting Act. The minimum accounting data outlined in Section IV is comprised of a list of categories that a school district must include in its budget to comply with “best budgeting practices.”[362]
Graphic 25 is based on Section IV of the manual and details information that must be listed individually in the district’s budget. Revenues are listed below by a major class code that provides the general source of the revenue. Nevertheless, a complete district accounting will also track revenues using codes for the “fund,” “transaction” and “suffix.”[363] Similarly, expenditures in Graphic 25 are listed by a function code that details the purpose of the expenditure, but a complete accounting will also track expenditures by “fund,” “transaction code,” “object code,” “program code,” “state code,” “facility/school code” and even additional codes chosen by the school district or charter school.[364]
Actual revenues and expenditures reported using the major class and function codes listed in Graphic 25 are available for all Michigan conventional local school districts, charter schools and ISDs at the Center for Educational Performance and Information Web site.[ccxv] District and charter school revenue and expenditure information classed by the other codes described above are also available at the site.
[ccxiv] See www.michigan.gov/mde/0,1607,7-140-67530_6605-21321--,00.html (accessed April 19, 2007). Section IV appears as a PDF at www.michigan.gov/documents/sc-iv_13270_7.pdf (accessed April 19, 2007).
[ccxv] The Web address is www.michigan.gov/cepi. See also “Financial Information Database,” under "Other Reporting Requirements."