A best practice is to develop and monitor budgets throughout the fiscal year at the SACS account string
level. The district’s account code structure and chart of accounts do not allow the district to do this.
Specifically, the account code structure includes two additional fields beyond the state’s SACS, which
unnecessarily increases its complexity. These additional fields, “responsibility” and “manager,” are defined
as follows in the district’s Detailed Chart of Accounts manual dated July 2022:
Responsibility - Identifies who is responsible for that account string, a particular program or
project/use of funds.
Manager - Identifies who is responsible for managing the account string.
These definitions are very similar, and other districts often convey their purpose by using the SACS site
field in financial transactions. In interviews, sta indicated the responsibility field was added to track LCAP
expenditures; however, the number of code options indicate the field’s use has extended well beyond
its initial purpose, with more than 600 active codes. Written procedures on how to pull a budget report
indicate schools and departments use a responsibility code to generate their budget reports rather than
a manager or site code. The district’s manager and site codes are mostly redundant and include mainly
schools, departments, and certain programs as options.
Each field, particularly the resource, goal, object and responsibility fields, has too many code options, which
results in an unmanageable number of possible account strings to budget for and monitor throughout the
year. For example, the district has 27 object codes categorizing materials and supplies, including some that
are too general (e.g., 430014 is defined as “other supplies”) and others that are too detailed (e.g., 430012
is defined as “medical supplies”). Often a general object code (e.g., 430000 defined as “materials and
supplies”) in combination with a specific function code (e.g., 3140 defined as “health services”) provides
sucient detail for monitoring and financial reporting (i.e., the account string 3140-430000 is used when
recording transactions for medical supplies).
The CSAM details how the resource field is used in school accounting. Specifically, it states the following:
The resource field allows LEAs to account separately for activities funded with revenues that
have restrictions on how the funds are spent (e.g., ESSA Title I) and for activities funded with
revenues that have financial reporting or special accounting requirements (e.g., State Lottery).
The district is using the resource field incorrectly to track various internal programs and other activities
or revenue sources without formal restrictions. For example, the district has created locally-defined unre-
stricted resource codes (e.g., 02430 defined as “California Peer Assistance & Review Program for Teacher”)
to track activities related to formerly restricted programs that lapsed with the state’s implementation of the
LCFF in 2013-14. The district has also created locally-defined restricted resource codes (e.g., 9017 defined
as “Textbooks”) to track revenues generated locally or at schools. These examples are incorrect uses of the
resource field. Locally-defined resource codes should be limited to actual and current funding sources with
special accounting or financial reporting requirements or restrictions. All miscellaneous unrestricted fund-
ing sources should be tracked in the appropriate fund (usually the district’s general fund) using a revenue
object code rather than a resource code.
The Fiscal Services Department has created a detailed chart of accounts manual for use by district sta;
however, the manual, dated July 2022, is outdated. It is missing resource codes for programs created prior
to July 2022 (e.g., Expanded Learning Opportunities Program, Expanded Learning Opportunities Grant
Program, American Rescue Plan-Homeless Children and Youth II, Universal Prekindergarten Planning &
Implementation Grant, Educator Eectiveness Block Grant, Kitchen Infrastructure and Training Funds, A-G
Access/Success and Learning Loss Mitigation Grants) and includes a significant number of invalid, expired,
or inactive options not used by the district. For this to be a useful tool, the district needs to download the
Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team Central Unified School District 23
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Fiscal Services