Budgets and cash flow for school finance

Budget vs reality on one calendar

Academic year budgeting must respect term boundaries - salary increments in April, capital in summer, fee collection peaks in September. Schoolyi aligns budget periods to the same calendar driving attendance and exams.

Building the plan

Finance loads prior year actuals as baseline. Department heads submit incremental requests with justification. Leadership versions scenarios - hire second counselor vs defer lab upgrade - before board approval locks plan.

• Line items by department and category
• Fee income forecast from enrolled headcount
• Capital vs operating separation
• Scenario copy without overwriting approved plan

Actuals from operations

Fee receipts, payroll exports, and vendor AP feed variance reports automatically. Manual journals for adjustments with note. Red variances trigger comment before month-end close.

Cash flow timing

Fee installments vs salary pay dates visualized - predict tight months before overdraft. Defaulter impact adjusts forecast when collection rates slip.

Multi-campus roll-up

Group CFO views consolidated totals with campus drill-down. Inter-campus allocations documented for transfer pricing reviews.

Governance and exports

Board pack PDF with narrative headers finance writes once. Historical year comparison for accreditation financial health section.

Rollout sequencing

Start with fee income and top five expense categories accurate; expand line detail second term. Reconcile one closed month against legacy books before trusting variance alerts.