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Article #1

Let’s Talk Budgeting

Its that time again! Fiscal Year 2025 will be here before we know it, and its about time to begin next year’s budgeting process. Here are some tips to make the process easier! SSDT recently held a session for Budgeting 2024 with these tips and more. The full video is available on the SSDT Youtube Channel. Click here to view.

Check Out the Walkthrough

The first major tip is to utilize the SSDT Budgeting Scenario Steps. The full budgeting process includes steps that happen on both the Scenarios and Proposed amounts grids within the software. These resources compile a step by step process from creating the scenario through applying proposed amounts.

• Budgeting Scenario Steps for Creating Proposed Amounts for the Next Fiscal Year

• Budgeting Scenario Steps for Making Budget Adjustments in the Current Fiscal Year

This can be an excellent place to start in order to get the basic steps down for the year-to-year process. Understandably, different districts will have different processes so this could be used as a full walkthrough, or as a starting point for customizing your own steps with your district specific notes.

Clone a Scenario

Once you start making your Budgeting Scenarios, keep in mind that you do have the option to Clone a Scenario. This can be very helpful if the accounts are separated into different Budgeting Sheets to keep your accounts organized by fund, building, department, etc.

Once in the Budgeting > Scenarios grid, simply click to view (eye icon) the previous year’s Scenario. At the top of the Scenario, there will be an option to “Clone.” This will make a copy of the Scenario that still includes all of the Budgeting Sheets.

Regenerate Budgeting Sheets

• This option is helpful if you made changes to the existing sheet (add/remove properties, change account filters, etc).  Regenerate will update the sheet with the new changes, thus overriding the previous sheets settings.  Existing proposed amounts will be removed.
  Any YTD or FYTD figures in a budgeting sheet will be shown as of when the budgeting sheet was created. In order to "refresh" the figures to the current date, the sheet would need to be regenerated.

View the Next Year Proposed

When a Scenario is promoted for a fiscal year, any successive scenarios for that same year will replace a prior scenario’s proposed amounts.