Volume 7 Issue 3 - February 2024
- Michelle Drewes
- Amanda Folkman
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SSDT Direct - we are hitting the road! 
Yes, it’s true! Our inaugural SSDT Direct sessions are taking place in April! The SSDT support team is excited to go 'on the road' this spring providing an opportunity to touch-base with district staff who are using state software! With assistance from ITCs, we have developed an agenda based on current USAS and USPS software needs of their districts. A special thank you to the ITCs who have provided a location for us to conduct our sessions! Registration is required to attend one of the in-person sessions (listed below)! Our team will be at each location for the day covering USAS-related topics in the morning session and USPS-related topics in the afternoon session. When registering, you will be able to select the session you would like to attend. If you manage accounts payable at your district, you can choose to attend just the USAS morning session. If you process the payroll for your district, you can select the afternoon USPS session only. If you are the Treasurer or use both software applications, you may benefit from attending the entire day. Topics to be covered as well as how to register for a session is provided here. Session locations are open to any district, but space is limited so we encourage early registration!
If you aren’t able to attend one of our spring sessions, no worries, we will be hitting the road again this fall! We will be announcing fall dates in a future newsletter. The fall sessions will be conducted at three different ITC locations.
Let’s Talk Budgeting
It's that time again! Fiscal Year 2025 will be here before we know it, and it's 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
When editing a Scenario, there are a few options that appear next to each Budgeting Sheet. Take note of the second icon from the left - the Regenerate. 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 new changes, thus overriding the previous sheet’s settings. However, be cautious when using this option because any existing proposed amounts will be removed.
After that warning, you may be thinking “When would I use this?” This tool is very helpful in combination with the cloning option. When you carry forward your sheets to the new fiscal year, there may be accounts within those sheets that have been made inactive, or accounts that have been added that weren’t in the sheet from last year. The Regenerate option can re-pull the matching accounts to get a refreshed sheet that is ready to go for the new year budgets. Additionally, 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 can be regenerated.
Useful links:
This month, SSDT conducted a session with ITC staff on W2C corrections. If you would like to see a demonstration that includes the steps involved in making a W2C correction in state software, please check out our recording!
W2C Updates
Along with the recording mentioned in our video spotlight above, our team has documented the W2 Corrections in our wiki as well as provided a W2C Checklist that outlines the necessary steps to create W2C records, forms and submission files, whether the district is submitting their own files or the ITC is submitting on the district’s behalf.
Software Release Versions
You’re not dreaming, our release version numbering system has recently changed. 😊 Prior to CY2024, USPS, USAS and Inventory each had their own set of release numbers. Beginning with calendar year 2024, we decided it would make more sense if each application started with the calendar year and increment the version number from there. As you review our release notes for each application, you will notice they all start with 2024.x.x. Listed below is a snippet of the first version released in each application for CY2024.
