Budget to Actual

Cuff AccountDashboard

Definition of Cuff Accounting:

• A term used to describe single entry accounting methods. Single entry accounting is, for the most part, self explanatory. It is used to track income and expenses. It records each item as it occurs in one entry. This creates business books and ledgers that are primarily composed of one column. Positive numbers are added in normals, while expenses and cost are put in the column as subtractions to create a final total.

How to design your specific cuff:

• Each cuff account will most likely be different. What works for one department may not work for the next. However, there are basics that apply to all cuff accounts.

• Determine what your department needs to track. Look at your budget and line items and know that each one is important to the overall success of the department.

• Using excel, design a spreadsheet that covers all item of your budget.• For each month column, i.e. Jan, Feb, March, you should have your

annual budget amount followed by the amount used YTD. This number is your ACTUAL. It will change every time an expense or purchase is added by the department. The next column will be the Budgeted amount remaining.

BUDGET:

• The First column will be your budgeted amount per line item (THE BUDGET) . This number will only change at a new fiscal year or if a line modification is done. In order to do a modification you MUST go through the budget officer. A modification can be done for many reasons. If an employee is added, if an unexpected expense occurs or any multiple of reasons. Money may be moved from one line item to another thru the modification process in order to make each item stay in balance. While this does not change your overall budget, it does change the line items budget. The individual line items should be the guidelines for running an effective department.

Actual column:

• The actual number is constantly changing. The actual number is a running YTD total. The first line under that number is your current monthly actual. The following lines are the specific charges or bills that total the monthly actual. The current monthly actual is added to all previous month’s actuals creating your final actual total in the 2nd column of each month. This allows you “at a glance” to see what current month and YTD expenses are per line item.

REMAINING BALANCE:

• Your next column will be the difference or the remaining balance. This is the amount you have available to use for the rest of the fiscal year. This is what all Directors should be looking at. Do you have enough to last the rest of the year, where are you over spending, in some cases departments are required to use all funds by year end or loose them, so in some cases it may mean where do I need to spend money. You may see you have way to much budgeted for a particular item and you want to move it to effectively utilize the available funds for your program. Some programs do allow carry overs. In this case you can see or project on next years budget if you will have additional funds to achieve more goals in the following fiscal year.

Moving FromLine To

Line

OPTIONAL PERCENTAGE:

• Some Directors like to see an actual percentage of how much of the budget has already been used or what percentage is remaining. This can be a 4th and final column, if you choose to use it. In the accounting department we use actual numbers. The percentage would only be used for your knowledge and to watch quickly if a specific line item is starting to run low. Having the ability to, at a glance, be able to see where you stand makes it easy to make quick and educated decisions.

Shared Folder:

• By making the layout uniform throughout the departments, we will be able to help everyone if an issue arises. It will also allow for any assistant, director, accounting or even executive dept. be able to step in and see where the department stands. Every dept. has a shared folder that can be seen by approved personnel. This shared document folder is where the Cuff account should be kept.

Layout of Shared Folder:

• Cuff Account FY2014• Report• January• February• March• April• May• June• July• August• September• October• November• December

• The report folder will always be the top file when you open the “Cuff Account”. This is the actual report file that most directors will be interested in viewing. At your fingertips you will be able to see the exact layout of your department. You will be able to see if there is overspending on a certain line, if a particular item needs to be modified or re-classed to another line item. Staying on top of this monthly will allow you to go into year end successfully.

Report Tab:

Monthly Folders:

• You will then have a list of all of your monthly folders.• January • February• ECT.• These are going to provide all the back up for every

adjustment on the cuff account. This is how you will balance with accounting. Every month you will have a list of line item’s by number. If you are questioning something on your utilities, you would go to that particular line (5350) and you can see everything that happened in the month.

Jan Feb Mar April May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec

Each monthly tab:

• January– 5001– 5115– 5241– 5201

• Staples receipt • Office depot receipt• Wal mart receipt• Ace Hardware receipt

– 5350• OG&E invoice• ATT invoice• City of Wewoka Invoice• ONG invoice

Scanned Images:

• When you pull up file 5350 you will see the list of all utilities that were paid. If you were questioning your ATT bill, click on ATT and the scanned image of the statement will appear. If there is an error on the bill or if it has been applied to the wrong line item, you print it off and have us make the correction. Every line item that has had a change should have scanned back up.

Back Up:

• Your scanned back up can be in many different forms. You could have bills, invoices, receipts, or the only back up you may have for certain item’s may be a report from the accounting system. Wherever you get the numbers you place on the cuff is what should be scanned in as your backup. In some cases the back up may be used on 2 or more line items. If this happens you save it in each folder that it affects.

Reasons for Cuff Accounts:

• To see monthly where your expenses are and what needs to be watched closely.

• To see if you are going to have any unused money or carry over money for next year.

• To make sure you are staying in federal guidelines for your program

• To insure coding to the appropriate line• To make sure all of your payments and

obligations have been made• To effectively and smoothly run your

department