Schools Finance - Norfolk
Academy Budget Planner User Guide
Manage Nominal Codes
Nominal codes are created and managed wihtin the Star Academy software and imported into the Budget Planner via either the Import Nominal Codes button within the Academy Details screen or the Upgrade Nominal Codes within the toolbar.
This process imports the latest Nominal Code List directly from the Star Academy datafile listed in the Academy Details screen. Any newly created Nominal Codes created will be added to the detailed budget automatically as part of this process.
Deleted Nominal Codes
If any Nominal Codes are deleted within the Star Academy datafile they will require re-assigning to a new Nominal Code within the Budget Planner immediately after the Nominal Code list has been re-imported.
The following screen will be shown with the details of the Nominal Codes that have been deleted for corrective action to be taken.
Please Note: This screen cannot be closed without taking corrective action on each Nominal Code Budget shown.
Remove the Nominal Code
If the Nominal Code shown has no existing budget (i.e. equal to zero) the nominal code can be removed from the Budget Planner by clicking the delete button to the right of the required code.
Click ‘Yes’ to continue, or ‘No’ to cancel.
Please Note: Deleted Nominal Codes cannot be removed from this screen if a budget exists within a prior or future budget. Whilst the current budget (e.g. Revision 1) may show a zero budget if a budget exists in the Original or either of the two forecast years the following message will appear:
Click ‘OK’ and reassign the Nominal Code to a valid code (as below).
Reassign the Nominal Code
If the Nominal Code shown has an existing budget, or a budget assigned to a previous revision / forecast year, it cannot be deleted. If this is the case the Nominal Code must be updated to a new valid Nominal Code.
Select a new Nominal Code from the drop down list to re-allocate the budget to the selected code. In the example above changing the 11015 budget to 11010 (currently shown as zero) will lead to the £1,234 budget being transferred to 11010.
Repeat this process for all lines shown.
Apply Filter: To aid in the process of assigning a new Nominal Code this screen can be filtered to show only those codes relating to a specific AR group. Select the required AR group from the Filter drop down list.
When a filter is applied the list of Nominal Codes within the drop down list will also be filtered to show only those valid for the selected AR group.
Click Remove Filter to show all inactive Nominal Codes.
Nominal Code Search: If you are unsure as to which Nominal Code to reassign the inactive code to double clicking the Nominal Code drop down list will open a Nominal Code search screen.
Enter part of the Nominal Code required in the Search Criteria and press the enter key to filter the Nominal Code List to those matching the criteria entered.
Double click the required Nominal Code to assign it to the inactive code.
Click Show All to remove any search criteria entered.
View Nominal Codes
Once the Nominal Codes have been imported they can be viewed by clicking the View Nominal Codes button on the “Main Menu”:
This can be printed if required from the Budget Planner toolbar.
Manage Pay Scales
Unlike previous versions of the software the Academy Budget Planner 2015 gives users greater freedom to determine their own payscales when forecasting staffing budgets. This involves amending the staffing forecast screens to cash values rather than spinal points (see Sections 4 and 5 of the User Guide), and allowing users to create and manage individual pay ranges specific to the Academy.
These payscales are managed via the Manage PayScales button, which can be found in both the Main Menu and Manage Staff List screens.
Please Note: When the Academy Budget Planner is installed the standard Norfolk County Council Staffing Categories and Salary Ranges will be included. These can be deleted, amended or added to as required.
Please Note: Only users with ‘Admin’ or ‘Primary’ user status can access this screen.
Staffing Categories
From the Manage Payscales screen click the Staff Categories button.
As previously stated the standard Norfolk County Council staffing categories will be pre-installed within the Budget Planner. During this initial creation of the budget plan a Nominal Code will needed to be assigned to each Code shown (see below) for details.
Create a New Code
Staffing Categories specific to your Academy can be inserted into the blank line at the bottom of this list if required.
Code: Enter a unique short code for the new staffing category. This will be the code that is seen within the Teaching and Support Staff forecasts (see Sections 4 and 5).
Description: Enter a more meaningful description of the new staffing category.
Type: Select the Type of staff member that the new staffing category will relate to – Teaching or Support staff – from the drop down list.
The Type selected determines in which staff forecast the staffing category can be assigned within.
Nominal Code: Each staffing category must be assigned to a valid Nominal Code. This code is used when determining where to assign a staffing budget when the Update Budget Plan button is selected in a staffing forecast.
Select the required nominal code from the drop down list. The same nominal code can be selected against more than one code if required.
If a Support Staff Nominal Code is allocated to a “Teaching” Type or a Teaching Staff Nominal Code is allocated to a “Support” Type the following message will be displayed:
Only nominal codes within AR groups assigned as staffing groups can be selected from. Please refer to the Star Academy User Guide for details.
Please Note: This screen cannot be closed if a nominal code has not been assigned to each Code.
Once the code has been created pay ranges applicable to the Code will need to be assigned via the Manage PayScales screen (see below).
Edit Existing Codes
Existing codes can only be amended if they have not been assigned to a record within any staffing forecasts.
Codes cannot be renamed if they have been used:
The Type cannot be amended if the code has been used in a forecast, i.e. teaching cannot be changed to support if the Code has been used in teaching forecast.
Delete a Code
To delete a Code from the Staffing Categories, click the Delete button to the right of the code to be deleted.
Codes can only be deleted if they have not been used within a staffing forecast for the selected Type.
Please Note: Staff Codes cannot be deleted if they have been used within a staff forecast, however, they can be deleted if they have been assigned to staff members within the Manage Staff List that have not been added to a forecast. If a staffing category has been assigned to a staff member and is deleted the Budget Planner will automatically reassign the deleted category to the relevant default Teaching or Support Staff Type (see below).
Entering PayScales
Click the Manage PayScales button, which can be found in both the Main Menu and Manage Staff List screens, to access a detailed list of the pay ranges that are applied to each of the staffing categories that exist within the Budget Planner.
These pay ranges are used within the staffing forecasts to determine if the cash value that has been entered is valid for the Code selected against staff members.
Please Note: When the Budget Planner is installed the pre-installed pay ranges, and staff categories, will be the standard Norfolk County Council rates for 2014-15. These can be overwritten as required.
Teaching PayScales
The top section of the Manage PayScales screen relates to the salary ranges applicable to teaching staff in the Teaching Staff Forecast screen.
SEN / TLR PayScales: The Special Educational Needs (SEN) and Teaching & Learning Payments (TLR1, TLR2 and TLR3) categories cannot be deleted form the Budget Planner as they are a constant category that needs to exist for forecasting purposes. The amounts applicable to each category can be overwritten if required.
For each Type stated a salary range should be entered for each of the three years shown. Within these fields the following rules are applied:
· Values should be entered rounded to the nearest £
· Commas and £ signs do not need to be manually typed in
· The value entered in the Min £ field must be lower than the Max £ entered for the year in question
· The value entered in the Max £ field must be greater than the Min £ entered for the year in question
Minimum Values
Amendments can be made to the values entered within the pay ranges for any staff category at any point during the financial year. If the minimum value is amended to a higher figure the Budget Planner will ensure that all forecasts entered against that category do not fall below the newly entered minimum value.
If a forecast exists that falls below the newly entered minimum value one of the following messages will appear:
Click ‘Yes’ to confirm the change to the minimum value or ‘No’ to cancel the change. If ‘Yes’ is clicked any values below the newly entered minimum value will automatically be changed to the new minimum when this screen is closed.
Default Teaching PayScale
A default Teaching Payscale must be selected from the list of staff categories within the Teaching section. This default type will be used when importing staff from Star Academy for staff members that do not have an existing record.
To select a default payscale place a tick in the Default field against the required category.
The SEN and TLR categories cannot be selected as the default teaching payscale as they relate to additional payments rather than salary costs.
Support Staff PayScales
The bottom section of the Manage PayScales screen relates to the salary ranges applicable to teaching staff in the Support Staff Forecast screen.
As Support Staff pay awards are implemented in July of the financial year support staff payscales will be required to have two minimum and maximums applicable to each year entered – one for September to June and one for July to August.
For each Type stated a salary range should be entered for each of the three years shown. Within these fields the following rules are applied:
· Values should be entered rounded to the nearest £
· Commas and £ signs do not need to be manually typed in
· The value entered in the Min £ field must be lower than the Max £ entered for the year in question
· The value entered in the Max £ field must be greater than the Min £ entered for the year in question
Please Note: To speed up the data entry process for support staff salaries any amounts entered in the Min £ and Max £ fields in July will be automatically transposed to the September fields of the following year (to reflect the full year cost of the salary cost entered).
Minimum Values
Amendments can be made to the values entered within the pay ranges for any staff category at any point during the financial year. If the minimum value is amended to a higher figure the Budget Planner will ensure that all forecasts entered against that category do not fall below the newly entered minimum value.
If a forecast exists that falls below the newly entered minimum value the following message will appear:
Click ‘Yes’ to confirm the change to the minimum value or ‘No’ to cancel the change. If ‘Yes’ is clicked any values below the newly entered minimum value will automatically be changed to the new minimum when this screen is closed.
Default Support Staff PayScale
A default Support Staff Payscale must be selected from the list of staff categories within the Support Staff section. This default type will be used when importing staff from Star Academy for staff members that do not have an existing record.
To select a default payscale place a tick in the Default field against the required category.
Manage Staff List
To ensure that budgets are as accurate as possible all staffing forecasts within the Academy Budget Planner should be linked to a staff record for staff members at the school, and all paid staff members should be represented within a staffing forecast for at least the current year.
From the Main Menu click ‘Manage Staff List’. This will show the details of all staff members currently held on the system. Staff member details can either be added manually or imported using the ‘Import Staff’ facilities.
As the ‘Manage Staff List’ facility caters for the management of both Teaching and Support staff it is recommended that both types of staff should be added at the same time if either of the ‘Import Staff’ facilities is to be used.
Filtering the Staff List
At the top of the Manage Staff List screen there are three options that can be selected to assist in the creation / editing of staff records.
Teaching Staff or Support Staff: Select either of these options to filter the staff list to the selected staff groups.
Search: This will allow a search to be made on the ‘Staff Name’. Enter part of the name that you wish to search for and hit the ‘Enter’ key. The staff list will then filter to show any names that match the characters entered, for example, entering “oy” would return any name containing “Joy”, “Roy”, “Floyd”, etc.
Please Note: If the ‘Teaching Staff’ or ‘Support Staff’ options have been selected they will be removed when using the ‘Search’ facility, i.e. the search results will contain all staff types.