Guide to Completing Management Reports

Management Reports are Excel workbooks designed to provide units with a financial snapshot and collect information to forecast balances at fiscal year end for each fund. Each report contains three primary components: a summary dashboard, a unit or department-level pivot table with drill-down capabilities, and a fund data and forecast table. The fund data and forecast table has year-to-date financial information with prompts for recipients to enter their estimated revenues, spending, and transfers for the remainder of the year.

SMB distributes Management Reports twice a year, in November and March. Units have approximately three weeks to review their report and provide the required forecast data before returning them to their division and SMB.

Access Your Report

Links to Management Reports are separated by division in secure channels in the Management Reporting Teams site. After notification from SMB, financial leaders can access their reports by selecting their division channel, the folder for the reporting period, and the file link associated with their name. 

After clicking on the link for your area, the Excel file will open in your report your browser or with Excel desktop depending on your settings. You can work directly in the shared file or download a working copy that you upload to the Teams site when completed.

Page Contents

Report Contents

Forecast Summary

The first section is for report recipients to provide a narrative for their report that summarizes overall trends and identify any major activities that will impact the fund balance projections.  

Area Forecast

The first data dashboard in the workbook is the Area Forecast, that provides historical fund balance trends. Users can change the fund type and unit filters at the top of the dashboard for a high-level overview or view information for a restricted set of funds or departments. 

Unit-Level Review

The Unit-Level Review sheet has multiple pivot tables that provide a more focused view of performance by fund, projected deficit balances, and a budget to actuals comparison. These tables can be filtered by fund type, unit or department, or Financial Manager to customize the information in tables. 

Fund Data and Forecast Input

The core of the report is the Fund Data and Forecast Input sheet, which contains the year-to-date financial information and entry columns for users to add their estimates of future revenue, expenses, and transfers. Individual funds with projected year-end deficits are highlighted to bring awareness to potential issues and require an action plan for eliminating the deficit. The Additional Comments is for users to briefly explain the action plan or anticipated activities.  

Management Reports include financial information for the following fund types:

  • State Operating Funds (reported as 149 Local Operating)
  • Dedicated Local Self-Sustaining Funds (Unrestricted-Dedicated)
  • internal Service Funds (Unrestricted -Internal Service)
  • Service Grants & Contract Funds (Grants and Contracts - Miscellaneous)
  • Auxiliary Funds (Auxiliary)

Optional Monthly Forecast Tool

The final tab in the worksheet is optional and can be used to develop forecasts based on monthly spending plans. The calculations can be copied into the Fund Data and Forecast Input sheet, if desired. Alternatively, monthly and quarterly trend data in Millennium FAST Finance can be used as a basis for estimating future activities.

Instructions for Management Reporting

Step 1

Examine individual funds in the Fund Data and Forecast Input sheet. Use the Monthly Forecast Tool or other resources to identify anticipated revenue, expenses, or transfers that are not reflected in the report. 

Notes: The reports reflect data through the month ending prior to distribution and will not reflect transactions or job changes that occur after that accounting period.

Step 2

Enter forecasts for transactions anticipated to occur before fiscal year-end (June 30) not yet reflected in the report. Forecasts are entered in the blue columns. Area leadership should be involved in completing the reports to ensure that decisions about the commitment of funds are included in the forecasts. After information is added to the report, the calculations are updated to reflect the impacts of the entered financial plan on the projected year-end fund balance.

Notes: Examples of adjustments to include are expected salary savings from departures, anticipated revenue transfers, and future purchases or obligations.

Step 3

Evaluate different spending or revenue scenarios based on your forecasts and come up with a plan to prevent projected year-end deficits. Enter brief explanations of your financial plan in the Additional Comments section for specific funds. Comments can be added for any fund, but responses are required for funds with deficits or large transfers. Spending and deficit mitigation plans should be developed by the deans and directors responsible for content of the report.

Example Entries:

  • We estimate that we will end the year on budget.
  • We estimate to be under budget by $100,000.00 for the following reasons...
  • We estimate to be over budget for $2,000.00 for the following reasons...

Step 4

Summarize the overall changes to your fund balances and any key factors that impact your projections in Forecast Summary sheet (first tab). Completing this section provides critical narrative to SMB and is required.

Tips for
Management Reporting

Check out the Reports to Support Budget Forecasting page for a list of Banner and Millennium reports that can be used  for researching transactions reflected in Management Reports.

Use filters on the Fund tab to focus on specific types of funds or departments in isolation. Filtering the table to show funds with projected negative year-end balances will show highlighted cells that require responses.

To increase the accuracy of projections and reduce the amount of forecasting needed, complete transfers early in the fiscal year or before the spring reporting cycle.

Keep previous versions of Management Reports to track the progress of highlighted funds with future reports.

If you create a new fund make sure to use a default orgn code. Default orgn codes are essential to reporting because they connect funds to departments.

Contact Accounting Services to make changes to orgn codes or financial managers listed in the report.