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Five-Year Forecast - Helpful Links for Treasurers

This page provides information, guidance and documentation regarding a school district's five-year forecast. For questions regarding any of the information provided here, please email FiscalOversight@education.ohio.gov.

Forecast Format and Reporting Requirements

Five-year forecast templates from the State Software Development Team (SSDT).
EMIS Manual reporting instructions for five-year forecast records. Section 7.2 contains a current list of the required line numbers including a description and the object codes within each line.
EMIS Data collection calendars for each fiscal year provide the open and close dates for the four different data collection windows available for five-year forecast submissions. See “Financial Collections."

Forecast Submission Process

Five-year forecast submission error resolution instructions.
Directions to submit “notes and assumptions” into the EMIS data collector.
EMIS Help Desk (614) 387-0395 or your local ITC can assist if you have EMIS data collector submission issues.

Fiscal Oversight Expenditure Management Tools

These tools may be used to promote real-time collaboration between the district superintendent, treasurer and board of education and will assist districts as they formulate and evaluate responses to rapidly changing educational and financial environments.

Written Plan Workbook may be used to prepare "what if" versions of forecasts to promote discussion and planning for uncertainties.
Monthly Monitoring Report may be used to report actual results against monthly and year-to-date budgets.
Department fiscal consultants provide technical assistance with these tools, plan development and implementation monitoring.

Recommended Best Practices

The Department reviews all forecast submissions, and a district may be required to submit a written plan to eliminate deficits any time the district forecasts deficits within the first three years of the five-year forecast period.

To avoid the need to develop written plans and to promote goals of obtaining and then maintaining long-term solvency, districts should implement the following best practices:

Prioritize proactive management of revenue and expenditures to ensure the district operates within available revenue to avoid deficit spending (line 6.010), which depletes available fund balances;
Implement board policies to achieve and then maintain minimum cash balances equivalent to a minimum of 30-60 days of district expenditures (line 5.050);
Report and discuss monthly comparisons of actual revenue and expenditure performance against budgets to actively manage deficit spending and cash balances; and
Consider participation in a national program that promotes best practices in school budgeting or a national budget award program, such as the “Award for Best Practices in School Budgeting” offered by the Government Finance Officers Association or the “Meritorious Budget Award (MBA) & Pathway to the MBA” offered by the Association of School Business Officials.

Last Modified: 10/16/2024 6:15:56 PM