Excel Version of Financial Statements

							A.    Audited Financial Statement Reporting Process – Overview


I.          The Year-End Reporting Process for School Divisions
            The year-end audited financial statement reporting process for school
            divisions involves two distinct steps:

                   Step 1: Audited Version Financial Statements (Excel File Format)
                   Step 2: Electronic Financial Statement Data and Auditor Control
                            Totals (SGSE)

            ** While both Step 1 and 2 provide the same information, it is important to
                  recognize that they each use different files and processes. **

Step 1:     Preparing the Year-End Audited Financial Statements (Excel format)
            and Submitting a Printed Copy to School Finance Branch & Regional
            Office

            Preparing the year-end financial statements

            Each year, School Finance Branch provides school divisions with an Excel
            format file to be used for the preparation of the year-end financial statements.
            The school division must also prepare the notes to the financial statements.

            Auditor’s opinion on the school division’s financial statements and notes:

            The school division must print the financial statements prepared using the
            Excel format file, and attach the notes to the financial statements. The
            auditor’s opinion will be provided on these statements and accompanying
            notes.

            The completed audited financial statement must include:

             Auditor’s Report
             Financial Statements and Schedules (see Appendix I)
             Notes to the Financial Statements, for example:

                -     significant accounting policies
                -     reserves
                -     pensions
                -     contingencies
                -     subsequent events
                -     other significant information that will assist the readers to better
                      understand the financial statements



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            Submitting a printed copy of the audited financial statements to School
            Finance Branch & the Regional Office:

            The school division must submit a printed copy of the audited financial
            statements, including the auditor’s report and notes to the financial
            statements, to:
                   School Finance Branch
                   Regional Office


Step 2:     Submitting the Audited Financial Statement Data Electronically to
            School Finance Branch via the SGSE System

            Submitting electronic audited financial statement data via the SGSE
            system:

            School divisions are required to submit their audited financial statement data
            to School Finance Branch electronically via the web-based SGSE system.

            Options for electronic submission of audited financial statement data:

            1.    File Upload - Uploading text formatted data files into the SGSE
                  system.
            2.    Data Entry - Manually entering the data into data entry screens on the
                  SGSE system.
            3.    Combination - A combination of the above two methods. For example,
                  the school division might decide to submit its general ledger data
                  through file upload, but use the SGSE data entry screens to submit its
                  physical asset and tax schedule data. Or the school division might
                  initially submit all of its data by file upload, but use the data entry
                  screens to make any subsequent revisions.

            SGSE verification checks of school division financial statement data:

            The SGSE system will run verification checks to ensure that the data entered
            by a school division is complete and that information from different sources
            is consistent (e.g. amounts generated from chart-of-accounts data match
            corresponding amounts generated from tax schedule data). The SGSE system
            will also verify that the data entered by the school division matches key
            control totals entered into the SGSE system by the school division’s auditor
            (see below). To allow for rounding differences, variances of plus or minus 10
            are allowed for all verification checks except for the chart-of-accounts total
            which must equal exactly zero.

            The school division’s financial statement data must pass all of these
            verification checks before the system will allow the secretary-treasurer to
            approve the data.


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II.         Auditor Control Totals on the SGSE System
            Purpose of auditor control totals:

            Commencing with the 2003 fiscal year, auditors will enter certain key control
            totals into the SGSE system for school divisions that they audit. The control
            totals are specifically identified amounts from the audited financial statements
            (Excel version). As part of the verification checks, the SGSE system will
            check these control totals against the data entered into the SGSE system by
            the school division. This verification will provide assurance that totals from
            data entered into the SGSE system by the school division match key amounts
            in the audited financial statements as entered into the SGSE system by
            auditors.

            In this way, auditors provide their opinion only on the printed Excel format
            financial statements and notes – they are not auditing the data entered into the
            SGSE system by school divisions. The control totals from the printed Excel
            format financial statements entered into the SGSE by auditors simply act as a
            check and balance that the two sets of data correspond.

            Auditor control totals:

            Auditors will enter the following 14 control total amounts from the school
            division’s audited financial statements (printed Excel version) into the
            department’s web-based SGSE system:

            Statement of Financial Position – page 1
            1.) School Position              current year total
            Statement of Financial Activities and Fund Balances – page 2
            2.) Total Revenue                current year consolidated
            3.) Total Expenditures           current year consolidated
            4.) LT Debt Issued               current year consolidated
            5.) LT Debt Repaid               current year consolidated
            6.) Surplus (Deficit) for the Yr current year consolidated
            7.) Closing Fund Balance         current year consolidated
            Statement of Tax Accounts – page 12
            8.) Total                        Penalty
            9.) Total                        Current Levy
            10.) Total                       Grants-in-Lieu
            11.) Total                       Trailer Fees & Adjustments
            12.) Total                       Discounts & Cancellations
            Statement of Tax Assessments – page 15
            13.) Total                       Total Taxable Assessment
            Statement of Tax Exempt Assessments – page 16
            14.) Total                       Total Exempt Assessment


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            SGSE system verification of school division data to auditor control totals

            The SGSE system will check totals generated from the data entered into the
            system by the school division to the control totals entered by the school
            division’s auditor when the Financial Verification report is run (Other
            Reports module – Financial Verification). The school division may run this
            report at any time. This report is not available to auditors. As well, the SGSE
            system will automatically run the verification checks when a secretary-
            treasurer initiates approval of the audited financial statement data on the
            SGSE system

            Note: While the Financial Verification report is not available to school
            division auditors, auditors are able to run an Audit Data report that will give
            them a record of the amounts they have entered into the system.

            Rounding differences

            To allow for rounding differences, the SGSE system permits a difference of
            plus or minus 10 between each of the auditor’s control totals and the amounts
            generated from the school division’s data.

            Deadline for auditor control totals in the SGSE system

            For each fiscal year-end, the department “opens” the SGSE system for a
            specified period of time to allow school divisions and their auditors to enter
            the required audited financial statement data and control totals on the SGSE
            system. Secretary-treasurers will be advised of the applicable reporting
            deadlines each year. The auditor may enter and edit the audit data control
            totals anytime during the period the system is open for the specified fiscal
            year.

            As explained in the section “SGSE system verification of school division data
            to auditor control totals”, the SGSE system runs a number of data verification
            checks before allowing the Secretary-Treasurer to approve the school
            division’s data. These checks include verification that the totals generated by
            the data entered by the school division match the control totals entered by
            auditors. Therefore, a secretary-treasurer will not be able to finalize their
            data on the SGSE system until after the auditor has entered the audit
            data control totals onto the system.

            The SGSE system will not allow data to be entered for a particular fiscal year
            outside of the authorized period (the system “locks” the fiscal year when the
            deadline expires). This means that once the deadline for entering the data has
            expired, no data may be entered or edited for that fiscal year. It is therefore
            critical that secretary-treasurers and auditors have all of their data
            entered and verified by the specified deadline.



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            Entering the auditor control totals into the SGSE system

            The auditor control totals are entered into the SGSE system through the
            SGSE School Finance – Auditor Amounts module.

            For details, refer to the SGSE School Finance – Auditor Amounts manual
            section: B. Auditor Control Totals.

            Printing the Audit Data report

            Auditors may print a report of their auditor control totals through the SGSE
            School Finance – Other Reports module.

            For details, refer to the SGSE School Finance – Auditor Amounts manual
            section: C. Other Reports – Audit Data.

            Other information about school division audited financial statements and
            the SGSE School Finance system

            Additional information about school division audited financial statements and
            the SGSE School Finance system is available in the SG-SpEd School
            Finance Manual. This manual is available on the SGSE School
            Grants/Special Education home page.




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