Q&A - Fiscal Reporting (Administrators) - California Adult Education Program

Administrators

Leadership isn’t about a title. It’s about impact, influence and inspiration.

–Susan Lytle Gilmore, Ph.D., Director of Adult Education, Sacramento City Unified School District

AEP Questions and Answers

This is a collection of questions that are most frequently asked of the AEP Office. They are organized by topic area and will be updated as needed.

Fiscal Reporting

Fiscal Reporting (9)

Q1 How will we report the indirect, should we split it by program area?

Indirect can be prorated among your program areas.

Q1 One of our members entered $47K into the 5000s for Q2, however their ledger only shows $3K in that object code. They have explained to us that the $47K represents actual expenses that their adult programs incurred but those programs did not invoice the district for expenses until after the quarter ended. Consequently, the expenses will not show in the ledgers until Q3. How should this be handled? Should we advise the member to only report expenses that their ledger shows even though technically they did expend those funds?

It is best if the member would back out the $47K until the expense hits the districts books. As much as we can control, it's best for members' expense reports to marry their districts reports.

Q2 Members are wondering why it looks like their spending estimates are so low for Q2 in NOVA. I looked and it seems like the YTD Forecast column is listing the forecast for the quarter, not the YTD/cumulative (whereas they are reporting their expenditures YTD/cumulative). Could you please let us know if we're interpreting it incorrectly or if there is a glitch in the system?

All of your members listed 25% for Q1, 25% for Q2, 25% for Q3 and 25% for Q4. Those estimates are cumulative so if they planned to spend 25% per quarter, the 1st quarter should be 25%, the 2nd quarter should be 50%. This can be adjusted by opening up the Budget and Workplan and having your members go in and adjust those percentages. As a reminder, all of the figures, although cumulative, are entered manually. NOVA will not add them to the previous quarter automatically.

Q3 Will NOVA have a fit (i.e., generate an error) if, in some line items, we end up reporting lower cumulative expenditures in Q4 than in Q3 due to misreporting in the previous quarter?

NOVA will not allow a lower Q4 than Q3. NOVA is cumulative so all amounts must be equal or more than the previous quarter. Please contact CAEP TAP for assistance on how to resolve this error.

Q5 Can indirect costs be charged to Adult Education Program funds?

Yes, pursuant to the LEA’s approved indirect cost rate.

Q9 I hope that all numbers reported are explainable and supported by ledgers, MOUs , etc.

Yes – there should be some supporting documentation. If you are estimating or pro-rating expenses, please make sure your business / accounting office is comfortable with your methodology (and it is explainable).

Q15 A Member Representative has logged into NOVA but it will not allow them to certify for their agency. Please help.

Please have the member check to make sure the email address showing in NOVA under their Member Representative account is the email address they are using to sign in. In some cases people have multiple email addresses and may be signing in with the incorrect email. The second thing to check is that they are the first Member Representative listed. Only the top Member Representative listed has the authority to submit on behalf of their agency.

Q16 The submit button is grayed out for the Q4 expenditure report.

For Q4, there is a small checkbox under the totals that members must click certifying that they did not exceed the allowed indirect rate as directed in the Adult Education Program Guidance. This is only required for Q4 submissions. Please check to make sure that box is checked. Once it is checked, the Submit button should be available.

Q17 We are experiencing a problem reporting category 4000 for Quarter 4. The expenditure amount in Q4 for the 4000's reduced. The system will not allow me to enter that amount because it is less than the reported amount for Quarter 3. Would you please advise how to handle this situation.

Because NOVA is cumulative, no quarter can be less than the previous reported quarter. If your previously reported expenses for Q3 were reduced due to an error in reporting or a credit, you will need to have the consortium lead uncertify Q3. Once Q3 is uncertified, you can go in and make the corrections, then re-submit. The consortium lead will have to re-certify Q3.