An in-kind contribution is a non-monetary contribution. Goods or services offered free or at less than the usual charge result in an in-kind contribution.

Donations – would be a monetary contribution.

It includes any non-monetary contribution – goods or services. You should generally determine the cost using the fair market value and it should be based on standard objective sources rather than best guesses. You should document the basis for determining value of personal services, material, equipment, building, and land.

This year's Budget and Work Plan are not due until September 30. It is the Annual Plan that is due August 15. Once the Annual Plan is submitted and approved, this year's Budget & Work Plan will be accessible.

The discrepancy is because Q4 expenses have not been certified. Once Q4 expenses are submitted and certified, that amount will be deducted from the total Budget for this year. Until then the total allocation is doubled.

The previous year's carryover is automatically included in this year's budget. The carryover is included in your Total Available Funds. Please note, the correct carryover amount will not appear in your Total Available Funds until the consortium has certified the previous year's expenditure reports.

Last year's Budget and Work Plan can be uncertified to allow members to make adjustments as long as Q4 Expense Reporting has not been certified. However, please note, if the Budget and Work Plan are open, members will not be able to submit their Q4 expenditure reports. They will be able to save their entries, just not able to submit until the Budget and Work Plan are back in certified status.

The 'Delete' button at the bottom of the budget item is where you can delete a budgeted item. Please note - if you delete this budget item and have reported expenditures in this object code for the program year, the expenditures will be deleted as well.

Yes - The members will need to complete a budget revision. They can notate the budget revision reason in the budget summary area.

If you do not have a percentage laid out in your planning, you can use the suggested precents listed in that section. A percentage must be entered, but it is up to you what that percentage is.

Regarding the forecast example provided - the total is intentionally not adding up to 100%. The forecasts are cumulative; however, the logic behind ending Q4 with 60% is the member is planning to carry over 40% of their budget for that object code. If the member is planning to expend all funds in an object code, the forecast percentages for that object code should equal 100%.

Because CAEP funding is based on regional need, the allocations are not impacted by attendance or teacher load. The State CAEP Office understands that there could be a drop in enrollment, and outcomes as a result of the virus school closures, and student decisions not come to school. As far as we can see, this will not affect your CAEP funding.

A detailed narrative is strongly advised by the CAEP Office for transparency purposes. To amend your budget and work plan, please ask your consortium lead to 'Reject' the budget and work plan. Your budget and work plan would then go back to 'Draft' status. Once in 'Draft' status, you will be able to make edits.

Yes, you are welcome to do Budget Amendments as often as needed to move money between categories within a member agency. If money is needing to be moved between members, then an Allocation Amendment would be done. There is no limit for either of those items. Any notes related to a Budget Revision should be placed in the Description of Expenditures section for each object code and/or the comment section once the Budget and Workplan is ready to be re-submitted.

There are multiple layers here.

The first submitting and approving fiscal reports with expenditures that include a negative balance. This is not allowable and the budget and workplan should have been opened up and funds moved so the negative didn't occur. If the member did not have funding, then these expenditures should not have been approved.

Given that the CAEP structure is set up differently including NOVA, CAEP Leadership still wants to hold the field accountable for this requirement that is also outlined in the CAEP Fiscal Management guide in pg 36.

Both the consortium member and the lead certifying this negative balance need to be aware of this requirement for CAEP. Additionally, if a negative is not avoidable, it is necessary to provide a detailed narrative justifying why there was a negative balance reported and approved.

It is critical to ensure district ledgers reflect actual amount expended, and vice versa, budgets reflect amount available based on their allocation for that year, while also accounting for their FIFO carryover in available funds.

Finally, NOVA is accurately capturing what the state has allocated in funds for each budget year and is also tracking carryover funding accordingly. Carryover is calculated with the fiscal year allocation and the fiscal year expenditures. Carryover compliance does not use available funds to calculate the carryover percentage. We want to ensure NOVA is also accurately tracking the financial records and allocations that the state makes on annual basis. It will be the fields responsibility to ensure they are following local and state fiscal policies and reporting requirements.

The Budget and Workplan is not automatically certified on the due date. The Primary Contact is the only role that can certify the Budget and Work Plan. You can always find this by clicking on the member agency, scrolling down to the Budget and Workplan and clicking on the PDF version of it. It will have a stamp with date/time/approved by at the top of when it was certified.

You are correct. You may notice that one Member is not currently listed, as their Budget and Workplan for 2024–2025 is still in draft form. Once all members have submitted and certified their documents, the full list should be visible.

There is a box for indirect charges in the drop-down menu. Please use that when budgeting and booking all indirect expenses. Seven thousands (7000 - other outgo) are usually reserved for interdepartmental expenses or pass through funds.

Unfortunately, once Q4 is certified, the Budget & Workplan for that year is no longer accessible. It can be viewed on the Member's dashboard, but not changed. Quarter 4 of 23-24 has been certified, therefore the member is no longer able to make edits to their Budget & Workplan.

One member of the consortium was able to submit and certify, which indicates there is a permission issue. The member who is able to submit and certify and change the role of others in NOVA.

Although it is a marginal amount, the limit is 5%. The members will have to adjust their Budget and Workplans to reduce the amount of indirect to a maximum of 5%.

The Budget and Workplan for the previous FY is closed and cannot be edited. You can view yours by clicking on the left-hand side: CAEP; Consortium & Members; type in the agency name, when it populates click on the member agency and then scroll down to the 3rd section, Budget and Workplan to view the document.

The allocation is showing as doubled because Q4 is not certified. Once Q4 is certified, it will be marked as spent and then the Budget will be correct.

As these are the next fiscal year's funds, you will need to close out your Q4 Expenditure Report for the current fiscal year first. Per the CAEP Fiscal Guidance, before you submit your Q1 report for the current fiscal year, you will want to complete an allocation amendment that shows the movement from your fiscal lead to each of the members. Members will modify their budgets and allocate the new funding across the object codes in alignment with their spending plan. At the Q1 report, the carryover will right itself.

References:
Fiscal Guidance, Page 5
Allocation Amendment
The CAEP allocation amendment process allows consortia and members to change allocations outside of the CFAD process. Allocation amendments can occur throughout the year, but should be recorded in NOVA prior to the submission of the following expenditure report. Allocation amendments must be approved by all member agencies, even those agencies not directly affected by the changes. Consortia that utilize the direct funded disbursement method will need to work at the local level to transfer funds between member agencies.
Budget Changes
Budget modifications must be submitted in NOVA prior to the submission of the quarterly expenditure report. In order to submit a budget revision, the consortium primary contact must un-certify the budget and the member representative unsubmits, in order to allow changes to be made. The member representative enters their changes and re-submits the budget, upon which the consortium primary contact will need to re-certify.

Until the Q4 Expenditure Report for the previous fiscal year is certified, the Budget and Workplan for the current fiscal year will be inflated. Once Q4 certified, the Budget should reflect the current allocation plus true carryover.

To view old budget and workplans in NOVA:
Click on CAEP Consortia and Members from the Dashboard
Choose or enter in the name of your consortium
On the Consortia & Members page, scroll down to Member Agencies (under Consortium Contacts) and choose the agency you're looking for
Within the specific member's page, scroll down to Budget & Workplan and you will see all the old plans for this member.

Three-Year plan was decertified somehow and is awaiting a member to approve. Once approved, the annual plan will open.

That will be the case until Q4 is certified, September 30th. Once certified, all the previous fiscal year's funds are marked as spent and will be removed from your current fiscal yeary's Budget.

Here are the steps given as follows:

1. Consortia Lead must decertify the Budget and Workplan for the district.
2. The member may need to click (upper right corner) un-submit on their Budget and Workplan.
3. The member makes the necessary changes to the Budget section.
4. The member clicks to Submit their Budget and Workplan.
5. Member lets the lead know they have submitted, and the lead re-certifies it.

Once that is done, any red exclamation marks in the fiscal reporting should be resolved.

With the Budget and Workplan, if there is money that needs to be moved among object codes, you will need to go through the process to de-certify and open it up and then have all members go into NOVA to approve. Below is the fiscal guidance section that speaks to the Member Workplan and Budget.

Fiscal Guidance (pg.34)
4. CAEP Member Workplan & Budget
Based on the annual plan strategies (submitted by August 15th) and the CFAD (submitted by May 2nd), each member creates a budget and work plan for the new fiscal year (July 1 to June 30). The member budget is by object code, which aligns with the member work plan to spend all active funding during that 12-month fiscal year period. Active funding includes all carry-over and new funding combined into one budget. The member work plan aligns with the strategies of the annual plan. Members will check which strategies from the annual plan they are covering with their 12- month budget. Once the member submits their work plan and budget, the consortium membership will review, approve, and certify for the upcoming year. If the member has changes to their work plan and/or budget, it will go back through NOVA using the same process of consortium membership review, approval, and certification.

You are correct. If the Q4 fiscal reports are not certified, no expenses are confirmed as spent, therefore the budget will look inflated. Once certified, it should equal the new allocation and true carryover amount.

The member is able to charge the 5%. If they didn't charge the 5% earlier in the year, they can still charge before they submit their Q4 and would need to do a budget and workplan change which is permissible under CAEP.

Per the legislative trailer amended under EC 84913, K-12 districts and COEs may use their CDE approved indirect cost rate for any CAEP/CAEP apportioned funding or 5% whichever is less.

Fiscal Guidance: Page 25-26
https://caladulted.org/DownloadFile/1300
10. Indirect Rate for Members

Effective July 1, 2018, Section 84913 of the Education Code is amended to read: For purposes of this paragraph, "indirect costs" means either of the following: (i) For consortium members that are school districts and county offices of education, the lesser of the member's prior year indirect cost rate, as approved by the department, or no more than five percent of the total funding received from the program. (ii) For community college consortium members, the lesser of the member's prior year negotiated indirect cost rate or no more than five percent of the total funding received from the program. Per the legislative trailer amended under EC 84913, K-12 districts and COEs may use their CDE approved indirect cost rate for any CAEP/CAEP apportioned funding or 5% 25 whichever is less. The CDE approved indirect cost rate varies by district and is not a set amount. Please check the CDE Indirect Rate website for each school year, at the link shown below. http://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/ac/ic/ Community College Districts (CCDs) may use up to either their approved indirect cost rate as directed in Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 200.414 up to the development minimums amount as allowed in the CFR or 5% whichever is less. https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/granule/CFR-2014-title2-vol1/CFR-2014-title2-vol1- sec200-414

No, members must allocate all funds. NOVA will not allow the budge to be submitted unless the remaining amount was zero. Fiscal agents are able to hold on to funds for consortium-wide activities, however they must allocate them in their budget appropriately.

It's important that the member district work within their given CAEP budget. Consortia know their approximate CAEP allocation for the following fiscal year by February of each year and can use that number to assist with budget planning. We don't advise districts when it comes to managing their funds. However, if the district is borrowing funds from the General Fund to make the adult ed payroll, there needs to be a plan for how that money can be paid back once the CAEP funding is released, while still allowing the CAEP member to work within their identified annual allocation. The member can also consider planning for a carryover from the prior year (up to 20%) to cover the time period that they won't yet have funding.

Once the member makes the changes, they will need to submit again. Once submitted, you will be able to click on it and certify..

Members who choose to spend more than their allocation, are choosing to work in good faith of continued funding and also knowing they will begin next year with reduced funding.

If a member spent $100,000 over their current year budget, next year their budget will be $100,000 less than their allocation. They will still receive the same allocation, but their available funds will be reduced due to the overage spent the year before. It is not a good practice and we strongly urge against it. However, we cannot stop it. They will need to reduce their spending next year to make up for the deficit, otherwise they will always be running in the deficit, which is dangerous.

Some consortia have members that carry excess funds and in situations like this, those members choose to give some of their excess funds to the member who overspent, to bring them whole again. That is optional and not required. If you have members who are in jeopardy due to the new carryover compliance, they may wish to do that. That would be handled through an allocation amendment where one or more members give funds to the one who overspent. It is a one time transfer of funds and is not a continued reduction to the members funds who are giving some away. Permanent changes are through the CFAD. Allocation Amendments are one time transfers with no permanent effects to their base funding.

Another option is for the member who over spent to work with their district and see if the district can cover any of those expenses out of different pots of money. If they are able to do so, the expenses can be journaled and they can edit their Q3 expense report and not report what is journaled to another fund source.

Once a CFAD has been consortia approved, there is no way to uncertify it.

When completing the new budget, you will be able to add a category for each of the object codes, as well as for Indirect. You will simply select Indirect in the drop-down menu and enter the amount. Please remember the indirect you are allowed to take is 5% or state indirect rate, whichever is less.

If you do not already have the indirect category, you can click the New Budget Item (blue button) at the bottom to add it.

To give a portion of the consortium funds to various members, you will need to complete an Allocation Amendment. In the amendment (done in the appropriate year for the funds being given), you will reduce the member with the funds being given by the total amount being given. You will then increase all the members receiving funds accordingly. Once the remaining funds to be allocated equals $0, you will submit that, possibly with a short explanation of why this amendment is happening. All members will get a notification and will have to approve the amendment.

Once it is approved by all, any member who received or reduced funds will have their Budget and Workplan automatically put into draft status. Each member will need to go into the Budget and add funds to the correct object code(s) or reduce funds from the correct object code(s). Once the Budget shows they have $0 remaining to be categorized, they will click to Submit. You will then have to certify each members budget individually.

Then, the member who is giving the funds will have to cut a check to each member.

All CAEP funding is tied back to the member allocations established in 2015. That amount must stay the same unless a member reduction meets the criteria listed in education code. No consortium can change a member’s allocation in the CFAD unless it’s for one of the three causes. What you can do is after the CFAD is certified and all members receive the same percentage allocation as the prior year – you can perform an allocation amendment to move funding around without having to meet the ed code criteria. All members would have to be on board with the change.

ED code does not address leadership or consortium funds – except that it can’t be more than 5% of the total allocation for the consortium.

For changes in Fiscal Agents, consortia could say that the old fiscal agent member can’t follow the adult ed plan as cause for moving the money around. Not following the plan is one of the criteria to move funding around via the CFAD.

The Program Area Report is always runs 6 months behind. The data populated in Launchboard is older and is meant for information only. Please disregard it. The data is meant only to show you the areas you have historically had students enrolled, as a starting point for you to gather data. We advise members to use their own data source when inputting data for that report, and not use the Launchboard data.

You are welcome to revise your budget as often as needed. You will need to follow these steps:

Ask your consortia lead to uncertify your budget and workplan
Go to your budget and workplan and click to unsubmit.
Make any necessary changes.
Submit
Ask your consortia lead to re-certify it.

It is important to note that it will likely be only the Member Representative that can unsubmit and resubmit the budget and workplan. If you have access to NOVA as a contact, you will be unable to complete those two functions.

Indirect charges should be charged to the indirect category, not the 7000.

The Core Performance Report is a CASAS report and their tech support can assist with that. Here is their contact information:

Tech support
techsupport@casas.org
1-800-255-1036 option 2
6 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT and 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET
Monday to Friday

There is no ability to go back to a previous year's reporting and make corrections. If there is an area that requires a correction, we must make it in our current year.

At this time, your consortium should have certified Q1 and Q2. We will want any corrections from the previous year to occur in Q1. Given that, the consortium lead will need to work backwards and decertify the Q2 Fiscal Report (must be done first), then decertify the Q1 Fiscal Report. Once Q1 is decertified, the steps for your district to follow are:

1. Unsubmit your Q1 Expense Report

2. Decide the action that needs to be taken: if you over-reported expenses last year and are showing less carryover than you actually have, you will need to do the opposite and under-report this year. If you under-reported expenses last year and your carryover is showing more than you truly have, you will want to over-report this year. We need to marry NOVA to your district books, as your books are the record of audit and NOVA is just the CAEP reporting tool.

3. We want to try to match the object code to the same object code that had the error last year. If you over-reported expenses in the 5000s by $2,000, you will under-report the 5000s by $2,000 in Q1. If your true Q1 5000 total is $30,000, you will report $28,000. This will then make NOVA totals match your book totals. The trouble may come if the number is a large number. If you over-reported $50,000 and your Q1 5000 total is only $30,000, you would make the 5000s zero and then reduce any other object code by the remaining $20,000. If the amount is greater than your Q1 totals all together, you will mark all zero's in NOVA for Q1. You will want to keep track of your true expenses for Q1. Let's say Q1 true expense totals are $40,000, yet you are needing to under-report by $50,000. You will mark everything as a zero and then also change your Q2 report and reduce those true expenses by the remaining $10,000. Keep in mind that NOVA is cumulative, so what it shows for Q2 is the total of Q1 and Q2. You will need to find the true Q2 expenses and reenter all numbers since we just changed Q1 to be all zeros.

4. Under-reporting last year is easier to fix. You will simply add the amount you under-reported by to Q1 in the appropriate object code. It's much easier to add more money than to take away money in NOVA if it's a large amount.

5. Once the correction has been made, you will submit your report and notify your lead it is ready for certification. The lead will need to certify Q1. If you made changes in both quarters, you will have to submit Q2 once Q1 is certified. You cannot submit Q2 until Q1 is complete, so there may need to be some back and forth with the lead to know when each step is done.

You will want to keep detailed notes of what the error was and when it occurred, also when, where and how it was fixed in NOVA. Keep those notes in NOVA as well as your district books so others will know what happened and when it was corrected. Otherwise someone could spend months trying to figure out why the numbers don't match the books.

For the over-reporting example of the $2,000 I gave above, the notes would resemble: In 23-24, the Q4 Fiscal Report was over-reported by $2,000 in object code 5000. To correct that, Q1 of the 24-25 year had true expenses of $30,000 reduced to $28,000 in the 5000s. The under-reporting in 24-25 offset the over-reporting in 23-24, thus marrying NOVA to the district books.

If certain object codes have significantly more funds than you anticipate spending, it's appropriate to reallocate those amounts to categories where additional funding is needed.

For example, if you expect to overspend in one area but have surplus funds in another, you can shift the budget accordingly to better reflect actual spending projections.

You are allowed to make multiple budget revisions throughout the year as needed, up until the certification of Q4. To do this, the Consortia Lead will need to decertify your Budget and Work Plan in NOVA. Once decertified, you can unsubmit, make the necessary adjustments, and then resubmit. After resubmission, please notify the appropriate contact (e.g., your CAEP Program Monitor) that it’s ready for recertification. Note that while the Budget and Work Plan are decertified, your agency will not have access to fiscal reporting.

In order to make changes to the budget the consortium's primary contact must un-certify the budget and the member representative un-submits, in order to allow changes to be made. The member representative enters their changes and re-submits the budget, upon which the consortium primary contact will need to re-certify.

Budget Revisions should be allowed any time the member needs to move money between object codes. They can do this multiple times a year up until the certification of Q4. During the fiscal reporting, if the member has a red exclamation mark (meaning they have overspent in that object code), they are advised to complete a budget revision to clear any red exclamation marks. Ideally CAEP does not want to see any overspending in object codes.