Last updated on September 5th, 2025
Managing a school district comes with a range of financial responsibilities—and having the right knowledge and tools at your disposal makes all the difference. To help local municipal and school district leaders stay on top of budgeting, cash flow, and long-term planning, the Office of the New York State Comptroller (OSC) created the “Financial Toolkit for Local Officials.” Below, we’ve highlighted some of the points you may find most useful.
Spotting Signs of Financial Stress
The first step in protecting your district’s financial health is knowing how to identify early warning signs of fiscal stress. The OSC toolkit suggests:
- Performing regular financial condition analyses.
- Looking at audit findings from other school districts.
- Using the OSC’s Fiscal Stress Monitoring System (FSMS) for objective insights.
Together, these strategies can help you stay ahead of potential issues before they grow into more serious financial challenges.
Budgeting with Confidence
Budgeting is central to the financial management of any organization. The OSC guide, Understanding the Budget Process, walks local officials through the essentials of preparing, adopting, and monitoring a budget. Here are some of the key steps of the budgeting process covered by the guide:
- Estimating Expenditures: Expenditure estimates should include categories such as employee salaries and benefits, debt service, energy costs, transportation, maintenance, administration, “charter school basic tuition” payments, and payments to employees for compensated absences or employee separation. Estimates are reviewed by the budget officer (typically the superintendent in a school district).
- Projecting Revenue: Revenue forecasts typically rely on 3–5 years of historical data and should include sources such as real property taxes, non-property taxes, state and federal aid, and any other sources of revenue.
- Estimating Fund Balance: Since fund balance can be used to help fund the budget, it’s important to estimate it carefully—even if projecting months in advance can be tricky.
- Determining Real Property Taxes: Finally, school districts need to determine the amount of real property taxes needed to balance the budget. The formula for calculating the tax levy can be found in the OSC guide.
If your district is already facing a budget deficit, the toolkit also outlines options such as modifying the current budget, using reserve funds, drawing on surplus fund balance, or issuing short-term debt.
Staying on Top of Cash Flow
Cash flow management involves policies and procedures that help to control the movement of cash in and out of the school district. The OSC’s recommendations for effective cash flow management include:
- Actively monitoring cash flow.
- Accelerating the collection and deposit of receipts.
- Timing disbursements strategically.
- Maximizing interest earnings.
- Following state laws for depositing and investing public funds.
Additional Resources
School district leaders can refer to the OSC Financial Toolkit for additional information and resources including publications, fact sheets, and webinars.
And remember—you don’t have to navigate these financial challenges alone. At RBT CPAs, we partner with school districts and municipalities across New York to provide accounting, audit, tax, and advisory services that keep communities running smoothly. Reach out to learn how we can be Remarkably Better Together.