CSP Budget Template

User Documentation

Budget Template General Information

The CSP Budget template has been created in Google Docs.  This will require that the person using the template have access to a Google Account.  By using Google Docs, the system can be updated from a central location and automatically pushed out to other users without having to email updates or changes over time.  This allows you to have the most up-to-date information at any time.   The budget template must be created individually for specific schools.  If you would like a document created for your school, please email Curtis Fuller at cfuller@flcsu.org and ask for a document to be shared with you.  Please include the gmail address you would like the document shared with.

Using the budget template will not guarantee that your budget will be approved.  The state’s grant office must carefully review each budget and item requested to ensure that the expenses are both allowable and reasonable.  The budget tool will help you to write the narratives and prompt you in places where you may need to provide support information to help the grants office review your budget as quickly and efficiently as possible.   You are still strongly encouraged to review all of the state’s grant requirements, allowable expenses, and the notices within the budget tool to ensure your budget is properly written.

General Information on the Template

The CSU CSP Budget Template is a Google Spreadsheet with numerous back-side scripts coded in to assist you to develop a budget narrative and totals.  When you first open the document, you may be prompted as to whether or not you wish to grant access to the script to edit your document. You must enable this for the budget template to work.

When you open the workbook, you will notice there are several sheets (or tabs) along the bottom of the document.  Each sheet will be described in detail within a different section of this document. Generally speaking, the only cells you will need to enter information in are the yellow cells. Cells that are not yellow or light orange should not be changed.

In order to provide you with an overview, here is a description of what you will find on each sheet within the workbook:

• Initial Questions - This page allows you to provide basic information about your school.  Some of the information is only reference to provide you and others who have access to the document to provide you with assistance.  However, the information regarding the current phase, and the estimated numbers of enrollment, staff, classes, etc. are important to complete, as these will be used throughout the workbook.
• BuildingOptions: This page provides you with the most detailed information about individual items you can add to the budget.  It will pull in all of the information from the state’s Allowable Expenses document regarding individual items you are adding to the budget.  This page allows you to add one item at a time to the budget.
• LongOptions: This page will provide you with a list of all sample items, and allow you to add multiple items to the budget at once.
• AppendixLists - Some budget items allow you to attach a list of sample items.  If you select an item which allows this, you will create the list on the AppendixList, and then when you add it to the budget, it will total the items on the budget for you.
• Budget - This is your sample budget, where you can make fine tune changes to the narratives or totals, and then copy all of the saved information to the DOE forms, or to the CSP Budget Tracker document created by the CSU.

Given that this document is a Google Document, you should be aware that it is a shared document.  This document is shared with your school, the Charter Support Unit and the state’s grant office to be able to provide assistance as necessary.

Below each sheet is described in detail.

Initial Questions

This sheet is general information, some of which is just reference to assist people who may be helping you.  For example, if you call the charter support unit for assistance and we open this document, we can quickly see your grant amount and who the contact people are.

Here are the information you can enter:

• School Name: The name of your school.
• CSP ID Number: The CSP number which has been assigned to your school’s grant. This can be obtained from your award letters, emails from the grant office or from flcsp.org
• Project Number: This is your project number, also obtainable from your award letter, emails from the grants office or from flcsp.org.
• Contact Name: Please include the name of the primary contact who is managing the grant at the school.
• Contact Role: Please provide the role of the person who is managing the grant (i.e. Principal, Business Manager, etc.).
• Email: The email address of the primary contact person
• Phone 1: The phone number of hte primary contact person.
• Phone 2: An additional phone number that you would like us to use to try to reach out to the contact person, if applicable.
• Admin Name for signatures:  Who do you need to contact to get signatures on documents (usually this is the Board Chairperson)
• Current Phase: This is the phase of the grant that you are currently in.  Putting in this information helps the spreadsheet let you know whether or not an expense is allowable in the grant period you are currently in.
• Total Grant Amount: Enter the total amount of your school’s CSP Grant
• Current Approved Amount: Enter the amounf of money you are allowed to currently request from the state.
• Est. Enroll. during phase: Enter the estimated enrollment for the current phase of the grant.  For planning and implementation one you should enter your estimated year one enrollment.  When there are items on the budget that it is calculating based on the number of students, the tool will automatically load this number to determine the number of students (i.e. for student textbooks, supplies, etc.).
• Est. Number of Classes: Enter the number of classrooms you will have at the school.  This is used for prepopulating descriptions and budget amounts.  For example, if you select classroom projectors, it will automatically look up this number for the number of classrooms to purchase projectors for.
• Est. Number of Teachers: Enter the number of anticipated teachers (only teachers) for your grant period.  This will be used to prepopulate some budget narratives that are teacher specific.
• Est. Number of All Staff: Enter the number of all staff peple at the school during you grant period.  This will be used to prepopulate any grant items which are applicable to all staff people at the school.

BuildingOptions

This sheet is intended to allow you to add individual items to your budget, and to see all of the allowable expenses from the state’s Allowable Expenses reference document.   Please remember that you should only be changing the yellow tabs.  If you ever accidentally change something you are not supposed to, use undo to back up [CTRL]-Z on your keyboard, or the drop down menu “Edit” -> “Undo”.

This page is broken into three sections.  The top section allows you to make changes to your budget item and search for additional items, the middle section is general information from the allowable expenses.  The bottom section are the search results.

On this page, you will enter your information and ensure your description is the way you would like it.  Once you are complete you will click the Save to Budget button which will copy the information from this page and paste it onto your budget.  You can then reuse this page to create the next budget item.

• Search Box: Enter in an item you are looking for in the search box, and the Search Results at the bottom of the screen will automatically update based on what you’re searching for.  For example, if you type in “Projectors” the search results will only show you the items which contain the word projectors.
• Select Option (ID#): Once you find an item that you want to add, look at the “ID” Number on the search results.  When you enter the id number and hit enter or tab to move to the next cell the sheet will automatically refresh and look up the information it needs for whatever item you select.
• OPTIONS A-Z

• Each item that is created in this system can have 1-5 variables to help you with calculating the total and narrative for the budget.  When you enter the ID number, the system will look up the variables for that item, and some sample information.  There are four rows in this block of information.  
• The first row is the heading (i.e. Option A, Option B, etc.).  
• The second row tells you the type of information you should use in that cell.  In the screenshot above for student textbooks, there are four options you can enter “Cost Per Book”, “Books Per Student”, “Enrollment”, and ‘Total Shipping”.  
• The third row is the sample data that was setup in the tool, it could be a number, title or variable.  
• The the fourth row is where you can enter information.  The sample numbers will be put into the cells for you, and you can change them as appropriate for your school.  As you change the values here, the total amount of money and the narratives will be automatically updated.

• Description: When you enter a Select Option ID#, the system will write a new formula and put it into the description box for you.  That way, as you change the options above, the description will automatically update.  If you need to write something custom in the description, you should first click the edit button (sample to the right).  This will copy the description and paste it in as TEXT, removing all formula references, making it easier for you to edit the description.  Please note that once you press this button, the totals and numbers will no longer update if you change the options above, so first set your options, then edit the description.
• Total: To the right of the options is a single yellow cell which has the total amount of money in your budget. If you are editing your description to add costs that are not automatically set in the options, you should update this number to the total amount of money this budget item will include.
• Allowable Expense Information:

• Item Description: This is the description of the category that is being used from the state’s allowable expenses information.
• Acceptable Documentation for Grant Monitoring: In some cases, the grant’s office may need additional information in order to approve a budget item.  This is the grant’s guidance for the type of documentation which may be required.
• Limits & Warnings: This cell pulls information from two sources, one being warnings based on the category from the allowable expenses document, and the other are warnings about individual items that are setup in the system.  PLEASE be sure you read these warnings as it will have very important information about the item you are adding to the budget.
• Allowable During Your Phase: This will display either TRUE or FALSE as to whether or not this item is applicable to the grant phase that you are currently in, based on what you entered on the “Initial Questions” sheet.

There are two additional buttons which are on this page that you will want to be aware of:

LongOptions

This page allows you to see all of the sample items which are loaded into the CSP Template tool, and select multiple items you want to add to your budget enmass.  The concepts behind the page work very similar to the BuildingOptions page, but each item only has one row, and less information is displayed.  You can not see the detailed information from the allowable expenses reference document on the LongOptions tab, so we recommend this sheet for people who are more familiar with the grant processes and what is and is not an allowable expense.

This sheet is broken into four distinct sections, the top part allows you to search and see totals, then the lower section has three areas, the first is a description of the accounting codes and the category of each row.  It also has the title.  You will then see a light orange column (described below).  The second section has the description that will be used on the budget narrative if you select that item, as well as any custom warnings you should be aware of for that item, the formula that is used to calculate the total, and the calculated total.  The third section are the options and variables you can set for each individual line item.

Before using this page, we recommend that you refresh all of the data every time you come into the page to start working.  Refreshing the page (the circle arrow on the top right corner, or “Rest Long Form” from the “CSP Grant Menu” drop down).   This will erase everything on the page, and refresh all of the information on the page to match the samples made available by the Charter Support Unit and Grants Office.  It also refreshes all of the formulas on the entire page.  Doing a complete refresh may take 1-2 minutes, so please be patient after pressing the refresh button.

Top Section

• Filter - If you enter information in the filter, the rows below will automatically filter out and search for the term you enter in the filter.  If you are looking for textbooks, for example, enter Textbooks in the filter, and only items which have be word textbooks will be displayed below.   (This will only HIDE all of the other rows, it does not delete any of your information).  Clear the cell to show all options.
• Complete Total: If you were to add everything on the list to the budget, this is the total of what it would cost.
• Used Total: In the middle section below, if you enter “TRUE” in the  “Use” column, it means that you want to use that item, and the “Used Total” will only add together the items which you’ve indicated you want to use.
• Current Budget: This is the total of all of the items currently on your “Budget” document.

Left Section

• ID: This is the internal ID number of the item you’ve added, and matched the ID you would search for on the BuildingOptions sheet. If you ever see an item on the LongOptions list and want to know all of the Allowable Expenses information, you can take this ID number and put it into the “Select Option (ID#)” field of the BuildingOptions tab to get the complete details.
• Func: This is the function number tied to the Redbook accounting system.
• Obj: This is the object code tied to the Redbook accounting system.
• Category: This is the category from the state’s Allowable Expenses form.
• Title: This is the title for this individual line item, or the item that is on that row.

Light Orange Tool Columns:

• Light Orange Tools Columns: There are three columns on this page which are tools columns.  If you hover your mouse over the gray heading above the light orange column there will be a popup to tell you what you can put into the column.  

• First Orange Column (Column M):  This column controls only the description for the row.  If you would make a mistake on the description and want to reset the formulas for that row, You can enter either of the following:

• R - Reset: Simply put an “R” into the orange column, and the system will erase whatever is in the description and rewrite the formula.  
• E - Edit: Put in an “E” if you wish to edit the description.  This will copy the description and paste it as text only, removing any formulas from the cell, making it easier for you to edit the text.  Please remember that once you use the ‘E’ tool, if you make any changes to the total or options, they will not automatically update the description!  If you need to make changes after you edit this field you can “Reset” it, and then “Edit” it again.

• Second Orange Column (Column S): This column controls the formulas and default values for the row.

• R - Reset: Resetting the formulas, will remove the amount in the “Total” column, and recreate the “Formula” and calculate the new number. Use this if you type in a value for the total but make a mistake and want to start over.
• D - Default: You can return the formula and all of the options to their default values by entering a “D” in the second orange column.  This will erase all of your option information and return it to the sample / initial numbers.

• Third Orange Column (Column Y): The third light orange column controls the entire row.  You can enter the following:

• R - Reset: This will reset the entire row, removing all information that is on the row and returning it to the default values.
• S - Save: This will save only this row to the budget, based on all of the details and options you’ve entered.

Middle Section

• Description: This is the description that will be copied to the budget narrative.  By default it is a formula, you can enter an “E” in the Light Orange column (M) to change it to text to be able to edit it.  Be aware than once you do this, the formulas no longer update if you change any of the options to the right … we recommend you finish the options before you edit the narrative.
• Cstm Wrng: These are the custom warnings and things to watch out for if you are adding this item to your budget.  This pulls information from the state’s Allowable Expense document, and from special information entered for individual sample items on the tool.
• Formula: This is the formula that is used to calculate the total for this row.
• Total: This is the result of the formula based on the currently set options. You can edit this formula if you wish, if you make a mistake, you can refresh the formula by entering a “R” or “D” in the second light orange column (S).
• Use: This column is whether or not you want to use this item on your budget.  If you want to use the item, type “TRUE” into this column.  It will then add the total to the “Used Total at the top of the screen.  In addition, you can add multiple items.  When you are ready to add all of the items which are marked as “TRUE” to your master budget, go to the “CSP Grant Menu” pull down menu and select “Save USED items from long form”  This will copy all of the items marked as TRUE to your budget sheet, and reset the “Use” column back to a blank value.

Right Section

• Options A - Z: Each item that is created in this system can have 1-5 variables to help you with calculating the total and narrative for the budget.  When you reset a line or the entire sheet, the system will look up the default values for the rows and put them in as sample numbers for you.  Each cell will refer to a different piece of information on each individual row.  To find out what information you need to enter in each cell, simply hover your mouse over the cell, and a note will pop up with the type of information you should be entering.  

• Changing the options will reset the total amount for the line as well as the description, if you haven’t changed it to text to edit.  To change the numbers back to the default numbers, enter a “D” in the second light orange column (S).

AppendixLists

The AppendixLists page is for creating custom or sample lists to attach to the budget.  The grants office would prefer that some items be provided through a custom / attached list rather than adding multiple lines to the actual budget for small items.  The important thing to remember is that if you are using a list all items on that list must be from the same function/object code.

When you enter an item that is a list item on the BuildingOptions or AppendixLists page, Option A for the item will need to be the list name.  The totals for the budget item will then look at the Appendix list and add up the total of all items that have the same item list.  It is important that the list names be typed exactly the same in Option A and on the “ListName” column of the AppendixLists sheet, otherwise it will not find the item for totals.  You also should do your list FIRST, before you add the item to the budget, because once you save the budget item to the budget, it pastes it as TEXT not as a formula, so it will not lookup the total for you anymore if you make changes.  If you do make changes after you save the budget line item, you need to delete the item from the budget and then re-add it from either the BuildingOptions or LongList sheets.

The columns that you can edit to AppendixLists sheet are:

• ListName: This is the list name, which must match what is entered as Option A on either the BuildingOptions or LongList sheet.
• Items: This is the name of the item you want to purchase (i.e. Petri dishes, eye droppers, or latex gloves).
• Description: If the reason is not evident to an accounting person, enter a description why you need that item (remember the grants office people often do not have education experience, so don’t assume that because something is obvious to you that it will be obvious to the reviewers).
• Cost: This is the cost for one of the items you are adding.
• Qty: The number of the items you want to order.
• Sub Total: The cost x quantity for the total to be spent on that particular item.

There are also three essential buttons to be aware of on this page:

Budget

The Budget tab is where all of your items are saved and your master budget will reside.  There is not much functionality to this page, it is mostly just where all of your items are stored once you’ve finished them.   There is a light orange tool column on this page the same as you had on the “LongOptions” page.  You can enter a “D” or an “X” into any row on the budget in this light orange column, and it will erase that item from your budget.  

Once you finish adding all of the items you wish to have on your budget you can copy the narratives and totals from this budget page onto your DOE 101S or your DOE 150, or into the Support Unit’s CSP Tracker if you are using that tool.   We also added an additional “Limits and Warnings” column which once again shows you the important warnings for individual items in case you missed them on the previous pages.