Arkansas Department of Education Division of Elementary and Secondary Education Resources and Tools for Fiscal Management Partnership

Memo Information

Memo Number
COM-23-028
Memo Date
9/26/2022
Memo Type
Informational
Unit
Central Administration
Regulatory Authority
Response Required
NO
Attention
Superintendents; Assistant Superintendent; General Business Managers; Bookkeepers

Primary Contact Information

Memo Text

The Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) is excited to announce a partnership with the Arkansas Public School Resource Center (APSRC) to provide access to CFAM (Comprehensive Financial Analysis Model) to all public-school districts/charter schools beginning September 26, 2022.  Recognizing that it is critical for district and charter leaders to understand core principles for effective school finance systems, the ADE has developed Management Principles to Support School District Fiscal Health. The partnership agreement is scheduled to provide training and access to CFAM through June, 30, 2025 as a service to support the management principles established by ADE to guide public school district and charter school fiscal health. 

 

Training

Initial CFAM training will begin in October 2022.  The first training opportunity is October 5th at the APSRC Fall Conference at the Hot Springs Convention Center https://www.apsrc.net/departments/communications/apsrc-annual-fall-conference/. A second training will be held on October 12, 2022 at the APSRC Training Center in Little Rock.  Districts/Charters are encouraged to monitor the APSRC CFAM webpage (https://www.apsrc.net/cfam/) for additional trainings to be held at educational cooperatives and/or regional locations.  In addition, trainings will be held monthly via Zoom and a video training repository will be available by December 2022.  

 

Accessing License(s)

Superintendents have access to a district-specific Google Sheet where point-of-contact (POC) users can be assigned the authority to edit the Sheet.  The Superintendent and the POC (up to 3 POCs may be entered) have the authority to add or remove CFAM users for their district.  Access the Google Sheet at:  https://bit.ly/3q0u2Gu 

 

A district can have up to 3 POCs and up to 20 licensed CFAM users.

 

A district can make changes to the Google sheet at any time.

 

All licensed users are required to be an active employee of the district and registered using their school email address.

 

Accounts will be created automatically by a process that will run multiple times each day.  New CFAM users and POCs will be notified by email.

 

If a person wants to learn about CFAM (short video about CFAM, watch a video about using the above-mentioned Google sheet, login instructions, etc.), go to this link:  https://www.apsrc.net/cfam/

 

CFAM powered by APSRC
CFAM powered by APSRC is a powerful and convenient online software program designed to give school district/charter school leaders and staff a quick, easy and convenient method for analyzing their financial data.

 

CFAM is customized for Arkansas school districts/charters and offers the following features:

Analyze the current school year information plus the previous four school years: revenue, expenditures, debt, etc.

§  Filters allow users to drill down in the information. Filter revenue and expenses by Fund, Source-of-Fund, Function, Location, Program, or Object.

§  Take advantage of easy-to-read financial worksheets.

§  Develop customized worksheets specific to each district that can be saved for future reference.

§  Schedule the worksheets to be emailed to them by the system on a regular basis (daily, weekly or monthly).

§  Share views with other licensed users.

§  Data is updated monthly.

§  Monitor required expenditure levels for Gifted and Talented, 9% M&O, MOE and SpEd MOE. Additional required expenditure reports are regularly being developed.

§  Compare dollars per student expenditures for any budget unit to the statewide average.

§  Compare expenditures against those of other districts.

§  Analyze and plan for the future – budget variances, predict, observe trends.

§  Analyze staffing efficiency

 

 

There is no software to install. Access the online system with any browser on any device; on or off campus. CFAM is your one-stop shop for analyzing all district financial data.

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