Uniform Code of Accounts and Financial Data Requirements for Ontario School Board
Introduction
This document is provided to outline the Ministry of Education’s detailed financial data
requirements for Ontario School Boards.
The purpose of this manual is:
- To outline the specific financial data and "mandatory accounts" that are
required for reporting to the Ministry of Education;
- To provide definitions for recording of specific types of revenues and
expenditures;
- To provide definitions regarding which accounts will be considered
classroom and non-classroom; and
- To define administration and governance, pupil accommodation and special
education expenditures for enveloping purposes.
Boards are required to report detailed financial data using the "mandatory accounts"
provided in this manual. In many instances, school boards may wish to collect and
capture information in more detail than the level required by the Ministry. Therefore it is
expected that a Board’s actual chart of accounts will vary from the mandatory
requirement. Boards are free to expand or change the accounts utilized for its own
purposes but must be able to summarize and report the "mandatory accounts".
Structure of the Uniform Code of Accounts
The Uniform Code of Accounts is structured such that account segments are grouped
together to form unique account codes. The groupings of accounts, as set forth in the
Manual, reflect the range of services now offered by the districts and school authorities
and the level of detail that the Ministry of Education requires from school boards.
The Mandatory Account Segments are as follows: |
Function: | 2 digit code which reflects the minimal broad expenditures categories required for reporting expenditures to the Ministry of Education |
Object: | 3 digit code reflects the specific accounts within the above broad expenditure category required for reporting to the Ministry of Education |
Panel: | 1 digit code which assigns expenditure to a panel, where applicable. |
Location: | Board Defined |
Program: | 3 digit code which allows for accumulating specific program costs |
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(School boards may wish to expand any/or all of the segments for internal reporting).
The order of the account segments has no particular importance or significance and a
Board may structure its account number in any order that suits its various reporting
purposes, as long as the data can be reported in the prescribed format. However, this
document will use the following structure for examples:
XX – XXX – X – XXX – XXX
Function Object Panel Location Program
Location information will be Board specific and will not be reported to the Ministry of
Education & Training. The mandatory accounts to be reported will therefore be in the
following format:
XX – XXX – X – XXX
Function Object Panel Program
This Manual includes three sections. |
| Section 1: | Code & Description Listing. This section includes a simple listing of the mandatory codes and related descriptions for each account segment. |
| |
| Section 2: | Definitions. This section will include definitions and descriptions of the types of expenditures that would be coded to each account segment or combinations of segments. Examples will be included as appropriate to clarify the
definitions. |
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| Section 3: | Listing of Accounts (2 versions). This section will include a complete listing of all valid combinations of account segments and the mapping reference for inclusion in the various expenditure categories, and indicate how accounts are categorized for enveloping.
- Listing of Accounts – sorted by Expenditure Category (mapping),
Function Code, Object code.
- Listing of Accounts – sorted by Object Code, Function Code
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The Ministry of Education will provide clarifications for this manual from time to time as
the need arises.
Relationships: Code of Accounts and the Student Focused Funding Model
The Code of Accounts defines the smallest building block of data that is necessary to
produce financial information for the Ministry of Education.
It is important to note that although there is a similarity between the Code of Accounts and the expenditure grid used for Ministry reporting purposes, they are not the same.
Refer to instructions for the Schedule of Expenditure in the Ministry grant forms.
Example: Teacher preparation time would be coded to "Instruction" as follows:
| 10 |
- |
172 |
- |
1 |
- |
xxx |
- |
000 |
| Instruction |
|
Prep |
|
Time |
|
Elem |
|
General Program |
but would be mapped to "Teacher Preparation Time" in the Schedule of Expenditure in the
ministry reporting forms.
Updates in the 2003-04 Code of Accounts
This issue of the Code of Accounts includes a few changes and updates from previous
versions as follows:
- Trustee Association Fees 31-701 are to be mapped to 331 Other Business
Administration (previously 311 Trustees/Governance). (Applies to 2002-03 year).
- The board leader/coordinator for students at risk should be charged to object 161 -
Coordinators & Consultants. This applies even if the board leader/coordinator is a
supervisory officer. (See object definitions 102 and 161).
(Applies to the 2002-03 year).
- There is a slight change in the method of charging total versus incremental costs
related to self-contained special education classes. Please refer to the section Costing
for Special Education. An additional document entitled "Special Education
Expenditure Reporting Instructions for DSB’s for 2003-04" is included with the Code of Accounts and should be reviewed carefully.
- A new worksheet has been included in excel format titled "Data Lookup". This sheet
utilizes Excel’s "AutoFilter" function. Click on any of the drop down arrows at the
top of the sheet to filter the Code of Accounts data lines.
For further information or clarification regarding the Code of Accounts, please contact the
Finance Officer assigned to your board, or any of the following:
Marie Li (Marie.Li@edu.gov.on.ca)
Marion Jarrell (Marion.Jarrell@edu.gov.on.ca)
Mark Bonham (Mark.Bonham@edu.gov.on.ca)
Charles Brousseau (Charles.Brousseau@edu.gov.on.ca)
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