F-197 Reconciliation Made Manageable - Recording-Recording - F-197 Reconciliation Made Manageable

Video Transcription

Video Summary

Barb, a recently retired Auburn School District finance professional, explains how to reconcile the Washington State F-197 report more efficiently. She shares a spreadsheet-based process she developed to compare county treasurer data, general ledger balances, revenue/expenditure reports, and journal entries against F-197 amounts. Her method relies on copying electronic reports into a template, using formulas to populate fund-specific tabs, and then entering only the reconciling adjustments manually.<br /><br />She walks through examples using several funds: transportation vehicle, private purpose trust, ASB, debt service, capital projects, and general fund. Easier funds often tie automatically, while others require adjustments for items like cash receipts posted to liabilities, leasehold tax, e-rate, transfers between funds, stale-dated warrants, payroll timing differences, and year-end accruals or commodities.<br /><br />Barb emphasizes that reconciliation is easier when districts use accounting modules as intended and when accounts are already reconciled before starting F-197 work. Her main advice is to reconcile monthly rather than waiting until audit season, which makes discrepancies easier to isolate and reduces audit stress. The session also notes that cumulative districts can import provided reports directly into their reporting system, while non-cumulative districts can use the spreadsheet instructions to build their own reports.

Keywords

F-197 reconciliation

Washington State

school district finance

spreadsheet template

county treasurer data

general ledger

fund accounting

monthly reconciliation