Budget Builders,

Please note that the due date for the final Budget Narratives has been moved from April 3rd to April 9th. Since elements of the narratives will be impacted by budget decisions that are made after this week's meetings with the City Manager, we will be providing you with further direction and information regarding the narratives soon.

Thank you.

Chris Shoop

*CRITICAL BUDGET SCHEDULE INFORMATION*

Budget Builders,

Thank you for all your hard work and patience during the IFAS entry phase of the budget process. There were a lot of new challenges that had to be conquered and you all did great!

With the budget information now entered into the system, we want to communicate some important next steps for the period of March 12-31:

-March 12, 2009—Decision Package information is due. Please have all Decision Package requests entered into the database by the end of the day.
-- There have been questions about what to do with attachments associated with the Decision Package database submittal. We’ve set up a folder called “Attachments” in the Decision Package folder on the G-Drive for you to place any attachments you may have for your submittals. Please save the attachments with the Decision Package number and a reference to the attachment number (for example—DP-0049, Attachment 1 of 2).

-March, 12, 2009 5:00 pm (Thursday)—Department Budget Coordinators are to review budget reports with Department Heads and submit any significant changes to Roberta by this deadline.
--§ Please see Attachments 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6 distributed at the Sr. Staff meeting for samples of reports available for review.
--§ Finance is confirming labor numbers are correct, interfund transfers are booked properly, etc. Therefore, there may be changes between the report you review and the report submitted to the City Manager.

-March 13-15 (Friday-Sunday)—Finance Review Team will review budget submissions for material errors or problems.

-March 16, 2009 Morning (Monday)—Department Heads and Budget Coordinators will receive e-mails from the Finance Review Team regarding any potential issues or major variances with the IFAS entries. Coordinators need to be prepared to research identified issues or variances through out the morning and respond to Roberta by 2 pm as to the cause of the variance or advise if and what corrective action is necessary. Budget Coordinators and Department Heads will need to review items identified in the e-mail and determine if corrective action is necessary. Instructions will be provided on how to submit any needed corrections.

-March 16, 2009 5:00 pm (Monday)—We are asking all Departments to submit bullet points to Roberta outlining key budget changes by division. The purpose is to provide concise information about major budget changes or explain any adjustments that will help in the meeting with the City Manager. This should only address the budget numbers entered into IFAS and not include any information about Decision Packages submitted as the information for Decision Package requests will be included in the budget information reviewed with the City Manager.

-March 16, 2009 5:00 pm (Monday)—The City Manager’s Office will distribute the schedule for the City Manager/Department budget meetings.

-March 18, 2009 Night (Wednesday)—Electronic copies of Department budget sections will be e-mailed to Department Heads and Budget Coordinators.

-March 19th, 4:00 PM (Thursday)—Meeting with Department Heads and Budget Builders to discuss the departmental budget review meeting agenda. This meeting will cover:
Reports City Manager will receive
Discuss what Mike will be looking at (bottom line for divisions/departments)
Show examples of information that will need extra explanation
Answer questions

-March 19th and 20th (Thursday and Friday)—Finance Director and staff will be available to meet with individual departments as needed.

-March 20, 2009 After 3:00 pm (Friday)—Hard copy budget binders containing the information to be discussed in the Department/City Manager meetings will be available for pick up in Finance.

-March 23-27 (Monday thru Friday)—City Manager budget meetings with Department representatives.

-March 30 and 31st (Monday and Tuesday)—In addition to your scheduled meeting with the City Manager, please be prepared to respond to possible follow-up questions and requests on these days.

As always, please let us know if you have any questions or concerns, as well as any ideas for improving communications as we move through the budget process.

Thank you,

Budget Team

IMPORTANT BUDGET UPDATE!

Thank you to everyone for all the hard work over the past few weeks!

As we enter the final stretch we wanted to share some important information with you. First, we have posted two new reports out on the budget entry tab for your use. We have made changes to the GL5007 report to reflect the level of review that will be conducted with Mike and broken out rev and expenditures to ease the use and limit confusion. These reports are being reviewed and tied out to the AS400 as we speak, so there may be small changes in the coming days, but they are materially correct. Two changes to the reports that are pending are the posting in Water and MDF accounts for capital items to get to a budgetary basis (adding back capital expenses and removing depreciation) and moving nonrecurring items from 2008 and nonrecurring budget from 2009. These changes should not impact your reviews, however, if you want to check nonrecurring items are all listed on the quarterly report that goes to council.

On Monday, we will be rolling the current budget entry from the 05 you are entering into to a finance version. Next week, finance will be reviewing all entries and working with departments to correct any glaring issues. All adjustments posted will be tied to the finance version so we can track them. After that review, we will roll the finance version to the City Manager version for Mike’s review with the departments. Any of Mike’s adjustments will reside in the City Manager version for tracking purposes.

Again we really appreciate everyone’s patience during this process, with new software, chart of accounts and numerous department changes over the past two years, this budget entry has been a challenge, but everyone has done a great job in preparing and entering so far!

Budget Team

Weekend Budget Contacts

Since there we no takers for the Budget Labs this weekend, we will not be holding them. However, since we know that some of you will be working on your budgets over the weekend, we want to let you know that Finance and the Budget Team will look to respond to any questions or problems over the weekend. The best way to communicate any questions or problems during this time is to send an e-mail to Jeremy, Roberta, Chris, and Desiree. We'll be monitoring e-mail throughout the weekend and will work to get back with you as soon as possible.

Thank you.

Budget Team

MUST READ! Important Budget Information

Budget Builders,

This message is to announce very important budget process changes:

1. The due date for information entered into IFAS is being moved from Friday, March 6th to Monday, March 9th at 12:00 pm. The expectation is that by noon on Monday, you will have entered, and adequately reviewed with your supervisors, all FY 08/09 projections and FY 09/10 and FY 10/11 operating budget entries into IFAS.

2. Additional Budget Labs will be offered. The lab schedule will be as follows:

• Friday 9:00 am-12:00 pm and 1:00 pm-5:00 pm
• Saturday 9:00 am-5:00 pm
• Sunday 9:00 am-5:00 pm

Because we will be scheduling staff to run the labs over the weekend, we are asking that you RSVP so that we can confirm that people will be attending during those days. Please contact Leslie Erickson (ext. 7845) to confirm your attendance at any of the above listed lab sessions. If you confirm attendance in a lab and your schedule later changes so that you will not attend, we request that you let Leslie know before 5:00 pm on Friday, or call Roberta at (530) 902-7780 if you need to cancel your attendance in any of the weekend labs. We don’t want to have any of the Finance staff or Budget Team come in for the labs over the weekend if nobody will actually be attending.

3. IFAS will be down on Saturday morning from 8:00-9:00 am for maintenance activities being conducted by the vendor. Please do not attempt to access IFAS during this timeframe.

4. Everyday between now and Monday, we ask that you log out of IFAS at 11:00 am, 3:00 pm, and 7:00 pm for 15 minutes each time so that we can run updates to reflect the latest information entered into the IFAS system. Updating the numbers this often will allow you to run reports that will reflect the most current information entered into the system. The updates occur more quickly when people are not logged into the system.

We want to thank you for all your patience and understanding as we’ve worked through issues with the new budget process and financial system. The feedback and information we have received from you has been very helpful to us for getting important pieces of the budget right. We’re hopeful that this small amount of additional time in the schedule will help you work through the final last minute issues that are coming up and at least reduce some of the time pressures you are all experiencing.

Please contact the Budget Team or Finance Liaisons with any questions you may have.

Thank you.

Budget Team

BUDGET LABS EXTENDED

Hello all!

IFAS Budget Labs have been extended. We will be hosting labs at the RLS at the following times:

• Thursday, March 5, 2009 - 9:00AM - 5:00PM
• Friday, March 6, 2009 - 9:00AM - 12:00PM

The labs will be first come, first served. You may call ahead (x 7466) to make sure there is room.

Thank you!
Budget Team

Important Dates to Remember

Just a reminder of the revised deadlines quickly approaching.....

• Friday, March 6, 2009 - Deadline for all entry into IFAS.
• Wednesday, March 11, 2009 - Summary Decision Packages Due
• Friday, March 20, 2009 - Draft Budget Narratives Due
• Week of March 23 - 27, 2009 - Budget Meetings with City Manager

Contact a member of the Budget Team with any questions on these items, and remember to check out the FAQ section of the Intranet as it will be updated often as questions arise.