Fund accounting, project tracking and the Department’s online budget system explained

Carrie, the Department of Management contact, walked attendees through fund‑based accounting and the online budget system and answered questions about tracking project proceeds, document uploads and mental‑health budgeting.

Counties were reminded that governmental accounting is fund-based: "you have different buckets which your monies go into and they're accounted for separately," Carrie said, and the webinar distinguished budgetary funds (general, special revenue, capital projects, debt service) from non‑budgetary agency or fiduciary funds. She explained that capital projects funds are the normal vehicle for bond proceeds used on major projects and recommended using internal project codes in a county’s accounting system to permit detailed spending reports even when the summary budget form aggregates at a higher level.

Carrie demonstrated the state budget system: editable cells are blue, calculated cells are white; the property‑tax tab contains the proposed‑tax notice and top-of-page calculations of maximum rates; errors (in red) block publishing while green indicates readiness to publish. She described the document upload workflow for proofs of publication and the signed adopted budget (PDF/JPEG) and noted uploads are timestamped. "When you upload those documents they do need to be legible," she said, and cautioned that uploaded files remain available only through the end of that fiscal year (the Department will notify counties to download files before they are cleared).

In Q&A, Carrie addressed mental-health advocate budgeting: while contract details were not final at the time of the session, counties should budget the expense with an offsetting reimbursable revenue line when the administrative-services organization provides reimbursement. She encouraged counties to contact Department staff for county-specific questions and examples.