Nebraska School Budget Planner — User Guide

The Nebraska School Budget Planner is a web-based budget planning tool for Nebraska K-12 school districts. It covers all eleven state-defined budget funds, staff compensation, bond & debt obligations, and produces the reports required for the annual LC-2 state budget submission.

Recommended Workflow

1. District Information — enter valuation, certified budget authority, buildings, and prior year expenditures.
2. Staff — add all employees with wages and benefits.
3. Funds — enter detailed revenue and expenditure line items for each of the 11 funds.
4. Bond-Debt — record all active bonds, QCPUFs, and lease-purchase obligations.
5. LC-2 Report — verify calculated totals, enter special grant funds and lid exclusions.
6. Reports — generate and export state budget documents and comparison reports.

Navigate to the application URL and enter your Username and Password provided by your administrator (School Financial Services LLC). Credentials are case-sensitive.

Forgot Password

Click Forgot Password? below the Sign In button, enter your username, and click Send Temporary Password. A temporary password will be emailed to the address on file. Contact your administrator if you do not receive the email within a few minutes.

After logging in you will see the navigation bar at the top and a row of tabs below it. The navbar displays your district name, NDE number, and budget year.

Navbar Buttons

Button	What it does
💾 Save All	Saves all data across every tab in one click. Use this frequently and always before closing the browser.
💬 Feedback	Opens a feedback dialog to send comments or bug reports to School Financial Services LLC.
🚪 Logout	Ends your session. Save your data before logging out.

This is the home tab and the foundation for the rest of the application. Data entered here flows into the LC-2 Report and the Fund Summary automatically.

School Buildings

Define every school building in your district. Buildings are referenced on the Staff tab, the Funds budget table, and in building-level print reports.

Field	Description & Rules
Building Code	Exactly 3 digits (001–999). Must be unique within the district. Leading zeros are required (e.g., 001, not 1).
Building Name	Descriptive name such as "East Elementary School".
Building Category	Choose Elementary, Middle School, High School, or Other. Used for reporting and organization.

To remove a building, click the Delete button in the Buildings list. Deleting a building does not remove staff records that reference it, but those staff entries will show an unresolved building code.

District Data & Revenue

Field	Description	Used In
District Valuation	Total assessed valuation of all property within the district boundary.	Display / reference
Certified Budget Authority	The spending authority certified by the state for this budget year (LC-2 line A-101).	LC-2 Section A
Prior Year's Unused Budget Authority	Carry-forward authority from the previous year (LC-2 line A-355).	LC-2 Section A
Property Tax Request Authority	Maximum property tax levy authority for the budget year.	Display / reference
Total State Aid	Total state equalization aid and other state aid expected for the budget year.	Display / reference

Prior Year Budgeted Expenditures by Fund

Enter the prior year's budgeted (not actual) expenditure for each of the 11 funds. These amounts populate the Estimated 2025-2026 column in the State Budget Document Reports on the Reports tab.

Click Save District Data after filling in all fields. A green confirmation message will appear if the save was successful.

A reference library for budget planning. No data entry is required here.

• Budget Timeline — key dates and milestones for the current budget year as published by NDE.
• State Board Approval Exclusions — current lid exclusion categories approved by the State Board of Education.
• Budget Manuals — links to the NDE Budget Document Manual and the District User Manual (Annual Financial Report guidance).
• State Resources — links to the Nebraska State Auditor and the NDE Financial Services Office.

Record all employees whose compensation will be included in the budget. Calculated totals (NPERS, FICA, Total Compensation) appear automatically. Staff data flows into the Fund budget tables and the State Budget Document Reports.

Adding Employees Manually

Click + Add Staff to insert a new row in the spreadsheet. Fill in each column:

Column	Description & Rules
Last Name / First Name	Employee's legal name for identification only; no state reporting dependency.
Employee Type	Select one: Certified, Classified, Administrative, Other, or Nutrition Staff. The Employee Type controls which Budget Codes are available. Select the type first; the Budget Code dropdown will update to show only valid codes for that type.
Budget Code	Nebraska state account code in the format XXXXXYYY (function-object). Must match the employee's type. Certified staff use object codes ending in -111; Classified may use -110, -112, or -114; Nutrition Staff codes are prefixed with fund 06.
FTE	Full-time equivalent (e.g., 1.0, 0.5). Decimal values are allowed.
Building	Select the building where the employee primarily works. Buildings are populated from the District Information tab. Use District (000) for district-wide roles such as superintendent.
Base Wage	Annual base salary. This is the primary compensation amount used for NPERS and FICA calculations.
Extra Duty	Compensation for extracurricular coaching, club sponsorships, and similar additional duties. Included in NPERS/FICA calculation.
Extended Duty	Pay for extended-year contracts (summer school, etc.). Included in NPERS/FICA calculation.
Other Tax / NPER	Any other taxable/NPERS-eligible compensation not captured in the columns above. Included in the NPERS/FICA calculation.
Employer Benefits	Employer-paid health insurance, dental, vision, or other taxable benefit premiums. Added to Total Compensation but not included in the NPERS/FICA base calculation.
Exempt Benefits	Pay that is NOT eligible for NPERS retirement calculation — for example, specific stipends or cash-in-lieu of benefits amounts. Added to Total Compensation but excluded from NPERS/FICA calculation.

Automatically Calculated Columns

Column	Formula
Total Wage	Base Wage + Extra Duty + Extended Duty + Other Tax/NPER
NPERS (7.32%)	Total Wage × 7.32%
FICA (7.65%)	Total Wage × 7.65%
Total Compensation	Total Wage + NPERS + FICA + Employer Benefits + Exempt Benefits

CSV Import

For districts with many employees, import a CSV file instead of entering each row manually.

Required Column Order (left to right)

• Employee Type must be exactly: Certified, Classified, Administrative, Other, or Nutrition Staff.
• Building column accepts the 3-digit building code (e.g., 001) or the building name as entered on the District Information tab.
• Monetary columns should be numbers only — no dollar signs or commas.
• Click ⬇ Download Template to get a pre-formatted CSV template before building your import file.

Saving & Reporting

After entering or importing employees, click 💾 Save Staff Data. You must save before generating reports or navigating away, or unsaved rows will be lost.

Click 🔄 Refresh Saved Staff to reload and display all saved records in the Saved Staff table below. Use the edit (pencil) and delete icons in the Actions column to modify individual entries.

Click Generate Report to open the Staff Report modal, where you can filter by:

• Fund — General Fund (01), Activities Fund (05), or Nutrition Fund (06).
• Employee Type — any of the five types.
• Building — a specific building or all buildings.
• Extra/Extended Duty — display only staff receiving those pay types.

The report can be downloaded as CSV for further analysis in Excel.

The Total Employee Cost Summary at the bottom of the page shows live running totals for Base Wages, Benefits, Extra & Extended Duty, and the Grand Total. These totals update as you save staff records.

This is the primary budget data entry interface. Select a fund from the dropdown to open its revenue and expenditure budget table. Each fund has its own set of state-defined account codes.

The 11 Budget Funds

Using the Budget Table

After selecting a fund, a table appears with account code rows and building columns (one column per building defined on the District Information tab, plus a District total). The table contains separate sections for Revenue and Expenditures.

Entering Amounts

• Click a cell and type a dollar amount. No dollar sign or comma — numbers only.
• Press Tab or Enter to move to the next cell.
• Row totals (summing across all buildings for one account code) appear in the rightmost column and update live.
• Column totals (summing all account codes for one building) appear at the bottom of each section.

Account Code Search

Use the search box above the table to locate a specific account code. Type a partial code or description (e.g., 1-100 or salaries) and matching rows will be highlighted. Click a search result to jump directly to that row.

Saving, Printing & Exporting

Button	What it produces
Save Fund Budget	Saves all entries for the currently selected fund to the server.
Clear All Entries	Removes all values from the current fund's table. This action is permanent once you save.
🖨️ Print Fund Report	Opens a print-formatted report of the current fund showing all account codes and their building-level amounts.
📊 Export to CSV	Downloads the current fund's budget table as a CSV file for use in Excel or other tools.
🏢 Print Building Only	Opens a modal to select one or more specific buildings. Produces a report showing only those buildings' columns — useful for principals reviewing their building budget.

A read-only overview showing the total revenue and total expenditures for all 11 funds on a single screen. This is useful for a quick budget-balance check across all funds without navigating fund by fund.

The Fund Summary pulls live data from whatever has been saved in the Funds tab. If you have unsaved changes in the Funds tab, they will not appear here until saved.

Export options (print and CSV download) are available within the summary report itself.

Track all long-term debt obligations of the district. Entries here feed the Debt Outstanding report on the Reports tab.

Adding a Debt Entry

Field	Description
Type of Debt	Select Bond, QCPUF, or Lease Purchase.
Name of Debt	A descriptive name, e.g., "School Improvement Bond 2020".
Origination Date	The date the debt was originally issued or executed.
Maturity Date	The final payment date. Used to calculate years remaining and the payment schedule.
Remaining Balance	Current outstanding principal balance as of the budget year start.
Original Amount	The face value of the debt when originally issued.
Annual Payment (P+I)	Total annual debt service (principal + interest combined).
Payee	The lender or paying agent, e.g., "First National Bank".

Click ➕ Add Entry to add the debt to the table. Entries are auto-saved when added.

Payment Schedule

Click View Schedule in the Actions column of a debt entry to open a year-by-year payment schedule. You can enter the annual principal and interest breakdown for each year, then click 💾 Save Schedule to store it. The schedule can also be printed directly.

Debt Report

Click 📊 Debt Report to generate a formatted report of all debt entries, filterable by debt type. The report is print-ready.

Debt Summary

At the bottom of the tab, a live summary shows:

• Total Original Amount across all obligations
• Total Remaining Balance
• Total Annual Payment (P+I)
• Count of active debt obligations

Use 💾 Backup All Entries as a manual checkpoint. Use 🔄 Refresh Saved Entries if entries appear to be missing — this reloads from the last saved state.

Valuation & Levy Calculation

This section, located at the bottom of the Bond-Debt tab, helps you determine the bond levy for each payment due. It uses Nebraska statute to apply different assessed valuation percentages depending on when each bond was originated.

Step 1 — Enter Budget Year Valuations

Field	Description
Budget Year Valuation — Agriculture Land USER ENTRY	Enter the district's total assessed valuation for agricultural land for the budget year.
Budget Year Valuation — Non-Agriculture Land USER ENTRY	Enter the district's total assessed valuation for all non-agricultural property for the budget year.

Step 2 — Valuation for Levy Purposes (Calculated)

Once valuations are entered, the system automatically calculates two adjusted valuation figures using the percentages established by Nebraska law:

Bond Era	Agriculture Land	Non-Agriculture Land
Pre-2022 Bonds Origination date before Jan 1, 2022	75% of Ag valuation	100% of Non-Ag valuation
2022 & After Bonds Origination date on or after Jan 1, 2022	50% of Ag valuation	100% of Non-Ag valuation

Each bond you have entered is automatically assigned to the correct era based on its origination date. The bond breakdown table below the valuation results shows every bond color-coded by era (blue = Pre-2022, green = 2022 & After).

Step 3 — Scheduled Payment Due by Bond Era

This area pulls the annual principal and interest amounts directly from each bond's saved payment schedule and groups them by era.

• Use the Budget Year dropdown to select the year you are budgeting for. The dropdown is populated automatically from the years entered in your bond payment schedules. If no schedules have been entered yet, it defaults to 2026-2027.
• The Pre-2022 Bonds box (blue) lists each pre-2022 bond with its scheduled principal and interest for the selected year, and shows a total at the bottom.
• The 2022 & After Bonds box (green) does the same for newer bonds.
• If a bond exists but has no schedule entry for the selected year, an amber notice will appear for that bond rather than showing $0 silently.

Anticipated Levy

At the bottom of each payment due box, the system calculates an Anticipated Levy for that bond era using the formula:

Anticipated Levy = Total Payment Due ÷ Valuation for Levy Purposes × 100

The result represents the levy rate in dollars per $100 of assessed valuation. The Pre-2022 levy uses the Pre-2022 valuation figure; the 2022 & After levy uses the 2022 & After valuation figure. If no valuation has been entered yet, the levy displays as —.

Updating either valuation field recalculates all figures — valuation totals, bond breakdown, payment due, and anticipated levy — instantly without needing to save or refresh.

Click 💾 Save Valuations to retain the ag and non-ag land values between sessions. Click 🔄 Clear to reset both valuation fields.

GASB Compliance Reports

Click 🏛️ GASB Compliance Reports at the top of the Bond-Debt tab to generate audit-ready financial statement notes pulled directly from the debt entries and payment schedules you have entered.

Setting Up the Report

A configuration dialog will appear with the following options:

Field	Description
Fiscal Year End Date	Enter the last day of the fiscal year being reported (e.g., June 30, 2026). Defaults to June 30 of the current or prior fiscal year.
Starting Note Number	Enter the note number where long-term debt disclosures begin in your financial statements (e.g., 7). The report will number notes sequentially from that value. Use "X" if unknown.
GASB 34	Includes the Changes in Long-Term Liabilities table and the Debt Service Requirements to Maturity schedule for all Bond, QCPUF, and Lease Purchase obligations.
GASB 87	Includes the Lease Liability detail table and Maturity Analysis for all Lease Purchase obligations. If lease entries exist, you will be prompted to enter the interest rate for each lease.
GASB 96	Includes a disclosure note for Subscription-Based IT Arrangements (SBITAs). If none exist in the system, the note will state that the district had no qualifying arrangements.

GASB 87 — Lease Interest Rates

If GASB 87 is selected and Lease Purchase entries exist, a second dialog will appear listing each lease. Enter the implicit or incremental borrowing rate (as a percentage) for each lease to calculate the present-value discount. If you leave a rate blank, the system will use the recorded remaining balance as the lease liability. Click Skip / Use Balances to bypass this step entirely.

What the Report Contains

• GASB 34A — Changes in Long-Term Liabilities: A table showing beginning balance, additions, reductions, ending balance, and amount due within one year — grouped by debt type (General Obligation Bonds, QCPUF, Lease Purchase). Beginning balances are computed automatically from ending balances and current-year principal reductions.
• GASB 34B — Debt Service Requirements to Maturity: Annual principal and interest for each of the next five fiscal years, then in five-year increments through maturity, with a grand total row.
• GASB 87 — Lease Maturity Analysis: A lease detail table followed by the undiscounted future payment schedule, present-value discount, and total lease liability balance.
• GASB 96 — SBITA Disclosure: A disclosure note for subscription-based IT arrangements. Since the app does not have a SBITA debt type, this note will confirm no qualifying arrangements exist.

Printing the Report

The report opens in a new browser window formatted for print. Click 🖨️ Print Report to open your browser's print dialog. From there:

• Select a connected printer to print a physical copy.
• Choose Save as PDF (or "Microsoft Print to PDF" on Windows) to save a digital copy.
• Adjust paper size to Letter (8.5" × 11") and set margins to Default or None for best results.
• Enable Background graphics in the print dialog to preserve table header colors and row shading.

The print toolbar and all on-screen navigation are automatically hidden when printing — only the report content appears on the printed page.

The LC-2 is the annual school budget document submitted to the Nebraska Department of Education. This tab calculates Sections A and B so you can verify you are not budgeting above your certified budget authority before finalizing.

Special Grant Funds (B-110)

Enter amounts for any special grant funds your district is claiming (e.g., ESSER funds, Title grants, IDEA allocations not already in a Funds tab). These amounts reduce the adjusted General Fund disbursements in the B-140 calculation.

Click ▼ Show All Eligible Grants to see the full list of qualifying grant funds and enter amounts for each one individually. The total appears as B-110.

General Fund Lid Exclusions (B-130)

Enter the total dollar amount of General Fund expenditures your district is claiming as lid exclusions (State Board–approved exclusions). Click the More Information link to view the current NDE document on approved exclusion categories.

Section A — Allowable Budget Authority

Line	Label	Source
A-101	Certified Budget Authority	District Information tab
A-355	Prior Year's Unused Budget Authority	District Information tab
A-361	Total Adjusted Budget Authority	A-101 + A-355 (calculated)
A-780	Total Allowable Budget Authority	Equals A-361

Section B — General Fund Disbursements

Line	Label	Source
B-100	General Fund Budget of Disbursements & Transfers	Fund Summary tab — General Fund expenditure total
B-110	Special Grant Funds	Total entered on this page
B-120	Special Education Budget of Disbursements	Specific SPED account codes from Fund 01 (1125, 1200, 1295, 2131, 2141, 2151, 2161, 2171, 2181, 2712, 2722, 2732, 2792)
B-130	General Fund Lid Exclusions	Entered on this page
B-140	Total Adjusted General Fund Budget of Disbursements	B-100 − (B-110 + B-120 + B-130) (calculated)
Unused Budget Authority	Remaining headroom	A-780 − B-140 (calculated)

Buttons

• Save LC-2 Data — saves the special grant and lid exclusion amounts.
• 🔄 Refresh Data — re-reads totals from Fund Summary and District Information. Use this after making changes in other tabs.
• 🖨️ Print LC-2 Report — opens a print-formatted summary of Sections A and B.

Generate formal budget reports for board adoption packets, state submission preparation, and internal review.

State Budget Document Reports

These reports match the format of the corresponding tabs in the NDE State Budget Spreadsheet. Each report shows three columns:

Select a fund using the fund tabs (General Fund, Depreciation Fund, … Student Fee Fund, Debt Outstanding) to preview its report. Data sources:

• Budgeted 2026-2027 — pulled from your entries in the Funds tab for that fund.
• Estimated 2025-2026 — pulled from Prior Year Budgeted Expenditures on the District Information tab.
• Actual 2024-2025 — currently blank; enter if your district has actuals available.

Export Options

Button	Output
🖨️ Print Report	Opens the browser print dialog with the selected fund's report formatted for print.
📄 Export as PDF	Generates and downloads a PDF of the report using the html2pdf library.
📊 Export as CSV	Downloads a comma-delimited file for use in Excel or to paste into the NDE State Budget Spreadsheet.

Prior Year Fund Comparison Report

Click 📊 Generate Prior Year Comparison Report to produce a side-by-side comparison of all 11 funds showing prior year budgeted amounts versus current year budgeted amounts. This is useful for board presentations and internal review.

The report can be printed or exported as CSV. Click Close to dismiss it.

The Admin tab is visible only to users with the Admin role (typically School Financial Services LLC staff). District users will not see this tab.

Admin Features

• System Statistics — total user count, active subscriptions, and other usage metrics.
• Create New User — set up a new district account with username, password, district name, NDE number, fiscal year, role, and subscription status/end date.
• User Account Management — view, edit, reset passwords, and manage subscription status for all user accounts. Export the full user list as CSV.
• Feedback Inbox — review feedback submissions sent by district users.

The application does not auto-save. You must save manually. There are two ways to save:

1. 💾 Save All (navbar) — saves data across all tabs at once. Recommended at the end of any work session.
2. Individual tab save buttons — each tab has its own save button (e.g., "Save District Data", "💾 Save Staff Data", "Save Fund Budget"). Use these after making changes within a single tab.

A green success message confirms each save. If you see a red error message, check your internet connection and try again.

• Single district per account. Each login is associated with one school district. Multi-district administration requires multiple accounts.
• Staff budget codes for General, Activities, and Nutrition funds only. Staff cost entries appear in the State Budget Report for Funds 01, 05, and 06. Employees coded to other funds (e.g., a building maintenance employee in Fund 08) should have their wages entered directly as line items in that fund's expenditure table in the Funds tab.
• NPERS rate is fixed at 7.32%. If the NPERS employer contribution rate changes by legislative action, the application will need to be updated by School Financial Services LLC.
• LC-2 Sections C–J not supported. The property tax request, levy calculations, and certification sections of the LC-2 are completed outside this tool through NDE's official process.
• No multi-user simultaneous editing. If two users log in with the same credentials and edit data simultaneously, the last save will overwrite the other. Coordinate with anyone who shares access.
• PDF export requires internet access. The PDF export uses the html2pdf.js library loaded from a CDN. Export will fail if the browser cannot reach the internet.
• Report column for Actual 2024-2025 is not automatically populated. The "Actual" column on State Budget Document Reports is not linked to a prior-year actual data source. Enter prior-year actual figures directly in the Funds tab if they are needed in the printed report.
• Building deletions are not retroactive. Removing a building from the District Information tab does not update staff records or fund table columns that reference it. Delete buildings only if you have not yet used them elsewhere.
• Student Fee Fund (Fund 11) report is limited. The state budget document format for Fund 11 does not include the same expenditure line item structure as other funds. The printed report for Fund 11 may not match the appearance of other fund reports.

1. Complete District Information first. Building codes and budget authority values are prerequisites for every other tab. Getting these right early saves rework.
2. Use the CSV template for staff import. Click ⬇ Download Template on the Staff tab and build your import file in Excel. This guarantees column order is correct.
3. Save after each fund. Rather than entering all 11 funds and saving once at the end, save after completing each fund to reduce the risk of data loss.
4. Refresh LC-2 data after making changes. If you update fund budgets or district data, click 🔄 Refresh Data on the LC-2 tab so the calculated lines pick up the latest values.
5. Use Print Building Only for building-level review. Principals can review only their building's columns without seeing the entire district budget by using the 🏢 Print Building Only button on the Funds tab.
6. Monitor Unused Budget Authority regularly. As you fill in fund expenditures, check the LC-2 tab periodically to ensure you have not exceeded your certified budget authority.
7. Keep IDEA funds out of the General Fund expenditures. IDEA grant allocations belong in Special Grant Funds on the LC-2 tab (B-110), not as expenditure line items in Fund 01. Placing them in Fund 01 will inflate your B-100 and reduce your unused authority.
8. Use the Feedback button for issues. If something is not working as expected, click the 💬 button in the navbar to submit a report directly to School Financial Services LLC.