Budget Template Tool | Charter Support Unit

Finance & Budget | Florida

The Charter Support Unit has developed a budget template tool to assist schools in developing a comprehensive budget. The budget has been developed as a “Question and Answer” tool where individuals assemble a budget. It is designed so that Board members who may not have extensive knowledge of the Florida Red Book can develop a budget that complies with the requirements.

To access the tool, use this link: https://csu.li/newbudget

Now Using Google Sheets

The newest version of the Budget Template Tool was released in December 2023 and has been rewritten from the group up to improve formulas, documentation, and functionality. The tool is no longer available in Excel, and from now on, it must be opened using Google Sheets. We have decided to make this change because many people had problems getting the old Excel version of the tool to work because they had a slightly older version of Excel in which some of the more advanced functions would not work. By moving to Google Sheets, all users will have the same software version. Therefore, you must have a Google Account to use the Budget Tool. You can sign up for free if you do not already have a Google Account.

If you are not logged in to your Google account, it will take you to log in, and once logged in you will receive a webpage that asks if you want to “Copy document”, just confirm by clicking “Make a copy.” It will create a copy of the tool and save it to your own Google Drive.

The sheet does include several scripts to make it the tool work. The first time you try to run one of these scripts, you may receive an “Authorization required” pop-up asking your permission to run a script. Click “OK”. This will give you a Google Account selection screen to verify your account. We are currently awaiting verification from Google on the scripts; until this happens, you may receive a warning message that says “Google hasn’t verified this app” you can get around this screen by clicking the “Advanced” link and then clicking on the “Go to CSU Budget Tool Scripts (unsafe).” link. Bear in mind this is necessary for the tool to work correctly. The only information the scripts will share with the Charter Support Unit is the current version you are using, your email address, the name of your school, and the school district you are in. This allows us to inform you of critical updates and will allow us to provide customized information that your district may ask us to include in the future.

To find an older/archived version of the budget template tool, please visit: https://charter.support/document/old-budget-templates/.

Why Use The CSU Budget Tool

Getting Starting

Entering Information To Budget

Finalizing Your Budget

How The Tool Works

Downloads:

CSU Budget Template Version 9.03e (Only use this if the district specifically asks you to use the empty version -- there are many things that are easy to miss and there are no default numbers in this version).