So. Budgets. Wow.

I’m office manager at my school now. Everything has to be paid for, and it’s up to me to figure out how.

Budget strings are sometimes sixteen digits long. That’s because they tell exactly where the money is coming from.

Which means if I want to buy something, I have to figure out which budget string to put on the purchase, so that, say, the teacher supplies budget line buys the construction paper and spiral notebooks, but the principal’s office supplies buys the replacement fax machine.

I’m supposed to be able to call my own personal budget techs for help any time I need it.

Guess who seem to never be near their phones?

Today we had to figure out how to pay an office temp when the line we used for that last year no longer exists. AND she already did the work.

Yay, creative accounting?†

Also, there are an awful lot of forms in the life of an office manager.


†I mean creative, not illegal. Just for the record. Schools are watched like you wouldn’t believe, ’cause you know. Schools are SO WELL FUNDED. It’s not like we’re the Pentagon, with only a few dollars we could possibly misspend, right?

8 thoughts on “So. Budgets. Wow.”

    1. It’s the actual sixteen digits I’m mostly needing, or you better believe I’d be calling the smart and marvelous friend who knows lots and ANSWERS HER PHONE. 😉

      1. Can you call another middle school office manager, Maybe MS. Ellis, and see if they can give you a list with titles? I know each district has their own set of code numbers. (I thought that should be standard, but was told no, because they were afraid districts would steal from each other.0:)

          1. Hurray!!!! Once you get it you will be good to go. In a short time you will just do it.

  1. Download the online list into a csv or excell file. Then you can search (ctrl F) for part of a word you are looking for, like “temp”. Good Luck.

    1. That is BRILLIANT. Why didn’t I think of that? Thanks so much! I could download the WHOLE THING (80+ pages) and find all the answers in the SAME DOCUMENT.

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