UFARS Report

The Uniform Financial Accounting and Reporting Standards (UFARS) is a uniform accounting and reporting system mandated by Minnesota law (§ 123B.77) for all public school districts and charter schools in the state. UFARS collects data submitted by districts in compliance with reporting requirements. The primary purpose is to ensure transparency, accountability, and comparability of how public education funds are raised and spent statewide.

UFARS Structure and Reporting Logic

• Under UFARS, every revenue and expenditure is coded using a multi-dimensional “chart of accounts.” The structure uses six dimensions: Fund, Organization/Site, Program, Finance, Object (for expenditures) or Source (for revenues), and Course.

• This allows even complex financial transactions — salaries, supplies, capital expenditures, federal grants, special-education costs, food services, etc. — to be classified precisely according to function and funding type.

• When districts prepare budgets, record expenses, or report data to MDE, they must use the official UFARS codes — either by mapping internal district accounting codes (“cross-walk”) to UFARS codes or by using UFARS codes directly.

Contents of the UFARS Report

A UFARS-based report from MDE (or from any district using UFARS) typically includes:

• A breakdown of revenues by source: state aids, federal funds, local property tax levies, grants, etc.

• A breakdown of expenditures by function: instructional programs, special education, administration, food services, community services, capital outlay, debt service, etc.

• A fund-by-fund accounting since UFARS defines several “funds” (general fund, food service fund, building/debt fund, trust/fiduciary funds, etc.).

• Data that supports state aid calculations, budget compliance, audits, and public transparency because MDE uses UFARS data to allocate state funding and ensure districts comply with financial laws.

• Comparative reporting over time (year-to-year) or across districts, since uniform coding makes cross-district analysis feasible.

Menu path

From the Fund Accounting menu, select State. From the State - MN menu, select UFARS Report.

Submission Period

For a given fiscal year (FY), public school districts/charter schools in Minnesota must follow roughly this schedule for UFARS reporting:

Selection Rule

Financial data is extracted from the three ledger types based on specific selection criteria and reported:

• General Ledger records

• Revenue Ledger records

• Expenditure Ledger records

Prerequisites

• Complete the Setup procedures.

• Configure Closing/Summary Accounts.

• Import or configure the Chapter X Validation Table.

• Set up the MARSS Number Validation Table.