I need to make an employee “inactive” for a short period of time, but would like to add him to a payroll in the near future. What’s the easiest way?

Go to Add/Edit Standard Earnings and Deductions. Select the employee and mark all the earnings and deduction records as “Inactive”. Be sure to remove the last paid and last taken dates from the earnings and deductions records. When this employee is to be paid again, simply return to Add/Edit Standard Earnings and Deductions and mark the respective records as “Active”. The employee will then be part of the next payroll that contains his or her respective “frequency” (i.e. weekly, bi-weekly etc.).

Kansas Fund Accounting | Enhanced Business Systems

Fund accounting is the financial backbone of government entities and non-profit organizations. Unlike commercial accounting, which focuses heavily on tracking profitability and maximizing shareholder value, fund accounting is entirely driven by accountability. When taxpayers, the federal government, or private donors provide money to a state, they often do so with legal stipulations on how that money can be used. Fund accounting ensures those stipulations are strictly followed.

To visualize how these different streams of money are organized, it helps to see the overarching structure.

The Core Structure of Fund Accounting

Instead of treating all of an organization’s resources as a single, giant pool of money, fund accounting divides resources into separate, self-balancing sets of accounts known as “funds.” Each fund has its own assets, liabilities, revenues, and expenditures.

These funds typically fall into three primary categories:

Governmental Funds: These finance most of the basic, day-to-day functions of a government. This includes the General Fund (the primary operating fund), Special Revenue Funds (money legally restricted for specific purposes), and Capital Projects Funds (money for building infrastructure).
Proprietary Funds: These operate similarly to private businesses, where the government charges a fee for a service. Examples include state lotteries, public utilities, or toll roads.
Fiduciary Funds: These are assets the government holds in trust for others and cannot be used to support the government’s own programs. A prime example is a state employee pension fund.

Why Fund Accounting is Important

Fund accounting is essential for maintaining public trust and ensuring the government functions legally and efficiently. Its primary benefits include:

Legal Compliance: Many revenue streams come with strict legal bindings. For instance, federal grants for education cannot be legally diverted to fill potholes. Fund accounting creates hard walls between these revenue streams so that restricted money is never commingled or spent unlawfully.
Budgetary Control: Government budgets are legally binding documents. Fund accounting allows agencies to track actual expenditures against the legally adopted budget in real-time, preventing overspending and ensuring that the legislative intent is carried out.
Enhanced Transparency: By segregating finances, citizens, journalists, and auditors can clearly see exactly how much money was collected for a specific purpose and exactly how it was spent, fostering a higher level of civic transparency.

Why Fund Accounting is Critical for a State Like Kansas

For a state like Kansas, which manages billions of dollars across various economic sectors, a robust fund accounting system is not just useful—it is constitutionally required. The Kansas Constitution mandates a balanced budget, meaning the state cannot spend more than it takes in (plus reserves).

Here is how Kansas fund accounting specifically serves the State of Kansas:

1. Managing Complex Revenue Streams Kansas relies heavily on a mix of income taxes, sales taxes, and specific industry revenues like agriculture and aviation. All of this money is sorted into specific state funds. The State General Fund (SGF) acts as the main operating budget, making up about 40% of the state’s total funds, and is used for general government operations like funding public school systems and public safety.

However, the remaining majority of the state’s money is divided into Special Revenue Funds. For example, Kansas utilizes the State Highway Fund (SHF) exclusively for infrastructure and the Children’s Initiatives Fund (which uses national tobacco settlement money) specifically for children’s programs. Fund accounting guarantees that gas taxes meant for Kansas highways aren’t quietly absorbed into general administrative costs.

2. Navigating the Budget Cycle and Forecasting Kansas operates on a highly structured budget cycle that requires precise financial tracking.

Because the state’s economy can be volatile—often impacted by national trends or agricultural shifts—Kansas utilizes a “Consensus Revenue Estimating Group.” This group meets twice a year to forecast revenues. Fund accounting provides the exact historical data these economists need to predict how much money will flow into each specific fund, allowing the governor and legislature to draft an accurate, balanced budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

3. State-Level Auditing and the SMART System To manage this massive web of accounts, Kansas utilizes a financial management system called the Statewide Management Accounting and Reporting Tool (SMART). Through SMART, Kansas ensures that every voucher, payroll check, and federal grant is coded to the correct fund. At the end of the fiscal year, this meticulous fund-level tracking allows the state to produce its Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR), which is independently audited to prove to Kansas taxpayers and bondholders that the state’s financial house is in order.