School Budget Forecast Monitor Agent

Schools work to a tight budget with staffing as the biggest cost, and overspends are often found too late to fix. Each month this agent pulls actual spending and commitments and compares them with the budget line by line. Before forecasting, it checks the coding of items over $2,000 or with unusual codes with the business manager, because one miscoded order can distort a line. It then forecasts the year end from actuals, commitments and staffing plans and flags lines heading more than 2% over. For each overspend it lists options, such as delaying non-urgent purchases, and models their effect, checking whether the options close the gap. The principal approves changes and reports to governors. Edge case: a grant arrives late in the year, so the agent marks the income as restricted to its purpose.