Educational programs rely on accurate financial systems to monitor budgets, evaluate implementation, and make timely decisions. However, tracking Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) expenditures by Goal and Action can be complicated, and teams may spend valuable time manually tracking and reconciling data. This session will share a best practice approach to developing an interactive LCAP Budget Tracker that improves collaboration between finance and program administration teams.Using Power Query and Power BI, the tracker combines payroll, position control, projected budget, and operational expense data into a streamlined reporting model. Participants will learn how this process supports cleaner data preparation, stronger fiscal transparency, and more efficient communication across departments. The session will also highlight practical strategies for designing user-friendly dashboards that help administrators monitor expenditures, identify budget concerns earlier, and reduce year-end reconciliation challenges.Attendees will leave with a replicable framework for using data visualization to strengthen educational program implementation, fiscal monitoring, and evaluation.
