New Jersey Department of Education

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School Finance

2023-2024 Audit Summary Application (AudSum)

AudSum is a required annual submission of budgetary basis revenue, expense and fund balance made by every school district, charter school and renaissance school project in conjunction with their independent school auditors. AudSum must be certified via electronic signature by the independent auditor and the school's business administrator.

Independent public school audit firms and authorized public school users must access the AudSum application through the link provided on the NJDOE's Homeroom webpage by selecting the "AudSum" link.

Independent audit firms are advised that for purposes of data integrity, each public school auditor accessing the AudSum application for the first time, whether they are a sole practitioner or a member of a firm, must complete their system registration through the system before they are allowed entry into the application. Repeat registration is not required, although the AudSum application software also functions to provide independent public school auditors with the ability to self-edit their user profile and track the certification status of each of their school audit clients. Once registered, all independent public school auditors must annually obtain a unique PIN for access to the school district, charter school, or renaissance school project AudSum associated with their public school audit client list. Accordingly, please submit your public school audit client PIN request, including a list of your firm's school district, charter school and renaissance school project audit clients, to the NJDOE at audsum@doe.nj.gov. You will be notified of your PIN within five days of your request.

The independent public school auditor is responsible for entering or uploading fiscal data into the AudSum application. Users are encouraged to carefully review all new lines on the "Audit Summary Worksheet," which is accessible through the link at the bottom of this page. Line items added are marked as "new" and highlighted in yellow for easy identification. To facilitate ease of data entry, the AudSum allows for CSV file uploads of the revenue and expenditure sections, including the school-based expenditure section completed by former Abbott districts. Once data entry has been completed, the independent public school auditor is responsible for completing the auditor's electronic signature certification process using the "Data Finalize and Certification" tab.

The school business administrator/board secretary (SBA) is responsible for carefully reviewing and certifying the accuracy of the data entered by the independent public school auditor.  The SBA is also responsible for the entry of certain unaudited data. The U.S. Department of Education requires the NJDOE to perform certain indirect cost allocations, requiring the SBA to complete two data entry fields intended to inform the NJDOE of the school's total square footage and the square footage allocated for use as administrative space.  Both entries are contained within the "LEA Certification" tab.

Additional information regarding the completion of the AudSum application is available to public school users and independent public school auditors in The AudSum Manual. The manual provides an in-depth description of the information required, the data entry process, and the certification process required to successfully navigate through the online application. 

Accuracy and thoroughness of the reported data is of utmost importance since the audited fiscal data submitted through the AudSum application is used by the NJDOE for a variety of purposes, such as the Taxpayer's Guide to Education Spending. AudSum is also the primary source of data preloaded by the NJDOE into the school district budget program. Accordingly, independent auditors and school business administrators are urged to thoroughly review all reports in AudSum for propriety and accuracy prior to their electronic certification of the data. If discrepancies in the AudSum information are identified at any time, including during completion of the required NJDOE budget program, corrections to actual audited amounts can only be made through the correction and recertification of the AudSum by the independent school auditor and by the school business administrator/board secretary.   

Questions regarding AudSum should be emailed to the NJDOE at audsum@doe.nj.gov.

The following files make up the technical documentation for the software. 

  • Technical Manual (PDF)
  • Audit Summary Worksheet (Excel)
  • CPA and School District Notification letter (PDF)