Resources, Budget, and Finance

Technology

Curriculum Guideline Five

Information technology supports and improves budget and financial planning, decisions, and management.  Important tools include personal computers, spreadsheets, database and financial management software and staff who are responsive to leadership direction and needs and skilled in using appropriate hardware and software.  Effective technology permits effective data gathering and skillful budgeting through, among other means, statistical reports, workload and outcome measures and projections, and cost accounting.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Knowledge of the underlying assumptions and generic purposes, uses, strengths, and limitations of spreadsheet, database, project planning, and project management software as they relate to allocating, acquiring, and managing court resources;

• Knowledge of nationally approved functional standards related to accounting and financial records and reports, case management software, and their links;

• Knowledge of what a vendor RFP (Request for Proposal) and contract should contain and how to evaluate vendor proposals, and the ethical and legal regulations governing purchasing;

• Knowledge of database, spreadsheet, and financial analysis software that support real-time expenditure monitoring, cost-benefit analysis, and bench-marking;

• Ability to match competing budget software and vendors to the needs of the court, its hardware, judges, and staff;

• Ability to design and implement court information technology that supports effective court resource allocation, acquisition, and management;

• Skill in explaining the value of technology investments to judges and other decision makers, including those who are not technologically literate;

• Knowledge of the computer and analytical and data/information skills needed by staff to take advantage of available financial and accounting software;

• Knowledge of how technology can make fraud possible and also help protect the court against fraud, theft, and embezzlement of cash and other assets;

• Knowledge of technology assisted methods for enhancing the enforcement of court orders and increasing court collections;

• Ability to stay current with the state-of-the-art and to update the court’s application of hardware and software, to resource allocation, acquisition, budget, and finance.

View the Summary of Resources, Budget and Finance Curriculum Guidelines or click on each of the other five Curriculum Guidelines to see the associated Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

Curriculum Guidelines

Court Purposes and Vision

Fundamentals

Leadership Teams and Interpersonal Effectiveness

Problem Diagnosis and Change

Technology

Budget Controls and Performance Monitoring

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