Learning objective: Use a Budget v. Actual report to separate explainable variances from ones that need follow-up.

The MSSA Budget Builder and Tuition Calculator both plan tuition revenue at 75% of licensed capacity. That is deliberate. Enrollment rises and falls during the year: families leave for kindergarten, move, or take extended vacations, and new families take time to start. A budget that works at 75% is a safety net. It shows whether the program can survive a hard year.

Most programs hope to run closer to 90%. When they do, actual tuition will beat the budget, and that is expected. The budget is a floor, not a forecast.

Harbor Oak’s budget assumes 50 children (75% of each room, rounded to whole children). Actual enrollment averaged about 58.