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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-09-07 Item 7C, Finance Dept Update ~ ~HILLS Request for Council Action Prepared By: Depl.: Council Mtg. Date: Filial Action Needed By: Sue Iverson, Finance Director Finance -..-.----. - JJ Agenda Item: 7C ,!\I'ril9, 20QT nla BUdgetecfA-mount: m..... .......... --"---------- Actual Amount: .". Funding Source: """""""'Ni!i. """"""NiJ>.: N/A _____u"...................._. no a x ' nUn" Memo from Sue Iverson Update on Finance Department Activities 'DMn''''';;No,: No,: IlY Recommendation: , Recommendation: !Other: None None ~ ~~HILLS MEMORANDUM DATE: April 5, 2007 Item: 7C TO: Mayor and City Council members Michelle Wolfe, City Administrator FROM: Sue Iverson, Finance Director SUBJECT: Update on Finance Department Activities In an effort to keep you informed, I am will attempt to summarize what my department and I have been doing for the last nine weeks since I have started, The department had not been running at full staff since last August when the former Finance Director left. The Accounting Analyst also left in late December leaving only Sandy Byl, a part- time Utility Billing Clerk in the department. Pang Silseth, Office Support Staff, stepped in to help with the daily work with roughly one days training. This was a very critical time for the finance department as many reporting deadlines happen between late December and early January. I came on board January 22, 2007. (Sandy and Pang did a tremendous job given what they were dealing with.) Much of my time has been spent helping Sandy and Pang with the daily work, as the department was still short-staffed due to the vacancy of the Accounting Analyst. I was new to the department and new to the "software" the City used, Sandy and Pang kept very good records of what they had done and what they were not sure of and I researched and made the appropriate correcting entries. I also helped Pang file all of the required reports for year end like W2' s , 1099's, Sales and Use Tax and other year-end reports required by the State and Federal government. I also filed any reports to the State Auditor that had not been filed in regards to the budget and levy for 2007, One of the problems areas has been in coding invoices. Previously the former Accounting Analyst had coded the invoices and gave them to the appropriate persons for approval, the department directors are now coding their own invoices, but the budget in its current format is very confusing, I then spent time and reformatted a file with all the budget information in an easily read format that helped simplify this process, Another problem is that the City restructured its chart of accounts and some of the codes have been reused to identify different items than previous identified which creates problems as people tend to look at last years or Memo City Council, City Administrator Finance Department Update 2 previous invoices to obtain codes. This means that I will have to analyze the fIrst quarter numbers and reclassify the expenses before I can give you first quarter reports. Another area of my time was spent in the hiring/interview process for the Accounting Analyst. Joe Rueb started on March 26, 2007. This meant the Finance Department was fully staffed for the first time since I had been here, Up until this time, I had been doing both jobs with the help of Pang and Sandy. We are now training Joe on all the functions of the Finance Department. The 2006 Audit has been underway for about one month and should finish sometime in the next week with field work. As soon as this is completed I can give council and management "unaudited" results and balances for 2006. I will then be starting the financial statements which we will be doing in-house, something the City has never done, Weare well within timelines for the audit as the State Requires the Financial Statement and Audit to be submitted by June 30, We anticipate the presentation of the Financial Report to the council sometime in June, There have been several challenges to completing this audit. First, I am new and do not know the history on many of the transactions and balances; second the auditor is new and doing a very thorough and in depth job since it is their fIrst time. Previously the auditors have always done the correcting and adjusting entries, this year I have been doing all the entries which is resulting in a savings to the city as there would have been an additional charge due to the time involved. The auditors thus far have not had to make any entries. I have been fully examining all the balance sheets accounts and verifying that they are correct. This has taken longer than expected as I have been finding errors in coding and reporting, The desired end result has been happening, but the accounting for the transactions are not always correct from a reporting stand point. For example, the grant to clean up the Chesapeake property was run through the escrow accounts and then reimbursed to the developer - it should have been recorded as revenue and then paid out as a business subsidy expense to the developer. I have also found a number of credits the City has with various vendors. I have contacted all these vendors and requested reimbursements which total about $11,000, Currently we are in the process of converting the remaining utility billing accounts on Banyon to the Springbrook system, A meeting is schedule on April 11 with IT support and Utility Billing in Roseville to answer questions we may have and to provide support, I have observed that we need to update many of our financial policies and procedures and will be working on them and bringing them to Council for approval as they are completed. We have also been working on cross-training staff so that we have back-up when people are out sick or on vacation, Another area that my time has been spent is on working with other departments to determine the financial impact of various proposals and projects, This gives the Council and management greater understanding about feasibility of a decision. Once we have financial numbers from the audit, this will become much more meaningful and we should be able to do more analysis for these decisions, Memo City Council, City Administrator Finance Department Update 3 Future activities will be working on a better budget process with the City Administrator and producing a more user-friendly budget document that has meaningful information. Capital Improvement Plans will be a part of this document also. I am excited to be a part of this City and would be happy to answer any questions you may have.