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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2C, Finance Department Update ~ ~IDEES Request for Council Action Prepared By: Sue Iverson, Finance Director Council Meeting Date: July 13, 2009 Finance Department Update Budgeted Amount: N/A Actual Amount: N/A Funding Source: N/A Recommendation: 1. 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See the attached memo from Sue Iverson. ~ ~ILLS MEMORANDUM DATE: July 9, 2009 TO: Mayor and City Council members Ron Moorse, City Administrator FROM: Sue Iverson, Finance Director SUBJECT: Update on Finance Department Activities I am pleased to give an update to the City Council on Finance Department activities. 2008, was a year of many changes and challenges, I am pleased to say that finance department staff remained stable as the entire department was new in 2007. I will highlight some of the accomplishments and future goals for the department. · Chart of Accounts We spent a substantial amount of time rewriting the chart of accounts to conform the State Auditor's recommended chart of accounts. This aids in reporting and filing reports to the State Auditor's office as well as preparing the financial statement and quarterly reports. Another problem was that previously, the same code was used for different purposes in different funds making it hard to use the accounting system to run reports. We now have a chart of accounts that is uniform and produces reliable data for reporting. · Audit Process Prior to my coming here, the City had the Auditor prepare the financial statement and all work papers. This resulted in audit findings in the management report and hampered internal reporting. We have now developed all the audit work papers in-house and staff is completing them as transactions occur. We had very few audit questions this last year and the auditors spent the minimum time on-site. · CAFR (Comprehensive Annual Financial Report) We also prepared the Financial Statement in-house starting with the 2006 statement and put it into the GFOA award format. This is a much more comprehensive statement and provides the reader/user with more information. The City did receive the GFOA award for excellence in financial reporting for its 2006 and 2007 financial report. The 2008 report has been submitted for consideration. Memo City Council, City Administrator Finance Department Update 2 · P AFR (Popular Annual Financial Report) As a way to inform the public and taxpayers of Arden Hills on the City's financial condition, staff prepared a newsletter according to GFOA best practices. This newsletter is distributed annually with one of the City's monthly newsletters. This financial report is specifically designed to be readily accessible and easily understandable to the general public and other interested parties without a background in public finance. · Budget Process We have worked very hard to improve the budget process over the last two years. The budget process begins in early June giving the departments four weeks to work on their budgets, which then gives finance some time to compile all the data in a form for the City Administrator to review with department heads. The current time table allows the City Council to have two weeks to review the budget before the work session in August before Preliminary Budgets are set. Previously, in-depth budget discussions were held in November before Final Budgets were set. Staff implemented the Springbrook extended budgeting module in 2008, which has provided efficiencies in the process. In 2009 we are also using the intranet (SharePoint) and the budget files have been uploaded to a "budget" page with all instructions. This is further increasing efficiencies. Budget summaries, program budgets, and trend analysis have been incorporated into the budget books. Staff has spent two years developing the budget into the GFOA best practice document according to the outstanding budget program guidelines. This will be completed shortly and will be submitted to GFOA for comments for the published 2009 document. In the future it will provide Council and staff with better information with which to make budget decisions. · CIP (Capital Improvement Program) Staff changed the CIP process from a one page excel worksheet file to a comprehensive book detailing each project with descriptions, funding sources, operating impacts, and justification. The detail provided gives a more realistic picture of the timing of costs and gives many different reporting options. · Utility Billing Conversion The commercial account migration from the old Banyon DOS system was completed toward the end of 2007 and beginning of 2008. This allowed us to turn on the automatic cash receipt module and thus created staff time and tightened internal controls. Staff found several areas that needed correction and thus we saw increased revenue as our processes were corrected. · Cash Receipting Converted As previously stated, we turned on the automatic cash receipt module of Springbrook. Previously, cash receipts were coded to revenue as cash was received, not as it was Memo City Council, City Administrator Finance Department Update 3 earned. Now all revenue is booked when earned and put into accounts receivables. This has reduced the effort on receivables at audit time, gives us current reports, and tightened internal controls. · Online bill pay Online bill pay for utility billing was instituted. This allows customers to look up their current balance online and pay with a credit card. This has also created efficiencies within the finance department in regards to cash receipting utility bills. 872 purchases were made online in 2008, currently for 2009 thru May we have 637 purchases online. · Procurement Card and Credit Card Policy A policy was written for the use of City credits cards in order to comply with state statutes. Research was done on procurement cards and a policy and procedure was written and adopt by the City Council. All paperwork has been filed and we are currently working with the vendor to institute the program and will provide training to all employees in the near future. This will create efficiencies in the accounts payable function. · Comprehensive Rate Study for City Utilities A comprehensive utility rate study was completed for Water, Sewer, and Surface Water. Fifteen year projections were used for both operating and capital improvements. The City changed to a tiered system which is now in compliance with the new water conservation regulations. Senior citizen discounts will be phased out by 2011. · TIF analysis on existing districts An analysis was completed on our TIF districts to determine what funds were available and what types of projects would qualify. · Internal Controls Internal controls have been refined and continue to be worked on. Documentation on all areas is being complied and cross training has been completed. Segregation of Duties is continually being worked on and refined. · Account reconciliations This has been an area that still needs work and we have still received an audit finding on. Due to workloads and the amount of transactions we process, some of the monthly reconciliations get put off to deal with special projects and weekly process of data. Now that we have the intern on board, I am happy to say that as of June - we are current in our cash reconciliations. We have monthly statements for accounts receivables, but we still have work to do on the old escrow accounts (prior to 2006). This is another area that we hope to have the intern work on. Memo City Council, City Administrator Finance Department Update 4 · Springbrook User Group Coordinator In order to gain experience and use our software to its full potential, we are the coordinator for the regional Springbrook users group. Joe has put a lot of time into this and we have greatly benefitted from this as we have acquired training and help with our software at no cost. It has produced efficiencies, one of which is the extended budgeting module as well as reports. · Received Intern Grant from MnGFOA We received an internship grant to aid in hiring an intern from the Minnesota Government Finance Officers Association. Kyle Howard has a B.S. in Finance from St. Cloud State and is planning to return in fall to pursue a B.S. in Accounting. He has been a great asset to our department. Kyle stepped up during the audit and filled in for Joe while he was out on vacation; he has worked on getting our cash reconciliations up-to- date, and is currently working on budget files, investments, cash flows, and other analysis. · Springbrook Training Grant As previously mentioned, Joe is the Springbrook Coordinator for our region. He also won a grant to attend the Springbrook Annual Conference in 2008 in Portland - all expenses paid. This experience aided in additional experience on our software system. · Office Support Staff In July of 2007, the office support staff was again part of the finance department. We have had some challenges with vacancies so finance staff stepped up to the plate to fill in and help as needed. In 2008 we were down a support staff position for about five months, but we have been fully staffed since late October of 2008. Some of the accomplishments we have had in this area are: · Refined the process for Council packets · New building permit software implementation . Sump Pump inspection process · Documentation manual for all duties · Cash Receipting now done at the front desk · Council calendar and intranet . Cross training · Refined internal controls as related to cash · Human Resource Duties Finance assisted with Human Resource duties in late 2007 and again in late 2008 until present. This includes employee benefits, employment, reporting, and other duties. In 2009 we conducted employee health screenings free of charge through our insurance carrier and four in-service sessions on change, conflict, and stress management. Memo City Council, City Administrator Finance Department Update 5 · Assisting with Vacancies As mentioned above, the finance department has assisted during the last year and one half with the vacancies created by the leaving of the Assistant City Administrator (twice - July 2007 and November 2008), City Administrator (December 2007), and Office Support Specialist (twice - June 2007 and May 2008). Finance staff also assisted in the election process for the 2008 elections. Future activities will be working to refine the budget document; financial models for the long- range financial planning, refining internal controls, continue to work on documentation manuals, and producing more meaningful management reports. Weare also researching ways to improve efficiencies and to assess the finance function. I would like to thank my staff; they are some of the Cities most valuable assets. They are the backbone of the City and should be commended for all they do. . Joe Rueb, Accounting Analyst . Pang Silseth, Accounting Clerk . Kyle Howard, Finance Intern . Becky Brazys, Deputy Clerk . Pam Sweeney, Customer Service Specialist . Sonja Klingberg, Office Support Specialist . Sherri Eisenbraun, Office Support Specialist I am glad to be a part of this City and would be happy to answer any questions you may have.