MRI conversion to municipal fund accounting stalled pending audited 2023 balances

Christian Pearsall, an MRI software representative, told the Greenland Board of Selectmen on Feb. 24 that work to convert the town's QuickBooks data into a fund-accounting structure is effectively on hold until audited beginning balances for 2023 are provided.

Pearsall said the conversion team copied the town's current QuickBooks file and discovered a roughly 10–15% increase in account lines, adding “about 50 or 55 new accounts that we have to have, maybe 60 new accounts” to the municipal chart of accounts. He said the town now has roughly “5 or 600” accounts mapped into a municipal structure and that all accounts must be assigned correctly by type and by fund for the conversion to balance.

“The good news is that a lot of these new accounts…tie the pieces together,” Pearsall said, but he warned that the conversion depends on accurate beginning balances. He summarized the problem plainly: “we're kind of at a standstill again until we can get some final numbers from Plodnick.”

Why it matters: Pearsall said the conversion must produce balanced fund-specific balance sheets that match audited figures; without beginning balances for 01/01/2023 the conversion cannot be validated against audited numbers. He estimated the dataset includes on the order of $106,000,000 in transactions that must be distributed to the correct funds and accounts for auditability and ongoing reporting.

Board members and staff discussed options. Town Administrator Steve Smith and selectmen said they prefer to get the mapping right the first time rather than “pull the trigger” and go live with an incomplete conversion, which Pearsall said would force the vendor and town to “chase your tails” later. Pearsall said MRI has the mapping largely complete; the remaining task is re-running the conversion once the auditor-supplied beginning balances are available.

Pearsall offered to provide a separate tutorial for department heads on the new account structure and internal controls once audited balances are provided; selectmen asked staff to supply written questions from residents in advance so Pearsall could address them outside the meeting. Pearsall said MRI had performed multiple trial conversions and that the next, validated conversion should proceed quickly after the town supplies the missing beginning-balance information.

Ending: The board did not take a formal vote on the conversion at the meeting; Pearsall and the town agreed to wait for audited 2023 beginning balances from the auditor (referred to in the record as Plodnick/Plozick) before completing the conversion and scheduling a tutorial with department heads.