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Consultants describe multi‑month finance cleanup; commission told audit work, reconciliations and hiring will take 12–18 months
Summary
Consultants and staff outlined progress and a timeline for bank reconciliations, trial‑balance cleanup, audit readiness and recruitment; the team expects several months to reach a stable monthly reporting cadence.
City finance consultants and staff gave the commission a status update on efforts to restore accounting controls and close the books for fiscal year 2024, saying the work will require months of reconciliation and staffing changes before monthly reporting returns to normal.
Consultant Kelly Telford (LSL) and Noah Daniels said the team has been triaging longstanding issues, focusing on bank reconciliations, trial‑balance cleanup and preparing records for the auditors. They said reconciliations have been completed through February 2024 and the team aims to complete the close and be audit‑ready by February 2025, after which staff will pivot to midyear forecasting and budget preparation.
Staff reported that the finance office remains understaffed: key positions (an accounting/manager/controller role and additional accountants) are open, one employee is on medical leave and some temporary contractors are supplementing the workload. Commissioners and consultants agreed recruitment and training will take time; consultants estimated a roughly 12–18 month horizon before the department regains steady monthly reporting and internal control capacity.
The commission also heard about planned software improvements. Staff said the city will move budget preparation to Questica (budget software) and integrate it with the general ledger to provide more real‑time information; the implementation and data validation work is scheduled for configuration and staff training in the January timeframe. Commissioners raised concerns about Springbrook (the city’s financial system); consultants said Springbrook can produce basic monthly financial statements but certain forecasting features are manual and that a longer‑term software replacement or configuration will be evaluated.
Consultants emphasized two simultaneous priorities: complete the historical reconciliations and trial‑balance work so auditors can start, and build repeatable processes and training so newly hired or existing staff can maintain regular reporting. The commission asked consultants to return with clear checklists and milestone dates and offered to be trained on how to spot warning signs in monthly reports once the books are current.
Ending: No formal action was taken; commissioners asked staff and consultants to return with an audit timeline, hiring status and sample monthly reports at the next meeting.
