Lake County finance staff outline AP, procurement, p‑card and payroll reforms at work session

Lake County finance staff on Wednesday detailed a set of operational reforms intended to tighten internal controls, speed vendor payments and improve grant tracking.

Candice, finance director for Lake County, led a roughly two‑hour presentation at the board’s Jan. 29 work session that laid out changes to the county’s cost allocation reporting, accounts‑payable (AP) schedule, procurement and purchasing‑card (p‑card) processes, payroll procedures and a newly created grants database.

The presentation said the county must provide an annual cost allocation plan and that the county recently engaged MGT of America to prepare the plan. “We are required, by the state to provide a cost allocation plan,” Candice said, describing the consultant role and noting the work results in state reimbursement of indirect costs tied to county social‑service work.

Why this matters

County staff told the commissioners the reforms are designed to increase recoveries and reduce audit risk by ensuring expenses and grant receipts are recorded to the correct accounts, reducing late vendor payments, and enforcing procurement and p‑card rules. Staff also said the changes are intended to make the county’s financial records easier to reconcile with the treasurer’s records and to reduce the number of legacy items that complicate audits.

Key points from finance staff

- Cost allocation: Candice explained the cost allocation plan (prepared by MGT) documents indirect costs that the state reimburses, and that the county has used consultant work to increase those reimbursements. The county will provide data to the consultant and expects an annual update.

- Accounts payable: Staff described a regular weekly AP schedule, a packet‑based review process, and a target two‑week turnaround for roughly 90% of invoices. “We now have a 2 week turnaround turn around time for accounts payable, for I would say for, like, 90% of, invoices,” Candice said. AP staff use Tyler ERP to record invoices; payment fulfillment is handled by a vendor (Corpay), which prints and mails checks or processes ACH payments.

- Payment timing and vendors: Staff warned vendors that checks mailed by Corpay may take 10–14 days to arrive; ACH is faster (3–5 days) but requires vendors to meet the vendor service’s enrollment rules. Staff also reported annual fees tied to the current payment vendor and $20 overnight postage costs the county currently pays to meet some payment deadlines.

- Purchasing cards: The county adopted a p‑card policy in mid‑2024 and staff described an audit and consolidation effort that has already reduced the total number of active cards. Staff urged departments to upload receipts and code p‑card transactions promptly; they set deadlines (receipts and coding by the 5th of the month) to allow payment and reconciliation before bank due dates (commonly the 12th). Staff said progressive enforcement (warning, suspend, revoke) will be used for repeated noncompliance.

- Procurement and contracts: The county has a new procurement policy that sets approval thresholds, bidding guidelines and documentation standards. Staff warned that lacking competitive procurement documentation makes it harder to justify single‑vendor selections during audits and recommended keeping consistent bid records.

- Payroll and HR coordination: Payroll is processed biweekly. Staff outlined a multi‑level review process that checks entries, benefit deductions and vendor billing statements. Candice said the county is refining responsibilities between HR and finance to reduce timing errors (new hires, bank info changes) that can delay pay or create reconciliation problems.

- Grants tracking: Finance has built a grants database that currently contains about 163 items and staff said they have identified roughly 18 federal grants they can confirm. Candice said the county is still locating older grant documents and reconciling reimbursements that were recorded in incorrect accounts. Staff are exploring a more user‑friendly grants and contract management tool with IT to automate submission, reviewer comments and reporting.

Staff‑directed items and follow up

- Finance will continue exploring grants and contract management software options with the county’s IT team and present options with estimated costs before a formal request.

- Departments were asked to follow deadlines for AP packet submissions and p‑card receipts so the county can meet payment timelines; staff will enforce the progressive discipline steps in the p‑card policy for repeated failures to comply.

- Commissioners were asked to be available to sign checks at 1 p.m. on Thursdays when necessary; finance noted at least one signer must be available to avoid payment delays.

Context and constraints

Staff repeatedly cautioned that some problems trace to historical recordkeeping gaps (e.g., grant receipts posted to incorrect accounts), and that fixing the backlog is an ongoing project. Candice said finance will continue to reconcile treasurer records, create missing documentation where possible, and train departments on submission standards. She also asked for patience as the team balances day‑to‑day processing with clean‑up efforts.

Selected direct quotes

“We are required, by the state to provide a cost allocation plan,” — Candice, finance director.

“We now have a 2 week turnaround turn around time for accounts payable, for I would say for, like, 90% of, invoices,” — Candice, finance director.

What’s next

Commissioners and staff identified several operational next steps during the session: finalize recommendations for p‑card limits and card consolidation, continue the AP and payroll clean‑up, refine the grants policy with input from departments, and present possible software solutions to the board with cost estimates. The board also discussed scheduling a county manager job‑description review at the next regular meeting.

The work session included a review of calendar items and upcoming agenda items for the commissioners’ regular meeting; some housing and intergovernmental agreement items were listed for the next regular meeting packet but were not debated during the finance presentation.